Shining Resonance: Rune Songs, Weather System, and More on Lesti

Earlier this week Sega of Japan released a hefty amount of interesting information on Shining Resonance. From music, to weather, to battle, there’s a lot to digest. Hit the jump to learn more!

The concepts of Dragoners and Rune Songs are important to the game. Though Kouryuu Irvan has a human form and can fight with a sword as do most JRPG protagonists, he is one of the last remaining dragons in the world of Shining Resonance and when he assumes his dragon form in battle, taking that form for too long may cause him to go berserk. This berserk state will take away control from the player and cause Irvan to attack indiscriminately, whether friend or foe.

That is where Kirika can help. She is a Song Maiden of the Runes, or Diva Magica. She has the ability to snap out Irvan out of his berserk Kouryuu state and revert him back to his Yuuma Irvan, his human form. More generally, Rune Songs are melodies passed down through generations of elves that harness the powers of Mother Nature residing within the dragons. There will be a variety of songs with different effects, some of them will provide her with buffs or changed costumes for the duration of battle. It would be great if Kilika came with Rune Songs providing party-wide buffs! Sega listed some of the songs to be featured in-game here:

• Spring Song: Hatsune Uraraka Ni
• Summer Song: Nichirin no Kagayaki
• Autumn Song: Hohoemi no Naru Ki
• Winter Song: Yukibana no Shizuku

Rune Songs being inspired by the four seasons makes sense considering the relationship between Mother Nature and the dragons. Besides that, the four seasons and the concept of harmony with nature are recurring themes in traditional Japanese culture, seen in Shintoism but also appearing in media.

Information on the game’s special weather system was previously teased by Famitsu and Sega revealed that weather will constantly change and has an effect on the game. The environment (perhaps terrain and landscape is sensitive to the weather; it would be cool if the world changed with the weather, or if this affected the presence of enemies. The weather also affects the presence of Search Points – marked by small beacons of light, they pinpoint special items to be salvaged, and fittingly the items are natural, like minerals and plants. Sega makes a point to note that some items can only be found this way, and that you can return back to the same Search Point to forage for items if you’ve passed enough time since the last visit. Apparently a researcher in one of the game’s towns provides you with information on the weather, which should help with planning for Search Points.

We previously wrote about Lesti, Elven commander and worrywart older brother to Kilika, here. He is a commander of a band of knights who leads while at the front line of battle and wields a halberd. Whatever he’s a part of, he keeps tabs on it, and it helps him to keep his head cool and aids his comfortability in making decisions. However, he seems to be always worried about and attending to his younger sister Kilika. When she begins traveling with Irvan and Lesti, aware of Irvan’s capabilities as a Kouryuu Irvan, finally meets Irvan’s party, Lesti finds that he cannot bring himself to attack Irvan. Besides that, he’s apparently known the fire mage Agnam for a long time, though their personalities couldn’t be more different. To further that contrast, Lesti specializes in ice magic. Lesti also apparently plays some sort of elaborate and overly-long wind instrument in Rune Songs.

Lastly, Sega announced that Japanese composer group Elements Garden is overseeing music production for Shining Resonance. They are a company that have done work for video games, anime, and recording artists. It seems they’ll be composing the entirety of the OST, working both on Rune Songs and the background music in game. Sega stressed the importance of musical instruments as weapons, and you can see this in how the Dragoners contribute to Rune Songs. Sega also promises that “each song will have a distinct main instrument, with folk instruments being used liberally, giving the game a unique aural texture all its own that colors the Dragoners’ journey every step of the way.” was not able to find a game that Elements Garden previously composed the entire OST for, or even the bulk of its music, so with Elements Garden’s background and Sega’s explanation of music and nature as recurring themes it should be fun to see what direction Elements Garden takes the game’s OST.

Credit to Gematsu for the translations. I must add, I love the chibi icons for the party characters’ faces in the B.A.N.D. image for this article. Apparently the B.A.N.D. menu allows you to position characters for battle, but there’s no real official word on how it functions just yet.