Resonance of Fate

Resonance of Fate (End of Eternity in Japan) was the first game for the 360 which I received as a gift and it was a few months ago that I received it from my dear friend Rob. I had wanted this game since long before it came out, being the shameless tri-Ace fan-girl that I am, but it was way too expensive. Once in my hands, glowing with joy and happiness, we hurried back to mine and I began playing it. At first it proved hard... so hard... so incredibly hard that I was tortured to play it. As a sort of blessing, other games quickly came into my possession so I was able to set Resonance of Fate to the side, lovingly, with promises to come back to it. Now, four months later, I have... and am I ever glad I did. Still as hard as ever, I decided that I would start anew and really give it all I could. Four hours into my new game, I was addicted. Not just, wow this is a great game addicted... but I couldn't put the fucking thing down. I literally played it for days straight. People on my friends list who I hadn't talked to knew I was playing Resonance of Fate. People on twitter who I never talk to, knew I was playing Resonance of Fate. People on podcasts who are friends of people I know on the podcasts, but who I have not spoken to, knew I was playing Resonance of Fate. I can't recall a game, in recent time, which had grappled my soul so firmly in it's metallic claw. So now that the gushing is done, I will begin talking about the actual game. I beat the game at 88 hours 11 minutes, though I could have beaten it sooner had I not gone to the Seraphic Gate... er I mean Neverland, when I did. I really wanted to beat the game with the golden guns though. But I am jumping ahead of myself. At game completion, I had only three achievements left to get and two of them I got by starting and beating a New Game+ so that was easy. The last one I am still working on because it entails 500 Arena battles.... Ah tri-Ace, you have the same tricks up your sleeves.

The graphics are not the best I've ever seen in a game, but they are quite nice and I enjoyed watching the game as much as I enjoyed playing it. The scenery is incredible, especially during the times after battle when you can wander around the empty area and take in everything around you. The end of Neverland places you on a high cliff overlooking the world and it is something so wonderful I just wandered around the area for about 20 minutes looking at the world below. Your characters are lovely as well and not to mention the incredible variety of clothing, hair dyes, and accessories that you can outfit them in. Every time I went back into my city I would change my clothes. I actively sought out clothes and such as well, everywhere I went. It's really quite wonderful... also not to mention that Zephyr looks like a Gackt replica and all his outfits seem to support this! Combat in this game is similar to other tri-Ace games in that it's a semi-turn based, free roaming combat system with combos and special abilities, but don't be fooled or lulled into thinking that combat is as 'easy' as it is in other tri-Ace games. The combat has a very steep learning curve which might throw you into a pool filled entirely of adamantium syringes, but once you manage to get it down, it's wonderful, but I won't blame you if you end up in tears while trying to learn it. Here's a hint... Scratch, Scratch, Pistol. Life will be easier... you can also throw in grenades if you want, but I stopped with those at about level 30 on each character.

Levels are another fun thing... you have three sets of levels, each go to 100. Pistol, Machine Gun, and Grenades. Your level is based off your combined level in these. You start off at level 3 because you are level 1 in each skill. You need to be switching around which weapons you use in order to quickly build up your levels... if you stick with, say, pistols for a few chapters, you will be under-level and finding it hard to do anything storyline wise. So once you get into moving around weapons and gaining skills/levels in various ones, you will be able to cope with life a lot better. This jumps us to your actual weapons. Pistols and Machine Guns are your bread and butter. You find them through out the game either bought, in chests, or storyline and you can customise them with different parts (scopes, bullets, speed etc.). I'll try not to get too into this as it became something of an obsession for me in the game and I could really spend 10 pages typing out my feelings/thoughts in regards to this, and that would be a bit much.

Anyway! Past all that is the music... I am finding more and more in games these days that I really enjoy the music of games while not actually playing them. The soundtracks are wonderful, great, and beautiful at times, but for some reason, just don't go with the game. I love Resonance of Fate's music! All six god-damn discs of it are on my iPod permanently, but while playing the game, the only music that really fit was during one of the two opening FMV's from the start screen (the Vashyron/Zephyr one for those who've played it). That music fit perfectly... the rest of the game I think I mostly listened to Miyavi, Nick Cave, or The Knife. Strange enough, they fit a lot better. So the music is really well done and there's so much of it because you can find an item called the Hi-Pod and when you equip it, it changes all the music to a B version which effectively doubles the musical content. Next up is something a lot of people are on two
sides about. The storyline of this game. I was doing pretty well at following it actually and those who spoke to me during the 117 hours of this game I've put into it, have heard all about my love of it. Anyone who says it's not a very deep storyline has obviously not paid attention to what's going on. The only part that confused me was between chapters 11-14 but it was cleared up afterwards and I was able to go 'Ah yes, OK that makes sense now' though mind you, my way of thinking is a bit warped, so I won't slight you to think it's a little confusing to follow. I loved it and think it is one of the most interesting story-lines I've seen in a game in a very long time, but I will tell you now. When I went through the New Game+ I switched the voices to English (Yes you can have JP or ENG language, I always pick JP) and it almost ruined the story for me... I quickly went back to JP voices. Just something about the ENG voices which ruins the mood and depth of the story. Also, sorry Nolan North, but you do not do a good bad boy voice. I'm pretty sure I've missed something, but I really want to get back to the game to finish up the Arena and hit my final achievement for 1000/1000 in this game, so I will end it here. I think this game is worth recommending to play, but it's hard guys. Don't get it thinking it's an easy game you can button mash through. You need to pay attention to every battle you're in and if you want to get the most out of the story, hit up every side quest (the game tells you if you're going to miss a side-quest so don't worry about missing them) and really pay attention to the story. Talk to people too! They have interesting commentary about the world of Basel and Chandelier. tri-Ace has made a wonderful game and even though SEGA were bastards about promoting it (IE they didn't), it really deserves more than it got.

Also... so glad to be using guns instead of swords.... finally.