Resonance of Fate Review
Quick Overview
Sega’s Resonance of Fate is yet another interesting take in the JRPG genre. Lately there’s been a slight transformation in the way that Japanese game developers are constructing their RPGs and I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about the adjustments. The story revolves around three main characters: Vashyron, Zephyr, and Leanne. The world has been rendered almost completely inhospitable due to a gas that began to fill the planet after changes in the environment took their hold. Humans were not able to adapt to the quick alterations taking place and built a gigantic tower called Basel. The tower was built into the ground and used to purify the air around it. Naturally a city was constructed there and from then on the population grew, repopulating. Although humanity was rejuvenated the sense of class still exists, with the rich living on the top of Basel while the poor live on the bottom. Everything seems to be back to normal until one day the purifier stops working, which holds the key to human life. This is where the journey begins.
Tutorial… Take the time!
I’ll have to admit to you that I’m one of those people that just don’t really care much for tutorials; I like to just jump in and learn on the fly if you will. But Resonance of Fate is a different kind of game with a different kind of battle system. The use of tactics is something definitely needed because you are limited in your movement if you really want to do any damage. For starters you are given small fragments called Basel shards. The Basel shards appear on the bottom of your screen during battles and can be removed depending on how you want to attack and how many times you use your hero gauge, they can also be filled back up by doing different things such as breaking an enemy’s health gauge or by killing one.
Basically you’re given a limited amount of space to move around with and each character’s turn is limited, as well as crucial. The Basel shards are part of a hero gauge which is what you use to attack. You can move only a short amount at first but as you level up and find different items you’ll find that it doesn’t really matter. If you lose all of your shards you will go into Critical Mode. Once in Critical Mode you might as well quit or retry due the fact that you can’t really do anything. When in this mode your damage taken will all be direct and the damage you give will not be as much compared to who’s throwing it at you. When it comes to the fundamental attack, it’s pretty easy, you hold down a button to charge your gun and then press it again to shoot it. I know what you’re thinking, who wants to do things the easy way?
Well if you really want to do some damage you will be able to run by an enemy while shooting it, although this does use a shard and when you run out of them you’re better off retrying. The strategy really comes into the picture when you face a hard boss or a tough group of people and need to recognize weak spots. There is even a tri-attack that the characters are able to all do at once, dishing out damage from three rather than one.
Speaking of damage there is a special way in which you inflict your will on the opposing force. There is a submachine gun in the group that weakens the opponent with something called scratch damage. Scratch damage is different and aids in boosting the attack of your companions. For example if you fill an enemy’s health meter with scratch, then shoot it with a regular attack you can finish it then and there. The only downside is that scratch damage doesn’t hurt in any way in the sense that you cannot kill anyone with it; you can just soften your objective. To be 100% honest with you this section of the review can be several pages if I want to go into total detail, but I’m not going to because I don’t feel like boring everyone that reads this review as I already do this enough.
You want unique, here you go!
As far as creativity in the story goes this game is really not too bad, although the story doesn’t really pick up for quite a while, which seems to be somewhat reoccurring in this genre. When you look at other titles such as FFXIII that’ve tried to take a step in a different direction the length is a major issue with me. Resonance of Fate is fundamentally cool, the battle system is innovative and awesome but just like FFXIII I feel that JRPGs as of late are drawing out their stories just far too long. The plot is interesting and the fiction will get you into it except the problem of nothing really happening until way later in the game will turn most away from it, after considering that the system used for fighting is crazy and confusing, which would push most away in the first place.
PROS
- Battle system invokes use of strategy
- Interesting story when you dig deep enough
- A fresh distinctive take on JRPGs
CONS
- Story has nothing to do with this game until the last few hours
- More miss than hit
- Very repetitive
- Sub par graphics and not too enjoyable for most
This game is unique in many ways. The way that the map is used and the battle system really gives it steam, yet that’s the problem. The only steam from this game is the battle system and after a while even that gets boring. All you will do is level up and maybe obtain a few new accessories here and there but nothing evolves and this potentially good game falls short, reaching its peak about midway through. I feel Resonance of Fate deserves a 7.8, feel free to criticize me.
~Matt Stoneking
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06 Apr 2010, 6:02 am
Good job on the review Matt! I couldn’t even scratch this games surface. I got to 12 hours before I just couldn’t play it any more.
The reason being, I’ve just recently completed FF13 and then went onto Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening for review for this sie.
My advice: Don’t play RPG’s for review one after the other after the other. You’ll just burn out on them. Stick in a fighting game or FPS after an RPG and there’ll be no flames waiting to burn your behind when you start the next game.
Man! I can’t wait to review Alan Wake!
06 Apr 2010, 10:40 am
@Mark Clarke
I know right it’s a different experience.. Definitely for the more hardcore ya know
That’s why the next game I’m pickin up is some Fight Night Round 4:)
Oh and by the way I got some artwork for that podcast idea my friend just drew up for us if you wanna hit me up and check it out?