Suzuki Yu
True Gamer
Tri-Ace and Sega would have you believe this is just another JRPG, but it's much better than that.
When Resonance of Fate (aka End of Eternity in Japan) was first shown it had some big ambitions for RPG gunfights. Specifically, it wanted to translate the drama of a Hollywood standoff into its battle sequences. Finally managing to get our hands on it, it seems weird that this game was ever described as an RPG - this is a genre-bending simulation that deserves a litle more credence than it has so far received.
Each fight is essentially a puzzle to be solved: how to use the resources you're given to defeat enemies. It almost feels like a Yasumi Matsuno game (Final Fantasy XII, Vagrant Story) in its original approach to non-realtime combat, though there's also a definite flavour of Valkyria Chronicles. There's no exploration here, another blow to that early RPG tag, just a succession of rooms filled with enemies and a limited number of special attacks in your locker. You're tied into the arena by a forcefield that only powers down when every enemy is defeated, and after every few areas there's a boss.
Rubbing our hands with glee, we plunged in and were promptly floored by co-ordinated and smart AI. Enemies are both human and machine, and they work together to flank your group and protect their comrades - for example, covering a wounded soldier as he tries to get into cover to heal. You control a party of three, one character at a time, each of whom has an action gauge that decreases when firing or moving. Each individual's action gauge is specific, and this is where it gets a bit confusing: the gauge fills at the start of each turn, the rate depending on how close you are to your enemy (for most characters this means faster). However, enemy characters can move while you're moving and hit your characters while they refill their gauge or perform an action - which might cancel the move or at worst end a whole turn.
There's plenty around the various rooms to offer cover, which is crucial in the charging phases and at the end of each character turn, though if you're in dire straights there's a special action which makes a character invincible during their turn. After locking on to a target, you direct and rotate a line from your character - the route they'll take on the special action turn. Then they go into Inspector Tequila mode, flipping, running and dancing along the path while simultaneously firing at their hapless foe. At times, the special attacks of all three characters can be combined into a 'Resonance Attack' - you choose three routes and try to catch your opponents in the crossfire.
The gunplay aesthetic of Resonance of Fate is spectacular, and the world itself a well-drawn dystopia. The system strikes us perhaps having one more element than it needs, and at the moment it's certainly much more action game than any kind of RPG. But Resonance of Fate may well have more to offer than the legion of games with similarly portentous titles.
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1) SDTV-friendly text.
He says the game has been designed in mind to allow everyone who is able to play the game to enjoy it to the fullest. As such the text in the game is scaled with the resolution in mind and even SDTV players will be able to read everything without feeling left out.
Of course at the same time all the animations and models are designed to take full advantage of HDTV display resolutions so those with better televisions will see more detail as the resolution allows.
2) High music production values.
He mentions that all of Tanaka's compositions are fully orchestrated and recorded in 5.1 in a concert hall. The tracks will be fully reproduced in 5.1 in the game itself for those with surround sound systems.
As for Sakuraba's compositions, they are recorded by a band, and is used in seamless and dynamic way for battles. As you do different actions and the tide of the battle shifts, etc, the tension of the music will change dynamically without pausing or stopping.
3) Fast load times.
The game is designed with both the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360 in mind. While it supports installation on both systems, it is coded to be as fast as possible without an installation. This is to allow all gamers to have as good an experience as possible, even those playing on a 360 Arcade - without a HDD.
4) No disc swapping.
The game will ship on a single disc for both systems. It will not use multiple discs and hence there will be no disc swapping. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, he mentions they do not want the player to get the feeling that he's "already half way through the game" when a disc swap message shows up. The second reason reason is that it is bothersome for some users and they don't want anything that would take the player out of the game.
As for concerns that being on a single disc will mean less content in the overall game, he says that this is not an issue at all. Because of the costume systems in the game, it required that every single cutscene in the game be real time instead of pre-rendered. Because they are unable to cheat by using movie files, the game being completely real time made it possible to have enough space to pack more than enough content while staying on a single disc.
5) Battle retry option.
The game will feature a retry option when you fail in battles. At the Game Over screen, players can choose to retry which would put them back at the start of the battle. This is something which was implemented to allow them to make battles more challenging and surprising. By having a retry option, players who are destroyed in a battle will be encouraged to retry with different tactics and learn how to master the battles instead of being put off or frustrated.
6) Quick save anywhere.
The game will support Quick Save not only on the World Map, but in battles as well. The reason is that this is an essential function for anyone who does not have a ton of time for gaming, or has other commitments like work. Allowing the player to stop playing at any moment and to pick off where he left off will allow people from all walks of life and parts of society to be able to enjoy the game at their own pace.
