Our readers may be familiar with Shining Resonance, a new entry into the Shining franchise for the PS3, marking a return to consoles. It is being developed by Media Vision, who are best known for the Wild Arms series, but also worked on Valkyria Chronicles 3 and Shining Ark.
We’d like to formally announce the introduction of Shining Resonance to our roster of supported games. Expect coverage of the game in the future as well! Hit the break to check out an in-depth writeup we’ve prepared for Shining Resonance, with coverage of some of the recent news for the game.
Courtesy of Anime News Network’s translation, gaming website Inside Games recently revealed a lot of information on Shining Resonance’s story and characters. In the world of Alfheim, dragons were once a proud and powerful race of creatures, but now many dragons have perished and had their souls captured and encased in crystals. One dragon who seems to have escaped this fate is Kouryuu Irvan, the dragon pictured above. His fortune isn’t entirely great; news of his existence soon spreads, and dragon hunters from an imperial army set out to slay him, motivated by a desire to harness his power. Consumed with their quest for the dragons’ power, they have also created artificial dragons that are the enemies of the main characters. However a girl saves this dragon from peril, and in opposition to the aims of various dragon hunting groups, a party begins to form of people called Dragonars. These are warriors who play musical instruments named Armonics that resonate with the soul of a dragon, and their main goal is to protect Irvan and the souls of dragons.
Sega has revealed some details on these party characters seen in the artwork above. From left to right:
- Kirika Towa Alma, an elf who uses Song Magic, and who’s apparently best suited as a healer in combat. She has inherited the art of an ancient form of song.
- Sonia Blanche, a knight and Princess of the Astoria Kingdom. It seems likely that she is the young girl who saves Irvan at the start of the game. She takes on the leadership role amongst the party members
- Agnam Bretthart, a young man with red hair who’s somewhat of an older brother-figure to the protagonist. Red and fire are strong motifs for the character; he possesses a hot-blooded personality and wields fire magic.
Irvan himself is also a playable character – a fairly novel decision, setting itself apart from other Shining games. It should be noted that beyond these four, there will be other playable characters. There is also another character named Georg Zalbart, a fierce and capable commander who is loyal to the church and the cause of dragon slaying.
Combat is said to be seamless and in real-time, and the party can be comprised of up to four members. A picture of the combat can be seen below:
Shining Resonance’s battles will be in real-time, with the player taking direct control of the characters.
Sega has also launched a teaser website for the game. The game is still in a very early stage of development, but is nonetheless scheduled for a release this Winter in Japan. As usual with the latest Shining games, artwork will be done by Tony Taka. It’s been some time since one of the Shining games has been localized, although the fact that the game is on PS3 rather than PSP might give this game a better chance for a release in the West this time around. The Tales and Atelier games on PS3 are now consistently localized and enjoy a respectable degree of success, with their publishers apparently happy with the sales achieved. Perhaps they’ve paved the way for a hospitable climate for additional console JRPG’s? The apparent similarities between this game’s battle system and fantasy elements may rope in some Tales fans.
Shining Resonance is set for a December 11 release and will be priced at 8,222¥. Those who purchase the game’s limited edition can look forward to a 26 centimeter tall PVC figure of Kilika, and a swimsuit costume for her in-game. The limited edition will sell for 16,800¥.
Be sure to check out our new page for Shining Resonance in the Games section!