BeastNote wrote about the announcement of the annual Shining Fan Festa series this past July, but seeing as I did not cover it here I would like to take the opportunity to introduce Shining Fan Festa to this site. It is a convention for fans similar to the Phantasy Star Kanshasai or the Tales of Festival for fans of Bandai Namco Games’ Tales of series. The first Shining Fan Festa took place in 2012, and the festival returns for this year. That a series of fan gatherings exists like this is a testament to the enduring popularity of the franchise in Japan, and the existence of a fighting game featuring various characters in Blade Arcus only adds to that notion.

This year will feature a live original drama and a preview of Shining Resonance, which seems opportune since the game releases in December. Voice actors will be present, including Nobunaga Shimazaki (Yuuma Irvan), Asami Seto (Sonia Blanche), and Saori Hayami (Kirika Towa Alma). There will be a concert segment, and some of the confirmed performers include Asami Seto and Saori Hayami. They will probably perform the Shining Resonance OP.

Tickets for the event go on sale this weekend, on September 13! The event will take place at the Makuhari Event Hall, which also houses the annual Tokyo Game Shows. It may be worth enjoying this spectacle if you’re in Japan!

Credit for the featured image goes to BeastNote.

Recently Sega has been updating the websites for some of their upcoming games. Shining Resonance is one of them, and the game is generally receiving quite the promotional boost as of late. The Shining Resonance website has received a major overhaul, with the main page featuring a compact display of viewable character bios, while teasing two yet-to-be-revealed characters. To sample the new information that came out, check out the break!

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Behold! Pictured above is the cover art Shining Resonance. It’s quite simple – the cast of characters against a white background. The presence of the white-haired character of the right is puzzling, however. We have no indication that this character is a party character based on news released this far. What will become of her throughout the course of the game remains to be seen.

Gematsu also recently published a writeup of Shining Resonance with new information.  Some of the information has already been covered in our previous writeup for the game, but there are some new interesting tidbits – namely Sega’s expansion on the Center unit in B.A.N.D. attacks. Placing Kirika as the Center will decrease the damage your party characters receive and protect you from status ailments, while placing Lesti as the Center will boost your defensive capabilities even further than the bonuses that Kirika gives you, though this wasn’t explained in detail. Sega also mentions that the length of the filled B.A.N.D. gauge functions as a timer for the effect boosts.

Readers who are interested in Shining Resonance may have seen artwork for two antagonist characters recurring in recent articles from outlets covering this game. Sega produced their own character bios for them and Gematsu translated those bios. To learn more about them, hit the break.

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In our last major write-up for Shining Resonance, we learned about Sega’s desire to impress upon players the use of music and nature as conceptual focal points for the game. Images for the B.A.N.D. system were released then, but not with any real explanation of what it was about. Siliconera offers some insight here. In addition, this entry from the BeastNote blog (a fanblog for Japanese fighting game community news that also covers other games, like Shining fighting game Blade Arcus) offers additional insight into the game from translations off of the official Shining Resonance website. Hit the break to learn more!

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Famitsu announced a new Shining Resonance party member this week: Lesti Sera Alma, an elven Dragoner and elder brother of Kirika. He projects a composed and icy veneer but is also prone to brooding, and being overprotective of his sister. He fights using the above pictured halberd, stylized (and roughly translated) as the Dragon Fang Halberd Fang Root. Perhaps true to his personality, one of his screenshots show him using ice-themed attacks.

Within the world of Shining Resonance, Lesti is the commander of a group of elven troops. He will be voiced by Yuichi Nakamura, who is coincidentally also the voice of Kurt Irving from Valkyria Chronicles III.

Outlets reporting on this recent news say to expect more from Famitsu later this week on Shining Resonance, on such topics as a weather system unique to the game and a costume that Kirika can wear in-game.

Credit to RPGFan

4Gamer recently published an article offering more details on some general combat mechanics and some character-specific tidbits within the battle system. Siliconera offers some translated help.

Once you approach close enough to a monster or a party of monster, the game will seamlessly transition into battle mode. It’s not immediately clear, but it’s possible that battles will take place within a bounded arena à la the modern Tales games – so there are seamless transitions like Xenoblade, but perhaps not with the ability to evade freely. You also have the option of issuing quick, general commands to your A.I. allies helping you in battle.

The 4Gamer article seems to promise unique attacks for each character and combo possibilities specific to certain pairs. It also speaks a little more regarding offensive mage types – they are called Dragners, who use their instruments to attack with various powers of nature. It seems Rinna most readily identifies with wind elemental powers while Agnam identifies with fire, but that isn’t to say more elements won’t be available in the future. Most surprisingly, it seems that there’s a certain risk to Irvan’s dragon form; apparently the risk of Irvan going berserk increases the longer he is in his dragon form!

When information about Shining Resonance was first announced, we learned that the protagonist is a dragon named Irvan who is one of the last of his kind.  In the latest issue of Famitsu, a surprise is revealed: Irvan has a human form.

As translated by Siliconera, Yuma Irvan is a man with the heart of a dragon.  He apparently transforms into a dragon form for combat.  On the second page of the Famitsu scan, a new party member is revealed named Rinna Mayfield who fights like a mage with a penguin companion named Fromage.  Also shown is a dragon who may have a hand in Irvan’s transformation.

If you missed it, more information about the game can be found on our previous article.  As of this time Sega did not announce a localization and the game is set for December 11 release in Japan.