I'm going to compare this game to final fantasy 13, since I finished that immediately before starting this one.

Resonance of Fate doesn't have as many breaktaking cutscenes or professional voice actors as FF13. It doesn't have as much polish or slick graphics like FF13 either. So how come I rated FF13 as a 3/5 and this as a 5/5? Not that resonance of fate is a perfect game, but I actually had fun playing it.

Resonance of Fate clocked in at around 58 hours, slightly longer than FF13. The main attraction for this game isn't the story or cutscenes or graphics, but the gameplay. The battle system is unique and does have a bit of a learning curve, but once you get used to it, you'll never look back to the "auto-battles" of FF13. Basically you have to select a path for your characters in battle and do "hero actions" while charging up your gun to inflict damage. Also, you can overlap these hero actions with your two other characters to create a "tri-attack." This can be difficult to orchestrate at first, but once you do, you'll be rewarded with a bullet-frenzied assault, tearing your enemies to pieces as your three characters navigate the triangle path you've laid out. Another element to consider is that machineguns inflict "scratch damage" which doesn't do anything until you combine it with handgun "direct damage" to kill your enemies. Handguns don't do much damage, so you have to organize both types of weapons to kill your enemies. Also you can use grenades that inflict status effects and knockbacks. This is the main attraction for resonance of fate: the strategic and jaw-dropping explosive combat.

Another fun element is customizing your guns and characters. You can buy/find/collect-from-missions different parts to enhance your guns' charge rate and magazine count, among other properties. This can lead to pretty bizarre looking weapons once you stack up a ton of barrels, magazines and scopes, but unfortunately the mods don't show up in the battle graphics (maybe in resonance of fate 2 they will?). Also, most of the missions in the game are optional, so you can play this as straightforward or fully as you want. You can even choose when you want to advance to the next story chapter, incase you want to find more items or do more missions first.

The "game world," despite being relatively small, is actually a lot more fun to explore than FF13, because you can do it however and whenever you want. You can uncover items, dungeons, and many optional boss battles to earn items and help trick out your characters. You can also customize their clothing with a wide array of garments to choose from.

The story isn't anything to write home about, and you might be scratching your head about some unanswered questions by the end, but it does the job. Also, the voice acting is decent, not as good as FF13 but it also gets the job done as well.

One great feature is the New Game+, which allows you to carry over your characters, skills, and guns for another play, and unlock a tough dungeon if you get bored. OR you can abandon what you've earned and progress to a higher difficulty, and repeat the process for a greater challenge.

The graphics aren't top-notch like FF13, but they are pretty good. If FF13 is a 10/10, then this would be an 7/10. HOWEVER the animations are actually really good, a lot less wooden and really smooth compared to the jerky "ATB chain" movements of your characters in FF13. Imagine doing a hero jump, your character gliding over the head of your enemy while unloading dual SMGs into them. Or emptying the clip of a .45 into their face as your character takes a rolling dive. Actually this good animation quality of the battles bumps Resonance of Fate up to at least an 8/10 for graphics.

For SEGA fans: SEGA has made a pretty good comeback these last few years... with games like Bayonetta, Yakuza and Valkyria Chronicles and now Resonance of Fate, I'll be keeping my eye on SEGA for their next big hit. They aren't afraid to take a risk, do something different, and make a great game.

In summary, for me, Resonance of Fate delivered what FF13 couldn't: fun. Despite multi-million dollar graphics and years of development, I have little desire to play FF13 again. However Resonance of Fate I'll jump back on as soon as I get the chance. If you want insane combat and customization, this is your game. If you want something new and a little bit different, this is your game. Here's hoping SEGA and Tri-Ace will deliver a sequel to this excellent experience!

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This game is an instant classic with brilliant graphics, environments, gameplay, and story. Blends JRPG and steampunk elements into a seamless experience that comes along once every few years. Characters are interesting, tons of customization from weapons to clothing, and the world is vast and full of areas to explore. Combat is unique, and there is a bit of a learning curve, but once you get the hang of it you'll enjoy the depth of strategy involved. This is a rich, complex game with many layers that will suck you in and make you glad you own it. For some reason it's pretty hard to find in retail stores, but grab it if you see it. One of, if not THE, year's best.

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So far this game is at the top of my list for this year. I love strategy games (especially turn-based) and RPGs and this one delivers. The best thing about this game is the combat. It has a decent storyline too, and an open world. It's sort of opposite to Final Fantasy 13 in those regards (not really, I'm being a little hard on FF13).

There are challenge encounters (red dots on the map that you have the option to do, usually with really good rewards) that are fun and make you rethink your strategies multiple times. You can grind up and have a little easier time on encounters but you can still get owned by a boss if you do it completely wrong, but there's usually some good hints on how to kill stuff based on the area and what people say. It has a small penalty for losing to an encounter (have to pay money to retry, or you can just reload if you just saved) so there's a reason to focus on winning in battles.

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Noted RPG developer tri-Ace continue their work of creating excellent role-playing games with Resonance of Fate (RoF). In Japan, this game is also called End of Eternity. Not only does RoF follow the traditional RPG formula in many key ways, but it also reinvents how it is presented with a unique story and complex battle system. Unlike new arrivals, such as Final Fantasy XIII, RoF does not try to appeal to the mainstream. Instead, it is an RPG, not unlike Demon's Souls, in that the game appeals to the more hardcore gamer.

Story: The main story of Resonance of Fate centers on three characters, Vashyron, Zephyr, and Leanne. The game doesn't really do anything too innovative in the story content itself, but the presentation is unique among most role-playing games. Unlike most RPG's where the story is doled out bit by bit over the course of a chapter or act, RoF's core story only occurs at the beginning or end of a chapter, and following a major boss battle. Thus, you can finish chapters at your own pace without the feeling of being dragged along by the story. This method of storytelling does have the benefit of allowing the gamer to pace themselves, but with several hours between story sequences, it feels a little disjointed and difficult to remember previous events. The story content itself is largely unremarkable, and to avoid spoiling it, I'm not going to mention it, but RoF does diverge from standard RPG fare in one respect: Humor. Like all Japanese RPG's, RoF can be a touch melodramatic and over-the-top at times, however, there were several moments where I couldn't help but laugh out loud at some of the (Intentionally) funny moments. This is a major shift from RPG's that take themselves very seriously. Each of the characters have an important role to play and the story would unravel if their backgrounds were not reasonably fleshed out.

Gameplay: Resonance of Fate is meant for the more hardcore RPG players and it shows in how the game is played. The giant tower-world of Basel, think of the Tower of Babel only larger and steam punk, is where all of the game takes place and is split into 12 levels. Each level is a map covered in hexes. Initially, you are restricted to certain levels and cannot access the lower, and more dangerous, levels. From the beginning, not every energy hex on the map is open for exploration, you must use white hexes to open up the area, which can be obtained from battles. Some towns and dungeons are also locked using special colored hexes which are rarer. All energy hexes are specially shaped and you can only place them on the map in areas where the whole hex will cover an area and not fall outside the map. This adds a whole puzzle element to map exploration. If you unlock every hex on a level, you get the ability to warp back to your main base on level four from any station hex you construct on that level. Station hexes are bought using five colored hexes in guilds and allow you to save your game, rest, and head back to base. On the map, you will also find terminals which bestow special benefits on the party, such as being able to cause extra fire damage or increased experience. These terminals can only be activated using colored hexes and require a certain number of colored hexes to activate. As you lay down these colored hexes to activate the terminals, they can be chained with other terminals to increase the benefits but also over dungeons. If you enter a dungeon or have a random encounter on a colored hex which has activated terminals connected to it, you gain the benefit in battle. Terminals play a vital role in many battles and make or break some boss encounters. Towns and dungeons are similar in that you access them from the main level map, but how they are presented differ. Towns have NPC's you can interact with and purchase items from, along with a static camera, while dungeons have rotatable cameras and are like mini-hex maps, similar to the world map but on a smaller scale. RoF is entirely mission-based. The story and side missions are all lumped together in one screen so you know what is needed. Side, or guild missions, are obtained from the Hunter's Guild which releases up to three missions at once on a bulletin board for hunters, you, to perform. These missions can start out very easy, such as a standard delivery request, and can range to very difficult battles with boosted mini-bosses. Completing these guild missions gets you in-game currency and items, but also increases your hunter rank. For every one hundred levels of rank, you get a special item from the guild. RoF also does not have a deep economy even though you do have shops that provide basic equipment. The vast majority of your equipment comes from crafting, whose parts come from quests, broken down loot, or loot itself. You can customize your weapons any way you desire, though, the in-game weapon does not change in appearance, only the blueprint does. By themselves, the weapons don't do much damage, requiring you to customize them. This means that acquiring new weapons is more about the connection points and possible upgrades, rather than raw damage potential. You cannot simply add whatever part you desire to a gun since they have connection points which can restrict you to certain add-ons. Initially, you must take into consideration a weapon's weight as your characters can only equip so much, but this becomes less important as the game progresses. Another interesting, and somewhat superfluous, aspect is the degree in which you can customize your character's appearance. Each character has a wardrobe, which can be expanded at a boutique or exploring, each outfit style, called "A" and "B", has eight or so sections with items you can customize, from shirts, to pants, to holsters, to boots, even hair and eye color can be customized. So, if you want Leanne to run around Basel wearing a French maid's outfit, you can do it. If you want Zephyr to wear a reindeer costume, you've got it, too. If you want Vashyron to look like a gun slinging biker with all leather, black hair, and futuristic sunglasses, you've got that as well. Costumes don't impart any gameplay advantages, but watching Leanne dressed up as one of Santa's helpers tossing Molotov Cocktails in battle, is priceless.

Combat System: Normally, I would include this in the gameplay section, but, due to the complexity, this warrants its own section. Random encounters, compressed dungeon maps (These are dungeon's without any hexes but interconnected battle arenas), and standard dungeon encounters are where battles take place. For the majority of the game, you have all three characters active at once and the battle occurs in an arena environment. Anyone who has played Valkyria Chronicles would get the system very quickly as it shares many of the same elements. Each character is equipped with some sort of gun, either a hand gun or machine gun, along with an equipment case, such as a grenade box or first aid kit. Machine guns cause massive scratch damage in many situations, but cannot outright kill an enemy. Hand guns cause minor direct damage while converting scratch damage into direct damage. Scratch damage heals over time but direct damage is permanent. Therefore, in most battles, you should send a machinegun holder out to cause scratch damage on an enemy one turn, followed by a handgun holder the next. A magazine case is available for the machine gun and can cause status effects on an enemy. This becomes increasingly irrelevant as your characters are able to dual wield later in the game. Both grenades and handguns can cause gauge breakage to an enemy, more on that later. During battle, enemies can only perform actions when you do, thus you can go slow and plan out an attack. To perform an action, your character must "charge" their attack. The speed at which a charge happens is determined by the weapon, it's add-ons, and distance from an enemy. As the weapon charges, the damage potential increases exponentially and the possibility of combat skills activating increases, which are obtained during level up, while a timer decreases. The timer indicates the amount of time a character has during a given turn, if they aren't doing anything or stop charging a weapon, the timer, and all other battlefield activity stops. The enemy can interrupt your charge by firing at you, and you can do the same, however, it seems as though you stopping an enemy from charging their weapon is more rare. At the bottom of the screen, you have the hero gauge, which can be expanded by defeating bosses or exploring the map. The hero gauge is vital, it allows you to perform hero actions and recover if your character is overwhelmed by scratch damage. Hero actions are similar to standard attacks with a few exceptions. First, you are entirely invincible and uninterruptable. Second, time slows down while the charge rate increases. You do have a maximum amount of charge you can have, which is tied to your level in a given weapon, but it is very possible to have two or more attacks that are fully maxed out on charge. Third, you can jump over an enemy or run past them. Some enemies have protective body armor that protects their main hit point (HP) gauge, firing from the ground hits only the armor facing the character while airborne attacks hit all armor equally. From the ground, it is also possible to launch the enemy into the air and juggle them, canceling their turn but also opening up the possibility of a bonus shot which removes the restriction on the amount of charge you can have and vastly increases the amount of loot an enemy drops. While the enemy is in the air, you can jump up from the ground and join them. If you fire your weapon from a higher altitude, you can cause a "Smackdown" which is similar to spiking an American football. Performing a smackdown increases the amount of loot they drop and dazes them for a few moments. The hero gauge will also "revive" a character that has taken too much scratch damage. If one of your characters is saturated with this type of damage, the hero gauge breaks in half, you lose half of the remaining colored bezels on the gauge, and fragments of it scatter on the battlefield. Those fragments can be reacquired after the battle or during the battle. However, if the enemy obtains a bezel shard, they recover hit points. If you really mess up and the hero gauge breaks again, or you don't have any colored bezels remaining, you enter a critical condition. During this state all damage done to your squad increases, the charge rate decreases, and all damage is direct HP damage. If you lose all your HP (Hit points), it is game over. You can escape from battle or pay a fee and retry, but if you escape, you leave the battlefield and remain in the condition in which you left it until you arrive at your base or an energy station. If you choose to retry, you pay a fee and you restart the battle from the beginning in the same exact condition in which you entered it originally. This is important to remember since you cannot simply leave a compressed dungeon map without using a special item. This means that if you are deep in a dungeon without an escape hex, heavily damaged, and try to leave, you are going to have problems returning to the entrance since most enemies respawn.

Not all enemy units are equal in importance during battle. In some fights, there is also an enemy leader. If you take out this leader, you win the battle, however, some battles have no leader, necessitating an enemy-by-enemy elimination. Boss fights can also be tricky in that some are leaders with support units. These units can not only cause you harm, but automatically respawn. Hero actions are vital, you can cause an immense amount of damage in a very short time, ending the battle that much sooner. To recover hero gauge bezels expended from hero actions or a broken gauge, you can eliminate enemies or their armor. Each time you do this, a bezel is filled back in. Breaking an enemy's gauge causes their body, or their armor's, hit point gauge to fracture. To the game, a fractured gauge is treated like a full gauge. Therefore, if you fracture an enemy's gauge into four parts, you not only stun the enemy, but increase the number of bezels you can fill to four or potentially more. If your machine gunner completely loads the fractured HP gauge with scratch damage and a handgun or grenade causes the gauge to fully deplete, breaking the armor or defeating the enemy, you now have four filled bezels returned instead of just one. Hero actions can are plotted in straight lines, as you race to the end point, you are able to perform actions. You can also perform "tri-attacks", using resonance points obtained during hero actions. These resonance points are gathered by plotting, and completing, at least to the point of the intersection, a hero action passing between two other characters. During a hero action, a triangular pattern is displayed on the battlefield showing you the path each character will take. While performing a tri-attack, each character will perform an attack, in sequence, while running around the triangle. Like all attacks, you have to charge a tri-attack, however, the charging process for each character happens simultaneously. Most battlefields have walls and bunkers you can hide behind, along with exploding barrels and treasure containers. The leveling system in this game is also unique. You gain one point of experience for every point of damage you cause with a weapon. Each weapon class has an amount of experience it can obtain and the overall level of a character is determined by adding all three weapon class levels together. Therefore, if you have a level 30 in handguns, 30 in machine guns, and 30 in grenades, you have a level 90 character. After every four or five levels in a given weapon, you are granted a skill associated with that weapon. That skill compounds on top of any other skill you might have with that weapon and there is a chance for the skill to activate when you charge an attack during battle. Due to the leveling system, you should switch around weapons to ensure your characters have as many levels as possible. If this sounds complex, it is. This is one of the most complex battle systems I have ever encountered with an RPG. You must learn its nuances or you will become frustrated very quickly.

Misc.: Having finished Final Fantasy XIII, I started looking for a new RPG to play, and found Resonance of Fate. This game may not appeal to all players or sale very well, especially since it is cursed with the worst release date in history, between Final Fantasy XIII and God of War 3, but it is certainly worth a look for gamers who love RPG's or a very complex battle mechanic. At first, I was put off by the complexity, and thus, the perceived difficulty, of the game, but as I spent more time with it, I began to appreciate the title more and more. Sure, the game is brutal, but fair, and the story is jarringly split, but the way it pulls everything together is fascinating. The graphics are very nice, though, after playing Final Fantasy XIII on the PS3 in 1080p glory (That's what it says on the back of the box) and Resonance of Fate in 720p, this game doesn't look as good, but it has an interesting and highly detailed steam punk art style. The story is a little generic and presented in a series of vignettes, but the humor and quirkiness of it make it a joy to watch. Audio is also fantastic. The voice acting, with the main characters anyway, is top-notch with Nathan Drake, Desmond Miles, err... Nolan North providing the voice of Vashyron. Musically, the game is all orchestral with the exception of some dungeons using rock. I intend to by the soundtrack as the music really is that good. There are a few stumbling points with Resonance of Fate. For one, collision detection isn't great in some battlefields. For instance, if I plot a hero action over a mechanical enemy and I jump, I may have several feet of clearance between the top of the enemy and my character, but I will still end up hitting an invisible wall, in mid air and falling, stunned, in front of the enemy. I may even plot a hero action all the way to the other side of the battlefield and hit the wall on the other side, even though the path indicated I would not be going over the wall at all. Same thing with bunkers, you need quite a bit of clearance to get over them. If you miss and fall, your hero action is terminated and you're stunned, totally vulnerable. During battles, you and the enemy have audio sprites and sayings, but there were a limited number recorded so it is commonplace to hear the same line spoken over and over again in the same battle. Some of these lines from the enemies are very irritating, like the 1920's sounding gangster saying how dangerous he is or the gang member who says a line about how strong he is but in a valley boy accent (Think valley girl but from a guy) or the overly synthesized deep bass of a mechanical enemy saying he's going to kick my a**. While doing random encounters trying to get a certain number of green colored hexes, this became maddening and I muted the television. This is a multiplatform title developed mainly for the Xbox 360, as denoted by the 720p on the box, so much of the PS3's power isn't utilized though the game runs well. In terms of trophies, this game favors completion more than repetition with the trophies being easier than Final Fantasy XIII's. The vast majority of trophies are earned through simply playing the game or exploring every nook of Basel, but there are some that are repetitive. The trophy that comes to mind is the one where you have to gain stars in all 50 arena ranks. Each rank has ten battles, so you must fight 500 battles to earn that trophy, which is very labor intensive and moderately aggravating if you wait until just before the final boss to do it. Think about it, if you play the game through twice, which is necessary to earn a trophy, and most of the enemies in the arena are much weaker than you, the process can become tedious, fast. If you are going for platinum, go up to level 25 in the arena during your first play though doing one or two ranks per chapter, then finish it off during your next playthrough. Overall, this was a great game, but it is not a Final Fantasy killer with story, nor is it a Grandia with a battle system. This game took about 60 hours to complete the first time and I project about the same for the second playthrough as the arena and the high-level map of Neverland will take a while to get through. Resonance of Fate is an excellent choice for patient gamers who thrive on stats and strategy over fast reflex action.

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this game is plain good. though the plot is slowly developed, every cut scenes are really exciting and entertaining, and FUNNY! The combat is WOW! it's so addictive, but requires a lot of grinding on certain bosses, and the hardest dungeon is called Neverland, a post dungeon, play to find out :P Well, buy this game! you won't regret it! trust me, by all means!

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Do you want a real RPG?

Do you want a difficult, strategic, gameplay-driven epic?

Did you hate Final Fantasy XIII?

Chances are if you answered yes to one of these questions, the last two RPGs you have played are more than likely either Mass Effect 2 or Final Fantasy XIII. Mass Effect 2, a glorified action game, was extremely light on the RPG mechanics and took more from Gears of War than the actual genre it is supposed to be stemming from. Final Fantasy XIII is similar, passing up typical RPG traits such as exploration and deep statistical character development for a more action-oriented and linear approach. This might be great for some, but for those looking for deep RPG mechanics, lots of exploration, and very deep character customization, those two titles failed on every front.

In comes Resonance of Fate, tri-Ace's latest project, and fourth title in the last 2 years. While tri-Ace's recent games have all had their degrees of excellence (Infinite Undiscovery's uniqueness, Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume's writing, Star Ocean: The Last Hope's battle system), all of them have failed to live up to the company's otherwise near perfect reputation of delivering quality titles. Gone are the days of Star Ocean: The Second Story, and even though it has only been four years, the quality drop since their masterpiece Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria is most obvious. That is, until now.

The first part of Resonance of Fate anyone will notice is the setting, which is tri-Ace's second foray into a post-apocalyptic humanity. Unlike Star Ocean: The Last Hope however, the heroes of Resonance of Fate stay on Earth, with all of mankind living upon an enormous and gravity defying tower by the name of Basel. Basel, just like any decently run society based around class, separates its floors by the amount of money and power that person has. As is typical with this sort of society, the higher up the tower you go, the higher up in class its gets. The higher classes not only have the luxury of power and money, but they also have the safest neighborhood is. Conversely, the lower you go, the more dangerous it gets, with death running rampant throughout the streets.

The three main characters are a trio of mercenaries continuously hired by the upper class to do their dirty work, which usually involves miniscule tasks that are, for some reason, very important to the rich person giving the order. One such example has our group of heroes trudging their way through a dungeon of explosives and chainsaw wielding monsters. Why? For the sole reason that the person that hired you wants to find a perfect mannequin for his next work of art and had heard rumors of such perfection lying deep within the area. While it may seem like a waste of time at first, it actually adds to the satire that tri-Ace is trying to push; the rich have way too much time on their hands and are often very weird (and in some cases, mentally challenged). It is amusing and adds a nice sense of reality when you watch the normal nature of the middle and lower classes. In the end, you end up almost feeling uncomfortable to visit upper classes, as it is so different and severed from the reality that we know.

There is a story behind all of these tasks that Vashyron, Leanne, and Zephyr have to go through, though it is not what is most prominent. Rather than a constant stream of thirty minute dialog that tri-Ace has so fondly loved since the 90s, we instead are treated to the occasional five minute cutscene of interactions between the three heroes. Each cutscene represents either humor or something deeper and more philosophical, even delving into a conversation of the existence of God. It adds a nice slice of life to an otherwise over the top game. Instead of trying to force character development down your throat like most Japanese RPGs, tri-Ace instead plays the characters as normal and puts them in everyday conversations. Because of this, we grow to care about the characters far more than the inane JRPG character stereotypes that are not in any way believable.

Of course, with this being a tri-Ace title, the story and characters are mostly backdrops for what tri-Ace does best, which is gameplay. Taking a few ideas from the battle system of Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria and mixing them with guild missions and, to a lesser extent, the living world of Radiata Stories, tri-Ace has created a hybrid of many of their previous games all rolled into one. Except this time, we have guns, and a lot of them. The battle system is akin to Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria in the fact that it is a mix of real-time and turn-based. You can move whenever you would like, but when you move, so does the enemy. Conversely, when you stop, so does the enemy. When your characters begin to move, a meter depicting the amount of time they have left begins to count down. When this hits zero, their turn is over and the next one's begins.

During the actually turn of one of your characters, several instances can take place. You can either attack from a stationary position or initiate a hero action. A hero action is a line one of the heroes runs across (or jumps across) that puts them in an invincible state while attacking the enemies. The closer you get to the enemy, the faster a meter around the reticule begins to charge. At one charge, you can initiate your attack, but it will not do much other than at the beginning of the game. However, as you progress through the game, your character's skill in that certain weapon (Handgun, Machine Gun, or Grenade) levels up, adding a charge for each level. For example, if you are at level 10 with the Handgun, you will have 10 charges. Each new charge adds greater strength to skills, so racking up the chargers when attacking greatly benefits you.

Hero actions might seem broken at first, but tri-Ace balances this out with the Hero Gauge. The Hero Gauge is a meter that represents, in basic terms, how many hero actions you can do. When this runs out, you go into Critical Condition, with disallows Hero Actions and causes the characters to lose the ability of Scratch Damage (more on this later), as well as many other damning factors. But fear not, as defeating an enemy or breaking off parts recharges the gauge, which plays a huge part in success, especially during boss battles.

There is more to defeating an enemy than just taking away HP. In Resonance of Fate, there are two different kinds of damage: Scratch Damage, and Direct Damage. Scratch Damage (caused by Machine Guns) cannot kill an enemy and recovers over time, but it greatly diminishes the enemy's defense. Direct Damage (using Pistols and Grenades) is what incurs the real damage, but without Scratch Damage, its effectiveness is greatly reduced. Therefore, it is important to have a balance between doing Scratch Damage and Direct Damage, or else you will not find success.

There are many other factors to take into account as well. Shooting an enemy up into the air and juggling them will bring up a circular meter that has an arrow swirling around it. Matching the arrow up with the right portion of the circle will grant the player a bonus hit, which not only does a lot of damage, but also rewards the player with a copious amount of items. But if you fail on matching the arrow up, a bonus hit does not occur. However, the more you shoot the enemy into the air, the more the meter increases, heightening your chances. Not only this, but if you jump while the enemy is in the arrow and you attack, you have a chance to sustain a Smackdown, which smashes the enemy against the ground, dealing more damage and also rewarding many items.

Even more features are within the battle system, all of which play an important role. There are elemental attacks, different ammo that is more or less effective on different enemies, lead assaults, and much more. One specific feature is the Tri-Attack system, which is the "ultimate attack" of sorts in Resonance of Fate. Tri-Attacks consume Resonance Points, which are acquired by placing a Hero Action line across another character's Hero Action line, and running across it. Once a Resonance Point is earned, a Tri-Attack can be initiated if the player wishes. During this Tri-Attack, all three characters run in a triangle formation (which is determined by what position they are on the map at that point), all attacking the enemy at the same time. You cannot do this all of the time however, as merely moving your character or attacking take up a Resonance Point. So a lot of planning has to go into a Tri-Attack, as one false step (literally) can ruin the entire plan.

Getting used to the battle system is hugely important to Resonance of Fate. If you do not know what you are doing, then you will die. A lot. But if you die during battle, you are given the option to retry for a small fee, which makes it a lot easier than reloading from a certain save point, which there are very few of. And unfortunately, Resonance of Fate also follows the recent trend of RPGs where there is an automatic Game Over if your main characters die. What makes it more difficult however is that all three characters are considered main characters, so if any one of them dies, it's Game Over. This adds a lot of needless frustration, but at the same time it adds a sense of satisfaction when you barely scrape by a difficult situation.

Outside of battle is just as unique as it is when you are in it. There are towns, of which you shop and get missions, but what you'll spend most of your time in out of battle is the world map. The world map is laid out in several different hexagons call Hexes. These Hexes are locked off at first, but using Energy Hexes gathered from enemies, you can unlock them. Beneath these Hexes lie the occasional treasure chest, and in some cases, different locations such as terminals or towns themselves. There are a lot of Hexes to unlock on each level and will take hours to explore and unlock everything. What's more are the Terminals in the world map, which each have their own effect. However, to unlock these Terminals, you must erect a Hex Station of the color of your choice. Once this is erected, you must place that color of your choice down upon the World Map, and once there are enough Hexes laid down, the Terminal will officially effect those certain colored Hexes in that area. It might seem confusing, but spending time and Hexes on Terminals can have huge bonuses in the long run, especially when you are grinding or looting.

When you are not doing any of this, you are probably spending your time customizing your guns, and even more addicting, your actual characters. Customizing guns by adding scopes, larger magazines, different barrels, and more is very important to keeping your guns effective throughout the game. You can either buy these parts, or create them yourself by using items you pick up from breaking off enemy body parts. These parts increase everything from the speed of fire to the charge time and can be a deciding factor during close battles, so staying on top of recent gun attachments is very crucial.

The character customization is the feature that Resonance of Fate is mostly recognized for and is completely optional. This feature allows you to dress all three characters in the clothing of your choice, which is purchased from the local clothing shop or found in treasure chests. Not only that, but you can change your characters hair color, hair style, right eye color, left eye color, add countless accessories and more. It comes at a costly price though, as you may find yourself spending ungodly amounts of money just because you like the look of that piece. It is addicting however, and it is nice to see these changes of character appearance reflected in not only the cutscenes and battle, but even in the character portraits in the camp menu.

All in all, the gameplay is probably the most unique set of mechanics to come out of the JRPG genre in years. There has not been a JRPG like this and it adds a breath of fresh air to a dull and dying genre. It is a lot to take in, and you need to work at it, but once you get everything down, it is one of the most rewarding RPG experiences in a long time. Not only that, but the 10 difficulties and the New Game+ feature add a great deal of replayability that is unparalleled by most RPGs on the 360 and PS3. That, mixed with the deep gun customization, the character customization, the large amounts of exploring, and the many missions, and you can find yourself spending well over 80 hours on one playthrough. If it is one area that Resonance of Fate will be known for in the future, it is its gameplay.

While you spend your countless hours battling and exploring the world map, you will come upon many different locales that eventually all begin to look the same. The graphics do a great job of making you feel like you are part of the world, despite being underwhelming from a technical and repetitive standpoint. It is still a good looking game, and being an RPG, the graphics do not matter much, but coming from tri-Ace, a developer known for pushing a system to its limit, it is a bit of a disappointment. The characters are mostly great in design and occasionally very reminiscent of Star Ocean: The Last Hope, but as with the issues of the environments, muddy textures and the continuous use of brown and gray gets old after a while.

Accompanying the graphics is one of the most impressive soundtracks to grace the current generation of consoles. Present is the tri-Ace regular Motoi Sakuraba, who provides the battle and dungeon music, and always keeping it upbeat with an attitude. Sakuraba, known for his battle themes, creates a perfect hard rock mood and keeps away from the genre's typical obsession with making every situation epic. It is not particularly memorable, but it is lively and fits every battle absolutely perfectly. To balance the scale is the mostly unknown Kohei Tanaka, who provides a much more orchestral sound to everything outside of battle and dungeons. It is equally impressive and sounds a lot like Hitoshi Sakimoto, albeit coherent and memorable. Tanaka's work, just like Sakuraba's, does not try to go for epicness, instead trying to give a lighthearted, everyday feel to running around towns and other public places. It is a wonderful soundtrack that fits every situation that it is in and is certainly one that everyone should take a listen to.

Resonance of Fate is currently the most impressive JRPG outing this generation. The gameplay is the deepest the genre has ever gone and the sheer uniqueness of the game is one of its charms. The battle system is unparalleled in the amount of strategy you will need to use to defeat the harder foes, and despite the occasional repetition during grinding, you never feel bored with it. The graphics are a disappointment from the technical side, but bring you into the world like few can and is helped by the fantastic accompanying soundtrack of Sakuraba and Tanaka. The great main story is mostly non-existent other than a few mysterious cutscenes until around halfway through the game, but before that you are treated to wonderful character interactions and development between three very memorable characters. But just like the story, you have to stick with it. It is a tough game to learn and its complexities are seemingly endless at first, but once you learn the mechanics and get used to how the game flows, you are in for one of the most rewarding and original RPG experiences anywhere on the market. If you are in the mood for a very deep, challenging, funny, intelligent, and all around fun RPG, Resonance of Fate is one you should pick up immediately.

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**Updated**

I have played the game for about 20 hours (I believe the game is 60-80 hours long)so here is the review.

Resonance of Fate has more in common with strategy/rpgs rather than traditional JRPGs. As in any rgp you can roam inside the cities, get side quests, and explore the world map. However, the combat and the missions are very much like that of strategy rpgs.

Although the combat looks flashy and cool, RoF is not an action oriented game. The combat is very deep and strategic. Also learning curve is steep, it takes several hours to learn all the intricacies of the combat, and I will not attempt to explain it here. However, the turn system is very similar to Valkyria Chronicles, it is a mixture of turn based and real-time (while you are moving the enemy also moves and can attack you). Flanking, timing, the type of attack etc. all plays a key role in combat and makes it very satisfying. They are nice to watch too, although your eyes would be on the action gauges most of the time.

Leveling and customization is all about the guns not the characters. There are 3 types of weapons (handguns, machine guns, and grenades). As the characters use a weapon they get more proficient with that weapon and level up. A character's level is the sum of all 3 weapon levels. For example, a level 20 character can be level 15 handgun, level 4 machine gun, level 1 grenade. As they level up their hit points and respective gun weight limit improve. Also they gain some additional effects (5% stun chance for instance).

You can only customize your weapons. Guns have 5-6 attachment slots (magazine, grip, sights etc.) that you can upgrade with the parts you found. Also you can add extensions to all slots(e.g. adding another barrel to the barrel). However you have space and weight limits that you need to consider. Finally, you can also craft special parts from the basic materials you get from monsters. There is no other customization. There is no armor either. You can buy a lot of different dresses but they have no effect other than changing the looks of your character (this also affects cutscenes as they are done with the ingame engine).

The story is slow to start. It starts to pick up after Chapter 5 (which would be 10-20 hours into the game depending on the number of sidequests you do). Similarly you will have limited weapons and customization options until that point. Also the game does not do a good job of explaining the battle mechanics. It does have a tutorial, but it simply introduces you to the combat actions. For instance, I got through the first few chapters without even recognising some of the mechanics. So the first 10 hours or so is like an introduction, there isn't much story but you learn the battle mechanics.

In sum, this is not a traditional JRPG like Final Fantasy or Lost Odyssey, it is more similar to Valkyria Chronicles. If you want fast paced, action oriented, quick resolution combats (e.g. Tales of Vesperia) then this is probably not the game for you. If you like turn based strategy/rpg games (Jagged Alliance, Front Mission, Valkyria Chronicles, etc) then I believe you will like this game.

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This is just great... An awesome RPG on the PS3. You use guns to battle in a steampunk setting. Great graphics, music, controls, and everything. 80 hours in all. Add it to your collection now.

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epic by mean epic ,i'm new to rpg and i want to experiance this genre so a friend advice me to try this game.

its fun like hell specially after got boring syndrome from dragon age i give it a try

pros

- minimal conversation ,very few text even though was entertaing

- very good graphics,animation, decent cut scene,

- heavy action gameplay full entertaining

- easily menu NAVIGATION

- very unique gameplay turn based strategy( close to Valkyria Chronicles as people said) ,your IQ WILL BE TESTED some battles needs also fast controller reaction

- tons of customization (weapons,clothes)

- stunning attack animation never getting old

- charming music specially if u like piano classic music,u will repeat some areas to just listen to the classic sound tracks

- long last game till now over 30 hours without even touching side quest

cons

- steep learning curve but when i mean steep i mean 3 to 4 hours practice ,there is arena tutorial just be sure to play more than one time

- arena tutorial should be better in describing some game elements ,thanks for YOUTUBE:)

- poor story but honestly i never care about story, NO.1 for me solid gameplay NO.2 graphics and animation

*last i would advice any new comer for jrpg genre to try this masterpiece specially if he raise up on action or shooter games i assure you u wont be disappointed, now i order Valkyria Chronicles and looking for same style games like resonance of fate

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TONS of fun to be had if you can get past the incredibly complex battle system. Don't worry, stick with it, and you'll develop the instincts needed to win. The reward is worth the effort. Resonance of Fate is one of the best RPGs to be found on any console.

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This JRPG sets a new standard in the gameplay category. Simply, it's absolutely brilliant. Initially, it will seem complex and you will notice the steep learning curve if you're not a core player. But, it's easily remedied by a visit to the arena and participating in all the different training sessions.

In my opinion the artwork is beautiful but not as pleasing in the graphics department when compared to games that have been released as of late. This did not bother me as it was quickly overshadowed by everything else the game offers.

I have not completed the game so I can't sum up a conclusion on the story. I will say the story is just ok thus far. Nothing too impressive but not bad either. What I find interesting is that I'm always about the story in JRPG's (and I still am) but the gameplay is so captivating and fun that I don't really care how it pans out.

Customization... Your characters can have so many different looks. Dress her or him as you like. It's a wonderful option. Your weapons can be customized in many different ways as well.

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Just to give you some background, I have almost every rpg on ps2 and have played video game rpgs since their inception. In regards to taste, I really like: Shadow hearts, Persona/shin megami tensei, Disgaea, Cross edge, Suikoden, Ar Tonelico.

This game has absolutly phenominal gameplay structure. It is fun and diverse. The many aspects of the battle system play well into deep strategy and grants the player some interesting levels of flexibility. One of the best parts is you can start developing your characters/weapons practically at the beginning of the game. You even get access to side quests right away. The types of weapons are a big part of the strategy and all characters can hold 2. There are too many facets to the battle system to get into too much detail, but one of the more unique things is how position and movement play a big role into how fast you can charge up for your next attack. One of the more fun aspects is going into over the top action sequences where you can mame your enemies by knocking them up in the air and slamming them down on the ground to earn bonus shots. You can also attack with all 3 characters at once with the "trinity" mode.

The game does not spoon feed you and the battles can be tough. You should do all the tutorials at least once. Battles might require some serious experimentation.

The overworld map is more like a game board on which you can unlock spaces with different aquired "hex" items. Some spaces reveal special items, some locations, some battles. Moving your cursor around the map could cause a random encounter, but many spaces on the board are totally safe so moving from one place to another is easy if you don't want to deal with enemies.

I just finished Final Fantasy 13 and this game has everything that I felt was missing from it. In fact, this blows it out of the water in most regards. It does not have the graphics, polish and the intense narritive that FF has. I personally think both games are worth playing for different reasons. If the gameplay in FF dissapointed you, try this for sure.

Gameplay A+: Fun, addictive, diverse, deep, totally unique.

Style A-: Overall it's a really cool steampunk atmosphere. Some bland spots like dungeons.

Sound A- : not everything is fully voiced, but it's not really a big issue. The music is great. Japanese voice track is a nice option.

Graphics B: Weakest aspect of the game. The AA is not so great, so you see plenty of jagged edges. Could have had sharper textures and more polish. You will get over it after playing for an hour or two.

Story: TBD. I'm still playing, but so far I am not expecting a very intense narative. The story is more subtle. I don't mean this in a bad way.

Replayability B: In the NG+ you fight a different final boss. Also you unlock new difficulty settings.

If I beat the game and I change my opinion I will update this review.

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excellent game different from final fantasy 13.... but its different you can change any character while your playing and even more you can upgrade weapons, buy outfit and misc....

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"Resonance of Fate" slipped out right after "Final Fantasy 13" without a lot of fanfare, which is a shame as there is a risk of it slipping under the radar and disappearing into bargain-bin hell. Plus it's also pretty good.

The game is set in a future world where everybody lives in a tall metal tower due to the earth having become uninhabitable for some reason, and you play as a team of three youngsters called Leanne, Zephyr and Vashyron (just the usual names for teenagers of course!), who start the game as guns for hire, taking on missions to mend broken bridges or deal with rebel bandits causing trouble around the tower. Things start slowly as you explore the locations and fight various gangsters and goblins, but right from the start the battle system really shines.

Well I should say it does not shine immediately, because with no in-game tutorial, your first battles are going to be an exercise in bewilderment as it's impossible to fathom them out unaided. Luckily you are told that there is a battle arena near town where you can practise, and in here is a tutorial (thank god!), so I headed here as soon as I knew where it was.

The game's appeal rests solely on the battle system, so it's important you know what it is all about. You have the same three characters throughout the whole game, and random battles see you face up against enemies of all sorts. The simplest thing to do is run around the battle field and fire at an enemy of your choice with your gun (it's all about guns in this game). First thing to know is that there are two types of firearms available: Machine guns, which cause very heavy damage but it's only temporary and recovers over time, and handguns, which cause very light damage, but turn any amount of temporary damage permanent as soon as they hit. So the idea is that you share out the types of guns, so (say) Leanne will fire a whole load of machine gun fire at an enemy and then Zephyr will go straight after her with his handgun, and convert that damage to permanent before it wears off. You can also hold your aim on an enemy while the gun powers up, which is a balance between waiting for the gun to charge up and firing before the enemy attacks, as any attack will make you lose all of your charge-up...and you only get one shot per turn. Got that part? Good, because there's a lot more, and if this is all you do, the game will get very boring quite fast.

The real fun of the battles comes from using Hero Actions. Put simply, at the start of every action you have a limited number of orange gems on a guage. For the cost of one gem, you can do a charge across the entire length (or width) of the screen, and while you do this mad dash you can fire at the enemies as many times as you like before you come to a stop. It's great fun and of course can cause loads of damage, which is why it's not free to do - and you start the game with a very limited number of gems - three, I think, but you (very gradually) earn more throughout the game. You have to use these gems wisely, as if you spend all three doing these Hero Runs, you will go into panic mode, which almost always leads to a Game Over as you basically can't do anything. So you have to make sure each gem you spend is worth it. If you cause enough damage on a Hero Run or cause any part of the enemy (armour, usually) to break off, you earn a gem back, so you can see how strategic play is required to get lots of running in without running out of gems.

This in itself is fun enough, but the true play experience of "Resonance of Fate" really comes from the Tri-Attack. This attack can only occur after you have done a succession of Hero Runs, during which time the characters have crossed paths at least once and have ended up in a vaguely triangular formation. Once you have a few successful runs in the bank you can unleash the Tri-Attack, which sees all three characters start running AT THE SAME TIME, all ready to fire at the enemy when you give the command. The camera starts weaving wildly across the screen as the characters leap and spin across the terrain (you can make them jump), firing and spinning through the air and shouting heroic cries like "Now you're gonna get it!" and so on. It all looks fantastic, and I never tired of it, in fact as soon as I got the hang of it I used Tri-Attacks in every single battle. It takes a lot of concentraion to plan each one, as you have to make sure your characters are well positioned on the ground so that they can all target the enemy, and they can all run without bashing into any walls or obstacles (the terrain often has things like ramps and pillars all over the place), which will end the run for whoever comes a cropper.

Trust me, if you learn this battle system you will derive hours of fun from this game. Which is good because "Resonance of Fate" has no plot! I'm not kidding, to me it just seemed like I got given missions and targets to achieve and I just went around doing them, without any reason or motive other than being paid. The so-called story seems to revolve around the higher classes of the tower experimenting with the mortality of the regular inhabitants, but this is very hard to figure out. Most if the time the cast just mumble pondeorus phrases like "What have I done?" or "Why am I still alive? It would be better if I was dead!" and all that type of thing, few of which ever make sense. So do not play this game for the story!

It's also not an easy game but to be honest, this is probably going to be because gamers are not using the Tri-Attack properly, and if you master this, you will win pretty much everything. Some bosses ramp up the challenge quite significantly, especially when they can only be damaged from one angle, so aiming Hero Runs in the right direction (so you can fire at their backs before they turn round, for example) becomes paramount.

Apart from the battles, there is also the fun of powering up the guns. Instead of finding new weapons, you buy or find attachemnts for the ones you have throughout the game, and upgrading a gun becomes a mini-game, as you are required to fit all the additional barrels, bullet clips and sights onto the gun by means of a 2D grid diagram, which means arranging as many as you can on the grid and leaving as few unfilled spaces as possible (all the attachments are a different shape). Hours of geeky fun!

And finally, you also have another mini-game in the world map, which you can only traverse by laying down tiles side by side to "fill in" the empty map. The tiles are shaped like jigsaw peices so you have to have enough of all the different shapes in order to successfully fill up entire floors of the tower, so this in itself is another fun part to play with.

So to finish, you should absolutely buy this game and experience the very dynamic battle system. You might enjoy getting to know the three characters (you can even dress them up!), but don't expect to get too attached as the story is so vague that I finished the game without a clue what had happened. I just know that I won - Hooray! And a lot of fun it was too.

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Taking place in a steam punk-ish future where humanity lives above the clouds in a five tiered elevated city, this tale of mercenaries begins. it took me a couple of hours to get a feel for traversing the world, another four to get a feel for the combat, and honestly i still don't know what the story was about.

the main cast is full of anime archetypes: There's the roguish, slightly perverted veteran vashyron; the young, emo pretty boy zephyr; and the plucky young lady leanne. All are working together as mercenaries to make ends meet in a dystopian future.

Though it took a very long tutorial, once i entered combat my experience rapidly improved. Developer tri-ace provides a mix of turn based and real time trappings, similar to what they did so well in the star ocean and valkyrie profile games. Each of the 3 characters get a turn, but once the character starts moving, the enemies begin their actions as well. It demands careful timing and planning, and each new area or enemy requires a unique strategy. With so many combat rules to master in a short time, Resonance of Fate can be pretty daunting. i thought i understood the rules a few hours in, then a function i was barely aware of finally clicked, and it was as if the whole game changed.

fighting is easily the deepest part of the game. those prepared to give their all learning the system will have a great time once the tri-attack system is mastered. Some frustration, however, is a given.

This game can be infuriatingly hard.Expect to grind alot before the game's bosses can be defeated, and expect to restart often, especially during one really crappy escort mission. i do appreciate a challenge, and it's possible to sidestep a reload of a previous save by spending in-game cash, but the game could go easier on us and still be a classic grindfest.

Anyone with eyes can see that resonance is pretty, but most areas look the same. The main characters look good, as do most of the enemies, but their movements are robotic, and while the cleverly designed world is visually satisfying, the fixed in-town camera would feel old on the ps2. Fortunately the dungeons and battles have free moving camera, while the oerworld is a hex based map that requires moving a cursor to get from place to place (alot like nocturne and devil summoner). maybe that sounds cheap, but the puzzle like way you use differently shaped pieces to reveal new areas was a satisfying distraction.

Resonance of fate proves that JRPG's aren't dead. the great combat and interesting map structure are fresh, and even the established parts are still what fans look for in RPG's. if you are looking for a traditional style RPG, your quest is over.

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