Shining Blade

Shining Blade is a Sega PSP action SRPG released exclusively in Japan. Shining Blade, another entry in the lengthy Shining franchise, ditches the grid-based tactics RPG battle system found in games like Fire Emblem and Tactics Ogre in favor of one that closely resembles Valkyria Chronicles, another series by the same development house. Shining Blade’s battles, in particular, are conducted with turn-based and real-time elements, with enemy and allied sides each receiving individual turns. Still, the specific actions within those turns otherwise unfold in real-time. Other subsystems popularized by Valkyria Chronicles, such as potentials and character-specific abilities that can be triggered under certain conditions, also appear prominently under different names. Shining Blade, unlike Valkyria Chronicles, places a greater emphasis on individual character development, with party members leveling up individually, as in traditional RPGs, rather than in bulk with other characters of the same class, as in the former.