Rating of
4/5
Desperation Makes Us Do Strange Things
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 07/31/14
When “Resonance of Fate” (“RoF”) was released back in 2010, I dismissed it out-of-hand. ‘Gun-driven battle system?’ ‘Cinematic action?’ I certainly didn’t want the things boasted on the back of the box as key features in an RPG. Even worse, the cover art featuring three douchy-looking “Final Fantasy 8” rejects helped to solidify my first impression of “RoF” as yet another horrible 7th Generation RPG.
Flash forward to 2014, and desperation has set in for RPG fans. Do we want another entry in the “Final Fantasy 13” ‘franchise?’ Do we want yet another moe-filled ‘Tales’ game? Perhaps we would enjoy a grind-filled loli-fest from NIS, Gust, or Compile Heart? Having exhausted all of my options for RPGs that appeared to be good on the surface, I brokenly and wearily pulled “RoF” off of Chris’ PS3 shelf. ‘Customizable guns?’ That might not be so bad… and it’s by Sega and Tri-Ace, whose RPG reputations aren’t exactly terrible.
Thus I ended up offering a trade. Since Chris didn’t like “RoF” right out of the gate (a good sign it would possess depth beyond the typical shooter) and since I had a copy of “Sacred 2: Fallen Angel” that I had no intention of ever touching (since Hack ‘n Slash loot grinding is REALLY not my thing), we exchanged these two games like any one of our peers would have done 25 years ago in the schoolyard. Despite my trepidation, it ended up being a good trade.
Presentation
“RoF” is showing its age a bit. The Japanese have had a rough time embracing the HD era and it shows in this game. While the game engine is fully polygonal and relatively nice-looking, it suffers from extremely awkward animation for characters and enemies alike. Facial expressions (and indeed, facial structures) seem alien and bizarre and the lip-synch is a bit of a misnomer. That said, “RoF” is at least fairly light on jaggies and blurry textures.
However, the artistic design direction of the game is quite strange. “RoF” takes place in a steampunk style world that has been blended with a bit of modernism. It more closely resembles what would happen if our current level of technology regressed to a late 19th century level of industrial tech, but with relics of the 20th century still floating around and being repurposed into other functions. Of course, the big off-putting thing about “RoF’s” design is how wholly bizarre the cast of supporting characters is. Sure, there are a few normal folks, but they don’t come in until later, and first impressions are still important. At the very least, however, there are NO lolis in “RoF” (though Leanne is kind of a moe character).
The audio in “RoF” is pretty solid. The voiceacting is mostly decent (though a few of the afore-mentioned nutty characters have equally nutty voice performances that feel forced), especially for the main cast of heroes and villains. The soundtrack is a bit all-over-the-place stylistically, but is reasonably pleasant and catchy.
Story
The world of “RoF” is a bleak post-apocalypse where the last remnants of humanity live inside the rusted and falling-apart remains of an enormous tower called Basel (not Babel, but I wonder if that might be a typo). The people living toward the top of the tower are the wealthy and well-off Cardinals in Basel’s religion, as well as a few particularly wealthy Hunters – ex-military types and other mercenaries who do freelance jobs for the nobility. The people living at the bottom of the tower dwell mostly in squalor, ruin, and the cast-off debris from the higher levels. Basel is controlled and maintained by a clockwork computer system known as Zenith, but to the common people is simply known as ‘God.’ Over the span of unknown eons between humanity seeking refuge inside Basel and the time of “RoF’s” events, Zenith has begun to malfunction and the highest ranking Cardinals have been scrambling to figure out why and to set things right.
Each of our three heroes have been affected directly by one of Zenith’s malfunctions, keeping them alive when they were otherwise doomed to certain death. Vashyron is the team leader, an older man (late 30s or early 40s), and ex-military officer who inexplicably survived a confrontation with one of the things that lives outside of Basel. Zephyr was one of Vashyron’s targets a short time before the events of the game. An angsty teen school shooter, Zephyr killed everyone in his Sunday school thanks to an attack of acute agnosticism and hid out in a chapel. Vashyron defeated him in combat, stuck the barrel of his pistol in Zephyr’s mouth and pulled the trigger twice… but Zephyr didn’t die. Leanne, the adorable girl of the group, learned from an overheard conversation between her scientist father and one of the Cardinals that she only had a year left to live. Taking her fate into her own hands, Leanne decided to commit suicide (by jumping off a bridge) on the day she was supposed to die instead of letting death come for her. Zephyr saved her from the fall and somehow neither of them died in the process.
These three semi-obnoxious characters have, at the time the game begins, formed something of an odd family/business, where they live together in an abandoned factory on level 4 (that is, 4th from the top) of Basel and take mercenary jobs from the local Hunters’ Guild. Most of these jobs involve performing menial or strange tasks for some of the more eccentric and insane members of the upper crust. Ultimately, the team finds itself involved in matters of utmost secrecy at the highest levels of the Church hierarchy… but nothing really happens.
Unfortunately, the worst aspect of “RoF” is how cloudy and nonsensical the story is. Every nugget of information is presented piecemeal, through flashbacks, out of order, and missing significant chunks. I’d say the closest experience to “RoF’s” story I’ve ever experienced is watching TV’s “Lost” for all 6 seasons. Nothing is explained about the cataclysmic (or not) event that drove humanity into the shelter of Basel, nor about where the weird variety of in-game monsters come from. Little is explained about the characters who eventually become the villains, nor their motivations. Plenty of characters appear in cutscenes with no justification, while others who have been the driving force behind at least a chapter’s worth of missions for the heroes drop out of sight and never amount to anything.
After playing through all 16 chapters of the game, it turns out that close to half of them are just filler that don’t provide any meaningful insight into the characters or their world. This is an extremely unfortunate situation, as the setting of “RoF’s” world has a lot of potential to be an intriguing pot of mysteries. But the thing about mysteries is that they eventually need a solution in order to provide a sense of relief to the audience. “RoF” never brings this sense of relief, leaving all of its mysteries open-ended and eventually unraveling into a tangled pile of loose threads.
Gameplay
Between the iffy presentation and disastrous story-telling, “RoF” really needs a stand-out feature to save it from itself. Fortunately, the gameplay is strong enough to carry the rest of the game on its own.
Many RPGs get a lot of flak for being ‘boring’ or ‘too similar,’ especially when they are turn-based. “RoF” is a 100% turn-based game that doesn’t do anything in a predictable or well-worn way, but instead introduces wild twists on traditional mechanics.
The first thing of note is that “RoF” is ‘gun-based’ as it says on the box. However, what the box does NOT say is that the party will be using the same guns for almost the entire game. Instead of buying ‘better guns’ with ‘bigger numbers,’ “RoF’s” characters deal more damage by becoming better with three types of weapons: Handguns, Sub-Machine Guns, and Grenades. A character’s level is determined by adding their individual levels with these three weapon types (thus leading to a maximum character level of 300). Characters improve their weapon skills by gaining experience as usual… except it is NOT gained as usual. Instead, characters gain 1 point of experience for every point of damage they deal to an enemy (not counting overflow damage) with a given type of weapon.
Of course, there are ways to make the game’s selection of guns better. The Customization system allows the player to look at each gun on a small 2D grid, and then play a bit of ‘gun-“Tetris”’ by slapping add-on barrels, grips, magazines, and sights in order to improve performance. Customization parts can either be found in dungeons, earned as guild rewards for completing side missions, or crafted from bits of junk dropped by enemies. I ended up loving this customization system for how over-the-top these guns can become, with a dozen extra barrels, hand-guards stretching into ridiculousness, and half a dozen scopes all at once.
Then there’s “RoF’s” battle system. While at first glance, this battle system seems needlessly over-complex, it really clicks and is enjoyable after getting used to it. There is a tutorial available at the battle arena just outside the first town, which did little to explain how combat works, and instead merely confused me by presenting too much barely-relevant information all at once.
Combat in “RoF” basically boils down to Hero Actions. The party has a shared Hero Gauge at the bottom of the screen that starts with three Bezels, but slowly expands over the course of the game by collecting Bezels and Bezel Shards from boss battles and optional mini-boss battles. While a character can choose to stand still and aim at a target, this kind of behavior typically prompts the target to start shooting back. Expending a Hero Action simply allows a character to run across the battlefield while simultaneously taking aim and shooting at foes. The caveat about using Hero Actions is that when the Hero Gauge is empty, the characters all go into panic mode, resulting in them moving slowly, aiming poorly, and possibly flat-out dying.
The way damage works in “RoF” is that there are two types: Scratch and Direct. Scratch damage comes from SMGs while Direct damage comes from handguns, grenades, and melee attacks. Scratch damage is non-lethal, but any Direct damage dealt to a target converts all current Scratch damage on that target to Direct damage as well. The party of player characters, however, take only Scratch damage, even from Direct attacks, as long as there is at least one point in the Hero Gauge. Having a character’s health completely filled with Scratch damage causes the Hero Gauge to break, losing a few of its points while simultaneously refilling the character’s health and removing all Scratch damage. Scratch damage on both player characters and enemies recovers slowly (or quickly, depending on the enemy) as they move around during each turn.
Enemies also typically have multiple pieces of armor to protect their main body of health. These pieces take damage separately and can be destroyed and broken-off without harming the target’s main HP pool. The tricky thing about these extra plates is that their facing actually matters as a character’s turn plays out. It’s possible for an enemy to turn, facing their armor toward a character that is in the midst of aiming or performing a Hero Action, thus protecting their main health. Having a character jump during a Hero Action allows them to bypass outer armor/etc. by spraying bullets at random spots on the enemy’s body, provided the armor/etc. doesn’t completely encircle the enemy’s main body.
Aiming at targets in “RoF” actually takes the form of Charging. A character can Charge a weapon up to their total skill in that weapon, so a character who has level 15 in SMGs could stack 15 Charges into a single shot, thus dealing more damage and having a higher percentage chance of a variety of other effects. Charging works by selecting a target, selecting an action type (either Hero Action or stationary), then waiting as a circular gauge fills up to the desired Charge level. It’s actually possible, with a quick enough Charge rate/acceleration, to hit multiple targets with decent damage during a Hero Action. Likewise, sometimes it is necessary to bait out an enemy’s counter attack by moving around a bit to let the enemy launch the attack before beginning a Hero Action.
Yes, all of this seems complex, but it ultimately has a similar feeling to a TRPG like “Valkyria Chronicles.” Furthermore, the tutorial loves to emphasize three mechanics that are almost completely irrelevant. The titular Resonance involves having characters take Hero Actions so that they always move between the other two characters. Each such move charges one point of Resonance, which can be consumed to unleash a Tri-Attack that allows all three characters to move and Charge attacks simultaneously… but only in a triangular formation. Furthermore, performing any action besides a Hero Action forfeits any stored Resonance, making it a stupidly situational ability. Second, Bonus Shots can randomly happen when a character performing a non-jumping Hero Action knocks an enemy into the air and continues to shoot at it. The Bonus Shot causes a rapidly spinning pointer to rotate around the target, allowing the player to stop it within a variable-sized sweet spot for a chance at a hugely-damaging free attack against the target that also causes the target to hemorrhage money. Finally, Smack Downs act like Bonus Shots, but with less randomness, allowing a character who has knocked an enemy into the air to jump, shoot it again, and slam it into the ground, dealing a small amount of bonus damage and earning a small amount of extra money. Really, all three of these mechanics are insanely situational and rarely occur until the final few chapters, making their inclusion in the introductory tutorial seem pointless.
Lastly, exploration in “RoF” is unlike any other RPG as well. The entire game takes place within Basel, but in order to explore any portion of the hex-grid-based map, the player must reactivate the individual hexes. This is accomplished through the acquisition and application of Energy Hexes, which come in a variety of shapes and typically drop from random encounters. Some hexes on the map are color coded, thus requiring colored Energy Hexes to unlock, providing a controlled means of limiting player access to certain areas until they are supposed to go there. The dungeons are also hex-based, with each hex taking the form of a random battlefield with exits on one or more sides. Of course, in dungeons, the battlefields aren’t random, but instead have set enemy encounters, static bosses, and a few one-time-only treasure boxes scattered about.
Overall
“Resonance of Fate” pleasantly surprised me with the high quality and amount of unique features in its gameplay. Unfortunately, the nonsensical story and annoying characters have become all too predictable in modern RPGs. Still, at least one of the characters is relatable (hint, not Zephyr or Leanne) and the game managed to hold my interest for the entire 60 hours it took for me to complete the main game and side quests. I would have liked some better exposition with regard to the game’s world building, as it seems that there are some really interesting ideas hiding just beneath the surface that are simply left unresolved in the end.
Presentation: 4/5
Story: 2/5
Gameplay: 4.5/5
Overall (not an average): 4/5
