Like Shining Force Neo, the gameplay is in the vein of Diablo or Record of Lodoss War (the latter also by Neverland).
The game features a variety of weaponry inspired by the medieval era, magic, and a collection of skills that can be improved upon for the main characters.
As well as advancing the main character, the player progresses to master a variety of Power Arts to unleash special and magic attacks.
The story focuses mainly on two characters that the player will have the opportunity to control: Toma, a brash sword wielder who dreams of being "King of the World," and Cyrille, a mage of sorts whose reasons for searching for the Shining Force are a well kept mystery.
Their story will unfold in a world that is shared by humans, demons, and beasts that is constantly devastated by war.
The Noswald Empire is home to the human race and the demons rule the southern territory, Fyrlandt.
He possesses a strong sense of justice, and the one thing he wants in life is "great power", which leads him on his quest for the holy sword known as the Shining Force.
Cyrille: A human girl brought up in the Noswald Empire, one of the two main warring factions in the world of Shining Force EXA.
Maebelle: An elf maiden searching for the Holy Sword in the hopes of saving her dying race.
According to Maebelle, she is what the elves refer to as the "Last Child", meaning she was the last newborn elf since the incident with her people unable to bear children.
Her unique trait is that she seems to eat more than anyone else in the party (much to Duga's surprise) and frequently snacks when she gets a chance.
Gadfort has a habit of lecturing Toma on his sword style, calling it unpredictable and without form, but in actuality he is simply being a teacher to him.
She has a school girl crush on Duga, who can't stand her approaches, but she eventually gives up on trying to get his interest.
Much like Volg from Shining Tears, he is strong and fast, but lacks the defense necessary to withstand much damage at any one time.
Because Cyrille is quite familiar with world history, Ragna tries to convince her to choose sides, because he wants to obtain the power of the Shining Force for himself.
Reimsianne is a responsible leader to her people and strictly follows an age-old taboo of not trying to incite a war with the humans.
Avalon is quite open with regards to his past, having fought with a powerful dark mage when he was a reckless overconfident knight, and lost his life for it and was cursed.
[3] IGN gave praise to the length and overall design of the game, but criticized the lag often experienced by having so many enemies on the screen at once.
[7] A more critical review was given by GameSpot, highlighting the game's weak combat, voice acting, and frame-rate, while approving of its visual presentation.
[6] On a slightly different note, RPGamer criticized the game's recycling of elements from Shining Force Neo, and the high quantities of enemies that lengthen the "few new areas on display".