Review | Resonance of Fate

Genre: JRPG   |   Publisher: SEGA   |   Developer: tri-Ace   |   Platform: Xbox 360, PS3
Website: www.sega.com/games/resonance-of-fate/ |   Players: 1   |   Rating: M
Price: $119.99   |   Writer: Andy Astruc

First, a warning: you are going to die. Then you’re going to die again. And after you die again and again (and again), you’ll realise that this isn’t your average Japanese RPG. Resonance of Fate doesn’t hold hands and doesn’t try to make friends. Forget your mass appeal fantasies, this game is serious business.

Humanity has finally won the battle against nature, so now the surface of the planet is completely unsuitable for life. The people have craftily crafted a giant clockwork tower to live in safely, except that’s falling apart too. And it’s full of monsters, of course. The tower (known as the Basel) now houses rich people on the shiny upper levels and leaves the poor and vulnerable to scrape out a living underneath. Luckily you won’t care about that, because you’ll be too busy completing seemingly pointless missions for the townspeople.

Resonance of Fate is in no rush to tell you what the hell is going on. The stars of the show are Vashyron (the leader), Zephyr (the impatient, feisty kid) and Leanne (the insecure female). They work as hunters on level four of the Basel, doing odd jobs for locals in the name of cash. Resonance of Fate is super light on story, especially compared to other entries in the genre, and it will be a good 15-20 hours of running around killing monsters and fixing broken machinery before you get anywhere near the main plot. Once you do, much of it is told using flashbacks anyway, and it never really builds into anything amazing despite the potential of the steampunk setting. The plus side of this is that you have plenty of time to get to know the characters. The writing is often corny and everyone is a well-worn cliché, but the trio is genuinely likeable.

Moving around the Basel is achieved by using things called energy hexes. Most of each tower level will initially be blocked off and require the use of oddly shaped hexes to open them up. The hexes are obtained through battle, which makes for a surprisingly fun sense of progress as you slowly unlock pathways to your objectives.

The game plays out in discreet chapters, with your group taking missions via the local bulletin board. You automatically move to the next chapter once you finish a certain mission, which means you can choose to move through the story at your own pace. This is particularly helpful when making sure that you are powerful enough to continue, as you can easily get in over your head thanks to an almost psychotically unforgiving battle system.

Battle mechanics are not slowly introduced to you while you battle harmless slimes on your way to the first plot point, they are all dumped on you from the start with practically no instructions. There is a tutorial available at the arena, but it’s entirely optional. Except that it isn’t, because if you skip it you will have no clue what to do except get killed by everything. Even the tutorials themselves are light on information, offering a quick overview of what is a very complex system.

All your characters carry guns with which to fight. Guns are obviously not better than swords, but they do kill things faster. There are two types of damage you can inflict: scratch damage and direct damage. Direct inflicts permanent damage on the enemy, while scratch damage is temporary. Good battles are all about doing as much scratch damage as possible before converting it all into permanent damage to take the bad guys out. You can roam the battlefield freely while your time slowly runs out and plan your attacks, or you can use up a bezel from your Hero Gauge to set your character moving and shooting on the run. Run out of bezels and your whole team becomes vulnerable and nearly useless, but if you take out an enemy’s shield (or kill it outright) with these “Hero Actions” you get the bezel back. These planned attacks are beautifully ridiculous to watch, with your character sliding around, spinning, leaping into the air and doing backflips all while filling the enemy with holes.

If this sounds difficult and complicated, it is. You’ll most likely fail repeatedly and want to set fire to your controller after being taken out by a random battle on the first map. The game will force you to do a lot of grinding to get through. Even once you’ve powered up your characters, one wrong move can be all it takes to put you into dangerous territory. Once you’re losing a battle it can be almost impossible to get back on top, often making it better to just restart the whole encounter.

Frustrating as it is, the only way to begin to master the system is to stick with it and take the hits until you finally learn the logic. It might take an hour, or it might take five hours, but once you get it you’ll feel like you climbed RPG Everest. When you aren’t dying the system is enjoyable, especially if you’re the tactical type, and offers something different to the usual turn-based rigmarole of hitting attack until something falls down.

It’s a good thing the battle system is so robust and challenging though, because nobody would buy this for the production values. Resonance of Fate is ugly. While you expect the Basel to be a dilapidated hulk, the whole game is an overpowering mass of grey. Towns have a certain dirty charm to them, with all sorts of interesting clockwork apparatus and twisting roadways, but the dungeons where you will spend a lot of your time are beyond bland. There’s not really enough variety in the enemies you fight, something that becomes painfully apparent the longer you play. Character designs are interesting, but exist in a weird point between realistic and anime-style which unfortunately makes a lot of them look like they are suffering from severe birth defects.

On the other hand, a lot of work has clearly gone into the customisable outfits for the hunters. Head into a clothing store and you can select from a large range of coats, shirts, shoes, pants, glasses, ribbons and even gun belts. Some are designed by real-world designers, which is pretty cool, even if they are useless, and adds to the quirky style.

Resonance of Fate is not the prettiest girl at the party, but it is a solid game with a deep combat system and characters you wouldn’t mind hanging out with for a while. The sadistic difficulty level might turn people off, but if you can stick with it then it will reward you with something very different and worthwhile. Those looking for something other than the glitzy shenanigans of Final Fantasy et al should pick this up.  [8]