Resonance of Fate (PS360)

[thcrock]

I was at Gamestop looking for what to spend my trade-in credit on, as there were about five PS3 games I knew I wouldn't play again, and wanted to put them to good use. Having gone all of this console generation without any RPGs (minus Valkyria Chronicles, if that counts, I knew I wanted to get a JRPG. and Final Fantasy XIII was actually at the top of my list, but I had looked up the price on Amazon, which is about $15-25 cheaper than Gamestop's. Figuring that would be a waste of my trade-in credit, I went with Resonance of Fate instead.

I'm not too far into it yet, only on chapter 5. Looking at online trophy lists, I must be approaching 1/3 of the way through the game. So far, I'm really liking it. Here are my impressions:

• Battle system: Really freaking awesome, but easily the hardest RPG I've every played. Its a mix of real-time and turn-based. You have to charge up your attacks, and you can potentially be attacked and have your attack cancelled if you're hit while charging. Charging multiple times can make the attack super powerful, but obviously you have a greater chance of being disrupted. Really, I could go on and describe every little feature of the battle system, but that would be pointless. This is a game that challenges you with the battle system, and it's really rewarding.
• The overarching game plot seems kind of interesting, but the dialogue between the three main characters is excruciatingly awful. At first it was just bad, but I just got past a scene here in chapter five that seriously made me embarassed to be playing this game. Also, its really weird that Nolan North voices the main character, because I'm hearing Nathan Drake speak and seeing a JRPG cliche uttering the words. I will say that he does great as Drake, but is way overused.

That's it for now. I'm not going to post a full review, because I want to get back to playing the game. I'm just trying to open up a dialogue with anybody else who is playing / has played it.

[Hirathien]

I actually got it for PS3, didn't really.. Play it that much due to the horrible explanation of the combat, the annoying world map.... And... That's about it! The other stuff seems reasonable, except the building a weapon thing, think i made one that's too heavy to wield or something. I might give it another shot, when pigs can fly, or when i feel like playing it again.

[Palmguy]

I bought it when it came out, although I just went as far as chapter 4. Not that I didn't like it or anything, I just got busy and stopped playing it... I should start again... What I don't like about it is the world map... it really annoys me, but other than that, I like it. I admit that it's really hard, but at time, also very easy... It's hard to explain. But overall, I like the "feel" of the setting as well as everything new that came with it.

[Raww Le Klueze]

I was interested in it, but the more I saw of the battle system the less interest I had.

I saw the comparison that every fight is like a boss fight, and I'm not gonna play a game that expects that much time for every single fight.

[thcrock]

That's not really true. First, there's not nearly as many battles as most RPGs. Usually four to five battles in an entire dungeon, usually just one dungeon per chapter, and though there are technically technically overworld battles, you can avoid them most of the time.

Second of all, once you learn the battle system, you can get through most random dungeon battles in a couple of turns. If there's a 'leader' enemy, you can just target them and end the battle in less than a turn.

Boss battles themselves don't take a long time, they're just hard. Generally, if you don't take out the boss within about five or six turns or so, you're going to die anyway.