Battle in fantastic cinematic action as your characters wield firearms in a semi-real time gameplay system. Pull spectacular moves and precision attacks through this special mode designed to chain enemy attacks together. This unique story is built around a gigantic clock tower like machine delving deep into fate and the machinery that controls it. Masterfully crafted environments illustrate the deep tapestry of this dystopian world. Customize your characters and give them a unique look within the game and cutscenes. Extensive weapon customization allows your character to have specialized weapons from parts unlocked or bought throughout the game. Customize and change the look of your character by unlocking costumes along the way.
Storyline Civilization on earth has long been forgotten with the previously lush world now a burned out remnant of its former self. Originally built as an experimental life support system, Basel is now the only place on Earth where mankind can sustain their lives. As their role their PMF (Private Military Firm) the group (Vashyron, Zephyr and Leanne) must seek out and complete quests for their clients leading them on a journey that will reveal the truth of Basel.
About the Developer Experienced RPG development team, Tri-Ace, behind this entirely new vision of fate within a steam punk world. The Tri-Ace development team has had a hand in developing some of gamings most celebrated RPG franchises from Star Ocean to Valkyrie Profile. Sega and Tri-Ace now introduce Resonance of Fate, which adds a new spin to the genre with a new cinematic action gameplay system centred around gun play and a steam punk styled world.
Features:
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Battle system - Battle in fantastic cinematic action as your characters wield firearms in a Semi-real time gameplay system
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Invincible mode - Pull spectacular moves and precision attacks through this special mode designed to chain enemy attacks together
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Unique story - Built around a gigantic clock tower like machine, the story will delve deep into fate and the machinery that controls it
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Beautiful environments - Masterfully crafted environments pepper this title to illustrate the deep tapestry of this dystopian world
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Customization - Customize your characters and give them a unique look within the game and cutscenes
Average Customer Review:
( 21 customer reviews )
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64 of 69 found the following review helpful:
If this is wrong, I don't wanna be right.Mar 21, 2010
By M.D.C.
"The Franchise"
For summary judgment, skip to the very bottom.
I'll never understand Sega's game release date logic. They often release some simply outstanding games (Skies of Arcadia, Valkyria Chronicles, Sonic Adventure, NiGHTS on Sega Saturn, Shining Force, and now this), but when they release them, it's amidst larger, more notable games, and as a result the Sega games get kicked to the curb. In particular they did that with Valkyria Chronicles - it was released, surrounded by two of the largest games at the time, Call of Duty: World at War and Gears of War 2. It never stood a chance. Nevermind the fact that Sega never even bothered to advertise Valkyria Chronicles in GameStop or Amazon or any other game store. I only knew about it because I specifically target RPGs. We've got people who are just now playing the game, realizing that they skipped over a classic.
Resonance of Fate is/will be such a game too.
Overshadowed by the hype that is Final Fantasy XIII and God of War 3, I fear that this one will go under the radar and not get played for two years like its brother. If you're reading this review, hopefully you're at least curious, or maybe you just weren't impressed by Final Fantasy XIII. I suppose it's possible you already beat that game and moved on. In either case, this review is going to be a bit difficult to follow, because I have to exert extra effort into how to express what I think about this game. Not bad, just...different.
RoF takes place in the distant future, where humanity has so destroyed the world that the majority of the population is gone and dead. Before their end they created a large machine, called Basel, that is designed to purify and replenish the earth. It was not able to do this, as the remaining population decided just to live on some of the levels of Basel and ended up ruining it. It's livable, but not able to do what it's designed to do. The story unravels slowly as you are introduced to the various characters of the game. Unlike other RPGs, there is no "meeting" your party. You start with all three of the characters you'll be using, and though one or two may leave or be otherwise not available at times, generally you're working with the three. There's a reason for this - the battle engine, which I'll get to later, works best when you have a full staff. IT's not for nothing though: there's something to be said about a game that actually shows its male characters watching porn while the female character is taking a shower...then cracks jokes about the size of said female character's breasts (no, there is no nudity displayed!)
The graphics in RoF remind me a lot of Infinite Undiscovery, Star Ocean: The Last Hope or Magna Carta 2 - where everything looks like the screen is at maximum contrast and sharpness and things just "pop" at you. This can be good or bad - it's an acquired taste and certainly not nearly as visually stunning as Final Fantasy XIII, but it's not a horrible looking game, either. In fact some of the towns and buildings you'll visit are quite detailed, down to things moving in the background and the changing from day to night (something very few RPGs do anymore, by the by) as you adventure. There are a given number of game engine cutscenes, and a select few CGI full motion ones. What is there, is fairly short and not designed to be the focal point of the game by any means. The cutscenes last barely a minute each, and are snippets of the overall story. The majority of it is told through the quests and the dialogue between the characters, so if you're not a fan of reading, you might want to skip this game.
Don't expect to see the usual swords and spears of other games. RoF uses guns and other artillery to get the job done. These guns can be customized with different parts to make your characters as powerful as you want them to be. Your weapons also have levels of their own besides the characters' levels. As you level up, you gain various skills and enhancements that make your characters more potent in battle...and trust me, you'll need them. Some battles are extremely simple, but you get to bosses that use certain strategies that will push your skills to the limit. In regular battles there are times you seem invincible; some bosses can bring you to your knees with a few shots. It's that random. You can run and shoot in given directions, jump and shoot your enemy into the ground, or juggle your enemy into the air from below. There are a variety of other techniques that you can leverage to assist you, all of which require a lot of multitasking to do. It's not the type of game you can button mash your way through - maybe a few of the regular enemies, definitely not the bosses. For example, you might run, but be stopped by a boss who levels you with a major attack. Depending on how much damage you'd taken up to that point, you might be sent into critical mode, which makes you so weak that all you can do is shoot and run away; no fancy tricks. One more hit, you're dead, and have to try all over again.
Without going into too much detail about the battle engine, know that it feels like a mish-mash of a number of games from the past: Max Payne, for the acrobatic gunslinging; Wild ARMs, just because; and a pinch of Dark Cloud, in that the enemies you defeat hold the key to "rebuilding" the world around you. As you slay each enemy, you'll gain energy hexes that are used to navigate the world. This naturally forces you to do battle in order to advance in the game, and discourages you from running from every enemy. You really shouldn't be about running anyway...because you'll come up against a boss that will mop the floor with you in short order if you don't keep your party sufficiently powered up. If you're feeling adventurous, RoF features a number of difficulty levels that you can unlock as you beat the game, each one incrementally more challenging than the ones before it, with the base level being difficult enough as to frustrate most reviewers. If you're a glutton for punishment, the game will give you what you came for. However, I want to warn you: The battle controls are a bit difficult to learn. There are so many controls that make use of basically every single button that they can be overwhelming. There is a full on training section; use it. DO NOT try to just jump into the game and start playing without going to the training, because you will get killed and you will get confused, I promise you!!!
Resonance of Fate is a throwback to older games such as Ninja Gaiden, Mega Man and the NES versions of Metal Gear, where you'll encounter bosses that are so cheap that you feel compelled to defeat them no matter the cost. To the game's credit, it never feels like you're underpowered or underleveled, because you were forced to grind to unlock the energy hexes. But it's the tactics used by the bosses that will frustrate you - attacks that take nearly 10x the damage you're accustomed to taking up to that point, attacks that go the full range of the map, and attacking you from behind cover. But it gets better: the game rubs this dynamic in further when you die, because you're given essentially three options. Load your game, which means you're strolling back however far from wherever you last saved; Retry, which lets you try again to beat the boss without walking back to him at a cost of 200 Rupees, or Retry in Hero Mode, which lets you try again to beat the boss without walking back to him AND gives you enough power to do some major damage, at a cost of a staggering 20,000 Rupees. It's entirely possible these amounts go up as you progress each chapter; I didn't die enough times to verify. But you can't help but be absolutely livid at the notion that a boss used a cheesy tactic to take you out, costing you precious money to get a second shot at him. It actually encourages and energizes you to beat the snot out of him when you regenerate. What's worse though, is that if any one of the three characters dies, it's Game Over. There is no reviving in this game, which just adds to the challenge.
IF I had to note the most impressive thing about the game, it's the music. Clearly, Star Ocean was inspirational when deciding what tracks to compose for this game, because it's just as well orchestrated and intricate as SO. Every theme you encounter has an epic feel without being too overpowering or loud; and the battle music changes depending on what you're doing at any given time. I can assure you that I'll be getting the soundtrack...that is, if one is ever released, which it probably won't be.
In summary: do I recommend it? Absolutely. This is a sleeper hit for sure. It's a shame that it is being overlooked in favor of other more notable games, and it's even more a shame that Sega has not pushed this one harder. It almost seems like Sega has just stopped emphasizing the US market since the failure of the Dreamcast which is unfortunate: if not for them, we wouldn't have the types of games we have now. Resonance of Fate is a must try. Even if you don't feel comfortable buying it just yet, rent it at least.
20 of 24 found the following review helpful:
One of the best RPGS I've ever playedMar 26, 2010
By Casey G. Nezin I'm not going to list anything about plot here. Odds are, if you're the one buying this, you've already read the wikipedia page and looked up about a dozen other reviews. Relatives who are considering buying this for their 14 or older son, if he's into this kind of thing, he'll love it.
So, there's a lot of people comparing this to FFXIII, aka Final Fantasy 13, which is unsurprising, as they are both Japanese RPG games released within a week from each other. This is where the comparisons end. This is not a FFXIII review(read my review of that, though). This game stands alone and does (almost) everything right. It uses a battle system which is turn based, involving moving your characters independently towards enemies, charging up your weapons, and unloading an entire gun clip into them. It's violent, but only in the sense that there are guns. There's no blood or gore that I was able to observe, but there's a lot of gunshots, and let me tell you, after strategically placing your characters and attacking the enemy, it is incredibly satisfying hearing those shells drop in surround sound. It's really hard to explain how this game works--you have to play it to really experience it. What really keeps this game from shining is that it provides you no tutorial. I spent an hour just walking around the beautifully rendered city in the game, observing the amount of detail put into the steampunk monstrosity. The characters are drawn in a Korean fashion, with exaggerated expressions, gray eyes, and dull clothing, but I can tell you that I found their designs instantly more appealing than most of the ones I've seen in anime style games as of late. The expressions are realistic without trying to acheive that kind of hyper-realism that comes off as just plain creepy. Fans who have seen Final Fantasy 7 Advent Children know what I'm talking about here. I get that I'm rambling, but here's what I'll tell you: the soundtrack is beautifully composed. The characters look great, as do the environments. Be warned, this is not a super duper high budget game: it is not Bayonetta, which had tons of money poured into it for advertising alone(whereas this game had none, at least in North America). That having been said, it is still very good looking, and if you own an xbox, I can guarantee it looks nicer than Halo 3.
The combat system is actually very intuitive once you get into it and learn it, but it takes a good couple hours to understand it. If you don't have the patience to learn, and are looking for some instant satisfaction, you're missing out on this. But not giving players an instant tutorial is actually kind of refreshing. In an otherwise linear game, it gave me a sense of freedom, and it was immensely satisfying figuring it out and thinking "Ah, so that's how it works".
Bottom Line: If you or anyone you know is into anime, rpgs, or gun blazing games, this is a must get. Anime watchers will catch references to Innocent Venus, Burst Angel, Appleseed, as well as Isaac Asimov's book End of Eternity. If you liked FFXIII, you'll like this better, guaranteed.
7 of 7 found the following review helpful:
A nice change of paceSep 02, 2010
By r_von First of all let me say that this game is not for everyone. It is not any easy game, the battle system takes a lot of time and patience to master. (at least it did for me, and I have been playing RPGs for a good 20+ years) So if you are looking for an RPG that is easy to pick up and run with you might want to look some place else. That being said, this game is wonderfully challenging, and deliciously different. It is not another Final Fantasy clone, it is something much better, and much much deeper. It took me a good 10 hours before I figured out the battle system well enough to pull off a Tri-attack, and another 10 hours before I actually 'got' it. Once I did get it was just so satisfying and I was instantly in love with this game. I love the characters, I love the challenge, I love collecting hair dye & eyeglasses, and upgrading my weapons, and most of all I love the story. This is a beautiful game.
7 of 8 found the following review helpful:
Best Non-traditional JRPG on 360Apr 30, 2010
By D. Kimsey-Hutchinson Resonance of Fate does all the things Tri-Ace has been trying to accomplish for years. It succeeds in the areas their other games had failed in, topped off with what I believe to be their best combat system on the 360.
Eternal Sonata had a creative battle system and decent characters, but failed in premise, pacing, and (most of the) story.
Star Ocean: TLH had a great battle system, nice visuals, and interesting crafting but had abominable characters, the worst pacing I've ever seen, and a confusing, boring, and unnecessarily long story.
Infinite Undiscovery... Well, frankly it sucked. It was close to broken as far as gameplay, the story was a long string of coincidences with a vague "dumbass saves the world" plot, an unmanageable party system, and one-dimensional characters. I guess if there was anything positive... It looked nice and had nice music. That's really all I got out of it.
Resonance of Fate gets all these things right. I recognize the good aspects of all of their previous titles in this game.
The atmosphere and world they've created in Basel is a new take on the apocalyptic settings found in most FPS as of late, with a creative puzzle-style game mechanic on the world map. The mythos behind the world is slowly revealed, intermixed with the personal day-to-day experiences of your party.
The group of three bounty hunters are together at the beginning, and for the most part they stay together throughout the game. They are all complex characters, complete with reasonable responses to every situation. There is some over-the-top humor, but honestly it doesn't bother me that much. The game also delves into very interesting philosophical and religious questions, focus on fate (topical!) and personal choice vs predestination. The characters might look like your average JRPG characters, but they might surprise you in how they act.
The combat system, which is the core of the game, is very complicated and has been explained extensively in other reviews. I believe it's Tri-Ace's best work to date. In order to get into though, taking all the tutorials and investing in a lot a lot of arena practice is a necessity. Once you get into it (Which is not nearly as long or as difficult as some have said), the combat is fun, deep, and strategic. There are numerous strategies, a variety of weapons, and many useful and/or fun items.
The menus are clear and easy to navigate, the graphics, although not awe inspiring, look average to good for this generation.
My favorite part about this game is its value. I'm well over 50 hours (over halfway through in chapter 10) and it only gets better. There's a lot of content to get through, a lot of excellent story, and a lot of good times to be had.
8 of 10 found the following review helpful:
Definitely worth the moneyDec 31, 2010
By M. K. Mcglaughlin Essential points: Graphics - 5 stars Character Design - 4 stars Ease of Use - 3.5 stars Battle System - 4 stars Story - 5 stars Enjoyment Factor - 5 stars
I don't have a very big game budget, so I have to choose my titles with care. After doing a bunch of research and reading all the reviews, I decided to try Resonance of Fate.
-The graphics are lovely. Ebel City is a wonderfully layered steampunk setting, its small size offset by its detail. At first it was almost overwhelmingly busy, but as I got used to each layer of detail, there was still one more and one more after that to see. Beautiful. The world map is totally functional in design, but it suits the mood of the game.
-I didn't like the choice to make all of the playable characters blond, particularly since two of them are shown in the beginning cutscenes with dark hair. For one of them, this makes sense, since he's "in hiding" and supposed to be dead. I don't understand the rationale, but it's still workable. All in all, the characters are attractive, distinctive, and have believable personalities that interact well.
-I bought this game with the strategy guide, because I like to have backup if I can't figure something out on my own. The negative reviews definitely are not true; there are 16 total tutorials offered in the arena area, and I highly recommend doing each until you understand it. They are repeatable, and for my first few game sessions I repeated at least one tutorial (mostly tri-attack) for review before moving out into the world map. Even with all this, there will be times when you get whipped and have no idea how it happened. Just keep trying!
-The battle system is easy to get the hang of, but very hard to master. The vast variety of options available to you means you can enter the same area against the same enemies and begin the battle in the same way, but one time you win handily and the next time you get handed your heiny on the way out. The trick is paying attention to the changes - what works and what doesn't? If you pay attention to detail, the combat system is much easier to understand.
-I am not a "hard-core" gamer, just a major dabbler. I played and loved all the Final Fantasies (that were released in the U.S.) from 1 through 13, excepting 11 which I played but which was kind of terrible. I've played JRPGs from Lunar: Silver Star Story to Eternal Sonata, and I love the genre. I don't typically like the gun based ones, hence my hesitation to buy Resonance. I'm incredibly glad I did, though. Story is the main reason I enjoy playing these types of games, and Resonance's story is more sci-fi than most RPGs I've played, making it a fun change of pace.
-Despite occasional spikes of frustration, this game is entirely enjoyable if you take the time to figure it out. I'm so very glad I did. If you want something mindless to play, this is not, repeat NOT the game for you. You do have to strategize, to think several steps ahead of both what you are doing and what your enemies are doing. If you aren't capable of putting in that effort, don't bother buying this game, because you won't like it. If you are, get this game NOW. (I bought this game last week (before Christmas '10) at 13.99, and the price has increased twice since then. Just a word to the wise.) I'd also strongly recommend the strategy guide; since this game has not been as popular as others of its genre, online walkthroughs are scant.
based on 21 reviews
( 21 customer reviews )
