Sega’s Shining role-playing game series is coming back to the West with the release of Shining Resonance Refrain, a remaster of the 2014 PlayStation 3 game, Shining Resonance. Sega will release Shining Resonance Refrain sometime this summer on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One.
The Shining series is perhaps best known outside of Japan for the Shining Force games, a series of tactical RPGs for Sega Genesis and Sega Saturn. The series moved on from its turn-based tactical roots with games like Shining Wisdom, Shining the Holy Ark and the Shining Soul games. In recent years, many of the Shining games have been released exclusively in Japan, with the exception of fighting game spinoff Blade Arcus from Shining: Battle Arena, which came to Steam in 2016.
Shining Resonance Refrain is a real-time action role-playing game that, like other recent Shining titles, features music-based themes.
“Dragons share power with mankind, and mankind provides power to the dragons through the use of music,” Shining Resonance Refrain localization producer James Kuroki explained on the PlayStation Blog. “All of the party members use weapons that double as instruments and you can perform sessions during battle, providing various benefits such as increasing the party’s speed or making the enemy more vulnerable to certain attacks.”
That mechanic is called the “B.A.N.D. system.” Sega explains:
Dragoneers wield Armonics, ancient weapon-instruments, in order to perform mystical and powerful Rune Songs. Once you build enough BPM (Battle Performance Mana), your party will be able to perform a session through the B.A.N.D. system. Depending on which song you play and which character you set at the center, your party will be able to indulge in various beneficial effects. Certain characters may even perform the song in a special costume!
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Shining Resonance Refrain
Sega
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Shining Resonance Refrain
Sega
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Shining Resonance Refrain
Sega
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Shining Resonance Refrain
Sega
Shining Resonance Refrain will feature improved graphics (naturally), English- and Japanese-language voiceovers, and includes all of the original game’s DLC and a new “Refrain Mode,” which unlocks the Imperial Princess Excella and Dragonslayer Jinas as party members.
Shining Resonance Refrain will cost $49.99.
