Resonance of Fate does all the things Tri-Ace has been trying to accomplish for years. It succeeds in the areas their other games had failed in, topped off with what I believe to be their best combat system on the 360.
Eternal Sonata had a creative battle system and decent characters, but failed in premise, pacing, and (most of the) story.
Star Ocean: TLH had a great battle system, nice visuals, and interesting crafting but had abominable characters, the worst pacing I've ever seen, and a confusing, boring, and unnecessarily long story.
Infinite Undiscovery... Well, frankly it sucked. It was close to broken as far as gameplay, the story was a long string of coincidences with a vague "dumbass saves the world" plot, an unmanageable party system, and one-dimensional characters. I guess if there was anything positive... It looked nice and had nice music. That's really all I got out of it.
Resonance of Fate gets all these things right. I recognize the good aspects of all of their previous titles in this game.
The atmosphere and world they've created in Basel is a new take on the apocalyptic settings found in most FPS as of late, with a creative puzzle-style game mechanic on the world map. The mythos behind the world is slowly revealed, intermixed with the personal day-to-day experiences of your party.
The group of three bounty hunters are together at the beginning, and for the most part they stay together throughout the game. They are all complex characters, complete with reasonable responses to every situation. There is some over-the-top humor, but honestly it doesn't bother me that much. The game also delves into very interesting philosophical and religious questions, focus on fate (topical!) and personal choice vs predestination. The characters might look like your average JRPG characters, but they might surprise you in how they act.
The combat system, which is the core of the game, is very complicated and has been explained extensively in other reviews. I believe it's Tri-Ace's best work to date. In order to get into though, taking all the tutorials and investing in a lot a lot of arena practice is a necessity. Once you get into it (Which is not nearly as long or as difficult as some have said), the combat is fun, deep, and strategic. There are numerous strategies, a variety of weapons, and many useful and/or fun items.
The menus are clear and easy to navigate, the graphics, although not awe inspiring, look average to good for this generation.
My favorite part about this game is its value. I'm well over 50 hours (over halfway through in chapter 10) and it only gets better. There's a lot of content to get through, a lot of excellent story, and a lot of good times to be had.Get more detail about Resonance of Fate.
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