Shining Resonance

Platform: PS3

Release Date in Japan: December 11, 2014

Shining Resonance LogoBackground

Shining Resonance is the latest entry into the Shining series, one of Sega’s longest running RPG franchises.  With its first release in 1991 Shining started out as a dungeon crawler titled Shining in the Darkness.  There is no fixed gameplay style among major entries, there are strategy titles like Shining Force and action RPG titles like Shining Tears.

Shining Resonance is developed by Media.Vision (Wild Arms, Valkyria Chronicles III).  Tony Taka returns as character designer, who has worked many entries such as Shining Hearts, Blade and Ark.  Shining Resonance takes place in the world of Alfheim, where dragons once roamed the land until most perished and their were souls captured.  The story follows Irvan, one of the last remaining of his kind, as he is confronted by Dragon Hunters from an Imperial Army to capture and acquire his power.  That is, until a girl saves the dragon and together with other friends made along the way they stand up against the hunters.  The game is an action RPG with a real-time battle system.  When Irvan is in battle, party members can come to his aid playing musical instruments for additional effects.

Localization Status

The last title that made it over was Shining Force EXA for PS2 in 2007.  Unfortunately on the same year Shining Wind was left in Japan and not localized for the West.  Shining shifted to handheld afterwards and none of those PSP and DS entries have been localized. Resonance marks the return of the series on consoles, which may give the game a better chance of coming over.  PS3’s software sales are quite strong and most high profile RPGs on the console were localized.

Various Shining games have been localized outside Sega over the years.  Shining Wisdom on Sega Saturn was picked up by Working Designs.  Shining Souls I and II were picked up by Atlus.  Unfortunately, Sega was unable to let other companies localize another Shining game since.

How Can You Help?

You can raise awareness of Shining series in the west by buying Shining Force digitally on various platforms.  Shining Force I and II can be found on Wii Virtual Console and Steam (alongside Shining in the Darkness).  The Game Gear title Shining Force: Sword of Hajya is available on Virtual Console for 3DS.

Discuss Shining Resonance on message boards and news sites.

 Links

Our articles on Shining Resonance

Official Japanese Shining Resonance Website

Shining Force Central – Fansite and community.

4 thoughts on “Shining Resonance

  1. Pingback: Segalization and Shining Resonance for PS3 | Segalization

  2. themissingamer

    Why don’t you create a Kickstarter page called “Sega, localize Shining Resonance”, and have gamers pledge to buy the game. By doing so, you would prove to Sega in a short period of time that people in the West are willing to pay real money to see the game. All money amassed through Kickstarter would then be donated to Sega to start the localization process.
    For it to work, once the page is created, share it immediatly with videogame websites like Kotaku, Gematsu, or Silliconera and ask them to encourage gamers to put in their pledges. It worth a shot, isn’t it?

    Reply

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