Though difficult to pick up at first, Resonance of Fate provides one of the most refreshing RPG experiences to date.
But what makes Resonance of Fate so special? Well, the story is a fantastic place to start. The story of Resonance of Fate takes place in the gargantuan tower called Basel in which humanity is forced to live in after an unnamed cataclysm. Zephyr, Vashyron, and Leanne are three hunters, or guns for hire, who take contracts from the tower's leaders as well as the occasional odd job. The story moves along in an episodic manner, using chapters as a way to structure the story. In fact, the entire game felt like I was running through an interactive action series, which kept me more than interested on what was unfolding.
By far, the largest point in the story's favor is how the characters are written. Each main character displays a wide range of emotion, whether it be anger, sadness, silliness, or Dante-like cockiness. Each character has a past to be revealed and the twists are revealed in a thoughtful manner rather than just abruptly turning the narrative on its head, giving more meaning to what takes place and allows the player to be more attached to the characters. If there are two things I would be confident in saying about Resonance of Fate, it would be that the story and character development are top-notch. Combat, on the other hand, is a bit tricky.
The combat system in Resonance of Fate is a bit quirky, to say the least. In fact, its hard to fully describe in writing, but here is the combat in a nutshell:
Battles take place in a designated area via random encounters or in dungeons. Characters can be equipped with handguns (which damage the target directly), grenades (which do the same as handguns, but can also add status effects for certain types of), and machine guns (which lower the target's defenses so the other two types can deal more damage). Because of this, there's the strange fact that machine guns can't kill anyone. Still, because handguns do so little damage on their own, having someone with a machine gun is essential to pull of a quick one-two combo. Grenades fare a bit better on their own, but still run into the problem of not being able to do that well without having some assistance from a machine gun.
Honestly, trying to explain the details of the combat system in relation to weapon types beyond that would be too convoluted to properly convey in a review without droning on. This leads into the only serious issue I could find with Resonance of Fate: the tutorials. Every tutorial is done through text and, since the game isn't SDTV-friendly, the text is irritatingly small. Because of this, I was forced to figure things out on my own and, after about three hours or so of trying to grasp the combat system, I was left seriously annoyed for a small while.
Instead, a feature of combat that is easy to describe would be hero movement.
Hero movement is by far the most unique aspect of Resonance of Fate. This type of movement is activated by pressing square and choosing a set path to run in. Once all that's settled, the player is treated to some Devil May Cry-styIe gunplay, complete with midair flips, firing over the shoulder, and tossing guns up in the air, catching them, and firing away. The amount of animations for this feature are decently varied and, quite honestly, they never get old. Seriously, this aspect is endlessly amusing.
A slight downside to everything that's offered in the game play department is the overall difficulty. Without warning, the player might be unable to use all three characters and the curve of how monsters strengthen is erratic. At times, there are instances in which the level of the monsters will be double that of the characters, but at other times the monsters will be laughably easy. The progression certainly has its fair share of brick walls, but it turned out to be nothing a little grinding and planning couldn't fix. Still, the difficulty is one of the largest issues that anyone will have when playing this game. However, it's not horrible enough to be a deal breaker.
On the other hand, another point in Resonance of Fate's favor is the soundtrack. The music, in all regards, is amazing. The orchestral score is highly varied, switching between songs for both day and night. Combat music is even better, mainly due to the fact that it will suddenly ramp up when hero movement is activated. I wouldn't be opposed to buying the soundtrack if it weren't about six discs long, but regardless; Resonance of Fate has one of the best soundtracks in gaming to date.
Overall, Resonance of Fate is a RPG gem that is more than worth picking up. However, finding it in stores seems to be a near-impossibility so buying online would be the best course of action. If you enjoy the RPG genre and crave for something different, or at least something good, Resonance of Fate is the right way to go. With enough patience, it's more than worthwhile.