19.7.2010

This is truly a brilliant game which deserves much more recognition than it has gotten so far, this is probably due to it's badly timed release, at approximately the same time as Final Fantasy XIII.I have split up my review into different categories.STORYI think in terms of JRPGs, the story isn't the best one created, as i have had times where i'm not entirely sure whats going on sometimes. But there is a bit of humor in it, as well as the usual sad moments which so many JRPGs have, but all in all, it is an ok story.GRAPHICSThe graphics are good, they are by no means the best you can possibly have, but they are still very good. A feature i like in this game, is how you can dress your characters up depending on how you like it.The result is, in both battle and during the cut scenes your character will be dressed up in your clothing scenes. So you could end up having a really serious scene with a character with a bee on her head.VOICEThis game can be set to either Japanese or English speaking. And i must say, the voice acting on both tracks seem pretty good. So just choose whichever you prefer usually.WORLD MAPThe game is very unique in both its battle system and world map. The world map being a large grid of hexes which you move around using a kind of curser, and you unlock new areas using special items named 'Energy Hexes', which are obtained through battles and quests. These hexes can contain things like cities, items, fight buffs, items, or just simply a chance of a random enemy encounter. The size of this map is large, and allows a reasonable amount of free-roaming. The whole map system sounds weird, but it actually works quite well.BATTLEThe battle system is a little complex, making it a little difficult to understand at first, I'm still discovering new things about it several chapters in, but it is very fun to play. It is basically a turn based system, crossed with real-time and cinematic style attacks (some of these look very cool as well as humanly impossible). The rest of this paragraph describes the battle system, it will sound complex, but trust me, it's really good fun to use.The characters take it in turns to attack. Upon starting your attack it changes to real time, in which you may run, attack or heal each other, unfortunately, so may your opponents, if you move normally, then stand still, your turn timer freezes. Upon executing an attack, reaching the end of your chosen route (I'll describe later), or running out of turn time, that characters turn ends, and either the next character takes over, or the enemy does.When you attack you charge up these multiple sort of power bars and release perform damage, the amount of power bars you have depends on your level in that gun type, and how quickly it fills up depends on your gun modifications (both described later). You may attack once a turn, unless you choose to perform a 'hero action' which lets you run to a chosen location. Whilst using this, you may attack as much as you like, with no limit as to how many enemies you attack, until you reach your chosen location. The side effect of using these is that you use up 'bezels', if you use these up you, go into a critical status in which you move slower, attack slower, and take direct damage, (these bezels are also used up to automatically heal near-dead team members). You may also use special attacks named 'tri attacks' which are basically when everyone swaps positions shooting as they move, forming a triangle of attack. These also use bezels in addition to resonance points.There are 3 main ways of attacking; these are using SMGs (these cause scratch damage), Handguns (direct damage) or grenades (direct damage to multiple enemies at once). Scratch damage causes the largest numbers of hit points to be taken off from the target, put the damage will be healed in time, and an enemy will stay alive even if all of their health bar has been taken from them. This is where direct damage comes in, it removes all of the scratch damage taken, and causes addition damage to the health bar, this cause much lower damage, meaning that you need to tactically set it up so that you attack with scratch damage, followed by direct. You can also use special bullets and items to improve your attacks, adding things like elemental based damage. There are a lot of things to consider making it difficult to get used to, and tactics are very important. It may sound daunting, but trust me, when you get used to it, it's very fun to use.CUSTOMIZATIONYour battles will also be made easier by preparation. You are able to equip items and weapons, which can effect certain resistances and damage amounts/speeds. Customization can be used to add things like sights and magazine clips to increase the amount of bullets you fire per attack, and the speeds in which the attack bars move up. Unfortunately your modifications aren't visible on the gun itself when its being use, you may only see your changes in the customization menu on a sort of blueprints. Each addition to a gun makes the gun heavier, if it becomes to heavy, you're character won't be able to carry it The good side is you can make some ridiculous looking designs, for example, the other day i made an SMG with 14 sights and 6 barrels!LEVELINGThe level system is based purely around your individual gun levels. By dealing certain amounts of damage with each type of gun, you gain a level in that gun type, increasing the amount of bars you have to charge up, (each full bar increases your damage multiplier) and occasionally you gain additional stats such as increased bullet penetration. By leveling up a gun level, you also gain a main level, which increases your total hp and the total weight you're able to carry. This means you'll be able to carry more gun customizations, better equipment and even dual weapons. So if you are lvl 10 SMG, 10 Handgun and 5 Grenade, your total level will be 25.CONCLUSIONThis game has a brilliant battle system, good graphics, quite a good story an interesting, large world map, and even the ability to build a gun hundreds of scopes on. And just as a note, I have only described a small section of the game and it's battle system.If you like JRPG games this is definitely a game worth picking up, if not, I still recommend it. I personally think it's one of the best JRPGs which have come out in a while, and I am thoroughly enjoying it.

22.9.2010

I have always found JRPG's tedious, slow, silly and irritating. That is until I played Star Ocean on the xbox 360. It was truly wonderful game and I recommend it to absolutely anyone who has a fear of JRPG's. So when I heard it was the last in the series I went looking for similar titles by the same company (tri-star). Resonance of Fate is their new series presumably aimed at replacing the void left by Star Ocean.Resonance of Fate ticks most of the usual boxes that all JRPG's tick. These being:Totally nonsensical storyline: RoF steals the show here. Having completed the game I am none the wiser as to what on earth was going on. The story did not hang together or flow.Its a shame as the setting for this game has the potential for a great story (mechanical city on a poisoned earth).Cut scenes with lots of characters looking at each with exaggerated expressions and a lot 'Hu'ing and 'O'ing: here is a pleasent surprise and unique thing for a JRPG. The cut scenes are very short and infrequent. Thankfully.Arena style turn/realtime battles: So many JRPG's have superb combat and RoF again steals the show here. The combat is simply stunning. So tactical, so brilliant. If you fail a battle it is becuase your strategy wasn't right. Combat never drags, and you really have to think about what you are doing. I cant say enough about how well thought out it is and ti is the main reason RoF is a hit.Annoying frequent use of children as integral parts to the story: Again RoF has this but it seems to serve no purpose. Maybe there is a law for JRPG's that mean you must have a least 1 child character in the plot.Long long game play expecting at least 2 play throughs to get even 50% of the G: Yup, no chance of a lot G here unless you have a spare 120 hours.There are 2 other important aspects to RoF; the world map and weapons. Unlike most RPG's you can't customise your character's skills. Instead you customise weapons and give them a weapon to use (which they will in turn get better at using). Customising the weapons is a mini game in itself and trying to make and customise your weapon to its best settings is a lot of fun. I lost a couple of hours on this alone.The world map is also like a mini game. It is made up of many floors with hexagonal blocks. You can open hexs up (which often revels items) and use terminals and different colour hexes to get different effects. I hate puzzles so don't think this is some kind of puzzle. It however is great fun trying to unlock all the hexes and terminals and gives you more to aim for in the game.The bad about this game:There are 16 chapters. Nothing wrong with that but late in the game your main story mission (of which you get 1 per level) get really stupid involving helping out at a childrens party. It is totally out of place and really stupid. Again later chapters, when travelling through dungeons creatures respawn too much and some of the ways to open up the way forward follow no reason so can be frustrating.So in summary: its a great game but I found myself tiring of it by the end due to the stupid plot and constant respawning of dungeons. I still say it is worth playing (as is Star Ocean!) and I will definitely by eager to see the next version of this. The combat alone makes it a worthy addition to your game collection and really puts games like Final Fantasy to shame.

23.5.2010

I always had been fond of J-RPGs... But so far, most titles released on next gen platforms, especially X360, were nothing but huge dissapointements. Eternal sonata was cute and nice even if not very innovative, it was ok. Aside from this one, most came from square enix and each one pushed me further and further in "fed up with japanese stuff" state. Korean's Magna Carta 2 was the last drop; combined with an EXCELLENT dragon age origins (western game, thanx bioware as usual) and i was finally done with RPG from eastern fellows.Then, after their (yuuuuurk) new Star Ocean (released by square), TriAce came to Sega to offer us a strange one: resonance of fate. Post apocalyptic world of suspended floors of living,

25.1.2011

After my disc 4 of Lost Odyssey not working, I goy Infinite Undiscovery (by tri-ace) which was just awful. Later I came across this little gem (also by tri-ace, but not to my knowledge upon purchase)I won't go into a lengthy review but it's great. It's set in a dystopian future (with a steampunk theme) and takes place on a large tower protruding into the clouds; the clockwork city called Basel. The tower exists because the earth below is ravaged by a poisonous gas, and it is built to clean the earth.You play as 3 lovable characters: Vashyron, Leanne and Zephyr who meet under individually odd circumstances. Vashyron runs a bounty hunting business, where he and his new company report to a guild message board and do requests for people,

7.11.2010

Now, I'm a big fan of RPGs anyway, so whenever I see a new RPG enter the starved Xbox community, I lap it up pretty quickly...and I was expected not so much then what I got. I was very nicely surprised with the punkcore style of the game, and the more I played it, the more it came to life for me.Firstly, lets talk about the graphics and visuals. In terms of the places you go, and the variety of scenery you see, this game is beautiful. Everything is slighty dark and dingy because of the setting, but still...beautiful. Characters can be made to look however you want with various clothes, dyes, accessories and other stuff. One the main things I noticed is - I know this might not be such a big deal to some,

23.2.2011

This is one of the best JRPGs I've played since Final Fantasy 7 and 8, it reminds me alot of that sort of gameplay, I must say that at first the game is rather confusing due to the complexness of the combat gameplay, I strongly recommend playing the Arena(Tutorial), once you understand how best to play the game it becomes rather fun, it is alot more tactical than previous JRPGs, which I personally like.The story line is very nicely written, I will say it is very similar to all other JRPGs, in the means that, big evil enemy/corporation/entity aims to ruin the world as you know it, you play the average everyday characters who get tangled up in all this and save the day, or do they...The cinematic are rather impressive,

29.3.2010

The main appealing feature of this game is the combat system. Which is brilliant, I would recommend going to the arena first to learn the system before going into proper fights. The combat is a mixture of real-time and turn base which works very well. Hero actions which are your main source of damage they are moves you have to plan carefully as your Hero action points protect your characters from damage. Its a interesting mix of when to hold back and when to attack.The diffuculty is hard, this game will punish you if you make a mistake. But hey I love this there arent enough hard games out there as the mayority of new games are dumbed down carbon copys.The world map gives you a sense of freedom

19.5.2010

I bought this game after reading the gamespot review. they are usually pretty good. yeh its just all about the combat with this game. forget wandering through beautiful scenery & a story that makes sense (its just bizarre i dont even take any notice).not keen on the gfx apart from during combat........the combat scenes look good and its pretty cool once you know what your doing. i didnt fully understand for about 6 hours :). basically the guy with the machine gun scores 'scratch damage' that needs to be dealt 'direct damage' by other party members to take the scratch damage HP from your enemies. You also have to constantly be pulling off decent moves to keep your own HP up. sound odd?

13.5.2010

This has been one of the most enjoyable JRPGs I've played to date on the Xbox 360. Gameplay wise this game is very enjoyable however will disappoint those looking for a good storyline. The game hints on having a deep storyline but does somehow come up a bit short. This game has a fair bit learning curve and difficulty. Those who love having variety and complexity in equipment, different combat command options may find the combat a bit too limiting.If you're looking for that really good all-round RPG, this ain't it but if you want try an RPG that is fresh and unique, this game is definitely worth a try.This game will take about at least 50 hours plus to finish.

12.6.2014

This game is an odd beast. At times you feel like giving it a terribly score but then you remember all the good times you had playing and you want to give it something better.Resonance of Fate is an action RPG that excels in gameplay (mainly the combat system) but suffers from a terribly presented, but interesting, plot, subpar graphics and forgettable music. Although, Japanese voice acting is there for anyone interested.I highly recommended watching video reviews of this game before buying because the gameplay will either make or break your experience.

20.8.2013

This game is fantastic, I would highly reccomend it if you like games such as lost odyssey or final fantasy. The graphics are beautiful, as is the voice acting. The gameplay is the dealbreaker. It's unlike anything I've played before. The closest game I could compare it to is Valkyria chronicles on the PS3. The story is deep and will seem confusing at first, but after a while you'll get into it. this really came as a suprise. I honestly hadn't heard of this game until It was reccomended to me.

18.6.2012

As others have mentioned, the fighting system is pretty confusing at first. You have to go through about 30 minutes' worth of tutorials, but once you make it into the story, it's a really fun game.Must admit, I missed a lot of the subtleties of the plot, but I still enjoyed it nonetheless! It took me about 70 hours to complete, although it would take longer if you're a 100% sort of person.I recommend!

29.7.2013

I know a lot of people have panned this game for various reasons, among them a nearly incomprehensible plot and a combat system that does not evolve past the midway point in the game. But I absolutely loved this game. I sunk countless hours into it without realising it and loved every minute.If you're looking for a fairly tough game with an innovative and fresh combat system, then try this one out.

21.6.2010

In a dark and dystopian future the world may be grim but it is also very beautiful.With gorgeous cutscenes and wonderfully stylized turn based combat this game is a treat for those that are willing to seek it out and the game is quite difficult to boot (something quite unique for games these days)

7.12.2010

The fight system and the gameplay of this game is great! However it's not an RPG for the beginners of this kind of games because it requires quite a lot of familiarity and experience with the general RPG's turns rule.

Resonance of Fate (Xbox 360) - Reviews

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