Resonance of Fate

[Dante]

Resonance of Fate, known in Japan as End of Eternity (エンド オブ エタニティ Endo Obu Etaniti?), is an upcoming console role-playing game developed by tri-Ace and published by Sega for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Its release date is currently set for January 28 2010 in Japan, and sometime in 2010 in North American and European markets.

 

Story

 

In the distant future, Earth has undergone a drastic change in the environment. For reasons unknown, poisonous layers of gases permeated the land, which resulted in near extinction for mankind due to our inability to adapt to the new changes. The remaining humans built a gigantic device called Basel, an environment purifier buried deep in the ground, which cleanses the air in the surrounding land and hopefully the rest of Earth as well. Civilization began to reform around Basel itself, building a city around the tower. The upper classes live in luxurious apartments at the top of Basel while the lower classes reside among the many districts built around the base and stem of the tower. For countless years, all is well, until one day the purifier inside Basel begins to malfunction.

 

 

Gameplay

 

The game utilizes what is known as the tri-Attack-Battle system or officially t-A-B for short. The battle system is a semi-realtime battle system which means that it is a mixture of a real-time and turn-based battle system. The game consists of battle elements such as command battles and action battles. Players start the battle by selecting one of the player's characters to control, following which the player takes direct control over the character. The player can then move the character around and attack a target of choice, the character's move ends when the player's attack is over. Enemies are also able to move while the player's character is moving and would usually attack only the character being controlled by the player.

 

Each character's turn is time-limited, during which player's can keep moving and switching weapons until the time runs out. However during each turn, players are only allowed to make a single attack, after which even if time remains the character's turn ends. Attacking an enemy utilizes a charging system where the player first selects a target and then presses the attack button. Afterwards the character would begin to charge up in preparation for the attack, the attack is only carried out when the charge meter on the screen is filled up. Player's can also choose to charge up the attack multiple times though more time-consuming it results in a more powerful attack. The time needed to charge up is also dependent on the proximity of the enemy, the closer the enemy the shorter the time needed to charge up though it renders the player more vulnerable to attack. Enemy charge meter can also be observed floating above the enemies head.

 

Players are able to move about the battle field freely, though they have the choice to create predefined paths for their character to follow. While moving along the predefined path, characters gain access to Invincible attacks, which cause the player to be invincible as the attack is being carried out. However the use of these invincible attacks requires the use of an item known as the Invincible State gauge, the item is an essential element in battle and is earned through a variety of methods such as dealing a certain amount of damage to enemies. Characters can also defend themselves through various methods such as jumping which can be used to avoid enemy attacks or obstacles. Even while jumping in the air, characters are able to unleash a special attack which may result in certain stylish actions.

 

Weapons in the game can also be easily customized by using items earned by defeating enemies, these items can be further developed into an enhancement item such as a scope or additional ammunition for the weapon.

 

Players can restart any enemy encounters if they are defeated during battle, hence battles have been made more difficult so as to make battles more challenging. Players are also able to suspend and save the game anytime during the game. It is also possible to save the game during battles so as to allow players to enjoy the game at any time without time limitations

 

Protagonists

 

Zephyr (ゼファー Zefā?) - A 17 year old young man and the main protagonist of the game. An orphan born and raised in childcare facilities, Zephyr possesses a tough outlook on life, claiming "the fact that he lives is proof there is no God". In his late teens, he is scouted by Vashyron to work for his Private Military Firm (PMF), beginning his life as a mercenary soldier. In gameplay photos Zephyr is often seen using a pair of sub-machine guns.

 

Subject #20 (実験体20号 Jikken tai nijū gou?) - A beautiful 19 year old young woman who was raised in a research facility, No. 20 is the result of a series of test experiments. Her body has been biologically controlled to expire on her 20th birthday. Knowing that she has only a year to live, the girl escapes from the Etasil research facility, intending to defy her inevitable fate.

 

Vashyron (ヴァシュロン Vashuron?) - A 26 year old man who previously served in the military, Vashyron opened his own PMF to earn his living. During an assignment to suppress teenage rioters, he encounters Zephyr, and invites him to join his company. Vashyron was once a subordinate under the cardinal during his military days, and was the only survivor of his squad in a big scale skirmish. He appears to favor handguns.

 

Reanbell (リーンベル Rīnberu?) - A beautiful 21 year old woman with blonde hair. She came close to losing her life due to a certain event by the time she first met protagonist Zephyr, and joins Vashyron's PMF. In battle she uses incredibly agile movements.

 

Videos

 

[The-Ironflame]

Is no one else looking forward to this coming out this week? It looks uniquely stylish and deep gameplay wise plus it has Scott Menville (Lloyd Irving) and Nolan North doing the voice acting the cutscenes look hilarious and well done.

Personally I enjoyed Star Ocean the Last Hope it had tons of customization, a excellent battle system, decent music and impressive looking planets despite the poor story and writing.

Edited March 24, 2010 by The-Ironflame

[Domstercool]

I certainly want to play it, but at the moment i'm just bombed with so many other games! I think it might have wait a couple of weeks until I'm a bit more cleared out.

[Mundi]

I want it as I heard it has interesting gameplays and that it is hilariously weird.

 

 

I love this type of stuff.

[Aimless]

Usually branding a game a JRPG tells you almost all you need to know; "I'll stop you there, my friend, I've played that hero's journey before." Not so Resonance of Fate, as you've never played a game like it.

 

Nor, sadly, are you likely to again. But dull prospects of a sequel aside, the original is a game that any RPG fan deserves to give a chance.

 

First off RoF is one of the worst explained games I've played in a long time. We really are talking Demon's Souls levels of, "How was I supposed to know that?" Hell, the battle system practically deceives you, including stationary attacks, a cover system and copious items which you will never use if playing the game properly. This won't mean much to those who haven't played it, but if you're ever doing anything other than Hero Actions each turn something's gone wrong!

 

Then you have the story. I had to play the game through twice to really understand what was going on — and let's be honest, I might still be wrong. Be it the non-standard structure or erratically ham-fisted dialogue, this isn't a game that wants you to know what's going on if you aren't paying attention.

 

In short, Resonance of Fate is pretty impenetrable even by JRPG standards; do not mistake the focus on firearms as a sign of intent to be accessible. It rewards perseverance, though, be it through an incredibly satisfying battle system, a bizarre cast of characters portrayed with off-beat humour, a worldmap that has you digging up treasure through strategically placed puzzle pieces, or a tale of three anti-heroes who aren't out to save the world just find their place in the ruins of one.

 

The game is a tough sell; I'm probably doing a rubbish job of it right now. But then it isn't really my intention to get everyone playing this games as it clearly isn't for such a broad spectrum. The purpose of my rather uninformative post is to get the curious interested, remind people the game is still out there as the rather barren summer months roll on. For all its faults and eccentricities, this game has ended up being one of my favourite — and certainly my most played — games of the year. And no one is more surprised than me!

[MATtheHAT]

What is it like in comparison to FFXIII? I played maybe 4/5 hours of that and have not gone back to it. I know its supposed to pick up after 20+ hours but I had other games I was more interested in.

 

So this may scratch my JRPG itch. Well, this or White Knight Chronicles.

[Aimless]

It's kind of the antithesis of XIII. Well, both try to take the genre in different directions, but I don't think anyone could accuse RoF of being dumbed down; it doesn't open telling you how to walk or which button brings the menu up and all the fundamentals of combat are there to be used from the very beginning.

 

Aesthetically speaking it's very steampunk, backed by a mix of orchestra and crazy elctro jazz rock; generally speaking the further you descend down Basel, the giant tower in which the game takes place, the 'dirtier' the music and environment gets. In fact the music in general has really grown on me, from serene pieces like this to battle music like this — incidentally the soundtrack's handled by two different composers.

 

I'm not sure what it is your itch demands, but if it's systems you're after RoF has plenty. Naturally there's the battles, which someone from Sega does an okay job of explaining in the following video; it would be far easier to explain in person with the game in front of you.

 

 

On top of that there's a hex-based world map that you unlock by laying down what are essentially puzzle pieces that you loot from enemies. As you uncover hexes you open up the map to explore, plus unearth treasure, and there's also a system involving linking up power up terminals and special coloured hexes which I won't even go into. Here's what the map looks like, although uncovering it is more compulsive than such a drab screenshot would suggest.

 

Next up is weapon customisation. Unlike a traditional RPG you don't really replace your weapons, although you do gain more throughout the course of the game. Instead you power up your firearms by affixing parts to them using a grid system, different parts only being able to be affixed at certain points; here's a sceenshot of the customisation screen, albeit from very early on. These changes don't actually affect the look of your guns in game, but at the same time the adjustments you make don't have to make sense, just fit in the grid: each of my guns has about 4 barrels and 5 sights, often stacked on top of each other!

 

Something that will make a big difference to how things look is the character customisation as all of the game's cinematics, bar the opening, are in-game. The cast's basic models are set in stone but you've free reign to mix and match their outfits, dye their hair, whack on some aviators or even don different coloured contact lenses. You unlock loads of clothing options as you uncover areas of the map, plus there's a clothes shop and several novelty sets to unlock. I'm not sure why but I always find this sort of thing compulsive, which is strange as I don't really give a crap about how I dress myself in the real world. None of it has any bearing on stats, the entire system's there just so the characters look as cool as possible whilst they're flying through the air pulling off impossible gun-fu.

 

Oh, I suppose the mission structure is worth mentioning. Basically the game's split up into chapters, each one comprising a story mission. On top of that there's a raft of optional guild quests which actually make up the bulk of the game, each one pushing you to explore a new area, investigate an optional dungeon or otherwise seek out loot and riches. They also all have their own flavour text, of course, with many characters being recurring clients and their requests and dialogue helping to flesh out the world of Basel.

 

Anyway, that's quite enough exposition for now. If you have a more specific question then fire away.

Edited July 14, 2010 by Aimless
Typos.

[MATtheHAT]

I can tell you really enjoyed the game. I'm going to pick it up at the weekend and probably start it after my Demon's Souls addiction has abated.

[Aimless]

Actually I hated it, this all just a cunning ploy to trick other people into enduring the same misery.

 

You should be able to find it for around £18 easily enough. Oh, there's no real difference between either release: the 360 version has slightly smoother self-shadowing and better contrast, but it's not something you'd notice unless you had both copies side by side.

 

I polished off the Platinum last night. It requires some dedication — primarily due to needing to star each arena rank which adds up to 500 matches; I did them whilst listening to podcasts — and took me around 90 hours in total. In terms of regular game length I'd say a relatively thorough playthrough will take somewhere between 40-50 hours if you're doing all the optional missions.

[drahkon]

Soooo, I finally got this game is it became cheap.

 

The game is supposed to be hard, but until now (well, I'm only in Chapter 1) it's not hard at all. I've not even come to the point where an enemy damages my HP. They only deal scrap damage and then my guys kill them. I hope it becomes harder soon...

 

Other than that: I still don't get the Battle System completely. Especially the tri-attacks and dealing damage to different body parts.

 

When do I get the opportunity to fight stronger enemies in the arena? I've reached "Star Rank" in the first round (or whatever it is called) but I'm not able to fight in other battles.

[Aimless]

You unlock Arena stages as you progress through the story. There's 50 in all, each with 10 ranks.

 

As for body parts, they are essentially armour. Breaking off parts makes enemies more vulnerable to attack from various directions, so if you don't break parts off you've a smaller window of opportunity to hit the main body, the bit you need to deplete to kill the enemy. A simple way around this for lightly armoured enemies is to jump whilst in the middle of a Hero Action as attacks from above have a chance to hit all parts, including the enemy's core. It can also be advantageous to strip some enemies of specific parts so that they can no longer use certain attacks, such as focussing fire on someone's massive gun arm so that you disable their ability to fire rockets at you.

 

Tri-attacks are all about positioning. To activate one you need at least 1 Resonance Point, although that wouldn't be particularly worthwhile as it would be over very quickly. The more Resonance you have, the longer your Tri-attack lasts. You attain Resonance by using a Hero Action to run betwixt your other two companions; your directional cursor will turn blue if you'll earn a point. You lose Resonance by doing anything else: moving your character outside of a Hero Action depletes your counter very fast, whilst making a stationary attack or using an item will each subtract a point.

 

Basically the general flow of combat is as follows:

• Move your characters around the arena only using Hero Actions to build Resonance Points.
  
• Top up your Bezels — the jewels at the bottom of the screen required for HAs — by picking off weaker enemies and destroying body parts.
  
• Once you have a good stock of Resonance — varies per fight, although I wouldn't even bother using anything below 3 — make sure your characters form an unobstructed triangle formation and initiate a Tri-attack.
  
• Revel in your victory, or rinse and repeat.
  

[drahkon]

• Top up your Bezels — the jewels at the bottom of the screen required for HAs — by picking off weaker enemies and destroying body parts.
  

 

I suppose you get more Bezels when advancing through the game. I beat the first boss and got half a Bezel? Does that mean after two bosses (assuming every boss drops one of those) I have one more? Or can they be rewards for some missions or arena fights?

 

Concerning body parts:

 

Is there a way to specifically attack one body part? I can only target the enemy as a whole so far.

 

 

I'm really getting into the game right now. Played for 3 hours, and I'm on chapter 3 doing some side quests and fighting enemies.

 

Edit: I just realized how much strategy is involved in battles. Building up Resonance Points, keeping an eye on your Brezel count, positioning your characters, picking out weaker enemies first.

 

The only thing that's seems pretty useless is the normal attack (pressing X). You can only charge once until the charges are full and then the turn for this character is over. It also destroys the Resonance points extremely fast. Is there anything important with this "normal attack" that I'm missing, or is it just useless?

Edited September 28, 2010 by drahkon

[Aimless]

I personally found normal attacks, attacking through cover and using items to be more or less superfluous. You should never have to do any of them, so I'm somewhat confused as to why they're in there.

 

You gain Bezel shards from bosses, but you can also find them by uncovering areas of the map. Generally speaking they're in the far flung corners that you wouldn't unlock if you were just clearing the way from one story location to another, so it's worth clearing as much of the map as you can as soon as possible; you said you were going through the arena so you should be receiving a good supply of hexes.

 

Body parts are signified by the concentric rings around an enemy's feet, like the big guy in this shot:

 

To target different parts you simply have it so that your character will hit the relevant side of the enemy, so in this case you could have Leanne run between Zephyr and the big monster to hit its left side; not the best move in the circumstance as it's already at full scratch damage, just an example. Positioning isn't so important when pulling off an aerial attack, however, as your shots have a chance to hit everything — this is a useful way for a handgun user to convert all an enemy's scratch to direct damage in one attack.

 

An important thing to note is which character an enemy's targeting. A lot of monsters are weak in the back, but if they're looking at one of your characters they'll turn to face them throughout the Hero Action, making a back attack far more difficult. As such you should note who's looking at who, which you can glean from the health bars above enemies' heads: in the shot above both monsters are targeting Vashyron, hence the 'V' to the right of their health bars and the yellow reticule next to Vashyron's name in the bottom right; grey means not being targeted, yellow signifies being the focus of an enemy, and red means they're in the process of being attacked.

[jayseven]

I'm not normally into JRPGs, but the battle video above, mundi's example of the humour combined with your posts, Aimless, make me want this game naow! Once I'm through with Darksiders (and maybe Mass Effect 2) I'll be grabbing this game

[drahkon]

Thanks, Aimless. Your posts are really helpful

 

Another stupid question:

 

I currently have 79 stars, the ones at the bottom of the menu. Are they worth anything? What do they do?

[Aimless]

They don't do a whole lot, you just get them when you finish missions. Their only function, at least as far as I know, is that you'll find some goodies in the mailbox outside your base once reaching certain thresholds.

 

There's 999 in total, and if you grab them all you receive some novelty costumes and a Trophy/Achievement.