Resonance of Fate was developed by Tri Ace, the developers of the Star Ocean series and Published by SEGA. It is also known as End Of Eternity in Japan. The game is inspired by action films like Rebellion and especially Western made films like The Matrix and elements of John Woo films. You play as 3 different characters Zephyr, Leane(Reanbell in Japan) and Vashyon, freelance mercenaries called “hunters” in the game who take on different jobs for the right price.
The story takes place in the near future on earth in a location called Basel where the world is now heavily contaminated with pollution and the atmosphere is being depleted day by day. The city is run by the upper class called The Cardinals who hold a major control over society in Basel and they live in decadence and privilege, while much of the middle and lower classes live at the bottom. Each of the cardinals are very eccentric in their own ways and their lives of self indulgence comes at a great cost to other citizens not so fortunate.
The tower of Basel functions as an air purifier and protects the citizens from contaminated air but the tower is degrading over time. As the story progress, there appears to be a strange conspiracy among the cardinals regarding Basel and the toxic environment of earth.
Compared to other JRPGS of its genre Resonance of Fate is focused on gun combat rather than magic or swords. The action is mixed with tactical style combat and third person shooter elements taking place in real time instead of turn based. You have to hold down the x button to shoot an enemy. It is much quicker and more powerful up close but also more dangerous. The complex Tri-attack-battle combat in the game is the main highlight.
There are two types of damage you can use in the game. Scratch damage comes from machine guns while handguns or grenades deal in direct damage. Scratch damage is meant for a temporary take down of an enemy’s health, while direct damage is used to permanently weaken enemies while their health is down. Scratch damage is also converted into direct damage when you use direct damage on a temporary weakened enemy. Scratch damage is much more frequent and quicker than direct damage so you are going to have to mix up your strategy for each fight as you cannot use the same attacks all the time throughout the game.
Another part of combat is the “Bezels” system. You fill up your hero gauge by finding by finding Bezels in order to perform more powerful attacks on enemies instead of the regular attacks. Bezels also act as form of protection but use bezels wisely as they drain through usage. However, you can recharge them by destroying a piece of armor, by killing an enemy, or by finding them scattered in the battlefield.
Hero actions allow you to travel to a pre-determined path you have set and movement is a key element of survival during combat as you are going to be moving around from place to place often. Tri attacks are collected by Resonance points which allows you to take down even more powerful enemies than you usually fight. You can inflict elemental status effects like fire to enemies depending on what ammunition you are using. Aerial attacks inflict massive damage to enemies and send them flying into the air. You can also use smackdown attacks to enemies while in midair to force them down on the ground and they lose any items that they are carrying.
There is a wide variety of enemies to fight and each has their own strengths and weaknesses to exploit. They won’t go down easy but they do fight fair mostly. Even under leveled enemies put up a tough fight. Each character has their own hero actions which allows them to perform their own special attacks.
It has a different take on leveling up than other RPG games. Leveling up is mainly based on the equipment that you use so the more your weapons level up, your character levels up as well, so it is best to use all kinds of equipment in the game to see which works best for you. Bexels are used as protection during combat. Finding enough of them will increase your protection which is obviously a good thing.
The game is really long and there are lots of stuff for you to do. There are 16 chapters in the game and each of them focuses on the backstories of the characters. Each chapter in the game is divided into different missions, one main mission and several side missions. It uses a overarching narrative to form into a bigger story.
It has a different kind of exploration system in order to explore different areas of the game. You can buy energy hexes or pick them up from stores to open up new areas. The way you place energy hexes serves as a form of puzzle in the game. You have a variety of different shaped hexes and when placed in a certain manner, you get a brand-new area to explore and the world becomes more habitable as time progresses.
Across the map, terminals are placed throughout the world. Once you place a certain amount of energy hexes wherever it is locate