Resonance of Fate is a strategy role-playing game that offers a deep but complex battle system, set in an obscure world with a great and amusing cast of characters, that offers hours of fun, for those who like a challenge.
After a slightly disorienting opening sequence, we're introduced to the main cast of the game, Vashyron, Zephyr and Leanne (Reanbell in the Japanese version of the game) a small group of guns for hire. Despite being very Japanese, Resonance of Fate features a rather unique
Without much of a clue of what is going on beyond the fact that you've been hired for a certain menial task, you're dropped into control and off you go.
The game takes place in the world of Basel, which is basically a gigantic clockwork tower, where all of humanity resides.
The world map is divided into hexes, which need to be activated with items that all enemies drop before you can traverse into them. Some hexes hide items and gear and some special hexes are coloured, which can only be unlocked with special coloured items, which are granted to you as the story progresses.
The interesting cast of characters that Resonance of Fate offers extends beyond your own party, and you'll run into some really strange people while out earning your pay. This and the deep combat system kept me interested, even though the game seems devoid of some kind of storyline for the first few chapters.
Unfortunately the game offers little in the sense of showing you how the combat works, beyond the mountains of text in the optional tutorial, that you can bring up at any time. Even though the tutorial is overwhelmingly extensive, having a system as complicated and deep as this being explained to you by a wall of text and some pictures will not give you a strong sense of how it actually works. As a result you will spend a few hours figuring out what everything does and what exactly a Tri-attack is.
It's hard to start explaining the combat system of Resonance of Fate without going into detail on the weapons that you can use and swap freely between your party members outside of dungeons. A character can wield handguns, machine-guns and grenades in either one or both hands in different combinations. However wielding a handgun in one hand and a machine-gun in the other will limit you to only firing one at a time, while two of the same type grant you double the fun.
The reason behind such a mechanic comes down to how the damage system works: handguns and grenades deal direct damage, which is the only thing that can kill an enemy, while machine-gun deal 'scratch damage', which deals a ton more damage than handguns or grenades, but cannot kill an enemy. Instead, scratch damage fills up the health gauge of a target and when the target is hit by direct damage, the accumulated scratch damage will be added to the direct damage, thus being able to kill off a target with one bullet from a handgun, as long as you filled up his gauge completely with your machine-guns.
Characters also gain levels in their weapon skills, which for each skill level gained adds to your character level as well.
The combat itself is turn based in about the same sense as Valkyria Chronicles, where in you can move a character around freely on his or her turn until your turn-gauge runs out, and while doing so enemies can fire freely upon you if you run into their line of sight, or charge up attacks that will fire on other party members once your turn is over. You can at any point during your turn stop and start charging up your attack, which depending on your weapon skill level can only charge up to a certain amount before it caps out. Enemies can also fire on you while you are charging up your weapon gauge, and doing so might interrupt your action, making you have to start over, and ultimately causing you to run out of time before you can even attack.
Higher weapon charges also do different things for each weapon type, and depending on your level may add on extra effects as well, which are also unique to each weapon type. The biggest difference being that the machine-guns deal more scratch damage with more charges, handguns get a higher chance of stunning an enemy and grenades can knock enemies off balance.
All that is just the basics however, and the really amazing stuff starts happening when you start learning how to use the Hero actions and racking up charges on those, which in turn are used to perform Tri-attacks, in which all three characters attack at once.
Hero attacks basically turns your character invulnerable and sends them running
Hero actions can also trigger up charges if you run a character across a line between the two other characters of the party, and these enable you to perform Tri-attacks, which send all your characters running, just like Hero actions, but between the points where they all stood, changing places with each other, and the more charges you have, the more laps they run. At higher levels one Tri-attack can therefore allow you to wipe out an entire enemy force, not to mention, they look pretty wicked.
Beyond the combat system the game also features extensive customization options for your characters. There's a wide selection of clothing items to obtain or purchase, everything from coloured contacts and hair dye to slick new shoes. But the game also lets you customize your weapons, adding on things like additional scopes or barrels. My guns ended up with between five to six additional barrels and twice as many scopes, which is pretty ridiculous, but in a good way.
The game features a rather unexpectedly immersive soundtrack in the sense that each different environment of the game has its own battle music, and most of the different levels of the world map also have their own tracks. Beyond having unique area themes, the battle music also picks up pace when you perform Hero actions and Tri-attacks or going into a panic when you're in trouble, adding even more intensity to the battles.
The Japanese voice talent in the game keeps a consistently high quality that brings great life and character into your party, giving off a deep sense of camaraderie, and while the English voices are pretty good, some of the characters just seem a little too flat in comparison. Nolan North does a good job with voicing the somewhat perverted Vashyron but the Japanese voices offer a significantly different intensity in battle, where Zephyr comes off as a gun tooting crazy person, laughing and screaming as bullets go flying, his English counterpart sounds flat and boring. But of course, this is a matter of opinion.
Even though this is the case, sadly the game suffers from what appears to be a continuing trend with Sega published titles; slapping the English dialogue on as subtitles for the Japanese voices, which in some cases is vastly different, the most obvious case being that Leanne is constantly referred to by her Japanese name Reanbell. The worst part is however the lack of subtitles during combat, making any witty Japanese comments they spout in battle go over most peoples' heads.
While Resonance of Fate certainly isn't for everyone, it is a great and unique title. And if you're looking for a strategy role-playing game with a deep and entertaining combat system, extensive customization options and a great cast of characters, Resonance of Fate offers this and more, with a game time spanning from 40-80 hours depending on how much of the content you go through. Highly recommended, if you are looking for something different and challenging.