Originally posted December 19th, 2018. Edited and re-posted here for archival purposes.
Resonance of Fate is a wonderful game that is simply unique. It’s different from most anything you’ve played. The closest game to it would be Valkyria Chronicles, but even that only has small similarities with the combat.
The Story
RoF has a pretty interesting story
which is different than the usual fair of JRPGs. You experience the
lives of a trio of mercenaries who are just trying to scrape by. They
each have their sordid histories and bloody pasts which will be shaded
to you for quite a large portion of the game. The story is told in
non-standard manner, like that of a puzzle. You get pieces here and
there that may seem like they’re little things or nothing. Maybe you
don’t know where they go in the grand scheme of things. Then you get
that piece that connects the picture and start to put it all together in
your head. “Ah, X was…because Y!” revelations hit me a few times
already, and I really love the slice-of-life bits that may come in
between some off-site dark drama regarding the concept of God.
Everything ties together, slowly but surely. For me, each piece has kept
my attention and I’ve been curious to see how it all ends. There’s no
giant lore dump or exposition of people just talking at you for hours.
You see the important stuff unfold, even if it doesn’t make sense to you
at the time, it will later.
The World
The world in RoF isn’t your standard
overworld fare. When you’re in town, you’re roaming around like normal.
When out in the “world”, you’re controlling a cursor and unlocking
different parts of the map using energy hexes and the like. You have
different shapes or configurations that will help you get to new areas,
or special colored hexes to unlock new places. You can even link up to
terminals that provide special effects such as Item Drop Rate x2 or
Prevent Burning. There are many levels to the world of Basel – the giant
clockwork tower that is humanity’s bastion after the world essentially
ended. You’ll get ever so familiar with particular areas after you cross
through them time and time again. One complaint people had was that the
game had a lot of areas that were of the same color palette: browns and
greys. The games aesthetic is largely steampunk, with gears and steam
and combustion and the like. You’ll find diesel spewing cars strapped to
giant monsters, alongside myriad relics of the past. I still find it a
little shocking to see street signs and fragments of the ‘old world’ in
this post apocalyptic haven.
Dungeons feel like dungeons, something you get geared up to go into and explore while facing beast after beast. Dungeons can have their own overworld with different sub-dungeons that may have different enemies or equipment or even a different story piece later. You can get into combat in the dungeon overworld, just like in the standard overworld. When you enter the actual area, you can run around like you do in combat. Some areas won’t have a fight for a room or two, while others throw you right into the fray. When you’re in a dungeon with many rooms, you can’t swap your inventory or change items…so make sure you’re prepared. I made sure to check every room for extra goodies, such as new guns or ammo types.
The Combat
Where RoF shines is in the combat.
It’s a strategy RPG to make it simple, somewhat like Valkyria Chronicles
in a sense. The battle system seems tricky at first, but it’s actually
remarkably simple. You have two damage types. One does high damage but
can’t kill. The other does low damage but can kill. Build up your
scratch damage via SMGs that do high damage and then cash it all in for
direct damage via a handgun or explosive. You get elemental status
effects from ammo types and different grenades, allowing you to further
manipulate the enemy. Planning out your attacks and routes are key to
the battle system, as you’ll want to take the terrain into account as
well as enemy shields, angles, or even when they’ll be attacking you.
Hero Actions are the flashy John Woo-style cinematic attacks that you
perform on the ground and in the air. You’re invincible during these,
but once you stop your path…you might end your turn in a hornets nest.
Combat is all about setting up big attacks with your whole team, or
planning when you’ll want to kill an enemy to restore part of your
action gauge, or when you’ll break a shield to stun them, etc. People
have struggled with the battle system in the past, but I think it’s
because they found themselves overwhelmed at first. It’s a lot of info
to dump on you, especially when the only tutorial is in an optional
arena or a flashing point in the guild.
The Characters
The characters are truly
wonderful in my opinion. I’ve really enjoyed how this group of rag-tag
nobodies try to hit it big in a dirty and washed up world. They don’t
really have any particular dreams other than getting money, but
eventually they start to share some of their ambitions. They really feel
like a family, often joking with one another or propping up each other
in their own ways. When you start to learn about their pasts, you really
see some lights shining through the cracked masks they seem to wear.
None of the characters are the type to give a long drawn out speech
about doing whats right, they have no real sense of ‘justice’, they
understand that they’re just guns for hire and even just murderers, and
they’re never the type to try to school you about the Power Of
Friendship(tm). They feel like real people who say only what they think
they need to say, rather than having Turn Based Conversations that most
games have. They’re funny, charming, and witty with great voice actors
in both languages. Nolan North voices Vashyron, the guy with the
ponytail. While he may be a wise-cracking smartass, he’s a farcry from
North’s typical “Nathan Drake” archetype.
The Music
Kohei Tanaka, most recognized in
gaming for Gravity Rush, Sakura Wars, and Alunda, is one of the
composers on the soundtrack. The other? Motoi Sakuraba of tons of
amazing games with beautiful soundtracks. You can really get a feel for
each composers style in the tracks. The songs really fit the theme of
the world, and give a feeling a kind of… grungy symphonic taste, if that
makes any sense. The music rises during the clashing Hero Actions in
battle, it flows in a soothing melody during quiet and cold areas, and
it just outright shines in most aspects of the game. There was never a
track that I disliked, so I’ve nothing negative at all to say about the
sound track. Whipping dual pistols around and lighting up a giant
fire-breathing beast while bullets fly and casings hit the ground across
sweeping orchestral arrangements paired with grungy guitar riffs is
something might sound cheesy on paper, but sounds great on air.
Also, it’s a tri-Ace game. They’re my favorite developer so I may be a bit biased.
Reasons to play it:
Fantastic characters.
A slice of life story that is pieced together like a puzzle throughout the game.
Unique mechanics ranging from gun customization to simple world traversal keep everything interesting.
Over the top combat that is both tactical and flashy, giving you a treat for the eyes while keeping you engaged along the way.
A lovely soundtrack to go along with your rain of bullets.
It’s tri-Ace’s best game since Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria.
Things to keep in mind:
The story kind of
‘unlocks’ as you go through it, so you may not understand why strangers
are talking about a machine God for quite a while.
Combat can have a learning curve. For some, it doesn’t click. Don’t fret though, it’s incredibly simple and a blast to play.
The side quests are lopsided in that you’ll spend more time doing them than the main story.
Combat can get repetitive once you put together your bread and butter
plan of attack. Mixing up who does what or focusing on different styles
can help.
Near the end, side quests can feel very grindy. I’ve faced
the same battle configuration 4x in a row for a single quest. The arena
is also a grind. It’s optional though.
I think Resonance of Fate is a hidden gem and I’d love to see a sequel or some kind of new take on the battle system.
