YMMV / Shining Resonance

• Accidental Innuendo:
  • The following line takes on an entirely different meaning, when taken out of context:
    Marion: (while staring at Sonia's boobs) I see... Milk."^note in context: Marion asked what Sonia eats to get "like that", but Sonia fails to notice Marion's staring at her boobs. So she assumes Marion's asking about her strength and says she's strong because she drinks milk. Marion's reply, taken out of context, reads as if she's saying she sees "milk" (i.e. implying that she's saying Sonia's breasts are milk jugs).
  • When Yuma and the others rescue Marion from Joachim, his rant makes him sound more like a crazy ex-boyfriend, rather than a scientist:
    Joachim: (at Marion) "YOU HEAR ME?! You belong to ME, Ette! I have EARNED YOUR SCREAMS!! And I'll tear them FROM YOUR THROAT!"
• Awesome Music: Saori Hayami sings the vocals of many of the songs in the game (which is to be expected as she is Kirika's VA), and each of them is beautiful. Even the ones not done by her are amazing in their own right.
• Complete Monster:
  • Georg Zalbard, the captain of Beowulf, the group of knights who pleaded their loyalty towards the Sanguine Church of Lombardia, initially seems to be the loyal knight that serves the princess of Lombardia, Excella Noa Aura. However, he has a hidden agenda of his own. To this end, he sends the dark elf, Beatrice, to spy on Excella's moves, and in the last chapters of the game, he drops his facade and betrays Excella by killing her father, and incriminates her as a traitor of the empire. In addition, he also conspires with the top scientist of Beowulf, Joachim Reubens, in order to revive the god that the Sanguine Church worships, known as Deus, and when Georg and Joachim argue about Georg's lieutenant, Zest Graham, being the true inheritor of Deus, Georg then kills Joachim in cold blood after being called a heretic by the latter. After this, Georg then drains Yuma Ilvern's power of the Shining Dragon with a sword known as Gjallahorn, which renders Yuma unconscious. After Deus is revived, Georg tries to fuse himself with Deus, and it was revealed that he had the intention to cause the apocalypse to happen so that he can purge all of the heretics and the weak, leaving behind the people who are judged worthy just like him.
  • Joachim Reubens, "the sinful alchemist", is the top scientist of Beowulf, who has a penchant for performing unethical experiments on other people, including Yuma Ilvern, and Loves the Sound of Screaming after torturing them. It was revealed that in the past, he conducted an experiment on the Le Shiella twins, Marion and Ette, to the point that the latter got killed by said experiment. After Ette's spirit inhabits Marion's body, Joachim wastes no time conducting horrible experiments on Marion so that he could turn her into his personal Tyke-Bomb by forcefully implanting an occult eye her which causes her physical pain, and brainwashing her by replacing her current personality into Ette. In the last chapters of the game, he and Georg also betray Excella in order to revive Deus, and after finding out that Zest is the suitable inheritor of Deus, Joachim betrays Georg and calls him a heretic. In his last moments, Joachim coldly mocks Georg that he still needs him in order to revive Deus.
• Disappointing Last Level: According to legend, the Sealed Tower cannot be reached no matter how far anyone travels. In most jrpgs, this would obviously imply that it's likely to be the final dungeon and that it'd be teeming with high-level enemies and rare loot. Not this time. Instead, the so-called "tower" consists of only one room: the boss chamber - which you warp directly to. So the mystical looking tower you've been staring at all this time amounts to little more than window dressing.
• Enjoy the Story, Skip the Game: Many players found the gameplay okay while mentioning that the highlights of the game are the humor, character interactions, and character development that drive the plot and beyond.
• Game-Breaker:
  • Within a month after the game's release, a user at GameFAQs had already posted an online guide for the über Sonia character build. It requires giving her the Green Concerto^note amplifies all Nature Aspects and equipping the Ninja Step and Butterfly-Bee Aspects, which increase Sonia's evasion by 20% each. But since they're all Nature Aspects, the Green Concerto boosts their effectiveness by 30% at its Max lv. (30), which gives her a 100% evasion rate. At that point, she'll evade all attacks except damage from floor effects and specific charged up enemy attacks that simply can not miss. It utterly trivializes the game.
  • There is an über Marion build as well that, while far more powerful than über Sonia, is largely restricted to postgame content due to the Aspects required. Using the Ghost Concerto ^note amplifies all Undead Aspects and equipping the Ghost Step and Armor Purge Aspects, which increase evasion by 30% and 50% respectively. Ghost Step will be buffed to an effective 60%, bringing her up to 100% as well. Soul Berserker and Soldier Spirit raise her stats when below 20% HP, 30% to ATK, MAG, DEF, & MDF and 25% to ATK & MAG respectively, which are further brought up to 60% and 55% respectively. Light Force makes her Meteor Launcher a near instant attack. Her Convert Force allows her to switch out her HP and MP percentages. Meteor Launcher to <20% MP, Convert, and watch any of the post game bosses die within seconds. It is advisable to not have other characters equipped with healing Forces, as her critical health will prompt them to heal her and undo the power boost.
  • Yuma, Agnum, Lestin, and Jinas's Concerto tunings work for aspects that boost their offensive stats, allowing them to stack their offensive stats far higher than the other party members. While their setups aren't quite as powerful as Marion taking advantage of low HP aspects, they're still more practical for dealing with enemies with unavoidable attacks while having good DPS.
• Magnificent Bastard:
  • Excella Noa Aura, Princess of Lombardia, will do anything to save her father and the Empire. Conspiring with Beowulf's top scientist, Joachim Reubens, Excella uses his research to gain knowledge regarding the souls of the four World Dragons. Ever wary of the movement of her second-in-command, Georg, who began to act suspiciously, Excella sends the dark elf Beatrice to spy on the latter. Sending her soldiers allegedly to attack the Astoria Captial City, Excella uses the diversion to negotiate with an enemy king to prevent both sides from suffering massive casualties, critically wounding him when he refuses. Obtaining a soul of one of the World Dragons, Excella tries to persuade the hero, Yuma Ilvern, to save her dying father. Despite the sheer amount of unlucky experiences she goes through during the final arc, Excella regains her confidence and eventually reclaims her rightful place aside Yuma. Treasuring her subordinates and viewing her enemies as Worthy Opponents, Excella shows, time and again, what a resourceful and gracious antagonist she is.
  • Jinas Aeon is a lone traveler who tries to atone for his sins in the past due to his uncontrollable powers as the previous vessel of "The Shining Dragon" which decimated his own village. To this end, he performs several strategies, such as attempting to collect several Armonics in order to perform the "Last Song", manipulating both the hero and villain factions to do his own bidding, and even participates in the resurrection of the evil sealed god known as Deus in order to end the ultimate disaster, known as Ragnarok, that will be caused by Deus, once and for all. Although seemingly defeated by the evil knight Georg Zalbard, who tries to use Deus to suit his own whims, Jinas helps the heroes in order to defeat Georg once and for all and after his business is done, Jinas decides to travel across the world to prevent another apocalypse that will happen in the future.
• Scrappy Mechanic: The advantage and risky encounter system is finicky compared to preemptive strike mechanics in other games. Even if an enemy is approached from behind without noticing the party, there is only a chance that the player can get an advantage encounter. Worse yet, there is always a chance of getting a risky encounter even if the player is never touched from behind by the enemy. It's unknown if this is due to RNG mechanics or poor hitbox detection, but it makes the start of every non-boss encounter a case of Russian Roulette.
• That One Achievement: 'Wheel of Fortune,' due to being Permanently Missable Content in Refrain Mode. At the start of Excella and Jinas' routes, you will receive a Glass Slipper Sigil and a Full Moon Sigil from them, respectively. These items do have a use; they can be used for Grimoire Dungeons. Don't use them until having received both of their character endings (during which both Excella and Jinas will ask Yuma if he still has their sigils), and then go visit Alfriede, who will explain why this version of Excella and Jinas exist in the world at all.

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