Resonance of Fate Reviewed

[JayK47]

Well I hope I don't get to the point where I have to walk away from it. I hate doing that with a game. There are more places to save thankfully.

[Chris_D]

Well I don't regret the time I spent with it. Sega gets way too much shit as a dev when they're producing games like this, Yakuza, etc.

[jpublic]

I enjoyed RoF, but I have a soft sport for games where the party members are all jerks to each other.

[Vandabo]

Originally Posted by Chris_D

Yeah, I definitely enjoyed my 30 or so hours with the game. I did find that as the difficulty ramped up that the battles dragged on way too much and I eventually threw in the towel. Kind of a shame because the world was pretty interesting. If I ever play it again I might use a FAQ to try and optimise my battle strategies.

This was largely my experience with the game. The combat got to be such a drag that I realized I just wasn't enjoying myself and stopped playing. I think I was around the 25-30 hour mark. I wasn't really having a hard time with it, but it was just really repetitive in a way I didn't like.

[JayK47]

I am actually really enjoying the combat. It is a joy to watch. But unless I get more abilities later on or more moves, I can see it wearing on me down the road. I too enjoy the interaction between the characters. They look like generic jRPG characters but all have mysterious pasts and I want to know more about them. In fact the whole world is just odd and interesting and I hope to find out more.

[JayK47]

Man, the first cut scene with Barbarella is a classic. I also love how Pater is always hanging around stocking Zephyr. 15 hours in and still loving it.

Did you guys stick with the default weapons or did you end up changing it up? I'm seeing some other weapons out there for sale or at the arena, but they don't seem to be worth the money/effort. What about grenades, healing and ammo types? Did you switch to something more effective?

[JayK47]

Picked up that expensive gun at the shop in the first town. Also decided to switch up some gear. Using difference weapons give you a quick level boost since lower level weapons level up quicker. Also can dual wield now as well. Combat just got a lot more interesting. What is also cool is the animations that were getting stale get swapped with the weapons. So new guns means different animations. Doesn't sound like much but it is cool to see.

[JayK47]

Over 40 hours and I can't stop playing. It has been a while since a game has captivated me as much as this game. I seriously wish I could just keep playing it and not have to walk away from it.

The only downside to the game is the story will sometimes remove one of the characters from your group leaving you with only 2 characters. You can't do one of the more special moves with only 2 and you are also much weaker.

I've picked up many more guns and tons of gun mods. I love how this game allows you to mod your guns. It is fun to do. I also really like how you can change appearances and it shows up in cut scenes. Two of my characters now dual wield and one has a single pistol with grenades. I'm finding that with the right weapons, I do not need to heal so I don't even equip the medical bag. The only downside there is the lack of an escape hex which unfortunately you have to be in the world map to access. So once defeating a boss, I have to then fight my way out. More loot for me I guess. Kind of wish the enemies would not respawn right after you leave an area.

[Deadend]

I started playing, I'm in Chapter 2. The combat is odd, as it basically comes down to making it so you have to Hero Run or lose most of the time, but if your Hero Run fucks up, it's game over, as with only 3 chips, it's quite risky in areas with walls that can't be seen that well during the cutscene aspect of a run.

I also pretend the older dude is just Nathan Drake with a Ponytail. It makes the game better.

I don't like how grindy it feels, as it is taking way more violence to put dudes down, so I feel I need to beef my characters up.

I do feel the game is refreshing when played in 2012 in a way it probably wasn't when it came out, as back then it was the last of a genre, today it's a relic and is full of zany mechanics for their own sake. Shit, just looked it up, 2010? Wow, it looks like shit, I was thinking this was a game from 2007 or so. Still, it feels like it's from 07 at the latest.

I guess it's by Tri-Ace, parts of it feel a bit Shadow Hearts to me. I can't quite explain it, but it's like Shadow Hearts.

I also have stacked multiple scopes on a gun, which is hilarious and I wish the look of the gun in combat reflected that, as all these scopes that characters never look through while shooting is kind of great.

[bean]

Yeah. I remember feeling like the combat didn't change up enough as I moved through the game. As the characters never change, it's important that their abilities evolve quickly enough that you aren't fighting the same 10 fights the same way over and over. They did a decent job of changing up the enemy types and how they are fought (though you're right that the basics of that are still to get a large triangle going and Hero Run).

[JayK47]

To keep things fresh I switch character order and weapons a lot. It also helps boost your level. Something I have been doing a lot of lately is jumping during my hero runs. I didn't think of it earlier when there was enemies or obstacles in the way. Just jump over them and blast the crap out of them. On the 360 controller it is the "X" button.

I can see why they do not show weapon attachments. I'm in chapter 12 or 13 and I have over a dozen attachments on most of my weapons. Weapon customization is sort of like a mini game trying to piece the puzzle together with the most attachments.

I think the game looks fine. The characters look great. Some of the combat areas are lacking in detail, but that doesn't bother me. I'm having so much fun with the gameplay I don't have time to nitpick the graphics.

Ah, Shadow Hearts. I love that series. I still have the set and would love to play it again. Now those graphics may hurt my eyes

[JayK47]

Wrapped this up yesterday. I have 90+ hours into it. Pretty much every hour was great fun. I picked up every new weapon that I was aware of. I was still finding new things in the game in the last hours like how to position the weapons during customization. I always thought the gun was stationary.

The whole story is pretty weird, and for me, I will probably need to play through the game twice to make any sense out of it. And after trying some other jRPGs afterward, I may just do that. It has been a while since I have enjoyed a jRPG, or any type of game for that matter, this much. This game just snapped with me. The combat is just so much fun I can grind all day in the arena and still have fun. Most jRPGs have pretty boring combat, and no sooner than I put this game down, I am wanting the same combat to be in other games. I doubt they will ever make a sequel, so my chances of seeing similar combat are slim. Too bad. I think they really made something unique and complex here.

If any of you get hung up on a boss or something, I can help if the GameFAQ guide can't. I used that a few times to track down items for side quests when the game didn't give me an exact location.

EDIT:
If you are like me and lost track of the plot, wikipedia has a great write up on it.

Resonance of Fate Plot

Pretty cool world they created for this game.

[jpublic]

I decided to pick this up again. God I love the combat.

[jpublic]

Hey Jay, is it better to specialize with weapons or to get everyone leveled as evenly as possible?

[JayK47]

You do level up much faster if you keep switching up grenades, handguns, and sub-machine guns. However, I did have favorite weapons for the characters. It is cool how each character has their own animations for each weapon and even when they double up. So no reason to specialize. It does seem to taper off after a while almost forcing you to pick up a lower level weapon. Then you suddenly get levels back to back. In the last area, I was using grenades heavily and gained about 10 levels in an hour per person. Went from 90 to 100 real quick.

[jpublic]

And are there actually better weapons? I spent an hour grinding cash to get that 100k weapon in the Ebel store, and was thoroughly underwhelmed.

[JayK47]

There are more weapons. By the end I had picked up 2 additional sub machine guns and 4 more handguns. Half are picked up on side quests and the rest are through purchases and the arena. The arena one is by far the hardest to acquire, or shall I say most tedious. That depends on how much you enjoy the combat. I enjoyed the combat so much the arena "grinding" didn't get me down as long as I kept it to below 2 hours. No new weapons simply blow away the others. Each tends to have one stat that sticks out and depending on your play style, you may not even like a new weapon. I loved the desert eagle from the arena, because it does the most damage (and it took me forever to get it). I didn't care much for the handguns that charge quickly while keeping damage down, because there are so many ways to increase charging with mods.

Mods make all the difference. In the end I had some very elaborate mods on my guns. And it took me forever to realize how to move the gun around on the mod screen. Either I am a slow learner, or the game has a high learning curve.

The 1911, because it does one point of damage more than most guns, I used from beginning to end. That and I really like the classics.

[jpublic]

I bought that SG-229 pistol, and holy crap does it suck. It says it has huge capacity, but my guys only ever fire like 4 shots with it.

[JayK47]

I thought it was at least better than Leanne's default gun which I never went back to after replacing it. It sure sounds better

I never remember firing less than a full clip during an attack. In the beginning, I wasn't paying attention to that though. You can't dual wield early on either due to weight restrictions.