Shining Resonance Refrain

Wonderful game. Reminiscent of a Tales game in combat. Very deep, involved story, Lots of romance/friendship building, and it is done quite well. Side quests are plentiful and worthwhile. Characters are top notch and their interactions with each other are very organic and heartfelt. The musical aspect is an especially intriguing note. And the graphics are charming and still hold up today IMHO. Highly recommended!

this game should have an option to convert Original mode save file to Refrain mode!
to someone who haven't started the game and happen to be reading, I'd recommend you to start the game in Refrain mode
I finished the game in Original mode with some ending, but later learned that DLC characters can be only played in Refrain mode, and I have to start over again with almost no difference in story and gameplay beside 2 playable characters added. and I'm tired of grinding so I quitted before finished Refrain mode game
story wise, it was nice but a lot of cliche as we know this game was quite old. also only if you like a bunch of dialogues.
gameplay wise, battles are not very bad if not it needs a lot of repetitive battles for grinding and farming

Produced by the same studio that gave us the Wild ARMs franchise, this JRPG may not be revolutionary, but it is still fun, light-hearted and has a great battle system. The OST is well done and (perhaps aside from the protagonist), the cast is well-written, engaging and interesting enough.

I don't know if I liked this game because it's good or because it held me hostage for so long, but for something I got for nearly free from Humble Bundle it's great, I really liked the combat even if things did get grindy as hell towards the end of chapter 3.
The girls are cute, +1 point.

7/10
Good brainless RPG, specially if you get it on sale with some/all the DLC.
Pros:
Enjoyable, near mindless if you set your characters up even remotely well
Story doesn't pull you into hour+ long cutscenes or text
Decent character customization, though a bit uninforming on details of what certain things do/affect
Cons:
Maybe too easy for trash mobs and some bosses
Some boss fights are pretty hard unless you do repeat dragon forms (limited strategy to beat them) And you can't change your lineup before the fight, only after you lose to it, so I often get put into a cutscene that leads to a boss fight with 2-3 of my 4 lineup being characters I was leveling and not good for a boss fight
Odd maximum item counts for different items some only allowed 9, some 19, some 99
If you are looking for a Jrpg you can sit down for just 30 minutes or 3-4 hours and just do battles or the next part of the story then Shining Resonance may be for you.

It is alright. I liked how the world slowly opened up just beyond previously visited areas after returning to town for story, and how there is only one city to visit. The characters and music are probably the best parts. The story isn't too groundbreaking but it was interesting to have such a powerful entity on my side. I liked taking the characters on "dates" as a means of character development. The voice acting is good.
There is a lot to dislike unfortunately. The AI is stupid and dies all the time. You're sharply limited in how many healing/revive items you can carry and that was a frequent point of frustration. AI characters often just stand around and do nothing. The loot/crafting system is too much to keep track of. There isn't really much by way of equipment progression. I found it necessary to do more grinding than I enjoyed.
I read some people can't get this to work on Windows 11 with AMD graphics but it worked for me with 23.10.2 drivers. I did see FPS dip into the high 40s sometimes and that definitely should not have happened, so something s probably still wrong.
Overall it isn't the deepest, most amazing, or original JRPG, but it was good enough and I did like the unique things that were here.

um... i don't enjoy the way the story is delivered and the gameplay is on the basic side but... its not bad. look up the game before purchasing to see if it is to your tastes.