Resonance of Fate / End of Eternity

Resonance of Fate‘s entire combat system is based on gun combat. It’s one of the few games like this I have managed to tolerate, and I’m glad I did. At first, the setup and mechanics here seem unbearably confusing. There are lots of unusual stats, a second damage bar (ala Final Fantasy XIII), and various other idiosyncrasies. Gun modification saps up hours of play time and produces some hilarious-looking firearms. Fortunately, the game does a decent job easing the player in, although the first boss is murder.

I very much enjoyed the overhead map of the game. You progress by placing energy hexes down the paths you want to go, and can activate terminals to give your characters various bonuses. Unlocking hexes also gives the player treasure more often than not, so exploration never feels wasted, especially since the majority of items obtained are useful at one time or another.

Despite a reasonable difficulty curve for most of the game, there are some sour spots where a boss challenges you far beyond what has been presented thus far. This would be a lot less irritating if the game had faster, more reasonable travel. Unfortunately, traversing the overworld and walking around combat maps is painfully slow. The final boss is particularly difficult, which is appropriate, but in all honesty I couldn't beat him. Yes, I watched the ending of the game on the internet. While Resonance of Fate allows you to retry battles endlessly for a fee, it does not let you escape from certain ones, and I did not feel like repeating the two-hour dungeon to make it to the end again, especially after committing nearly 60 hours of gameplay. It’s sad that this aspect of the game was so frustrating, as I enjoyed the game for the most part aside from the tedium.

Resonance of Fate‘s story leaves much to be desired, though one wonders if that were the point. The game’s structure is pretty simply Cutscene -> Play Chapter -> Cutscene -> Repeat. On one hand, this is nice because it keeps cutscenes from interrupting the game. However, it also results in an odd narrative structure. You never learn everything you want to about the main cast, the world, or the villains–in fact, I had no idea what had happened at the end of the game and had to look it up to clarify. I appreciate the attempt at an unusual style: presenting the story as a slice of life melodrama is neat (not too unlike Persona 4), and something more games might stand to do. However, in a game steeped in science fiction and magical elements, it’s nice to get some of the ground rules down.

If you enjoy strategy RPGs, don’t mind learning a very unique combat system, and can deal with an occasionally hard-to-follow plot (It does have hilarious dialogue, at least, and Vashyron is one of the best video game characters ever), give Resonance of Fate a shot. It’s addictive if nothing else.

7.5