Shining Resonance Refrain

A fantastic PC port of a JRPG with a very bland story, good combat with a parry mechanic for thrill seekers, far too easy of a difficulty, an enjoyable dub, too much grinding, an entertaining randomized set of dungeons, a boring dating and relationship mechanic, and one of the most busted characters I've seen in an RPG in the form of Rinna.
Honestly, I only recommend it for JRPG fans, and for everyone else I advise against buying. The fights and the English dub were my favorite parts, but even the combat needed some tuning since the fights degraded to "Spam the same attack" over and over. Mechanics such as perfect blocking at precise times and a breadth of options to tailor party members to different roles unfortunately don't make up for the simple fact that I could win 90% of my fights by pressing L+A without even looking at the screen. I guess you could do challenge runs such as soloing the game...
40 hours for me to beat the final boss... then another 30 for Refrain mode. For the interest of time, I'd advise playing in Refrain mode to begin with even for a first time player, as it simply isn't worth it to replay the whole game just for two characters.
Edit: There's a buncha small post game stories and "dungeons", so try to at least check them out after beating the game. They basically lampoon the rest of the game and were honestly my favorite part with how hilarious they were.

Shining Resonance Refrain Offers Plenty of Breadth But Struggles in Places 6.7/10.0
TL;DR A mixed bag of fun with its characters, decent post-game events and varied enough gameplay. But issues such as lack of 'risk' in story, sluggish and heavy-feeling control and attacks hindering combat, and some minor graphical oversights prevent this from being a 8 or 9/10.
Get this on sale if you don't mind grindy combat with some minor flaws and a fairly lackluster story with enough redeeming features to keep you interested.
Note:
I've had some time with Hyperdimension Neptunia, Dragon Quest 8 & 11, Final Fantasy IV, X & XIII, Resonance of Fate, Tales of Vesperia & Berseria and Trails of Cold Steel. I like JRPGs.
Gameplay
(the longest section)
+ Can change and boost stats and abilities with adding Aspects which can be synthesised and bought; and B.A.N.D. power-up (with some unique lines!) adds a little extra depth to battles.
+ Bond system affects 'resonance' (power-ups and buffs in battle), enough new abilities to keep you grinding. You set character's 'traits' and a combination of each will affect special occurrences in battle.
+/- Very grindy. You might hate or like that. Exp and drops are not very high and so you will battle a LOT. I'm neutral on this.
+ Date and affection shows different sides to our characters and is mostly done well, albeit quite basic.
+ Rare enemies and tough monsters can appear in areas. This was a nice touch.
- Quite a few characters are sluggish to control in battle. And in the overworld it's slow turning if you're running and there's way too many pauses as you pick up items. Most animations and movements require some fixing up in terms of how snappy it is. They generally drag on a bit too long. Not good if you're just trying to do a grinding run. Take notes from Dragon Quest XI, guys.
- NO FAST TRAVEL SYSTEM!! Near the end of the game, this needs it! Because you will be travelling to do quests and grabbing better materials for weapons etc. It can be a massive chore. It will make you go "ughhh really?? OVER THERE?"
- The 'tuning' system (aka your weapon specialism such as add dark element to attack and so on) can be very grindy for what it's worth. I didn't bother with most of them because your character also gets weaker/stronger as the tuning level is accordingly.
Graphics
+ Generally bright, vibrant and environment's art captures the setting's mood well.
- Some assets clearly do not scale to 1080p (which was what I played it on), leaving for some fuzzy text such as the menus.
- Character models sometimes have clumsy edge detection (e.g., one character's hairpin very clearly noclips through the hair)
- I would've liked some flashier move particle effects and higher effort assets. But it's not awful by any means, especially for a JRPG. They can get away with these things sometimes.
Soundtrack
- Unfortunately not many tracks are that memorable.
+ A few tracks are beautifully made
+ Victory jingle changes as more characters are acquired
Story
- A little bit annoying to watch and read at first
- Nothing groundbreaking and some twists are not executed very well such as Beatrice's redemption
- Wish they took more risks
+ Picks up soon enough thanks to some good characters
+ Agnum (character) offers some dialogue which accurately reflects the player's reactions lol. I didn't expect to see that.
Characters
+ Generally a great effort from the voice actors. Especially Agnum and Excella. Agnum's sarcastic and irritated lines are hilarious while Excella's emotional moments are raw and delivered rather well.
+ All world dragon voices are excellent. They sound menacing, majestic or simply powerful as heck.
+ HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!
- Bland heroine Sonia. Has the most generic lines I've probably ever seen.
- Lestin's personality development lacked over time. It was not executed very well. You get him later in the game.
+ Hero wasn't whiny and wimpy for very long which was a godsend. I can't stand tropes like that. You may dislike the start because of this.
Post-game / Replay value
+ Post-game events are able to be accessed and most require you to enter secret 'Grimoire' dungeons to advance them. And they're generally entertaining.
+ Some may find it fun to replay the game in Refrain mode (which allows you to have two extra characters in the game). I did not do this because I could not be bothered. I don't see much of a reason for a second playthrough as it's a pretty forgettable story compared to Tales and Dragon Quest games.

It's pretty good. I appreciate the real time action of the battle system. It makes it less tedious to play, and the battles go by rather quickly. The game is a bit on the easy side though.
It's also very anime. You play as Yuma, an awkward boy who has never had many (if any) friends, so a lot of people playing this game will be able to relate to him. Now add on the fact that he is host to the Shining Dragon, which grants him the potential for awesome power, which he did not have to particularly work for.
He is also inexplicably very popular with the ladies. This game is the ultimate power fantasy for the average anime/jRPG fan. I can definitely recommend it for those types.
For everyone else, it's cute, amusing, and worth a playthrough if you're looking for something to fill the void.

It has old school anime graphics, big titty waifu art, story is pretty average as JRPGs go, cut scenes are fine but not great. I got this through Humble Bundle so it's worth giving a run through. I would recommend picking it up on sale if you're into anime and JRPGs and have played through all of the other big name titles of the genre.

My First Impression of it
TL;DR:
Pros:
+ Good Real-Time Combat System...
+ ... with lots of room for experimenting
+ Likeable cast of characters
+ Romance-System
+ Customizable Dungeons
Cons:
- Bland, uninspired story
- Checking quests and events in the hub-area gets tedious
- MC is kind of a wuss
Shining Resonance: Refrain is the remastered Version of the Original Shining Resonance - but bigger and better.
It features new playable characters a bonus Campaign that portrays a "What-if"-Scenario, more quests and all cosmetic items released for the Original.
At it's core it's pretty much your standard JRPG, but with a Real-Time combat system instead of a Turn based one.
The Combat can be heavily influenced by how you choose to set up your party, their skills, weapons, the aspects you use for these weapons and so on and so forth.
There are a lot of options to fiddle around with here.
The Story so far has been on the weaker side, but it is well presented and supported by a great cast of characters.
There's a hint of "Persona" in it as well, as you can choose to spend time with members of your party to strenghten your bonds with them and even form romantic relationships.
Should you ever feel the need to grind (which wasn't necessary for me so far, the difficulty ramps up pretty nicely) you don't have to spend time venturing throught the world, but have easy access to sort of a Dungeon Creator that allows you to choose which enemies inhabit it, alongside various other bonus effects that can be selected by you.
My only gripes with it, aside from the mediocre story are that the MC is sort of a pansy for a long time which can get a little annoying.
Additionally there are a lot of minor interactions and repeatable sidequests available in the hub-area whenever you finish a story event or rest.
Checking all of them can get a little annoying, especially cause already finished quests are indistinguishable from new ones. (If you have played Fire Emblem: Three Houses you probably know what I am talking about).
Nevertheless, overall it is a solid get for any JRPG Fan and at a sale definitely worth adding to your library, if you enjoy the Genre.

Let's face it, this game has issues, lots and lots of issues especially in regards to QoL, but underneath it all there's a decent game to be found that can be very much worth it if you can find it on sale.
Too bad the lack of QoL polish could really kill your motivation early in the game and it only gets worse as you go on. For a game that demands LOTS of backtracking espc. if you're doing sidequests, the absent of fast travel is very debilitating. Then there's issues of unexplained mechanics like bond systems. Game feels like it's made by someone who's stuck in SNES era RPGs.

Lets get it out of the way, this is a standard almost formulaic jrpg with all of its tropes. Its is wrong however to to claim that because something looks like other things you've played, that its derivative or not worth your time. Genres exist for a reason after all.
Character development is solid, especially for the mc and two lead female characters. There is no startling depth to any of these characters, but each manages (in normal jrpg fashion) to be decently likable, even avoiding the 'loud tsundere idiot' trope in the process. Your not gonna come away with lasting feels, but you'll enjoy the characters for what they are.
The story is as predictable as a Saturday morning cartoon, and enjoyable for exactly the same reason. The story is generic beast-inside mc meets generic evil empire and remains enjoyable nonetheless.
Systems follow standard jrpg fare. You have several in game systems from crafting to gem slotting, to bonds, etc which are not required for your success but can help you in various little ways if you choose to engage in them. Again standard jrpg
Combat is normal hack-n-slash with very little complexity. Combat is serviceable, but not remarkable. To make this more interesting try to avoid grinding wherever possible as you can easily outlevel any reason to care about the intricacies of the games combat system or supporting mechanics.
This brings me two the two flaws I'm not willing to hand-wave. The game is more grindy than it needs to be, but that is forgivable. More annoying is the game totally lacks any fast travel mechanic when it sends you back and forth to the same or near locations over and over again.
This game is solid, and I give it a wholehearted recommendation, but you need to accept it for what it is. It is jrpg which plays it safe and focuses on doing the tried and true things that work within the genre. If you've ever curled up to watch a season of a fun, but utterly forgettable anime, this is what it is. This isn't a game to tease your palate or pluck your heartstrings, its pulp fiction, comfort food for a genre your probably already very well acquainted with.