It's been a while since I've written a review for this site...I've got a huge backlog of games I'd like to review (as well as some newer ones on the horizon I'll no doubt review if I've the time) and Resonance of Fate is as good a place to start as any. Enjoy~
Introduction/General Comments
I’d been keeping an eye on End of Eternity for quite a long time before it’s eventual release in the West as Resonance of Fate. tri-Ace and Sega. Surely a winning combination, with the former being behind the Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile series, and the latter being responsible for the creation of Sonic the Hedgehog. I bought this without hesitation…then, a couple of months after I bought it, I gave up. It was a nasty surprise to find that this game was actually difficult. Maddening, extremely limiting, and absolutely unforgiving. I didn’t pick it up again until almost 9 months later, at which point I discovered that it wasn’t impossible, and just as good as I’d hoped it was going to be. Some games just take longer than others do. In any case, read on for a full account ♥
Storyline: 6.6/10
Resonance of Fate (known hereafter as RoF) takes place on a post-apocalyptic Earth, where the landscape has become poisonous to humans for reasons unexplored. Humans now live in a structure called Basel, a tower of sorts. Civilisation was re-built around the tower: your classic top-down hierarchy. At the top you’ve got the Cardinals, the religious officials, and at the bottom you’ve got the dregs of society. Sufficed to say there is considerably more depth to the way Basel operates, but saying anything more than that would unleash the spoiler floodgate…once you learn of certain things, piecing everything else together isn’t too difficult.
So, moving on. RoF opens with a young, black-haired girl (Leanne) standing at the top of a building. She jumps off. Zephyr, who happens to spot her, makes a dramatic rescue. To Leanne’s shock, she’s still alive. As the two fall together, overlooking the society of Basel, the scene fades…
…and re-opens a year or so later. Leanne, now with blonde hair, is living with Zephyr and his older friend, Vashyron. The three have become hunters, taking on random missions for the Cardinals and pretty much anyone else who asks, so that they can make a living and get by in the society of Basel.
And, for well over two-thirds of the game, that is your storyline. The game focuses on the various exploits of Leanne, Zephyr and Vashyron, and reveals their pasts in the form of flashbacks, explaining how circumstances made them all come together. There is the occasional cutscene featuring the game’s primary antagonist that advances the story in terms of current events, but otherwise you’re treated to nothing but trivial exchanges between the three protagonists, and flashbacks.
RoF reveals quite a lot at the beginning – especially if you watch the opening movie as well – but doesn’t explain any of it at all, meaning you’ll have to unravel the mysteries for yourself. This would be a very good strategy…if it wasn’t for the fact that it hides all of these story cutscenes in affairs so unbelievably mundane that you could be put off paying even the slightest bit of attention.
Unfortunately, RoF feels very much like the sequel to a movie that you’ll have missed – there are a lot of references to events that will only be partially revealed in flashbacks, and for a very long time you’ll be left in the dark. It’s a very bland and mediocre story, up until the last couple of chapters, where things start heating up and actually making sense.
One good thing about the story in this game is its pacing. Cutscenes are revealed before or after story missions and at the beginning and end of each chapter, and whilst some of the cutscenes will have you staring at your screen wondering just precisely what the point of it was, by the end of the game all will click into place, and there are some nice twists at the end which will leave you feeling fairly satisfied with the experience.
The story itself isn’t bad, there just isn’t enough of it, and if you’re not the curious type there is absolutely nothing to keep you interested. Answers are a long time coming, and a lot of it you’ll have to piece together yourself. Whether the guessing game is enjoyable for you or not, there could definitely have been more added here.
Characters: 7.4/10
RoF has three protagonists: Leanne, Zephyr and Vashryon. All three have dark pasts and secrets, which are revealed as the game progresses, often around certain events – figures from the past turning up, significant dates, etc. The game takes entire chapters to explore the character’s backgrounds, and often the story missions will revolve around a character’s desires, desires which will be fully explained by the end of it.
The most enjoyable thing about these three, however, is the way they interact with one another. There is real chemistry between them, and a real sense of camaraderie. Their exchanges are enjoyable to watch, and often quite entertaining. Despite the post-apocalyptic world and the tragedy of the character’s background, there is a lot of light-hearted humour, which doesn’t feel out-of-place, or forced. It’s very easy to empathise with the trio and, since the game focuses almost entirely on them, this is definitely a good thing.
The primary antagonist is Cardinal Rowen. Nearly half the cutscenes that occur at the beginning and end of chapters focus on him, exploring his motives, his plans for Basel and, most importantly, the crisis of faith he is undergoing. Rowen is a man who toes the line between brooding contemplation and angst, but his character is well-developed and easy to empathise with.
There is, however, a lot of mediocrity in here. Outside of the four characters previously mentioned, there is barely anything in the way of characterization for anyone else you’ll meet. The other Cardinals that you’ll meet (with the exception of one, whose motives are never really full explained) are all ridiculous eccentrics who will probably make you laugh, but they make little more than token appearances. Everyone else is a bland NPC who you’ll talk to if you’re bored or if you’re doing a quest for them.
The question here is whether you value quality or quantity. The best games have strike a balance between the two, and with four developed characters it’s easy to see which option RoF elected to go for. The four characters who are given more than a couple of minutes of attention are more than satisfying, yet overall the game is let down by not having more.
Gameplay: 9.7/10
RoF is very similar to Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria in terms of it’s battle system. Whilst it is turn-based, there is the potential to avoid damage entirely. You are given the ability to run around on the battlefield, and as you move, so too do your enemies. Positioning (or a quick kill) can prevent damage entirely, making this more strategic than a standard real-time or turn-based battle system. Obviously, after you have moved a certain distance (indicated by a blue bar over the battle menu, which will slowly decrease the more you move) you’ll stop moving, and your enemy will get a chance to attack you.
As you aim at enemies with your equipped weapon, a ring will appear over them, which will slowly charge up. Pressing X after a full charge will allow you to fire on enemies. If you leave it, however, the ring will charge again and again, until the end of your turn or until you choose to attack, whichever comes first. The closer you are to an enemy, the faster the ring will charge. Similarly, the ring charges faster with each go around, and the more you charge, the stronger your attack will be. Unless you have an Auto-Trigger accessory equipped, however, if you don’t fire before the end of your turn, the charge is wasted.
Needless to say, when you deplete an enemy’s health, you win the battle. However, there are two types of damage in RoF: scratch damage and direct damage. Scratch damage is done by machine guns, and will make your enemies’ health bars turn blue. Over time, enemies will regenerate their health; you can turn their entire health bar blue, but it won’t kill them. This is where direct damage comes into play. You’ll do considerably less direct damage than you will scratch damage, but it is only through direct damage that you can kill enemies, as it actually depletes their health. Trying to kill an enemy through direct damage alone is likely to get you killed extremely quickly. However, if you inflict direct damage on an enemy who has already suffered from scratch damage, all of that scratch damage will be converted into direct damage. So, if you just turned an enemy’s health bar blue with scratch damage, one shot using a weapon that can inflict direct damage – a handgun or a grenade – will kill that enemy. Enemies will only do scratch damage to you when they attack, up to the point where you run out of Bezels.
So, what are Bezels? Bezels are small crystals that make up the Hero Gauge, which will be displayed in the middle of the bottom of the screen in battle. Initially, you’ll only have three of them. You can restore lost Bezels by killing enemies, or by breaking off their body parts (indicated by smaller health bars around them) and, once an enemy has inflicted full scratch damage on one of your characters, you’ll lose a Bezel (or two or three, at higher levels…). Anyway, Bezels allow you to use Hero Actions. Pressing the square button will freeze the game, and a line will appear in front of your character. Pressing square again will start the hero action, during which the character will run in that line in slow motion. They won’t take any damage from attacks, and their gauge will charge faster than normal. Their attacks will also be a whole lot flashier. You can also jump during Hero Actions, allowing you to perform aerial manoeuvres and avoid obstacles that might be in your way. This is the main way to close in on enemies and kill them without any hassle, and you’ll spend the majority of battles doing this.
However, you need to be VERY careful – once you run out of Bezels, you’ll enter “Critical Condition” which is effectively a death sentence unless you have an enemy with full scratch damage just ready to be killed a little way away. Your shots will hardly ever hit, you’ll run like a complete moron, and enemies will inflict direct damage with their attacks. Once a party member dies, it’s Game Over. This limitation provides a certain level of balance to what would otherwise be a very broken gameplay mechanic.
But in the earlier stages, this is what makes the game so damn frustrating – three bezels just aren’t enough. You’ll see yourself in Critical Condition a lot during the first four chapters, as your weapons don’t do anywhere near enough damage for you to kill enemies on a single pass, said enemies have a horrible habit of ganging up one character, and Hero Actions really are the only way to get anything done in battles. The closer enemies are to you the faster their gauges charge as well, and they’ll often interrupt your more powerful attacks if you stand right next to them. Until you gain the ability to synthesise and buy grenades, and thereby increase your level faster to catch up with or overtake enemies, you’re in for a very tough time, and this is the main reason why this game doesn’t get a perfect score in the gameplay department – unless you are extremely patient, you won’t make it past the first four chapters. You start the game at an extreme disadvantage, and it requires a lot of time to equal the playing field.
You can do any number of things in battle with enemies – Bonus Shots, whilst rare and difficult to initiate, allow you to juggle enemies in the air for extra damage. Knocking an enemy into the air during a Hero Action, then jumping above them and shooting them, will result in a Smackdown, which involves bouncing enemies on the ground like a basketball and knocking out items you can then pick up, and you can also initiate Tri Attacks if you store up enough Resonance Points (you create these by plotting a Hero Action between your other two characters – the line will glow blue to indicate this), which will result in all three of your characters converging on one enemy…and also regenerating any scratch damage suffered up to that point. There are also items you can utilise on the battlefield to your advantage – oil drums will create massive explosions when shot, which may even take out enemies near them, and you can use bunkers to fire on enemies without being shot yourself. Enemies can also make use of these features, however.
The game is also fairly understanding – at any time, you can pause the game and retry the battle. This will cost you a few rubies (the game’s currency) but if you make a mistake and go into Critical Condition, you’ll welcome this feature. You also have the option of retrying with your Hero Gauge fully restored – this costs considerably more (far too much for you to be able to afford in the earlier stages, annoyingly) but is particularly useful if you’re approaching a boss at the end of a dungeon, since your Hero Gauge doesn’t recharge if you flee a battle – if you use a hero action to move quickly to the next area, you’ll have one less bezel in the next area. You can imagine what this does for your chances of survival, especially in the beginning.
So, your weapons for battle. Weapons come in the form of Machine Guns (your only source of scratch damage outside of status effects), Handguns (your primary source of direct damage) and Grenades (a further source of direct damage). Each character has four item slots – two for weapons, and two for accessories. Items all weigh a certain amount, and each character can only equip up to a certain weight, which can be increased by levelling up.
You also have access to a Magazine Case, Item Box and Grenade Box, which you can (and will to begin with) use in place of a second gun. The Magazine Case is used with the Machine Gun, and stores different types of ammunition. Unlike your normal ammo, this is in a limited supply, and once you use it up you’ll have to either make more or go back to using normal ammo. These will usually inflict more damage on certain types of enemies – Metal-Coated Rounds, for example, inflict more damage on machines. This will allow you to inflict more scratch damage, and thereby kill enemies quicker. The Item box holds all of your in-battle items, which you can use in-battle during your turn: although only one per turn. Items this holds includes aid kits, which restore scratch damage, anti-damage items to prevent status ailments or cut damage, and escape hexes, which will teleport you back to the world map when used. The Grenade Box, as the name would suggest, holds your various grenades. You’ll get more powerful grenades as you progress (+, ++, and finally EX) and various status inflict grenades: Molotov Cocktails inflict Burn, Toxic Grenades inflict Poison, etc. Pressing select during a character’s turn who has any of these items equipped brings up a small menu of your items, and you can choose what to equip.
The level system for the game is remarkably simple and surprisingly effective – your level is the combined total of your levels for each of the three weapon catergories – so, if you handgun, machine gun and grenade skills are all at level done, then you’ll be level 30. Experience is determined by the damage you inflict on enemies. For those inflicting direct damage, any scratch damage converted to direct damage also equates to experience earned, meaning you won’t have the character using the Machine Gun most of the time pulling out ahead of the others because of it. Whilst it sounds like you’ll level up extremely quickly (and to begin with you will, especially once you have access to grenades) obviously, the more you level up a weapon, the more experience you’ll require to level it up again. Unless you train a great deal, bosses you meet in the story will always be at a higher level than you are. Each weapon can go up to level 100, meaning your max level is 300. Enemies will level up extremely quickly the further you go into the game, and it all balances out to keep the game challenging (and, at times, highly frustrating).
I’ve mentioned synthesis several times now. You’ll win parts from enemies, which you can use to synthesise parts for your guns, or create more ammo or accessories. As you advance through the game, you’ll be able to synthesise more useful and powerful items…at an increased cost, naturally.
Customisation is extremely important in this game. Attaching parts to your guns will reduce the time it takes for it to charge, it’s firepower, or the number of rounds it carries. However, it also increases the weight, and in the earlier stages of the game customisation is extremely limited, because you can’t make many parts and you won’t be able to use the weapon if you attach too many parts, because your initial weight limit is pitifully low. Guns will be displayed on a small grid in the customisation screen, and you’ll have to make do with the space, meaning you can’t just attach an infinite number of parts to guns. As you progress, customising guns because increasingly important as enemies become more powerful.
You also have the option of customising your characters. You can buy various clothes and accessories for all three and change them at any time – any changes you implement will even be present in the majority of cutscenes. Each character has two distinct styles – one which is professional, and one which is more casual. There are a LOT of clothes for all three characters, ranging from a simple colour change to incredibly detailed patterns and pictures. You can even change the colour of their eyes. It’s a superficial thing, but not many games these days outside of classic RPGs feature this level of customisation, and then it’s usually only on weapons.
RoF also takes a unique approach to the World Map system. There are twelve levels to Basel, and each one is a honeycomb-like structure. Using Energy Hexes, which you will obtain from defeating enemies in combat, you can unlock sections of the World Map, allowing you to progress deeper into Basel, and often earning you some items as a result. Energy Hexes take various different forms and shapes, and using them is very much like solving a puzzle – albeit an extremely simple one. You move across the map as a cursor, and enemies will be encountered depending on the type of area you’re travelling through. There are three sections to the map, separated by Core Lifts, which require a pass to access. Needless to say, you’ll acquire these passes as you progress through the game.
There are three types of Energy Hex: Firstly, the normal, white ones, which are primarily what you’ll be using. Second are the coloured hexes, which are in far shorter supply, and which you’ll only obtain occasionally. Some areas of Basel (often dungeons or towns) will be in a different colour to the normal white of the world map, and you will need the corresponding coloured hex to unlock them. Unfortunately, these coloured hexes only come in one shape, which can make it particularly frustrating when linking Terminals (see below) and farming them is quite difficult, since there is no way to predict what enemy you’ll encounter. Finally, there are the Station hexes – once you completely unlock every section on the World Map, you’ll be able to lay a Station hex, which enables you to rest, save your game, and travel back to your base in Ebel City instantly. Station hexes are also coloured, and laying a Station hex of a particular colour will allow you lay energy hexes of the same colour on that level of the world map.
Scattered across the world map are terminals which, in the beginning, remain inactive. By placing coloured energy hexes over these terminals, and on surrounding areas, you can gain an advantage over enemies on the map. Terminals require a certain number of hexes be of the same colour before they are activated, but once they are active they remain so, unless you lay a different coloured energy hex over the hexes surrounding them of the same colour. Terminals grant various beneficial abilities – increased experience, improved knockdown rate or scratch damage regeneration, etc. You can also link these effects to other levels of Basel through elevators (although not through Core Lifts) and onto dungeons, and you can also link multiple terminals together for an accumulated effect – although, of course, the more terminals you have linked, the more hexes of the same colour you will be required to have activated.
Anyways, your primary objective in RoF will be to complete story missions. Often you will have to go into a dungeon to acquire a particular item, although there are exceptions to the rule – in a couple of chapters you just have to visit somewhere and watch a cutscene. Once you’ve completed the story mission, you can advance to the next chapter. You can refuse to advance, however, and continue exploring if you wish to. There are also optional guild missions to do each chapter, so it is often in your best interest to delay advancing for these. Guild missions are slightly more varied – you may have to suppress some bandits or particularly strong monsters (marked on the map as red hexes with exclamation marks over them), or pick up an item for someone. It may be as simple as delivering an item from one person to the next. The rewards for these missions are often lucrative and, in the case of the clothes shop, will unlock more outfits for your characters.
Just outside of Ebel City is an Arena. As the name suggests, here you can battle against enemies to improve your levels, acquire coins which you can trade in for prizes, and increase the amount of money you have. The Arena is a challenge unto itself, as there are frequent bosses, enemy levels rise fairly quickly, and there is no cover or explosives you can use to your advantage on the field. There is also a trophy for getting a star in every rank. In order to do so, you need to clear it ten times. There are a total of fifty ranks. There are several hours in that alone.
It’s not a short game, either. If you do all of the Guild Missions, occasionally dabble in the Arena and do a modest amount of exploration, the main storyline will take you around fifty hours to finish. After that, there is the optional Neverland dungeon, the option to start a new game (either with all your equipment, money and levels carried over, or with considerably less and at a higher difficulty setting…as if this game needed it…) and the option of acquiring trophies, as well. This game is a lot longer than most RPGs these days, which will be a blessing for some and a curse for others. There are sixteen chapters in total, of varying length. Some will last you a few minutes, others may take you hours, not only because there is significantly more to do, but because the game will suddenly decide to up the ante and throw some extremely challenging enemies in your face, or take a party member out.
Even once you overcome the initial obstacles at the start of the game, it still likes to throw some extremely aggravating challenges your way, as well. Frequently you’ll find yourself playing with one character less than your normal three-party complement. At a few points in the game you’ll even have to play the game with a single party member, and fight bosses. Whilst the game does get easier once you overcome the hurdles in the first four chapters, it will continue to throw surprises your way, which could either be a welcome challenge or something that will want to make you throw down your controller in frustration.
There are a handful of tutorials, which can be accessed from the menu (you also get a very nice set of battle tutorials from the Arena) although the text for these is absolutely TINY, and figuring out precisely what the tutorial is trying to explain isn’t always as easy as it should be. The battle tutorials are highly comprehensive and definitely worth note, but everything else is lacklustre and, given how bloody difficult this game can be, it’s somewhat unhelpful and very frustrating.
Overall, whilst the gameplay is not incredibly varied, RoF is an extremely enjoyable experience. The battle system is easy to pick up, but requires a great deal of strategy to master, and you’ll always find yourself in a difficult position every now and then, which beats back the monotony of what could otherwise be a fairly easy game. Whether or not you’ll welcome these difficulties is another matter entirely, though.
Controls: 9.8/10
Due to the nature of the game, there is a lot to take in here, and because of this, it takes a good few hours to become proficient with the controls. If you do the battle tutorials you’ll pick up the gist of battling quickly enough, but everything else is liable to take you a while.
One small complaint, however, is that plotting hero actions in battle isn’t as smooth as it could be – the line only extends in certain directions, meaning you’ll sometimes have to rotate your characters outside of the hero action to go the way you want to, which you may not have time to do if you’ve spent time positioning your characters beforehand. It’s a very minor irritation however, which may only crop up occasionally in battles – unless you run away from something and then try to plot a hero action directly behind you.
Graphics: 10.0/10
So, what justifies this getting a perfect score in this department? On the PS3 at least, it’s easily one of the most stunning games, not for the beauty of the landscapes, but for the sheer amount of detail in it. There isn’t a huge amount of variety with the scenery, but variety isn’t needed to show off the detail – as you venture further down Basel, the scenery becomes decidedly more steampunk and grungy in appearance, and the transition is flawless. The game is a myriad of metallic colours, and there are some very nice lighting effects to behold here if you but take the time to look, especially since the game utilises a day and night cycle.
Characters are all incredibly detailed and have that classic tri-Ace feel to them: if you’ve played Valkyrie Profile II: Silmeria or the more recent Star Ocean: The Last Hope, you’ll recognise the character style immediately – realistic, but with a slight anime feel to them.
The detail becomes especially apparent on characters when you’re dressing them up, particularly if you zoom right in. Textures have been captured perfectly, and it’s extremely impressive.
It looks absolutely incredible, AND the screen doesn’t tear on SD TVs, unlike certain other incredible-looking games. This game easy justifies a perfect score in the graphics department when compared to other games currently out, there has clearly been a lot of thought put into the design, and it’s paid off tremendously. If you’re someone who prefers to look at the larger picture, perhaps you would consider bumping this score down by a point or two to 9.8, but if you have any appreciation for detail, this game definitely has what you’re looking for.
Sound: 7.7/10
The voice acting is fairly high-quality, with plenty of emotion and (mercifully) a lack of irritation with overly squeaky voices that sound more like Digimon than they do humans. Whilst many of the voice actors are hardly what you might call mainstream, the likes of Nolan North make this game stand out slightly from its competitors. Although in all honesty, it is the dialogue that makes the characters memorable, and not their voice actors.
Soundtrack is very hit-and-miss. Composed by Kohei Tanaka (who also composed the majority of the Sakura Wars games soundtrack) and Motoi Sakuraba (who has composed the soundtrack for the majority of tri-Ace’s other games), it’s an interesting mix of synthesized music and classical. There is a HUGE amount of variety – the soundtrack itself comes on SIX discs – and with that level of variety, of course, will come a lot of tracks that will make your ears bleed and rejoice in equal measure. A lot of the areas have two distinctive themes – one for battle, and one outside of it – which are very similar, save for the effect. Unfortunately, despite the huge level of variety, you’re still going to be hearing the same couple of battle themes over and over for the majority of the game. Slightly above-average, but nothing exceptional.
Unique/Extra Features: 9.1/10
In terms of extra features, RoF has a couple of different options for New Game+ (you can start again on the same difficulty with everything carried over, or start again on a harder difficulty with considerably less) and the Neverland dungeon, which you can visit when you finish the game…in traditional tri-Ace fashion, the enemies are all overwhelmingly powerful, and the bosses even more so. There are also a few optional dungeons scattered throughout the game. You’ll venture to these if you do guild missions, but you don’t have to go there at any point in the story.
The majority of the features that this game utilises are unique – the battle system, the energy hex system, gun customization, even the level-up system is a different take on a classic gameplay mechanic. There is a lot of familiar material in the game, but the majority of it has been adapted significantly, and whilst there isn’t much here that hasn’t been done before, none of it has been done before in this fashion, which is more than most games can boast.
Replay value: 8.0/10
You would think that, despite the game length and challenge, you’d never want to set eyes on this again after finishing it once. However, the ability to carry over your levels and equipment to a new game adds considerably to this. At a high level you’ll easily overcome those earlier stages of the game, and some may wish to play it again to see if they could pick up anything else of the story. Other, more sadistic people may start it again on a harder difficulty setting to make an already-challenging game even more so. Either way, there is a trophy for playing through the game a second time, so some will wish to play it again for that.
Overall Rating: 8.6/10
Overall, RoF is extremely absorbing and a lot of fun. It is not a game you can simply blaze straight through – it does not require hours upon hours of grinding (although that certainly helps, as you would expect, but grinding above enemy levels is not only unnecessary, it takes a very long time) but it does require patience and strategy. It’s constantly throwing challenges in your face, whether it is with new enemies, or fewer party members. The emphasis is definitely not on grinding – enemy levels will jump up dramatically as you progress, making keeping up with them extremely difficult, and it’s almost a guarantee that bosses will be of a higher level than you for the entirety of the game. This is a game that likes to put you at a constant disadvantage, in terms of levels and number of enemies. In any other game, being able to plot actions to run across the battlefield impervious to damage, with the ability to fire as many times as you can get away with, would be an extremely broken one. In RoF, this is imperative for survival, and yet it can get you killed even quicker if you don’t plan it. This is a HARD game, even for experienced players.
However, these challenges are the primary reason that RoF won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. Dying due to your own incompetence as a player is one thing, dying because the odds are completely stacked against you is quite another. At times, this game is maddeningly unfair, and no amount of preparation can reduce this, especially when you find yourself down a party member or two. It’s not a game that will ease you in gently and then start challenging you, right from the start it’s a constant battle.
It also doesn’t give you very many reasons to play it, story-wise: after a dramatic opening, the storyline vanishes entirely, and it never really crops up again to the level of depth that you would expect from an RPG. The occasional flashbacks and utterly confusing cut scenes will stir your curiosity, but after a while they begin to wear a little thin. Once everything clicks into place the story is quite an interesting one, but if you don’t find the dialogue funny it’s doubtful you’ll stick around long enough to reach that level of enlightenment.
However, the dialogue is extremely entertaining, and the characters extremely likeable, which makes up somewhat for the lack of story for pretty much the entire game. The characters have real chemistry, making their exchanges highly enjoyable (especially their occasional quips on the battlefield) and whilst for the majority of the game you’ll be interacting with some bland NPCs, there are some real gemstones tucked away that are guaranteed to make you smile. There isn’t much of a story, but there is a lot of mystery, and if you’re the curious type you’ll keep playing this to fill in the pieces.
The battle system is unique and engrossing, and flipping over enemies to deliver Matrix-style bullet-death never gets old. It takes the best of turn-based and real-time systems and blends them both together – strategy, and the ability to move about, instead of random selecting things from a menu to attack.
RoF is a refreshing change of pace in what is becoming an extremely stale and samey genre, and if you’ve been craving a challenge, this is definitely a game you will want to look into; it’s one of the most challenging non-grindfest RPGs to come out in recent years. Despite the fact that RoF blurs the line between “challenge” and “frustration” quite frequently, there are more good points to it than there are bad. This is definitely one of the better RPGs you will play on the PS3 or 360…provided you have the patience for it. If you do, you’ll find it to be a rich and rewarding experience. If you don’t…well, I’d suggest having a spare controller, and investing in some soundproof walls and glass so that people nearby don’t hear your screams of frustration. Either way, it’s undeniable that this is a well-designed and thought-out game, with considerably more pros than cons.
Introduction/General Comments
I’d been keeping an eye on End of Eternity for quite a long time before it’s eventual release in the West as Resonance of Fate. tri-Ace and Sega. Surely a winning combination, with the former being behind the Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile series, and the latter being responsible for the creation of Sonic the Hedgehog. I bought this without hesitation…then, a couple of months after I bought it, I gave up. It was a nasty surprise to find that this game was actually difficult. Maddening, extremely limiting, and absolutely unforgiving. I didn’t pick it up again until almost 9 months later, at which point I discovered that it wasn’t impossible, and just as good as I’d hoped it was going to be. Some games just take longer than others do. In any case, read on for a full account ♥
Storyline: 6.6/10
Resonance of Fate (known hereafter as RoF) takes place on a post-apocalyptic Earth, where the landscape has become poisonous to humans for reasons unexplored. Humans now live in a structure called Basel, a tower of sorts. Civilisation was re-built around the tower: your classic top-down hierarchy. At the top you’ve got the Cardinals, the religious officials, and at the bottom you’ve got the dregs of society. Sufficed to say there is considerably more depth to the way Basel operates, but saying anything more than that would unleash the spoiler floodgate…once you learn of certain things, piecing everything else together isn’t too difficult.
So, moving on. RoF opens with a young, black-haired girl (Leanne) standing at the top of a building. She jumps off. Zephyr, who happens to spot her, makes a dramatic rescue. To Leanne’s shock, she’s still alive. As the two fall together, overlooking the society of Basel, the scene fades…
…and re-opens a year or so later. Leanne, now with blonde hair, is living with Zephyr and his older friend, Vashyron. The three have become hunters, taking on random missions for the Cardinals and pretty much anyone else who asks, so that they can make a living and get by in the society of Basel.
And, for well over two-thirds of the game, that is your storyline. The game focuses on the various exploits of Leanne, Zephyr and Vashyron, and reveals their pasts in the form of flashbacks, explaining how circumstances made them all come together. There is the occasional cutscene featuring the game’s primary antagonist that advances the story in terms of current events, but otherwise you’re treated to nothing but trivial exchanges between the three protagonists, and flashbacks.
RoF reveals quite a lot at the beginning – especially if you watch the opening movie as well – but doesn’t explain any of it at all, meaning you’ll have to unravel the mysteries for yourself. This would be a very good strategy…if it wasn’t for the fact that it hides all of these story cutscenes in affairs so unbelievably mundane that you could be put off paying even the slightest bit of attention.
Unfortunately, RoF feels very much like the sequel to a movie that you’ll have missed – there are a lot of references to events that will only be partially revealed in flashbacks, and for a very long time you’ll be left in the dark. It’s a very bland and mediocre story, up until the last couple of chapters, where things start heating up and actually making sense.
One good thing about the story in this game is its pacing. Cutscenes are revealed before or after story missions and at the beginning and end of each chapter, and whilst some of the cutscenes will have you staring at your screen wondering just precisely what the point of it was, by the end of the game all will click into place, and there are some nice twists at the end which will leave you feeling fairly satisfied with the experience.
The story itself isn’t bad, there just isn’t enough of it, and if you’re not the curious type there is absolutely nothing to keep you interested. Answers are a long time coming, and a lot of it you’ll have to piece together yourself. Whether the guessing game is enjoyable for you or not, there could definitely have been more added here.
Characters: 7.4/10
RoF has three protagonists: Leanne, Zephyr and Vashryon. All three have dark pasts and secrets, which are revealed as the game progresses, often around certain events – figures from the past turning up, significant dates, etc. The game takes entire chapters to explore the character’s backgrounds, and often the story missions will revolve around a character’s desires, desires which will be fully explained by the end of it.
The most enjoyable thing about these three, however, is the way they interact with one another. There is real chemistry between them, and a real sense of camaraderie. Their exchanges are enjoyable to watch, and often quite entertaining. Despite the post-apocalyptic world and the tragedy of the character’s background, there is a lot of light-hearted humour, which doesn’t feel out-of-place, or forced. It’s very easy to empathise with the trio and, since the game focuses almost entirely on them, this is definitely a good thing.
The primary antagonist is Cardinal Rowen. Nearly half the cutscenes that occur at the beginning and end of chapters focus on him, exploring his motives, his plans for Basel and, most importantly, the crisis of faith he is undergoing. Rowen is a man who toes the line between brooding contemplation and angst, but his character is well-developed and easy to empathise with.
There is, however, a lot of mediocrity in here. Outside of the four characters previously mentioned, there is barely anything in the way of characterization for anyone else you’ll meet. The other Cardinals that you’ll meet (with the exception of one, whose motives are never really full explained) are all ridiculous eccentrics who will probably make you laugh, but they make little more than token appearances. Everyone else is a bland NPC who you’ll talk to if you’re bored or if you’re doing a quest for them.
The question here is whether you value quality or quantity. The best games have strike a balance between the two, and with four developed characters it’s easy to see which option RoF elected to go for. The four characters who are given more than a couple of minutes of attention are more than satisfying, yet overall the game is let down by not having more.
Gameplay: 9.7/10
RoF is very similar to Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria in terms of it’s battle system. Whilst it is turn-based, there is the potential to avoid damage entirely. You are given the ability to run around on the battlefield, and as you move, so too do your enemies. Positioning (or a quick kill) can prevent damage entirely, making this more strategic than a standard real-time or turn-based battle system. Obviously, after you have moved a certain distance (indicated by a blue bar over the battle menu, which will slowly decrease the more you move) you’ll stop moving, and your enemy will get a chance to attack you.
As you aim at enemies with your equipped weapon, a ring will appear over them, which will slowly charge up. Pressing X after a full charge will allow you to fire on enemies. If you leave it, however, the ring will charge again and again, until the end of your turn or until you choose to attack, whichever comes first. The closer you are to an enemy, the faster the ring will charge. Similarly, the ring charges faster with each go around, and the more you charge, the stronger your attack will be. Unless you have an Auto-Trigger accessory equipped, however, if you don’t fire before the end of your turn, the charge is wasted.
Needless to say, when you deplete an enemy’s health, you win the battle. However, there are two types of damage in RoF: scratch damage and direct damage. Scratch damage is done by machine guns, and will make your enemies’ health bars turn blue. Over time, enemies will regenerate their health; you can turn their entire health bar blue, but it won’t kill them. This is where direct damage comes into play. You’ll do considerably less direct damage than you will scratch damage, but it is only through direct damage that you can kill enemies, as it actually depletes their health. Trying to kill an enemy through direct damage alone is likely to get you killed extremely quickly. However, if you inflict direct damage on an enemy who has already suffered from scratch damage, all of that scratch damage will be converted into direct damage. So, if you just turned an enemy’s health bar blue with scratch damage, one shot using a weapon that can inflict direct damage – a handgun or a grenade – will kill that enemy. Enemies will only do scratch damage to you when they attack, up to the point where you run out of Bezels.
So, what are Bezels? Bezels are small crystals that make up the Hero Gauge, which will be displayed in the middle of the bottom of the screen in battle. Initially, you’ll only have three of them. You can restore lost Bezels by killing enemies, or by breaking off their body parts (indicated by smaller health bars around them) and, once an enemy has inflicted full scratch damage on one of your characters, you’ll lose a Bezel (or two or three, at higher levels…). Anyway, Bezels allow you to use Hero Actions. Pressing the square button will freeze the game, and a line will appear in front of your character. Pressing square again will start the hero action, during which the character will run in that line in slow motion. They won’t take any damage from attacks, and their gauge will charge faster than normal. Their attacks will also be a whole lot flashier. You can also jump during Hero Actions, allowing you to perform aerial manoeuvres and avoid obstacles that might be in your way. This is the main way to close in on enemies and kill them without any hassle, and you’ll spend the majority of battles doing this.
However, you need to be VERY careful – once you run out of Bezels, you’ll enter “Critical Condition” which is effectively a death sentence unless you have an enemy with full scratch damage just ready to be killed a little way away. Your shots will hardly ever hit, you’ll run like a complete moron, and enemies will inflict direct damage with their attacks. Once a party member dies, it’s Game Over. This limitation provides a certain level of balance to what would otherwise be a very broken gameplay mechanic.
But in the earlier stages, this is what makes the game so damn frustrating – three bezels just aren’t enough. You’ll see yourself in Critical Condition a lot during the first four chapters, as your weapons don’t do anywhere near enough damage for you to kill enemies on a single pass, said enemies have a horrible habit of ganging up one character, and Hero Actions really are the only way to get anything done in battles. The closer enemies are to you the faster their gauges charge as well, and they’ll often interrupt your more powerful attacks if you stand right next to them. Until you gain the ability to synthesise and buy grenades, and thereby increase your level faster to catch up with or overtake enemies, you’re in for a very tough time, and this is the main reason why this game doesn’t get a perfect score in the gameplay department – unless you are extremely patient, you won’t make it past the first four chapters. You start the game at an extreme disadvantage, and it requires a lot of time to equal the playing field.
You can do any number of things in battle with enemies – Bonus Shots, whilst rare and difficult to initiate, allow you to juggle enemies in the air for extra damage. Knocking an enemy into the air during a Hero Action, then jumping above them and shooting them, will result in a Smackdown, which involves bouncing enemies on the ground like a basketball and knocking out items you can then pick up, and you can also initiate Tri Attacks if you store up enough Resonance Points (you create these by plotting a Hero Action between your other two characters – the line will glow blue to indicate this), which will result in all three of your characters converging on one enemy…and also regenerating any scratch damage suffered up to that point. There are also items you can utilise on the battlefield to your advantage – oil drums will create massive explosions when shot, which may even take out enemies near them, and you can use bunkers to fire on enemies without being shot yourself. Enemies can also make use of these features, however.
The game is also fairly understanding – at any time, you can pause the game and retry the battle. This will cost you a few rubies (the game’s currency) but if you make a mistake and go into Critical Condition, you’ll welcome this feature. You also have the option of retrying with your Hero Gauge fully restored – this costs considerably more (far too much for you to be able to afford in the earlier stages, annoyingly) but is particularly useful if you’re approaching a boss at the end of a dungeon, since your Hero Gauge doesn’t recharge if you flee a battle – if you use a hero action to move quickly to the next area, you’ll have one less bezel in the next area. You can imagine what this does for your chances of survival, especially in the beginning.
So, your weapons for battle. Weapons come in the form of Machine Guns (your only source of scratch damage outside of status effects), Handguns (your primary source of direct damage) and Grenades (a further source of direct damage). Each character has four item slots – two for weapons, and two for accessories. Items all weigh a certain amount, and each character can only equip up to a certain weight, which can be increased by levelling up.
You also have access to a Magazine Case, Item Box and Grenade Box, which you can (and will to begin with) use in place of a second gun. The Magazine Case is used with the Machine Gun, and stores different types of ammunition. Unlike your normal ammo, this is in a limited supply, and once you use it up you’ll have to either make more or go back to using normal ammo. These will usually inflict more damage on certain types of enemies – Metal-Coated Rounds, for example, inflict more damage on machines. This will allow you to inflict more scratch damage, and thereby kill enemies quicker. The Item box holds all of your in-battle items, which you can use in-battle during your turn: although only one per turn. Items this holds includes aid kits, which restore scratch damage, anti-damage items to prevent status ailments or cut damage, and escape hexes, which will teleport you back to the world map when used. The Grenade Box, as the name would suggest, holds your various grenades. You’ll get more powerful grenades as you progress (+, ++, and finally EX) and various status inflict grenades: Molotov Cocktails inflict Burn, Toxic Grenades inflict Poison, etc. Pressing select during a character’s turn who has any of these items equipped brings up a small menu of your items, and you can choose what to equip.
The level system for the game is remarkably simple and surprisingly effective – your level is the combined total of your levels for each of the three weapon catergories – so, if you handgun, machine gun and grenade skills are all at level done, then you’ll be level 30. Experience is determined by the damage you inflict on enemies. For those inflicting direct damage, any scratch damage converted to direct damage also equates to experience earned, meaning you won’t have the character using the Machine Gun most of the time pulling out ahead of the others because of it. Whilst it sounds like you’ll level up extremely quickly (and to begin with you will, especially once you have access to grenades) obviously, the more you level up a weapon, the more experience you’ll require to level it up again. Unless you train a great deal, bosses you meet in the story will always be at a higher level than you are. Each weapon can go up to level 100, meaning your max level is 300. Enemies will level up extremely quickly the further you go into the game, and it all balances out to keep the game challenging (and, at times, highly frustrating).
I’ve mentioned synthesis several times now. You’ll win parts from enemies, which you can use to synthesise parts for your guns, or create more ammo or accessories. As you advance through the game, you’ll be able to synthesise more useful and powerful items…at an increased cost, naturally.
Customisation is extremely important in this game. Attaching parts to your guns will reduce the time it takes for it to charge, it’s firepower, or the number of rounds it carries. However, it also increases the weight, and in the earlier stages of the game customisation is extremely limited, because you can’t make many parts and you won’t be able to use the weapon if you attach too many parts, because your initial weight limit is pitifully low. Guns will be displayed on a small grid in the customisation screen, and you’ll have to make do with the space, meaning you can’t just attach an infinite number of parts to guns. As you progress, customising guns because increasingly important as enemies become more powerful.
You also have the option of customising your characters. You can buy various clothes and accessories for all three and change them at any time – any changes you implement will even be present in the majority of cutscenes. Each character has two distinct styles – one which is professional, and one which is more casual. There are a LOT of clothes for all three characters, ranging from a simple colour change to incredibly detailed patterns and pictures. You can even change the colour of their eyes. It’s a superficial thing, but not many games these days outside of classic RPGs feature this level of customisation, and then it’s usually only on weapons.
RoF also takes a unique approach to the World Map system. There are twelve levels to Basel, and each one is a honeycomb-like structure. Using Energy Hexes, which you will obtain from defeating enemies in combat, you can unlock sections of the World Map, allowing you to progress deeper into Basel, and often earning you some items as a result. Energy Hexes take various different forms and shapes, and using them is very much like solving a puzzle – albeit an extremely simple one. You move across the map as a cursor, and enemies will be encountered depending on the type of area you’re travelling through. There are three sections to the map, separated by Core Lifts, which require a pass to access. Needless to say, you’ll acquire these passes as you progress through the game.
There are three types of Energy Hex: Firstly, the normal, white ones, which are primarily what you’ll be using. Second are the coloured hexes, which are in far shorter supply, and which you’ll only obtain occasionally. Some areas of Basel (often dungeons or towns) will be in a different colour to the normal white of the world map, and you will need the corresponding coloured hex to unlock them. Unfortunately, these coloured hexes only come in one shape, which can make it particularly frustrating when linking Terminals (see below) and farming them is quite difficult, since there is no way to predict what enemy you’ll encounter. Finally, there are the Station hexes – once you completely unlock every section on the World Map, you’ll be able to lay a Station hex, which enables you to rest, save your game, and travel back to your base in Ebel City instantly. Station hexes are also coloured, and laying a Station hex of a particular colour will allow you lay energy hexes of the same colour on that level of the world map.
Scattered across the world map are terminals which, in the beginning, remain inactive. By placing coloured energy hexes over these terminals, and on surrounding areas, you can gain an advantage over enemies on the map. Terminals require a certain number of hexes be of the same colour before they are activated, but once they are active they remain so, unless you lay a different coloured energy hex over the hexes surrounding them of the same colour. Terminals grant various beneficial abilities – increased experience, improved knockdown rate or scratch damage regeneration, etc. You can also link these effects to other levels of Basel through elevators (although not through Core Lifts) and onto dungeons, and you can also link multiple terminals together for an accumulated effect – although, of course, the more terminals you have linked, the more hexes of the same colour you will be required to have activated.
Anyways, your primary objective in RoF will be to complete story missions. Often you will have to go into a dungeon to acquire a particular item, although there are exceptions to the rule – in a couple of chapters you just have to visit somewhere and watch a cutscene. Once you’ve completed the story mission, you can advance to the next chapter. You can refuse to advance, however, and continue exploring if you wish to. There are also optional guild missions to do each chapter, so it is often in your best interest to delay advancing for these. Guild missions are slightly more varied – you may have to suppress some bandits or particularly strong monsters (marked on the map as red hexes with exclamation marks over them), or pick up an item for someone. It may be as simple as delivering an item from one person to the next. The rewards for these missions are often lucrative and, in the case of the clothes shop, will unlock more outfits for your characters.
Just outside of Ebel City is an Arena. As the name suggests, here you can battle against enemies to improve your levels, acquire coins which you can trade in for prizes, and increase the amount of money you have. The Arena is a challenge unto itself, as there are frequent bosses, enemy levels rise fairly quickly, and there is no cover or explosives you can use to your advantage on the field. There is also a trophy for getting a star in every rank. In order to do so, you need to clear it ten times. There are a total of fifty ranks. There are several hours in that alone.
It’s not a short game, either. If you do all of the Guild Missions, occasionally dabble in the Arena and do a modest amount of exploration, the main storyline will take you around fifty hours to finish. After that, there is the optional Neverland dungeon, the option to start a new game (either with all your equipment, money and levels carried over, or with considerably less and at a higher difficulty setting…as if this game needed it…) and the option of acquiring trophies, as well. This game is a lot longer than most RPGs these days, which will be a blessing for some and a curse for others. There are sixteen chapters in total, of varying length. Some will last you a few minutes, others may take you hours, not only because there is significantly more to do, but because the game will suddenly decide to up the ante and throw some extremely challenging enemies in your face, or take a party member out.
Even once you overcome the initial obstacles at the start of the game, it still likes to throw some extremely aggravating challenges your way, as well. Frequently you’ll find yourself playing with one character less than your normal three-party complement. At a few points in the game you’ll even have to play the game with a single party member, and fight bosses. Whilst the game does get easier once you overcome the hurdles in the first four chapters, it will continue to throw surprises your way, which could either be a welcome challenge or something that will want to make you throw down your controller in frustration.
There are a handful of tutorials, which can be accessed from the menu (you also get a very nice set of battle tutorials from the Arena) although the text for these is absolutely TINY, and figuring out precisely what the tutorial is trying to explain isn’t always as easy as it should be. The battle tutorials are highly comprehensive and definitely worth note, but everything else is lacklustre and, given how bloody difficult this game can be, it’s somewhat unhelpful and very frustrating.
Overall, whilst the gameplay is not incredibly varied, RoF is an extremely enjoyable experience. The battle system is easy to pick up, but requires a great deal of strategy to master, and you’ll always find yourself in a difficult position every now and then, which beats back the monotony of what could otherwise be a fairly easy game. Whether or not you’ll welcome these difficulties is another matter entirely, though.
Controls: 9.8/10
Due to the nature of the game, there is a lot to take in here, and because of this, it takes a good few hours to become proficient with the controls. If you do the battle tutorials you’ll pick up the gist of battling quickly enough, but everything else is liable to take you a while.
One small complaint, however, is that plotting hero actions in battle isn’t as smooth as it could be – the line only extends in certain directions, meaning you’ll sometimes have to rotate your characters outside of the hero action to go the way you want to, which you may not have time to do if you’ve spent time positioning your characters beforehand. It’s a very minor irritation however, which may only crop up occasionally in battles – unless you run away from something and then try to plot a hero action directly behind you.
Graphics: 10.0/10
So, what justifies this getting a perfect score in this department? On the PS3 at least, it’s easily one of the most stunning games, not for the beauty of the landscapes, but for the sheer amount of detail in it. There isn’t a huge amount of variety with the scenery, but variety isn’t needed to show off the detail – as you venture further down Basel, the scenery becomes decidedly more steampunk and grungy in appearance, and the transition is flawless. The game is a myriad of metallic colours, and there are some very nice lighting effects to behold here if you but take the time to look, especially since the game utilises a day and night cycle.
Characters are all incredibly detailed and have that classic tri-Ace feel to them: if you’ve played Valkyrie Profile II: Silmeria or the more recent Star Ocean: The Last Hope, you’ll recognise the character style immediately – realistic, but with a slight anime feel to them.
The detail becomes especially apparent on characters when you’re dressing them up, particularly if you zoom right in. Textures have been captured perfectly, and it’s extremely impressive.
It looks absolutely incredible, AND the screen doesn’t tear on SD TVs, unlike certain other incredible-looking games. This game easy justifies a perfect score in the graphics department when compared to other games currently out, there has clearly been a lot of thought put into the design, and it’s paid off tremendously. If you’re someone who prefers to look at the larger picture, perhaps you would consider bumping this score down by a point or two to 9.8, but if you have any appreciation for detail, this game definitely has what you’re looking for.
Sound: 7.7/10
The voice acting is fairly high-quality, with plenty of emotion and (mercifully) a lack of irritation with overly squeaky voices that sound more like Digimon than they do humans. Whilst many of the voice actors are hardly what you might call mainstream, the likes of Nolan North make this game stand out slightly from its competitors. Although in all honesty, it is the dialogue that makes the characters memorable, and not their voice actors.
Soundtrack is very hit-and-miss. Composed by Kohei Tanaka (who also composed the majority of the Sakura Wars games soundtrack) and Motoi Sakuraba (who has composed the soundtrack for the majority of tri-Ace’s other games), it’s an interesting mix of synthesized music and classical. There is a HUGE amount of variety – the soundtrack itself comes on SIX discs – and with that level of variety, of course, will come a lot of tracks that will make your ears bleed and rejoice in equal measure. A lot of the areas have two distinctive themes – one for battle, and one outside of it – which are very similar, save for the effect. Unfortunately, despite the huge level of variety, you’re still going to be hearing the same couple of battle themes over and over for the majority of the game. Slightly above-average, but nothing exceptional.
Unique/Extra Features: 9.1/10
In terms of extra features, RoF has a couple of different options for New Game+ (you can start again on the same difficulty with everything carried over, or start again on a harder difficulty with considerably less) and the Neverland dungeon, which you can visit when you finish the game…in traditional tri-Ace fashion, the enemies are all overwhelmingly powerful, and the bosses even more so. There are also a few optional dungeons scattered throughout the game. You’ll venture to these if you do guild missions, but you don’t have to go there at any point in the story.
The majority of the features that this game utilises are unique – the battle system, the energy hex system, gun customization, even the level-up system is a different take on a classic gameplay mechanic. There is a lot of familiar material in the game, but the majority of it has been adapted significantly, and whilst there isn’t much here that hasn’t been done before, none of it has been done before in this fashion, which is more than most games can boast.
Replay value: 8.0/10
You would think that, despite the game length and challenge, you’d never want to set eyes on this again after finishing it once. However, the ability to carry over your levels and equipment to a new game adds considerably to this. At a high level you’ll easily overcome those earlier stages of the game, and some may wish to play it again to see if they could pick up anything else of the story. Other, more sadistic people may start it again on a harder difficulty setting to make an already-challenging game even more so. Either way, there is a trophy for playing through the game a second time, so some will wish to play it again for that.
Overall Rating: 8.6/10
Overall, RoF is extremely absorbing and a lot of fun. It is not a game you can simply blaze straight through – it does not require hours upon hours of grinding (although that certainly helps, as you would expect, but grinding above enemy levels is not only unnecessary, it takes a very long time) but it does require patience and strategy. It’s constantly throwing challenges in your face, whether it is with new enemies, or fewer party members. The emphasis is definitely not on grinding – enemy levels will jump up dramatically as you progress, making keeping up with them extremely difficult, and it’s almost a guarantee that bosses will be of a higher level than you for the entirety of the game. This is a game that likes to put you at a constant disadvantage, in terms of levels and number of enemies. In any other game, being able to plot actions to run across the battlefield impervious to damage, with the ability to fire as many times as you can get away with, would be an extremely broken one. In RoF, this is imperative for survival, and yet it can get you killed even quicker if you don’t plan it. This is a HARD game, even for experienced players.
However, these challenges are the primary reason that RoF won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. Dying due to your own incompetence as a player is one thing, dying because the odds are completely stacked against you is quite another. At times, this game is maddeningly unfair, and no amount of preparation can reduce this, especially when you find yourself down a party member or two. It’s not a game that will ease you in gently and then start challenging you, right from the start it’s a constant battle.
It also doesn’t give you very many reasons to play it, story-wise: after a dramatic opening, the storyline vanishes entirely, and it never really crops up again to the level of depth that you would expect from an RPG. The occasional flashbacks and utterly confusing cut scenes will stir your curiosity, but after a while they begin to wear a little thin. Once everything clicks into place the story is quite an interesting one, but if you don’t find the dialogue funny it’s doubtful you’ll stick around long enough to reach that level of enlightenment.
However, the dialogue is extremely entertaining, and the characters extremely likeable, which makes up somewhat for the lack of story for pretty much the entire game. The characters have real chemistry, making their exchanges highly enjoyable (especially their occasional quips on the battlefield) and whilst for the majority of the game you’ll be interacting with some bland NPCs, there are some real gemstones tucked away that are guaranteed to make you smile. There isn’t much of a story, but there is a lot of mystery, and if you’re the curious type you’ll keep playing this to fill in the pieces.
The battle system is unique and engrossing, and flipping over enemies to deliver Matrix-style bullet-death never gets old. It takes the best of turn-based and real-time systems and blends them both together – strategy, and the ability to move about, instead of random selecting things from a menu to attack.
RoF is a refreshing change of pace in what is becoming an extremely stale and samey genre, and if you’ve been craving a challenge, this is definitely a game you will want to look into; it’s one of the most challenging non-grindfest RPGs to come out in recent years. Despite the fact that RoF blurs the line between “challenge” and “frustration” quite frequently, there are more good points to it than there are bad. This is definitely one of the better RPGs you will play on the PS3 or 360…provided you have the patience for it. If you do, you’ll find it to be a rich and rewarding experience. If you don’t…well, I’d suggest having a spare controller, and investing in some soundproof walls and glass so that people nearby don’t hear your screams of frustration. Either way, it’s undeniable that this is a well-designed and thought-out game, with considerably more pros than cons.