| Author | Review |
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WeisGuy9
367,606
TA Score for this game: 2,215
Posted on 14 April 11 at 10:16, Edited on 14 April 11 at 21:06 |
This review has 26 positive votes and 2 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
So what is Resonance of Fate like, you ask? To put it in a nutshell, it is steam-punk-Final-Fantasy-with-guns. It is an RPG that is true to the Japanese twist on this type of game, with all of the bizarre and mind-bending oddities that entails.
The story centers around a group of three misfit, adventure-seeking guns for hire named Vashyron, Zephyr and LeAnne who...oh, who am I kidding. I played through the game two complete times and I still have absolutely no clue whatsoever what the story is about. But anyway, dear reader, let's break it down.
Genre:
JRPG
Gameplay:
Player beware: the game provides very little instruction on what you need to be doing and how you need to do it. This is a trial-and-error, learn as you go experience with a very steep learning curve.
Although Resonance of Fate is an RPG, you will find none of the traditional running around an open-world map encountering random battles and entering sub-locations. The world map is a hex grid laid out in multiple levels upon which you will move a cursor around, none of which you can travel on until you unlock those hexes by "restoring" them with energy hexes that you acquire mainly as item drops. The dungeons you can enter are a series of consecutive rooms wherein most of the combat in the game takes place. In each chapter of the game you will have a primary mission to complete and the option to take on several side missions. You are definitely going to want to take every mission you can get to earn experience, because the difficulty of monsters and bosses multiplies geometrically .
The battle, or combat, system is without a doubt a work of genius for this genre. It is unique, in-depth, and loads of fun. Not to mention that you can get plenty of upskirt action with LeAnne! But take fair warning: the combat system is deeply strategic and difficult to master with, again, a very steep learning curve. There is an arena in the game and once it becomes available you will definitely want to spend a large amount of time there getting used to the combat system, not to mention leveling up and earning some cash. The only equippable items in the game are your weapons and two accessory slots, but the weapon modification system is also quite complex and in-depth, although it can get to the point of seeming ridiculous at times (think hand gun with 6 barrels, 2 extra grips and 12 or so scopes). Leveling up distributes points automatically, thus eliminating a lot of micromanaging in this aspect, but be prepared to do a LOT of it...probably in the area of 150 levels to 100% this game. Leveling up is a bit different as well. Your characters don't actually have levels, but your weapons do and the combined totals of your hand gun, machine gun and thrown weapon levels add together to give you your character level.
While staying true to the JRPG genre, this wonderful game manages to put a new face on just about everything, from maps to combat to leveling.
Rating: 5/5 stars
Controls:
While the combat system may be quite complicated, the control scheme is basic and intuitive and makes the combat sequences flow like melted butter. All characters can wield any weapon type in the game and the controls are the same for each. The damage done by each type, however, is quite different and therein lies the key to successful combat in this game. Defining and mastering a balance between scratch damage, direct damage and status effects is a must. While there are only a few hand guns and machine guns available through the entirety of the game, there are many, many types of ammo, grenades and other thrown weapons. Combat is basically turn-based, but has real-time elements thrown into the mix as well. Players with even minimal experience in RPG-type combat should have little difficulty in mastering the control scheme, although mastering the combat itself is quite another story.
Rating: 4/5 stars
Sound:
The musical score for the game, while decent in most respects, is an odd montage of classical ballads, hard-driving rock and 60's hair music. Yet somehow it just...works. The voice acting is stellar and the characters are quite likable. Nothing here to really right home about, but no let-downs either.
Rating: 3/5 stars
Graphics:
The graphics in general are well above average and stay true to the steam punk theme throughout the game. The detail and rendering are pretty stunning at times and the facial motion graphics are particularly outstanding. There are tons of skins available for all three characters and these are persistent in cut scenes as well. The combat choreography is simply stunning...and did I mention that there's plenty of upskirt...well, anyway. Throughout two playthroughs, I never saw a bug, glitch or rendering issue related to the graphics engine. Although there are numerous lengthy and well-rendered cut scenes in the game, they actually do very little to explain what's going on with the story.
Rating: 4/5 stars
Co-op:
None
Multiplayer:
None
Replayability:
There's not a ton of reasons to replay here, unless you want to punish yourself with a harder difficulty level. Be aware, however, that if you wish to 100% this game you will need to play through it twice. Upon completing the game, you can load up your completed save and will then have a choice: You can replay on Normal difficulty and retain your weapons, levels and most of your items and blaze through a second playthrough by completing only the primary mission; or you can replay on Hard, in which case you start from scratch and with more difficult enemies and bosses.
Rating: 2/5 stars
ScoHo Info:
This game has 48 achievements rather than the standard 50. The majority of them are either story-related or will come in the natural course of playing the game. Throw in a few of the standard "Kill x enemies" type achievements as well. There are a few grindy achievements to take note of. There is one for getting a character to level 100, but you will probably need to be close to that to complete the game anyway. There is one for spending 500,000 rubies (the Currency of Fate) on clothing items, and the grindiest one of all for getting a "star" rank in every arena level. You get a "star" for winning 10 matches in a rank, and there are 50 ranks...so yes, get ready to grind out at least 500 matches at the arena. There is also an achievement for completing the game twice. Lastly there is an achievement for completing the Neverland dungeon, a bonus area available either at the very end of your first playthrough, or on your second playthrough, and for which you will need to be somewhere in the neighborhood of level 125-150 to complete. Be prepared to invest 100+ hours in this game for 100% completion.
Rating: 4/5 stars
What we end up with after all of this is a really unique, truly fun game with an absolutely incomprehensible story line. I can't even give you a line like, "Just when I thought I had it all figured out..." because I never came close to figuring any of it out. There are bits and pieces here and there that make some weird sort of sense if you isolate them, but when you string them together as a story, none of it really fits together. It's like trying to build a puzzle with all round pieces. That being said, I truly enjoyed the game once I just gave up on trying to figure out the story and just rolled with it.
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars
Smiley Rating:     of 
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happypeachbear
137,536
TA Score for this game: 2,215
Posted on 18 November 10 at 20:24, Edited on 04 February 11 at 16:49 |
This review has 15 positive votes and 4 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
One of the core aspects of typical Japanese role playing games (JRPGs) in the past was its strategy-intensive turn-based combat system. It is static in a sense that a player can make a move only after the opponent finishes his/her turn. The system put heavy emphasis on developing characters’ levels and skills as well as acquiring better weapons and equipments which made the games in this genre quite time consuming. To be successful in these games, players were normally asked to have thorough understanding and patience rather than excellent reflexes or button-mashing skills.
However, a number of popular JRPGs in recent years have abandoned such turn-based system altogether or “enhanced” it by adding real-time elements into the mix. I can think of Tales of Vesperia for the former, Final Fantasy XIII for the latter. In other words, the combat system has become more dynamic. In part, this trend may have been helped by greater computing power of hardware, which has enabled performing intense action accurately and instantaneously in accordance with numerous attributes. Or, as the trend has apparently been welcomed by a majority of gamers, it may be simply that gamers nowadays prefer real-time strategy. Yet, there are still a few (if not many) RPG fans including myself who prefer the traditional chess-style game play; varying strategies given opponent’s actions. Resonance of Fate is one of few RPGs in recent memory (at least on Xbox 360) that use this traditional system.
Having said that, some may argue the combat system in Resonance of Fate is not a true turn-based one because enemies can move or even attack even if you have not finished your turn. However, this is mostly applicable only when you free move (moving around without doing any special attacks). Besides, free moving during a battle is not something to be recommended in this game unless it is necessary to facilitate special attacks (hero actions, tri attacks). Since the world stays still as long as you are not moving or attacking, you can take your time to plan a series of actions for subsequent turns. Repeatedly pressing A blindly almost guarantees unwanted results. The most critical aspect of the system is how to geometrically place each character on the battle ground and coordinate their actions. By carefully placing three characters to form a triangle, you can initiate uninterruptable powerful attacks. This sounds simple at first but it requires a bit of practice and the battles are in fact quite challenging early in the game. Strategically using obstacles and other environmental objects is also very crucial in some situations. Another important aspect of the combat strategies is the sequence of actions in terms of type of weapons in use. Machine guns inflict “scratch” damage but it doesn’t actually kill the enemies. The scratch damage can also be recovered in time. To inflict unrecoverable “direct” damage, you have to use either handguns or throwing weapons such as grenades. On the other hand, with no scratch damage on, handguns are pretty much ineffective to strong enemies. So the routine is to wreak as much scratch damage as possible and then finish off with handguns. Luck hardly interferes in Resonance of Fate. The outcome of each battle mostly depends on how you plan it. Once you get familiar with the system and have good weapons (fast charging machine guns are a must), you know that you will be never going to lose (well, almost). With regard to combat strategy, I dare say that Resonance of Fate was more enjoyable than FFXIII.
As is the case with most RPGs, character development is the most fundamental part of the game. However, Resonance of Fate is relatively simple in this regard. While levelling up does increase hit points and the capacity to carry heavier items, there are no attribute or skill points to be distributed. Instead, characters gain higher proficiencies (more damage, faster charging speed, etc) for a set of weapons each character has been using. This removes much of character customization out of the game but that is compensated by the endless possibilities of weapon customization. As a result, the attributes of the weapon in use and the character level for that particular weapon tree are by far the most crucial statistics in this game. There is a ton of options for clothing but it has nothing but aesthetic functionality in battles (except for accessories). As regards the weapon customization, each gun has different base stats and a layout to which various supplementary parts to be attached. Players can create custom weapons with different combinations of the parts.
As the game story is concerned, it is rather short and nothing to be excited about. But it is less preaching and, as far as I know, there is no world to be saved. Nice. It is more like a collection of personal stories of three characters. The cut scenes are often boring but there are some hilarious moments that can keep you awake.
The quality of graphics is average in general. On 1080p, the game play images look coarse. It may do better with lower resolution. The cut scenes are a bit better but no comparison to, say, FFXIII.
I usually do not care about how a game sounds. But here, I would like to point out that the sound effects in this game are seriously annoying. In particular, the machine gun-induced-gauge-breaking sound is the worst. Listening to a series of this torturing sound for multiple times in one fight would encourage the best curse you can think of. More often than not, I played this game muted. Nevertheless, voice acting is decent.
In short, Resonance of Fate is an interesting game. It has a steep learning curve and challenging battles especially early in the game. The weak storyline and average graphics may turn some gamers away. But the characters are lovable and above all the combat system is something you may never get bored for a long time. If you are looking for a turn based RPG in a way that you’ve never seen before, Resonance of Fate is worth a look.
Achievements: Although most achievements are rather simple and straight forward, there is one which requires a bit of grinding: Stardust Hunter. You need to win 10 times for each rank in the Arena (there are 50 ranks in all). The main story needs to be progressed to unlock higher ranks. I would recommend working on this as early as possible since by doing so your characters can be over-levelled for the main story progression as well. Once you grind out to get a max-level machine gunner (ideally equipped with fast-charging dual machine guns), the game becomes ridiculously easy (at least for the normal difficulty). With a level 209 character (machine gun 100), not only the main story but also the Neverland dungeon was no challenge at all. The second playthrough can be completed in less than 4 hours (skipping all the side missions and cut scenes, etc). Expect to obtain 1,000 points in 80-120 hours.
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insinceremelody
124,265
TA Score for this game: 1,079
Posted on 05 July 10 at 11:15 |
This review has 15 positive votes and 11 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
I do not play many RPGs. However, the problem is not of mechanics but of length. There's is something about spending 40+ hours on the main story alone that annoys me. That being said, this game is worth the time invested.
The game begins by treating you to a number of beautiful cut scenes that you will inevitably forget until you reach the later chapters. Although, this helps to set a precedent. Much of the story is left to the player to decipher, but if it is needed there are plenty of explanations if you take the time to google it. It's a shame that it is not fleshed out better because it reminded me, to a degree, of Cowboy Bebop and Outlaw Star, sans the space theme of course, due to the fact that each character is running from the treachery of their past and the majority of the events that take place have no bearing on the overall story but are entertaining nonetheless. Additionally, the dynamic between the main three characters works amazingly well.
As you may have read before, there is a steep learning curve to the battle system. The funniest part about this is that the Arena adjacent to the town in which you start has a tutorial of everything that you need to know and how to implement this knowledge strategically. So, the sort of people that end up quitting after five minutes are obviously those that do not care to actually explore the world or read a text box which makes you wonder why they would bother renting an RPG in the first place when Halo 3 is not that expensive used. Anyway, the basic premise lies in using a machine gun to give the enemy "scratch damage" and then using a hand gun or grenades to deal "direct damage" thus killing it. See? It's not that hard. You just have to read the instructions.
Essentially, if pwning people on Modern Warfare with your friends just does not do it for you anymore, you might want to give Resonance of Fate a chance. It is definitely a breath of fresh air. |