For someone like me who lost interest in the Shining series long ago, Shining Resonance Refrain is an absolute delight. Although it doesn’t resemble anything like the strategy RPGs and dungeon crawlers I first fell in love with back in the 90s, Shining Resonance Refrain is a charmingly sweet JRPG with an engaging combat system that hides hundreds of tricks up its sleeves.

Shining Resonance Refrain will not go down in history as a great RPG, but it is a good game, which is good in most of its sections. It's a very colorful and pretty game, with a great soundtrack. The fights are quite entertaining and offer a story with well-defined characters.

Shining Resonance Refrain is most certainly overshadowed by the more intriguing, deeper and better developed JRPGs of this gen. However, that’s not to say that it isn’t worthy of your time and attention. Despite its unoriginal characters, its poor soundtrack and its slightly repetitive gameplay loop, the game has a strong and interesting enough backbone to make for an enjoyable and diverse adventure.

Shining Resonance Refrain can enthrall the player with its rollercoaster story, despite some very clichéd characters. It has great combat and many good ideas, even if the whole game is a bit classic.

Shining Resonance Refrain is a good, albeit predictable JRPG. There are a few neat mechanics stored within its walls, but for the most part it simply exists. While PS4 (and even Switch owners) are used to these types of games though, Xbox One owners simply are not. So this is a solid entry for that console. It is also cool that Sega is bringing a game that was lost in time to the US back from the dead. I enjoyed my time with this game, warts and all, and I think anyone who is a fan of the genre will too.