Resonance of Fate Review

Seriously, why couldn't we have this as our U.S cover?

Platform: PS3, XBOX360
Age: Teen
Company: Sega

After pouring 89 hours into Resonance of Fate, I can confidently say that I am qualified to give a fan review of the game in its entirety.  For purchasing this game at $18 dollars (without shipping) on Amazon as part of the Black Friday deal, this game was worth the buck. 



Zephyr, Vashyron, and Leanne



Story: The game starts off right at the beginning of a mission assigned to Vashyron (father figure, gold digger, and oldest member in mid-20s), Zephyr (17 or 18-years old with a terrible past *warning* prepare for angsting up ahead), and Leanne (21 years old and is level-headed).  The trio needs to deliver a giant gem to a cardinal living in the high-class Chandelier.  Immediately, there's a distinction between the rich and Cardinals living in the posh Chandelier and the middle and lower class of the rest of Basel, a giant air purifier of a tower.  The setting claims to be post-apocalyptic with some steampunk thrown into it.  Because of careless human nature, the world became inhabitable because of a hazardous gas and humans had to live in Basel.  More in-depth complaints analysis of the story later on past the *SPOILERS* tab.  Overall, the story is half slice-of-life and half drama as it follows the trio's through their missions and problems. 

Gameplay: What I can guarantee for those gamers interested in Resonance of Fate is that the battle system is a nice change of pace from the other (J)RPGs with turn-based systems and whatnot.  In a random-encountered battle, players have the trio aligned in a horizontal line where the players can change the order of who goes first in the menu beforehand.  After that, basics are that the players has the option to shoot from where they stand, risking getting attacked by enemies, or use a bezel shard to use a hero action to make the characters run in the line and go guns blazing on the enemies.  I'm not going to go too much into the battle system because everything is covered in the tutorial in the game.  There are no flaws in this battle system besides the occasional frustration of having your characters stop in their tracks.  To save the the trouble for you gamers, I'll tell you up front that the characters can stop in their tracks during hero action or Tri-attack when they run into each other, heavy machinery, walls, and gaps at the corners where you think you can jump over it but you can't.  The game is definitely punishing if you don't grind enough or if you make a lot of mistakes.  People complain of the steep learning curve, but once you do the tutorial you'll get the hang of it soon enough.  When a character dies, it's not game over unless you decide to: a) Pay a small fee of money to restart with your bezel shards as is, b) Pay a huge fee to refill the entire hero gauge and health, or c) Load previous save.  There is also a bonus dungeon for those interested in getting the trophy or wanting a challenge. 

You can customize your guns to the extent where it would look ridiculous to have a gun with a large-ass sniper-style scope with 8 smaller scopes attached along with a dozen of barrels.  It may not seem like a big deal for the first 6 chapters or so, but having tricked-out guns by the 7th chapter really helps.  Grinding in the arena is optional as you can grind while getting items and money.

You can also purchase clothes which have no fighting value whatsoever other than to make your character look good.  Once you figure out how to farm money, you can buy all the clothes you want.  Also, there are trophies available which 95% can be obtained in one go.  While getting trophies for finishing a chapter may seem lame, the tiles that are unlocked reveal a long, vertical image of Basel and the three characters.

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*SPOILERS* FOR THOSE WHO HAVE ALREADY BEATEN THE GAME OR WISHED TO BE SPOILED

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Dude, just... look at that...



Prologue: After the opening sequence, you find out that the long, black-haired girl that tried to kill herself is Leanne and was saved by Zephyr.  The trio is sent to get what is called a "star from the heavens" and deliver it to Cardinal Pater.  At first, I got the impression that Pater is a stout middle-aged man but I was so wrong.  As soon as I met Pater, the first impression I got was that he was a fat loser who looks really possessed when his eyes saw the jewel the characters delivered.  He had this bowl-cut hairdo and said in a creepy voice," Here's a little something for my angel , hurr-durr...".  When the trio goes home, Leanne wonders whether or not dreams can be really bought.  The the scene closes when Leanne looks up into the star-littered sky and the ceiling is shut, revealing the inside of the core elevator as bright and decorative.

Chapter 1:  This is the part where the Japanese demo for Resonance of Fate (a.k.a The End of Eternity) took place.  The trio gets an assignment from Cardinal Theresa to put a fake flower on an unmarked grave in Lucia.  While Vashyron is slightly catching up with past things with Cardinal Theresa, you see a charming scene of Leanne and Zephyr interacting.  Leanne's old enough to drink champagne, but Zephyr isn't old enough.  Not hearing any coherent dialogue, you see Zephyr take the glass of champagne and chug it down, only to cough it up and Leanne comforting him.  A cute scene, really  ;D.  So the trio goes down to Lucia, put down the flower, and leave Lucia after Vashyron's down contemplating about his past.

Chapter 2: While Vashyron and Zephyr are watching a steamy, erotic television program, Leanne is taking a bath.  Just before things were getting to the good part, a blackout happens and Leanne screams.  Zephyr thought it was a monster based off of a little chit-chat he and Vashyron were having, and then Leanne slaps Zephyr for barging into the bathroom.  Vashyron laughs at Zephyr for getting a slap imprint, but karma bites him in the but as Leanne slaps Vashyron for commenting that her rack was too small to see.  After this chapter, some random battles will have Vashyron teasing Zephyr for being "good in the dark" and how once "Zephyr gets a hold of someone, there's no stopping him".  The trio were given the task to go to the Hughes Power Station and start the power back up.  As Vashyron is fixing the generator, Zephyr and Leanne both share small talk about how Leanne likes the romantic candlelight scenery while Zephyr complains how Chandelier doesn't provide much light.



She gives off the impression of a cat to me...



Looks like a douchebag, right?



Chapter 3: Hilarity ensues when Vashyron does Leanne's make-up (who knew he had a woman's touch?).  However, Vashyron wasn't going to paint Leanne with just any make-up.  He painted her face with a giant cherry blossom on her face and Leanne is horrified.  I cracked up just as much as Zephyr did when he ran it and ROFLed.   This time, Leanne has to go to Cardinal Garigliano's mansion alone in order to get on his good side to give out missions.  After Garigliano spots Leanne, he goes into artsy hyper mode, freaking out Leanne.  Leanne's attempt was successful and the trio was assigned to retrieve a debilitated female mannequin from the Forest of Idols and bring it to Garigliano's studio.  When they get to the statue, Leanne asks if she can pick some baby's breath and Vashyron points Zephyr out that the flowers bring out the true beauty (implying Leanne).  Some unnecessary seconds of stare from Zephyr to Leanne implies a fuzzy feeling inside of me, but that's another story.  Afterwards, Leanne and Zephyr walk out of boredom while Vashyron admires the beat-up mannequin with Garigliano a little longer (I don't know if Vashyron was just kissing ass or he really does have a weird taste in art). 



Aww... How can you not like that face?

Chapter 4: Following chapter 3, the trio now has to deliver the statue Garigliano made to the top of the tower in the Forest of Idols.  You think Garigliano, being a hailed artistic genius, would make something mind-blowing, right?  WRONG.  Garigliano makes a statue of Leanne propping up the picture frame Garigliano has while standing in a "stand-your-ground" pose.  To me, the fights were a bitch to do since the statue cannot be left behind or lose all health.  As Vashyron takes the statue up the elevator, Leanne and Zephyr talk some more and then the two go up later.  Vashyron mumbles something about how the two of them would be better off not being involved with Vashyron, and then the two show up conveniently afterwards.  A shower of cherry blossom petals come down, and Leanne is in awe as to how is it possible when Basel lacks any of mother nature.  Vashyron says that the possibilities are endless and the chapter ends like that. 

Jean Paulet actually loves the weird statue.  You'd think his voice would sound decent, but he sounds like a douchebag.

Chapter 5: This is one of the most random chapters yet, as the trio are assigned to bring Cardinal Barbarella a bottle of wine before she finishes her meal.  As Vashyron has perverted thoughts racing through his mind, Barbarella has an orgasm over eating "real" meat.  She moans, her breasts are jiggling up and down, and Vashyron makes sexual metaphors involving fertile soil, trusty magnum, and commenting Leanne's breasts as "raisins".  As a result, Leanne punches him in the gut.  Resonance of Fate has proven to take things to the extreme once again as you have to fight a yeti (yeah, a yeti... Tri-Ace wasn't very creative with the names) just to get a bottle of wine. 

She is literally having an orgasm over eating meat.  She's an extreme meat-eater with physics-defying boobs.

Leanne grabs two and Vashyron is ecstatic when he finds that Leanne grabbed a very expensive wine and then Leanne was excited to know what was the other and Vashyron replied,"Swill".  Vashyron and Leanne go to the bar to give the bartender both the cheap wine for Barbarella and the expensive one for themselves.  The bartender officially gives off of the homosexual vibe because he is and exchanges some talk with Leanne.  When Vashyron talked about how he had traces of lipstick on his cheek and the bartender jokes about making up or making out, Leanne cries all of a sudden.  This baffled me at first because Leanne just cries all of a sudden o__O,  Meanwhile, Zephyr went back home looking at the stars from the balcony.  For some strange reason, creepy Pater was with him and said how even the smallest thing can trigger a memory.  Zephyr proceeds to tell him that he doesn't want to hear it and the chapter ends on a slightly funny note.

Yep, nothing unusual fighting a 50-foot monster for some medicine

Chapter 6: Leanne has a flashback back to the day Juris, scientist and caregiver, let her leave the research facility where she stayed.  The research facility studied the effects of quartz, a substance that binds a person's life to it and when the quartz breaks the person dies.  Leanne was the 20th and last experiment to live of all the 19 who died.  Cardinal Rowen, dude with bangs covering his eyes and is a drunk, finds out that Leanne is being let go and goes on a rampage.  After going batshit on Juris, Rowen remembers his precious Prelate Frieda dreaming a world where people can live on their own free will.  He lets Leanne go and Leanne is kicked out with nothing but Juris' research notes.  The dream ends when Leanne realized that she would die very soon, and then she woke up feeling feverish and asking if she's dying.  Another "Dawww..." moment for me when Zephyr showed concern for Leanne's cold and said that he and Vashyron should go get some cold medicine.  Vashyron's like "WTF?  It's just a cold" and Zephyr gets pissy and says to go.  Okay, at this point... Who doesn't feel that there is some kind of shipping implications going on between Zephyr and Leanne?  Yeah, the two could be just close friends on that fateful night at the beginning of the game, but still...  So the two guys go back to the frozen wasteland to get cold medicine and what awaits them?  A 50-foot tall goliath with a huge-ass rail gun ready to freeze our heroes' asses off.  *Sigh* The things we do for cold medicine...  So our heroes kill it and Vashyron mimics what Leanne did when he got two types of cold medicine and Zephyr says bring both.  And so concludes our chapter with Leanne possibly under-leveled.

Gelsey, the boss of Chapter 7

Chapter 7: In the opening we get a little treat by seeing some crazy ex-general, Gelsey, in Mine 24 where quartz is stored.  He goes on and on about how he's a chosen one and then pulls a Russian roulette on himself.  He shoots five times and his brains didn't blow out.  He's so hell-bent on being convinced that he's the chosen one that he mentions how his grandmother was never wrong  (WTH?  O__O).  So the trio goes to the mine, confront him, and the entire battle he will hide in barrels and talk about his grandmother.  Seriously, not only is this guy crazy, but he a total weirdo for loving his grandmother (not that there's anything wrong with loving your grandparent, but this guy...).  So he's killed and Sullivan comes in to congratulate the trio on doing Basel's army's dirty work in clearing out ex-soldiers.  Sullivan sees Leanne and pretends to play dumb when he finds out that she's still alive.

She was actually grossed out when she found out  XD

Chapter 8: This chapter kicked off to a humorous start as Pater lives out his fantasy of being with Leanne through his shitty artistic drawings of him as a superhero.  It's funny how some of the drawings are inconsistent with the style  XD.  Apparently, Leanne is asked to escort Pater through his unfinished city, Patertopolis.  Obviously, it's a ploy for a date and even Zephyr sees that.  Vashyron, however, sees money and tells Leanne to go.  This time around, it's just Zephyr and Vashyron fighting through Patertopolis to stalk watch Leanne over her assignment.  At the end of the dungeon, Pater talks about how he wants to make others happy when he found his happiness (quartz from the prologue).  This is the only time when we see a serious side of Pater and makes me reconsider his degree of weirdness.  Vashyron's like "We gotta preserve this moment" >: D, and takes a picture of them sitting together on the bench.  When the day's ending, Pater was going to pay Leanne a few million rubies (cash) for the escort, but Leanne was too nice and said to keep it or it wouldn't be a date (Goddammit, Leanne!  Take the money!).  As Leanne leaves, however, a gremlin ambushes her and she's not armed.  Being the delusional person, Pater jumps in to punch the gremlin with his fist where his quartz ring is on.  The quartz shatters and he dies.  Kind of sad since it seems he's a character meant to be disposed of.  At night, Leanne keeps the photo of their "date" on her table.  Luckily, this doesn't mean that she has feelings, but she feels horrible for what had happened.

Chapter 9: This chapter's dedicated to Vashyron's past when he was a soldier for Zenith.  Cardinal Anturion sends the trio to go deeper into Lucia to find the Sacred Sign.  The Sacred Sign is a symbol that indicates a person being immortal or at least saved from death by the power of Zenith, a machine god of sorts.  Vashyron had his when Rebecca, the white-haired "loli", gave him a fatal blow to the gut.  Rebecca was apparently some meanacing human turned part monster by the poison outside.  She had a deeper voice, but then she became retarded of sorts drinking nothing but red wine.  When the trio hits a dead end, Leanne picks up what happens to be Vashyron's old gun when he's in the army, but Vashyron pretended he didn't know what the gun was. 

Chapter 10: Oh god... Major angst going on in this chapter.  Zephyr sits by the window in his bedroom thinking about a little girl who gave him scriptures, which was practically the Bible.  The little girl believed in a god, but Zephyr doesn't because he was experimented on and went on a killing spree.  Leanne's wondering "WTH is taking Zephyr so long?  Is he having his period?!" and Vashyron says that today is the day when he and Zephyr met.  Leanne decides to tag along to see where Vashyron's going to pay his respects.  This chapter doesn't have a boss, which is a nice break from all the boss battles.  When the two get to Crank Seminary, Leanne sees all the grave markers in the destroyed seminary.  She realized that Zephyr wasn't a victim but a killer and breaks down.  Even though Zephyr saved her, Leanne doesn't know whether or not she can see Zephyr the same again.  When Zephyr was done PMSing, he asked Leanne where's his breakfast and Leanne just smacks him in the back of the head LOL.

Chapter 11: Basically a continuation from Ch. 10, Cardinal Lagerfeld, witness who tagged along with Vashyron to see Zephyr killed, shows up to challenge Zephyr to a duel.  The boss battle is with Lagerfeld and using Zephyr alone.  It shouldn't be hard if Zephyr's already good with both a handgun and SMG.  He was a bitch to deal with until I found his weakness.  Zephyr was going to kill him until Lagerfeld gave him a picture of his younger sister (What on Earth...?).  Turns out that Zephyr killed her in his killing spree and then he let Lagerfeld knock him down.  Lagerfeld was going to kill Zephyr until Leanne comes in to save the day.  Zephyr's like "Why? I wanted to die!" and Leanne calls him an idiot and smacks him in the back of the head  XD.  Leanne falls to her knees and tells Zephyr that if he wasn't alive then she wouldn't be alive either (Daww...).  At the end of the day, Zephyr tells Vashyron that all he wants is Leanne to be happy.  Then, will he be content to die.  What the hell, Zephyr?  I want to believe you have the hots for Leanne!

"Daddy does not approve!" LOL

Chapter 12: Oh yeah... the icing on the cake for ZephyrxLeanne shipping >:D.  Leanne and Zephyr are in wedding get-up, pretending to be Jean Paulet and his fiancé for the hitman hired to kidnap the fiancé.  Zephyr comments how Jean Paulet is such a tool LOL and then goes to Vashyron on the phone.  Some dude hired Vashyron to kidnap the client's ex-girlfriend to bring her back to him.  We all know where this is going...  This time, it's Vashyron on his own and going through the dungeon isn't that hard with him.  After the boss battle, Leanne and Zephyr are hanging around until Leanne gets the idea to use the ring Jean Paulet gave them.  Leanne's like "Hey~ Why don't you put that ring on my finger, Zephyr?" ;D and Zephyr's like "WTH? It's just pretend".  Leanne called him a chicken and flustered Zephyr grabs her left hand and puts the ring on her.  Joyful of her success, Leanne decides to tease Zephyr more by asking him to be more of a groom and kiss her.  Shocked, Zephyr is in a daze with a hilarious expression and I'm like O///O.  Leanne's all puckered up and leans in to kiss him until Vashyron barges in a big way.  Zephyr pulls his gun as well as Vashyron, but all three are shocked when they saw each other.  When Vashyron finds out, he's like "What the...?!  You?! With him?!  Daddy does not approve!" XD.  Leanne tells him how much Jean Paulet is going to pay them and Vashyron was willing to bruise his ego to get his wad of cash.  The chapter ends with Zephyr pulling his hand away from his left cheek to reveal the lipstick mark Leanne left when she kissed him on the cheek.  XD

Chapter 13: Hooray!  It's a chapter dedicated to one of our favorite holidays of the year, Christmas!  Vashyron says that Cardinal Theresa asked the trio to give presents to children at Square Garden.  Leanne gets all excited and says to count her in.  She and Vashyron has a face-off of sorts saying how she's not going to back out, only to later regret her decision.  While Vashyron and Zephyr are in reindeer costumes, Leanne has to wear a female Santa suit with a miniskirt.  Zephyr jokes about how there needs to be a trampoline to get a peek, but Leanne wasn't too pleased.  This mission was somewhat frustrating since Leanne is the only one who can give presents in one shot while it takes two tries for Vashyron or Zephyr to do the job.  The problem is that the children swarm Leanne like zombies so Leanne can get easily dazed.  Funny enough, Vashyron and Zephyr scare away the children and can keep them at bay.  The charge speed is so slow since you're just throwing presents.  Afterwards, Leanne gets two small presents from the guys because it's her birthday.  She finds out that Cardinal Rowen is attending the Christmas mass and she decides to go.  She passes by him at the basilica and says "Merry Christmas" in a serious tone, giving Rowen the realization that she's still alive.

Chapter 14: All of a sudden, Leanne attempts to run away from home and see Professor Juris.  She's stopped at the Rainy Bridge by Vashyron and Zephyr with jokes to lighten the mood.  She's not happy when the two guys try to joke around with her being alone, but the two guys assured her that they're going to help with whatever she's dealing with.  Later, Rowen ordered the army to purge the research facility where Juris is on suspicion that Sullivan lied to Rowen.  Sullivan tells Juris that he's free to go, but Juris said that he's staying for a promise to wait for Leanne.  After mowing through soldiers, Leanne goes to the room where Juris is staying and hugs him.  Naturally, he's shocked that she's still alive and the trio take him back to their base.  The two catch up on all the months that passed by when she left.

Chapter 15: More angsting on Zephyr's part as the trio decides to go to Sullivan's place to ask for answers.  Zephyr finds out that Leanne could die anytime and tries to beat the answer out of Juris in his rage.  Meanwhile, Sullivan tells Rebecca to fly outside of Basel and wait for him with a piece of quartz.  He said that if he doesn't make it to the meeting spot, Rebecca should destroy the quartz.  Here, I thought he had Leanne's quartz and was going to be a bastard and break it.  The trio storm Sullivan's place to interrogate him until Rowen shows up with his questions.  To find out whether or not there are miracles, he shoots Sullivan to see whether or not Leanne will die shortly.  Angry, Zephyr tries to go for Rowen but his lackeys show up to stall.  Another touching moment when Leanne grabs Zephyr's hand and assures him that she'll not die.  Apparently, I hear that Leanne's the reason for Zephyr being alive. 

Chapter 16: The final chapter.  The trio goes to the basilica to confront Rowen only to be delayed by Garigliano and Anturion.  Turns out that these two guys can fight, with Garigliano having the same golden pistol as Rowen and Anturion with his 10-foot sniper rifle.  Because I was overpowered at this point from fighting in the bonus dungeon of Neverland, I didn't give these guys the time of day.  As the trio confronts Rowen, Rowen provokes them by pulling the gun on Leanne to bring what was supposed to be retribution upon himself.  After the battle, Zephyr got impatient and shot Rowen fatally, but the sacred sign appeared, indication that Rowen was immortal in a sense.  Zephyr throws a huge fit on why he can't die himself and the trio leave the basilica.  Rebecca, waiting forever for Sullivan, figured he wasn't going to show so she dropped the quartz.  Bastard...  Credits roll and it turns out that Garigliano and Anturion both lived even though I rained hell on them.  It turns out Sullivan wasn't even dead, he's immortal.  WTF?  He reunites with Rebecca and the two hug.  I can't help but feel like Sullivan's a pedophile for Rebecca even though she's older than she looks  o_O.  Flower petals fly through the place and Frieda's last message kept echoing.  The FMV ending shows that Leanne is indeed alive because her quartz is literally inside her hand.  Apparently, Juris put the quartz inside her hand.  It turns out that the outside world returned to normal so it seems like people can live outside of Basel.  On Wikipedia, I found out that the destroyed quartz was Sullivan's and Sullivan wanted to see whether or not he's immortal. 
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Final Thoughts: If Resonance of Fate wasn't released the same time as Final Fantasy XIII and God of War 3, then this game probably would have sold a little better.  Between RoF and FFXIII, both I have, I had more fun playing RoF despite its flaws over FFXIII.  Yeah, I'm a sucker for gorgeous graphics like FFXIII's, but FFXIII was so BORING when I had to grind for literally 30-40 hours on Pulse.  The gameplay in RoF was much more entertaining than FFXIII's (push X and the occasional R1 or L1).  I'll admit, there were some glaring plot holes that weren't entirely explained like Frieda or Victoria-what's-her-face's roles, Zenith's role, the whole immortality deal, and a bunch more.  Turns out, you have to talk to the frickin' NPCs to get the whole story that the cutscenes don't give.  That or wiki the story.  The pace was slow to a certain extent, but I enjoyed the slice-of-life moments of the hunters' daily lives.  The purchasing of clothes, customization of guns, and side quests all kept me busy to rack up 80+ hours on my first playthrough so it's definitely a bang for my buck (I paid $18 before tax).  I recommend playing this game if you're patient and would like a nice change of pace for what would be called an RPG in the PS3 library since I got the PS3 version of it.