Preview: Though I'm happy it's finally coming West, Shining Resonance Refrain doesn't quite manage to do it for me

So, Shining Resonance Refrain has been given a demo! 

Shining Resonance was an RPG in the Shining Force series, which released on the PS3 in Japan in 2014 and stayed there exclusively, a move fully characteristic of Sega at the time. But continuing a positive trend beginning with the acquisition of Atlus, this recently-released PS4 remaster of the game is this time being granted a worldwide localization on multiple systems, including the PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

I have mixed feelings about it, especially after playing the demo, which just released on its respective eShops. I’m thrilled that a Japanese-looking and playing game is receiving a wide release and a fairly solid marketing push from Sega’s Western divisions, especially after years of this not being the case. I hope it does well enough to encourage this type of treatment in the future, and as a result, really wish Shining Resonance was a game that appeared to hold up better today.

The demo didn’t exactly win me over, to put it mildly. I hadn’t expected it to, given the original release’s somewhat unenthusiastic reception back on the PS3, but it was still a bummer to see that my initial fears about Shining Resonance proved to be correct. 

A decent action-based battle system is on display, with the demo giving you the opportunity to try out numerous characters, who play quite differently from each other. Nothing feels especially mindblowing, but Refrain, at least from a gameplay perspective, seems to be capable of delivering a competent action RPG.

Unfortunately, the game’s clearly low-effort presentation majorly sinks the whole enterprise for me. The story is presented through long cutscenes delivered with zero cinematic flair by character portraits and text boxes, which would be fairly understandable on the 3DS, but easily feels outdated on the PS3/PS4/Xbox One/Nintendo Switch. Adding insult to injury, there seems to be no way to set the text to auto-scroll, forcing you to continually hold the controller and hammer the A button progress the dialogue, something that just doesn’t feel right for a major release in 2018. Two or three cinematic scenes in the demo aside, it appears that the vast majority of the game’s story will be presented in this static, dull fashion, and even in this short time with it, the long lengths of these sequences drove me crazy. 

So yeah. I dunno. I like that Shining Resonance Refrain is being given a larger than expected push by Sega’s Western branches, including a somewhat decent-looking (dialogue-wise) and sounding localization. The battle system seems alright, but even in native 1080p the visuals don’t look great, and the story presentation feels unnecessarily bland and outdated, with its long-winded bits of statically-presented dialogue quickly becoming a chore to sit through. 

I appreciate being given the opportunity to try it out, and encourage anyone who may be interested to do the same, but at this point I can’t say that I’ll be giving Shining Resonance Refrain a purchase when it releases on July 10th. It doesn't seem like a bad game, but a pretty standard JRPG that will likely be of interest to some, who will undoubtedly be happy to finally see it localized. I hope to see future JRPG efforts from Sega that are localized with similar enthusiasm, hopefully games that feature a more compelling presentation.

Note; this preview is based on the demo for the Nintendo Switch version, though the PS4/XBO/Switch versions are said to be more or less the same.