Shining Resonance Refrain: Draconic Launch Edition - PlayStation 4

This game is average by almost every metric and is by definition a niche game, so your enjoyment will scale greatly with your tastes in games and expectations. In the interest of brevity, here's a quick rundown in lieu of a review:The iffy -- Low budget to a fault. It was clear where most of the budget went (see the positives below). I'm 29 hours in, having just started Chapter 5, and there's still only 1 main town/hub and I doubt there'll be another. The overworld isn't particularly large nor varied in style. The town itself, Marga, is static and lifeless. The enemies are actually repeatedly recoloured versions of the same handful of enemies.- Tiny things like no auto-text, no text log, tons of pop-in, the lack of fast travel (perhaps by design?), lack of enemy variety, or the quest log being mapped to R2 of all buttons. Just tiny eccentricities and oversights, again maybe due to the small budget.- Despite being a huge selling point of the game (and I love me some anime wives and husbands), so far I'm finding the "dates" or even the social interactions with NPCs to be pretty unsatisfying. They feel unearned and just happen when you want them to happen. The range of activities you can do with your dates are limited (walk around the same drab town) and there's few gameplay rewards, besides some cutesy dialogue. Your mileage may vary; play an otome or something like Persona for the goods.- Wild difficulty spikes. This is not a hard or stressful game, but there are some serious design flaws. Beatrice's fight was bad. Gungnir's fight in Chapter 5 was bad. This was all played on Casual and with some extra grinding (~lvl 40 for all my characters up till the latter's fight). A boss should not have a near-full screen 1-shot attack (even if telegraphed, still difficult to avoid) plus passive AoEs around its body constantly, forcing you to adopt strategies like chugging away all your potions, or playing as Kirika and hoping your party can out DPS the other side while you stay away and spam heals. Or later in the game where there's Imperial soldiers that can hit hard from afar *and* cast Confuse over and over, causing your party to wipe in a matter of seconds. Its just bad design.The spiffy ++ Some of the most recognizable voice acting talents in Japanese games and anime such as Nana Mizuki and Saori Hayami are in this game. That and there's abundant voice acting.+ The music, or more accurately the vocal tracks in this game are certainly well above average. It helps when your voice acting cast can also sing and the songs on show here are great, appropriately enough for a JRPG with music as such a thematic focus.+ Much has been said for Tony Taka's art in the Shining series and I suppose if you're a fan of his style, this is more of that. The character designs are cute, as are their costumes and weapons (Armonics).+ For full disclosure I got the game on 50% discount, so I'm being more charitable to it than I otherwise would at full price. The Draconic Edition itself is very, very pretty. The metal slipcase is smooth, finely detailed and feels quite sturdy. It does look a bit oversized compared to my other PS4 cases though.Neutral ~~ Very by the numbers action RPG combat system which I'm not a particular fan of to begin with. I've heard it compared to the Tales series, and I'm inclined to agree (having only played Abyss to compare). Characters do feel unique enough, and the AI is fairly competent. Game isn't all that challenging, which is great, but it can also be a bit grindy if you want it to be. The combat system is straightforward enough and also somewhat unique: besides Tunings and Aspects (a passive "style" of combat that you set in lieu of a proper weapon as well as further passive augmentations to your build, respectively), there's really no weapons, armor or accessories in the traditional sense to manage. The lack of true equipment management or loot gathering is actually a blessing in this case as I feel the game's relatively breezy/light mechanics are actually a strength in its favour. Similarly, the Traits and Bond system are interesting but sorely underutilized and poorly explained systems that you don't really have to engage with.~ Plot and characters... pretty drab standard? Good dragons and the good guys vs bad dragons and the bad guys. Anime tropes abound: reluctant shounen protagonist discovers the power of friendship and the joys of being at the center of a harem, which includes: a lascivious tease, a naive and sheltered sweetheart, a down to earth girl next door type, a stern and shrewd but actually thoughtful princess type, an edgy mentor type, an older brother figure type, another stern and cold older brother type.All in all, 6/10 really isn't that bad. We've been spoiled as of late with super high quality JRPGs (but also sorely letdown by some-- I'm looking at you, NNK2). Just temper your expectations. It's a light, breezy time, and at least 30 hrs in, I still want to keep going for the Platinum, which is more than I can say for many other titles.

Je n'avais pas eu la chance de jouer à l'opus sur ps3, et j'avais oublié de le dénicher plus tard! Quand j'ai vu qu'il allait avoir une version sur ps4, impossible de résister! Pour ceux qui aiment les Tales of ou encore Persona ( 3 à 5), vous allez être ravis! Vous y trouvez ici, le traditionnel jrpg avec l'aventure qui vient avec! Des combat en actions direct tel qu'un Tales of... Le coté ''dating'' avec les personnages ( À la Persona) avec plusieurs fins disponibles. La musique est bien, les combats sont simples. Le menu est très épuré! Graphiquement c'est plutôt joli! Les 2 versions, offrent la possibilité au joueur, de refaire le tour plus tard! Il ne faut pas jouer le mode Refrain en premier, car celui-ci vous donne la chance d'avoir des personnages non jouables et qui font partie de l'histoire! Cela pourrait gâcher un peu l'ambiance! Pour tout fans du genre, c'est un jeu à avoir dans sa collection!

The game itself is pretty solid so far, but I'm only about 2 hours in. Will add more to the review later on.The metal case that comes along with it, however, is a different story. It certainly looks nice, but for some reason it's too tight on the bottom, making it extremely hard to get the game out of the case. I don't know if this is a manufacturing error, or if it's only mine. Oh well.

This edition comes with a slip case for the game. The slip case is gorgeous. The art style of the case is one that many animes can't compare. It's very unique and very anime. Definitely buy it if you're an avid collector of J-games or just a collector in general. I have yet to play it but i have tried the demo on PS4. I think the story and gameplay is something you'll appreciate. i can't find this in my area so i decided to buy it here. You can't find a Draconic Launch Edition anywhere in a retail store unless you're lucky.

Titulo aburrido y repetitivo, muchas mecanicas no funcionan bien, pocos escenarios, toma mecanicas de otros juegos, es un mal JRPG