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twmac

Resonance of Fate

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I bought this at the same time as Metro 2033 after reading the Eurogamer review. This game is utterly unforgiving but definitely worth playing. I put 2 hours in this morning after having finally beaten Half Life 2 and the game kicked my arse.

I recommend reading the booklet and doing the tutorials as this explains a lot of the intricacies, the combat system is pretty sweet and I'm still trying to figure out the best way to play it.

The only downside is that Nolan North is back, again. So tired of that guy delivering the same voice performance over and over again.

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Is this the game that has the hexagonal, uncoverable, world map? I think I saw a review of it that said it was pretty tough. I was considering it, but thought that getting my butt repeatedly handed to me in battles might get more frustrating than it is fun. Also, I wasn't convinced that the battle system would make up for the reportedly horrid storyline and character interactions.

Any further opinions if you've played more?

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To be honest I pay very little attention to story in most games, especially in JRPGs where I find them to be universally horrible.

You get through a lot of the fights in the beginning without really understanding how they work but about an hour in you should be investing into the tutorials and reading the manual as that is when the enemies start getting properly tough.

The world uncovering is pretty cool and it does involve getting different combinations of hexs to make paths. This hasn't really panned out yet and I imagine it will get more interesting as the game progresses.

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Resonance of Fate is one of very few Japanese RPGs (or similar) that really piqued my interest. I'd be interested to hear more of how you're getting on with it, twmac.

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Hello Wrestle !

Well I have sunk about 5 hours into the game now and from a gameplay and battle mechanic aspect it is really, really good. There is a level of depth that Tri-Ace seem to apply to all their games (I previously played Eternal Sonata) in terms of combat. The difference between this and ES is that you are immediately handed all of the mechanics in one go and left you to figure it out whereas ES’s first playthrough was essentially a tutorial for the extra hard second one.

The battle mechanics are based around the tactical use of Hero actions and Resonance attacks and also scratch and direct damage. The first is what you will have seen in the videos where one of the characters runs across the screen pelting bullets at a target. Hero actions use up bezels (you have three in the beginning) but gain you resonance points. Resonance points can be used to create a tri attack which can be devastating when used properly. The clincher here is that using up all your bezels will kill your team and the way to regenerate bezels is to use standard attacks that reduce your resonance count to 0. Scratch and direct damage are also a little different in that the scratch does massive amount of damage but characters can regenerate that damage and you can’t seem to actually kill anyone with scratch damage and instead have to deal direct damage to finish people off.

There are number of moves like juggling opponents in the air and smackdowns that do extra damage and there a special tactics like targeting different characters’ limbs, taking cover behind walls and aiming for a designated leader to instantly win a battle.

If this all sounds daunting that is because it is and the game doesn’t really do a lot of explaining about this (you can actually get attacked before you even get to a tutorial on how to fight and the game will happily kill you), however, once you get used to some of the game’s quirkier sides the combat gets very good and I’m pretty sure there are few more surprises the game will throw at me.

I also like the fact that you are given 3 characters, period, and each one can be levelled up in any of the weapons (which can all be customised in quite a lot of detail by attaching stuff to them) so rather than having a girl who is a healer and a big dude who a damage dealer by default and that default being dictated by the game. Instead you can have the girl a psycho dual wielding front runner and the Nolan North-voiced guy as the support character if you so wish (and I do). I haven’t paid much attention to the story as I said before but there doesn’t seem to be anyone with amnesia or a dark past yet so that is nice. The levels and maps themselves show quite a lot of personality in themselves and it makes me curious about what the designer had in mind in regards to its history when they created the environments.

Any way that was way too long but I can safely say that if you don’t mind a challenge and this game piqued your interest then you should drop some money on it.

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Any way that was way too long but I can safely say that if you don’t mind a challenge and this game piqued your interest then you should drop some money on it.

No, that was really insightful, twmac. Thanks.

You also covered a couple of tactical nuggets not mentioned in the (excellent) Eurogamer review, which flesh out the game mechanics more.

Really tempted to get this now. Will have to hide all my change for a bit and then pick it up.

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Is this the game that has the hexagonal, uncoverable, world map? I think I saw a review of it that said it was pretty tough. I was considering it, but thought that getting my butt repeatedly handed to me in battles might get more frustrating than it is fun. Also, I wasn't convinced that the battle system would make up for the reportedly horrid storyline and character interactions.

Any further opinions if you've played more?

I'm about twenty hours in and finding it pretty easy. Not boring easy but I wouldn't call it difficult by any stretch. As long as you go through all of the tutorials and spend some time in the Arena doing the combat challenges you shouldn't have too much trouble. At least for the main story stuff, I hear there are some optional bosses toward the end that basically require you to be at the level cap of 150 to beat.

As for the character interactions, I'd look for other reporting if you're hearing that they're horrid. I'm finding them pretty hilarious in an "omg anime Nolan North just got kicked in the ribs" sort of way. It reminds me a bit of the sillier parts of Shadow Hearts: Covenant.

Since I'm still on chapter 5 I'm not really sure what the story is supposed to be, I think it's something about riding elevators to do fetch quests or something, but I'm finding it inoffensive at worst. The combat system is deservedly the star of the show here and the story tends to keep out of its way.

I'd highly recommend it to anyone who likes JRPGs that don't suck.

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The setting and artstyle really picked my interest and Tri-Ace has a history of making really interesting battle systems, so I'm definitely gonna check it out.

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Well I have been playing it for about 14 hours now and settled into a groove. I'm not sure ynp7 is finding it easy though, they must be some sort of RPG veteran which I certainly am not.

I've only just started to understand the hex based world and dismiss some of my previously incorrect assumptions (you regain besels by killing enemies, breaking their shields or causing a gauge break not by doing standards attacks). The combat has gotten better and better. The second boss a particular delight after I figured out how to set off a rhythm of stringing scratch damage with one character to follow it up with direct with another to then chain it into a tri-attack. When you get a flow like that the game shines.

The hex based sections help you unlock more items, but also there are special energy based hexes that you can link to these remote stations for extra combat bonuses. Exploring the world then becomes a puzzle game of trying to maximise the number of hexes you uncover in one go using the different combinations of hexes (only certain missions and certain creatures at certain times give out more of these so you are in limited supply).

Sort of starting to like the English voice acting, Nolan North is growing on me as his inter combat banter is daft and has some japanese-perv insinuations mixed in with the likable jokes.

Still not sure about the story though and the music is pretty generic with the battle scenes being pure butt-rock.

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Well I have been playing it for about 14 hours now and settled into a groove. I'm not sure ynp7 is finding it easy though, they must be some sort of RPG veteran which I certainly am not.

I spent several hours in chapter 5 grinding out the first 100 battles or so in the arena, switching out the grenades and machine gun between the characters to get their levels up. I don't think any of the enemies have been within 8 levels of me since very early in the game so that's obviously been a pretty big advantage. I think I spent around 10 hours just on that chapter so you can see how I've probably cheated my way ahead of the curve a bit. That or I'm just an RPG Super Pimp! :grin:

The game does get more difficult later on but it's more that there will be a battle here and there that are difficult and the great majority, while still taking planning (I'm sort of shocked, a modern JRPG where X != win), aren't a problem to clear on the first go.

So far the hardest battle I've found is this one roadblock set piece in chapter 10 (as far as I've gotten after 46 hours or so) where you've only got two characters against 9 guys (or there about) with no leader for the quick victory and they've all got machine guns that do massive scratch damage if you let yourself get caught close enough for them to charge up and grenades that'll finish you off fast. That was pretty challenging to make sure I was breaking off enough pieces to keep the Hero Gauge from depleting while also focusing enough damage to finish the guys off before they all ganged up on one of my dudes. I probably retried that one at least 10 times and backed out to switch up my weapon load outs more than once.

And the story is finally starting to pick up, too. Still not really sure what's going on but it's obviously a lot more to it than just the hilarious antics of Anime Nolan North and his Sidekicks of Unmatched Eye Color riding elevators, playing dress up, and getting kicked in the ribs.

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I'm surprised there's a topic for this here.

So yeah, i have had some time on my hands and have been going through some JRPG's i've been wanting to play. (I just finished playing through Nier, which i ultimately liked but wouldn't recommend.)

So this game...

I'm twelve hours in and am just completely hooked, i love this game's combat system so much, it's unlike anything else. It's incredibly tactical, and it never lets you get lazy, things can go wrong frighteningly quick.

Love the art direction too, Basel is a very cool setting.

I kind of understand why the critical response was a little lukewarm, they've sort of forged a new paradigm here, it would be easy to miss a lot of things. The first time i hit a random battle i was just completely bewildered, there was nothing familiar at all, had to spend two hours going through in-game tutorials. I believe i have a solid grasp of the game mechanics now, including the weird health system and the tri-attacks.

I'm feeling like it's kind of tragic this game kind of tanked the way it did, i remember Sega just kind of dumping it into the market alongside a few other ill-promoted JRPG's. (Such as Platinum's Infinite Space for the DS, which is also a super cool game people should play.)

Also, it blew my fucking mind when i realized that this is yet another game where Nolan North voices the protagonist, I found that absolutely hysterical.

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I'm surprised there's a topic for this here.

You underestimate the Thumb... :grin:

This is still on my 'To Play' list, but has never been in stock when I visited a local store to get it second-hand.

Good to know people are still coming to it and finding it a lot of fun; will have to make an effort to find this online.

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Damn right you will have to Wrestle.

Also, Sno, are we in some way separated at birth? Pretty sure I've wrtten this before but we have ridiculously similar tastes.

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I really wanted to like RoF and played a fair bit of it but my god it's a grind and there's only really one strategy to win every fight. It didn't help that the plot didn't appear to be going anywhere at all after hours and hours, though I appreciated that it was at least trying to do that differently to the usual.

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I really wanted to like RoF and played a fair bit of it but my god it's a grind

There is definitely a grind in this game, and normally i think i would hate it for that, but i love this combat system so much.

and there's only really one strategy to win every fight.

How far in did you get? Once larger enemies start showing up and the fields become anything other than flat plains, you have to start adapting your tactics or the game will destroy you. That has been my experience, at least.

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Hit sixty hours on this game, and it's just absolutely one of my favorite JRPG's now.

I think it's a very systemic design, it seems very in love with its game mechanics and exploring the ways they work together. I appreciate that it's not one of those games that withholds from you half of your tools for twenty hours while it slowly and agonizingly introduces things to you piece by piece. You kind of have the keys to the car right from the start. Kind of go make of it what you will, there's a lot of potential depth.

The sparse and jokey narrative is probably very off putting to people who play JRPG's primarily to be immersed in story.

Just... shit...

I did not expect that i would like this game as much as i do.

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