Shining Resonance New Info Dump: Social Systems, Enemy Dragons, New Character and More

Yesterday Sega publicized a new press release detailing previously unannounced information on Shining Resonance. Gematsu translated the release and published their information here. The article is exceptionally lengthy, owing both to the writer’s diligence and Sega’s decision to release a lot of information at once. In this Segalization writeup, I will be previewing some of the information discussed in this newest press release.

Sega introduced a couple of interesting social systems for Shining Resonance yesterday. First, I’ll speak of the Relationship System and Personalities. Personalities are individual traits that can be assigned to each character. You start off with one set Personality trait, and more will be available to each character to choose from as the game progresses. Personality choices can affect the relationships between characters, named Bonds. In order to create more positive bonds, the idea here is to choose similar or related personality traits between two characters in order to develop a Bond, and when two characters’ Personalities complement each other over time this Bond will be strengthened.

These bonds are visually conceptualized by an in-game Relationship Diagram, with colors assigned to represent the type of bond (known categories so far include positive or negative, Friend or Rival). These Bonds will produce Resonance actions in-battle. Resonances are randomly triggered by any sort of battle event, such as inflicting or taking damage, successful use of a Break Attack, and more. Friendly Bonds will produce Resonances that support characters, while Rivalry bonds will produce Resonances that create unique attacks. Do note that just as Personality combinations can produce positive Bonds, players can also create negative Bonds and possibly even Resonances with adverse effects.

Much like the newer Tales games, Shining Resonance also features an overworld chat system. These randomly-triggered chats will range from casual, lighthearted talk to prompting about the next objective in the story. Unlike the newer Tales games, the player will be occasionally be asked for their input on a particular question that the party characters ask in these chats. A different and more intimate kind of conversation is the Night Event. Scattered throughout the world are camping sites where the party can recover. When at these camping sites or at towns, the player can sometimes choose to gaze at party characters with whom the player wants to form a deeper bond. Sometimes repeated gazing will prompt an evolution in your relationship, other times other conditions will need to be met within the game before your relationship with a character can progress. If however your gaze is met favorably, after enough of them the player can trigger a Night Event by speaking to a character with whom a relationship is sufficiently developed. This will be evident by the presence of a moon-shaped marker above a character.

During Night Events, only you and the person you’re interested in will be awake, and the character will initiate sensitive and private conversations. Some conversations will trigger the “Mind Over Emotions System” or M.O.E.S., a system that demands responses to questions under a time limit. It is reminiscent of fellow Sega franchise Sakura Wars, isn’t it? Anyway, get through these questions favorably and you might be able to set up a date at the town of Malga. Once there, you can check out various Dating Spots for your two lovebirds to hang out at, and visiting enough of these Date Spots will cause the date to end. And to be clear, you have the option of setting up opposite sex dates or same sex dates as you wish.

To wrap up this article, I will introduce one key character and her special companions.

This is Princess Excella Noa Aura of Lombardia, voiced by prolific voice actress Nana Mizuki (who Phantasy Star Portable 2 Infinity’s Nagisa, among her many other roles.) She is a Dragon Knight who uses gravity-themed magic and wields a special dragon flute. She is both a powerful political leader and a fearsome warrior, having already ended a civil war in Lombardia. Excella is also a Song Maiden and Dragoner, but is not aligned with your party. With her talents, she commands the Drag Machina: three powerful elemental dragons of fire, lightning, and ice that were artificially created and made to be weapons. The Drag Machina are loyal to Excella, full of pride, and can even speak to humans (the Gematsu page even lists their voice actors!) When Excella first meets Yuuma and his party, she is determined to add him to her roster of warrior dragons, but things apparently don’t go her way. Could she join as the game’s seventh party member?

Be sure to check out the Gematsu article linked at the beginning of this writeup for even more helpful and detailed explanations (like hypothetical scenarios that illustrate Dates and Bonds) and a new batch of screenshots! Credit belongs to Gematsu for the images and the translated information.