Customer Ratings & Reviews

Great steelbook and artwork. Game is fun and story is intriguing.

This marks a super rare moment in time where the Shining series is actually released in the West. Originally, the Shining series was turned based and gained the following because of that. Resonance Refrain is a hack and slash spinoff which many fans are split as it is far different from its roots. The game is super linear so expect to run through the same areas over and over again. Cities are available but are spaced out. So the city you're in will be your hub city for a while until you move forward in the story. The story is decent with voice acting being a little above average for RPG's--except for a few who definitely makes it feel cheesy. You'll have a mix of full CG cutscenes and visual novel-esque segments to tell the story. Combat itself is pretty forward. Use your light or heavy attacks to defeat enemies while also watching your stamina bar. Failing to do so could leave you in trouble. In addition, you can build up a meter that'll allow you to basically use a limit break. Party member AI is it's own story. Sometimes they'll be perfectly in sync with you. Other times they'll waste everything they have on weak monsters just before a boss. TL;DR: Overall I'd say it's decent. It reminds me of the Tales series but lacking in some much desired polish. There is a demo available to try which gives you a taste of combat. While not a meal to keep you full, it should be enough to tell you if this game is for you or not. As someone who's never played the strategy based Shining titles, this hack and slash spinoff is enough to tide me over.

If you're into basic JRPGs with a fun, predictable story, with some crazy anime artwork, and some fun, entertaining battle systems, try this game. Since there's not been a new Tales Of game in awhile, this one might tide you over. Fun!

Just finished this game a couple days ago in original mode. The game was very fun, took me about 25-30 hours to do mostly focusing on the main quests and finishing side quests at times. The story is good and gets interesting as you get further into it. I do recommend like most RPGs that after every chapter you should level up a few times to make things easier, the humanoid enemies can get tough at times.

This game is probably why I started enjoying games like Nier Automata and Dark Rose Valkyrie. It's a great JRPG, but also it's a very long game (100+ hours with the user generated dungeons) with a good story and character development. It is a bit like the Nier Automata in regards to real time battles, but not as fast or bullet hellish. Dark Rose Valkyrie seemed inspire some the cutscenes and relationship/dating aspects of the game although Shining Resonance came first as I believe. It's a mixed bag that is very fun to play in my opinion. However, you are forced to play the story main character most of the time, especially if you want to use the Shining Dragon. You can't switch characters on the fly like most real time RPGs, but instead have to go to the menu mid battle and select, but still this is a great RPG you just can't pass up. Iv'e spent 60+ hours in the bonus dungeons alone farming the best orbs to boost my stats. In conclusion Shining Resonance Refrain is a good game that has inspired many of my favorite JRPGs in the past five years.

The shining series has been a Sega staple for decades and despite its absence in the US since the Saturn the series remains a great choice for those looking for a classic RPG. Story is solid with strong characters, this game is technically a port of a PS3 title so the graphics are good depending on your expectations, and gameplay is more in line with an Action RPG similar to Namco's Tales of games. The launch edition comes in a beautiful Steel slipcase with two covers for display.

got the lanch edition and I love the metal case it's very nice and looks good on my shelf. I must say much like the demo it plays very well. The combat is very fluid and so far the story is interesting. I'd say if your thinking about this game play the demo first if you love that then definitely buy the game you won't regret it.

From my understanding this is a remaster and complete with original DLC included the story is great and with unique weapons. Combat feels right story just right and a good cast of characters

This game is better than I expected. The battle system is as intricate as you want it to be, and the story keeps you interested. Oh, and you get to play as a DRAGON.

Bought this on sale on Black Friday and found it to be a rather enjoyable JRPG. I haven't played past Shining games but this one had an interesting story and solid combat. The steelbook sleeve was nice too.

I never heard of this game before but found out it was a port of a older game. After seeing footage of the game I knew I had to have it. The art style is beautiful and the gameplay is fun the character are interesting and likable I love how each character does battle with instrument like weapons it's truly a unique idea that sounds silly on paper but works. That's what I love about Japan they can come up with the craziest ideas and it turns out to be an awesome game. Also dragons who don't like dragons I know I do so go pick this up it comes with a beautiful steel book as a nice bonus too.

Story us interesting and the gameplay is really good. Overall a choice

This game has beautiful art in it dragons are beautiful and the gameplay is really cool

While not as memorable as other games that used the Shining name back in the PS2 era, this JRPG still has enough to hold your attention. Ignoring the cliched story, the gameplay is what makes this worthwhile for fans of the style. The extra metal packaging just makes it that much better and didn't cost any extra.

I’ll preface this review by saying I am a jrpg fan. I generally have to work pretty hard to find a fault that would dissuade me from wanting to play them, cliche story lines and trope laden characters in all. There isn’t anything “wrong” with Shining Resonance. That being said there really isn’t anything that makes it stand out on it’s own either. The combat draws inspiration from Tales which arguably does it way better, the sound track is good but ultimately forgettable and the characters aren’t really interesting. The plot is decent and if you spend the time you may enjoy it. I played Tales of Berseria for 3 hours and was more entertained with that than I was with Shining Resonance after 15 hours. If you’re looking for a diamond in the rough like Ys VIII or Tokyo Xanadu EX+ then you may be disappointed to hear Shining Resonance falls below the bar.

So the concept of the story sounded weird but picked it up sense my wife liked the art style. The game is surprisingly well done, fun and original. Its got a weird mix of RPG and dating seem so know that going in but still fun.

Take Sega forever to bring Shining Game to the US. My fave sega Game is Yakuza Series and Shining Force. This game is BLOW me away. I end up purchase X1, PS4 and Switch version. Gotta get them all. Good game

I was disappointed that the original version of this game never made it over from Japan on the PS3, so I was really glad that the PS4 port did. It's a solid action RPG with beautiful art and a solid storyline.

If you like pitiful protagonists, grindy gameplay, "erokawaii" Elves, and superfluously shiny systems (really had to reach for that one, not gonna lie) then you'll be in heaven here. If however you have fond memories of the Shining franchise from when it used to be a serious strategy/RPG series instead of a waifu collecting one (which requires going back a couple decades), hate being forced to backtrack for no legitimate reason (I cannot believe this game doesn't have teleport/quick travel between the camp sites at least in 2018), and find slowdown during battles as inexcusable as overused character tropes and dating sim elements then avoid this like the plague. That said, as much I detest the wishy-washy wimpy "boku" protagonist of this game (he's not as bad as Shinji from Evangelion, but he's only one or two notches better for most of the game) I continue to slog through it even after having beaten the regular mode in my pursuit of the platinum trophy for the sake of the aforementioned erokawaii Elven waifu. Also, even though this game is visually/generally unimpressive it IS a PS3 port and is NOT a full priced title (albeit barely) so the visuals being kind of meh and the game not being the smoothest thing ever simply are what they are I suppose. I do however wish that they'd used the elaborate 2+D style of character portraits that Idea Factory uses (Neptunia series, Agarest series), or even the awesome Valkyria Chronicles style instead of bog standard 3D models because I love this series' character designer T2 even though all his characters kind of look the same... Conversely the reason they did not do so was undoubtedly to drive sales of costume DLC for the original Japanese PS3 release. Fortunately in this package all the DLC is included so if you want to see Kirika in her underwear or one of 5(!?) swimsuits during story scenes you can do so, but a true "shinshi" rocks an all Maid cafe uniform party in my opinion.

The game has a fun battle system but isn’t groundbreaking, if you’re just looking to spend time with some fun battle gameplay you’re in for a treat.