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Sunday, May 30, 2010

Last Rebellion - the first strike

Taking a brief break from Nier, I decided to try another game that I bought alongside - Last Rebellion for PS3.
Last Rebellion is a console role-playing video game developed by Nippon Ichi Software and Hit Maker and published by Nippon Ichi Software in Japan as well as in North America and Tecmo Koei in Europe exclusively for the PlayStation 3. The game was released on January 28, 2010 in Japan, in North America on February 23, 2010, and in Europe on March 26, 2010.
The game takes place in the world of Junovald which is governed by the will of two gods: Meitilia and Formival. Meitilia is the god of death, presiding over the destruction of life while Formival is the god of life, presiding over the birth of all life and the creation of everything. Meitilia is said to have blessed two types of people - Blades and Sealers - with special powers. Blades have the unparalleled power to destroy things physically while Sealers have the magical power to destroy souls.



Title: Last Rebellion
Platform: PS3
Genre: rpg

Developer: Nippon Ichi Software


Honestly I'm not sure what influenced me to buy the game because the general reviews did not give positive evaluation toward the game. Anyway I am currently about 8 hours into the game (just before going to Tower of Freya), but believe it or not, it appears that I am almost near the end of the game. Yeah, the game is "that" short, you can easily finish the game within 12 hours or so. Anyway, what do I have to say about the game so far:

  • overall I thought Last Rebellion is more suited for a PS2 title, because the graphic is decent at best, the gameplay is alright (but draw many criticism, which I partly disagree), and the story/game length overall was rather short (about 12 hours playtime, as I mentioned before).
  • If you're familiar with the likes of Disgaea, then you'd probably be familiar with the graphic of the game. Nothing spectacular, but neat enough to please the eyes. Butsimilar to Nier, I thought they're not up to par with PS3's standard. But hey, video game is not all about graphic, aye?
  • the gameplay features basic turn-based system. In battle, you control 2 characters, Nine and Aisha alternately. The unique features of the gameplay is that to effectively beat the monster, you need to target specific body part of the monsters in the correct sequence. Then you need to "mark" those body part with physical attacks, so that they can be targeted with magic. Then when the monsters were defeated, you need to "seal" them or else they'll revive after a few turn and become even stronger.

example of how the battle in last Rebellion works, showing most of the basic stuff. It's actually much faster once you figure out the correct order of the monster's sequence, which you can easily find on guides.

  • In short the system was quite simple, but people make a big deal out of it as if they're difficult, which I disagree. No, the battle doesn't take too long and not as difficult as people complain because as long as you know the mechanics and how to exploit them, the battle become much easier and can easily be ended within 1 or 2 minutes. In fact, I thought the game was far too easy because I can't remember a single fight where I need to use healing spells or items.
  • The "slow" battle progression was balanced by fast rate of leveling. After a few hours into the game, without grinding you could easily reach level 30+ providing you efficiently make use of the battle mechanics.
  • I was kinda excited when I first see Sephi int he character list. But then I heard her English voice...damn it's those creeaky, annoying voice from Welch of Star Ocean 4. FFFFFFFFFFFF YOU SERIOUSLY RUIN IT щ(゚Д゚щ)



In short, while the game is not that impressive in many aspects, I find Last Rebellion a rather nice and relaxing game to play, considering the short length and ease of battle, as well as the banter between Nine and Aisha, which sometimes do made me laugh. It's probably not worth spending 60 bucks on the game, but definitely an option if you're looking for something to rent. I hope I could finish the game within the next 2 or 3 days.



I lol'd

Saturday, May 29, 2010

NieR Gestalt & Replicant Original Soundtrack


Title: NieR Gestalt & Replicant Original Soundtrack
Publisher: Square Enix Co., Ltd.
Release Date: April 21st, 2010

Composed by: Keiichi Okabe , Kakeru Ishihama, Keigo Hoashi, Takafumi Nishimura
Arranged by: Ryuichi Takada
Performed by: Emi Evans, Nami Nakagawa, Keiichi Okabe, Daishu Oikawa, Kazuya Miyashita, Kento Yamazaki, Takanori Goto, Keigo Hoashi, Daisensei Muroya Strings



Tracklist

Disc 1 (1:13:46)
1 Snow in Summer
2 Hills of Radiant Wind
3 The Incomplete Stone
4 Blu-bird
5 Cold Steel Coffin
6 Grandma
7 Song of the Ancients / Devola
8 The Wretched Automatons
9 City of Commerce
10 Song of the Ancients / Popola
11 The Prestigious Mask
12 Temple of Drifting Sands
13 Gods Bound by Rules
14 The Ultimate Weapon
15 Deep Crimson Foe
16 Dispossession / Piano Ver.
17 Dispossession / Strings Ver.
18 Dispossession / Pluck Ver.
19 Dispossession / Music Box Ver.
20 Yonah / Piano Ver.
21 Yonah / Strings Ver.
22 Yonah / Pluck Ver. 1
23 Yonah / Pluck Ver. 2
Disc 2 (1:16:02)
1 The Dark Colossus Destroys All
2 Song of the Ancients / Hollow Dreams
3 Kainé / Salvation
4 Kainé / Escape
5 His Dream
6 This Dream
7 Repose
8 The Lost Forest
9 Song of the Ancients / Fate
10 Shadowlord's Castle / Memory
11 Dance of the Evanescent
12 Shadowlord's Castle / Roar
13 Emil / Karma
14 Emil / Sacrifice
15 Shadowlord
16 Ashes of Dreams / New
17 Ashes of Dreams / Nouveau
18 Ashes of Dreams / Nuadhaich
19 Ashes of Dreams / Aratanaru
20 Shadowlord - White-note Remix

Download: Mirrorcreator [part1/part2/part3]

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As I mentioned in previous entry on Nier's original soundtrack;
Awesome. Freaking amazing. Superb. Despite the crappy character design/awkward gameplay, I really love the musics in Nier. Soothing, melancholic yet fit with the theme and mood of the story. They're not the same with the one you often heard from Motoi Sakuraba/Nobuo Uematsu, Yasunori Mitsuda blablabla, and have a tiny bit resemblance with Kajiura Yuki's operatic style arrangement, sang with choir in fictional language. Whoever compose the music for Nier deserve a double thumb up. Overall I can only say that Nier has one of the best BGM I've ever listened to.
You know a game's OST is good if you can listen to them independently in your playlist without reminding you much to the game. This is the case with Nier's OST, at least it is in my case. In many other games, usually only a few tracks of their OST stand out for me, but in Nier, almost every song are good and nice to listen to, although the song has no exact meaning due to the fictional languages being used. My favorite tracks would be all versions of Song of the Ancients.

kickass music, if only the game was slightly better designed.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Nier Gestalt/Replicant - the first impression

Since finishing FFXIII, I'm looking for a few other rpg games to be played and that includes Nier Replicant, Last Rebellion, White Knight Chronicle, Valkyria Chronicle Demon Soul. The first 2 had just arrived early this week, so I spent a few hours to get a feel of one of the game, Nier.

Nier is an action role-playing video game developed by Cavia and published by Square Enix. It was released in April 2010 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. In Japan, the two platform versions were named Nier Gestalt​ (ニーア ゲシュタルト) for Xbox 360 and Nier Replicant​ (ニーア レプリカント) for PlayStation 3. The major differences between the two versions are the player character Nier's appearance and his relationship with the character of Yonah. In all other regions, the two platform versions are based on Nier Gestalt.
The action is set a thousand years after the events depicted in one of the endings of the game Drakengard, by the same developer.


Title: Nier Gestalt (english); Nier Replicant (jp)

Platform: PS3, xbox360
Genre: action rpg

Developer/publisher: Cavier/Square Enix



Currently I am about 7 hours into the game, just after touring this weird 'All-hail-Rules" village called Facade (my the people and rules of this village realy cracks me up). Ok, to the impression.

Gameplay: 6/10 - okay, I guess. The game features simple hack and slash with Nier as the only playable character (damn I really hope kaine is playable), killing enemies away mostly with your swords (later can also use Spear etc). Not the best hack and slash game you could find because it lacks variety and depth - basic 5-hits combo, magics, jump attacks, sidestepping amd finishing moves with some variation in between. Definitely not on par with the likes of DMC, Bayonetta and GoW, but if you like action rpg, then Nier is not a bad deal.
Other than that, it has this features called "Word Edit", which basically adds certain bonus to your sword/magic/martial arts if you equip them with certain "word". Nothing innovative there imo, replace Word Edit name with things like "Customize/Special Effects", and you got similar thing.




Graphic: 5/10 - Not that good. Coming from the developer of Drakengard, I guess it's not surprising that the graphic isn't that great, and even the character design was kinda crappy (seriously why is the main protagonist so ugly?). But considering this game is for PS3, and was released this year, surely they can improve this area, at least don't make the main character looks like some barbaric thug.

Characters: 8.5/10 - Interesting. Although they're poorly designed, I have to say that the characters are quite interesting - Nier (main character, we name ourself) was a responsible father/brother who cares a lot toward his daughter/sister Yonah. Grimoire Weiss is sarcastic book, and with Dist (Tales of Abyss) as the voice actor, you know you are bound to some laugh :) Kaine is some foul-mouthed woman with very bold sense of fashion (wtf fighting only in her lingerie). Things like "fucking asshole", "crap, "shit" are common in her dictionary; you will most likely hear her swearing once in every five minutes. Oh, and her secret/background too....

Story: -/10 - Not much comment considering I'm only a few hours into the game. So far I couldn't figure much about the relation between this game and Drakengard (a nice ps2 game), though I have a rough idea about the disappearance of the old modern world.

BGM: 20/10 - Awesome. Freaking amazing. Superb. Despite the crappy character design/awkward gameplay, I really love the musics in Nier. Soothing, melancholic yet fit with the theme and mood of the story. They're not the same with the one you often heard from Motoi Sakuraba/Nobuo Uematsu, Yasunori Mitsuda blablabla, and have a tiny bit resemblance with Kajiura Yuki's operatic style arrangement, sang with choir in fictional language. Whoever compose the music for Nier deserve a double thumb up. Overall I can only say that Nier has one of the best BGM I've ever listened to.




Others:
-WTF, there's only THREE save slots? That's far too few for an action rpg...
-Lots of extras and sidequests. And some rather lame fishing game, since they're pretty easy.
-Kaine brought controversy not because of her foul-mouthed nature or her clothes, but something else. To be honest that fact (or opinion, depending on your point of view) kinda bothered me because now I can't see her the same way I did before. Good thing "that" information about her is not boldly told in the game and pretty much open to debate.

I guess that's about it for my early impression toward Nier. To sum it up, the game lacks graphical appealing and depth in gameplay, but was backed by excellent musics, promising story, sidequest, and replay value (there's 4 ending in total). Although I'm a bit turned off with the character and environment simplicity, I'd still continue playing the game and hopefully finished it within the next month.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Summer 2010 Anime List




TV



OVA/OAD


MOVIE/FILM
source: various
.............................

Compared to spring, it seems like there are quite a number of interesting series going to be aired this winter (er..I mean Summer), but one thing I'm really looking forward to is Shiki. The promo released a few month back was really awesome, and the story did look promising. There's also your usual galge Amagami, High School of the Dead, Ookamisan, Densetsu Yuusha and a few more. Oh Sengoku Basara 2. Dammit I haven't finished with season 1 yet, they're all damped in my hard drive for so long now. Looking forward to Kurenai, Black Lagoon's and definitely B★RS's OVA/OAD. Aki Sora? *eherm* Some nice Films/Movies too, but I doubt the DVD/Blu-Ray will be released until much later (still waiting for Vesperia First Strike 屮゚Д゚)屮)

Thursday, May 20, 2010

When a Single Item Made the Difference

Sentinel
aloy_radzi (Top)
SanzeniN (Top)
.dam (Mid)
v3nDretta_ (Mid)
exoshear (Bot)
cipantapeer (Bot)

Scourge
hashbowl (Top)
icetrophy (Top)
NoobNotFunny1 (Mid)
[D]arksLayeR (Bot)
bleach_birth (Bot)
ANTUjamban (Roaming)
map: dota allstars 6.67c_6v6 [download map]
mode: -apspso
version: 1.24D

[LINK] (can't parse because the 6v6 thingy, but still can download)
......................................................................

Just another inhouse we play at Cybergamer room every night.

One thing to describe this game:




Player distribution and heroes picked were rather balanced. But somehow Sentinel couldn't hold a candle in this game with bot lane getting owned, along with the heavy ganking Bone and Nerubian Assassin gave the sentinel little room to spare, although we still manage to get our items (Treant's Rad, SF's BKB, ES's dagger etc). Then we at sentinel lost mid and bot rax and it's likely a gg for us. Until Ice bought a Divine Rapier for Terrorblace after getting an Aegis from Roshan...too bad it was a huge mistake as he lost his Aegis short after after a failed push attempt at top lane, then lost his life and dropped the Divine. The tide suddenly changed, with all scourge killed and we manage to counterpush despite being heavily pressed for the most part of the game. Overconfident much, Ice. Images didn't even get the bonus damage from Rapier..


take home messages:
  • Losing 2 raxes doesn't mean you'd lose the game (hm..sounds familiar? ;p)
  • Images don't get pure damage bonus, AND Vlad's bonus in any way
  • End the game asap so long you got the chance. Prolonging the game can come back to bite you.
  • 5+ Gems > Invis....
  • Don't play in laggy host >.<

ps: I swear I won't play on Melbourne's host again. This was another extremely laggy game for me, else I could have gone for a ganking DK with a Dagger = =

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Final Fantasy XIII - Over but not End



Over the course of last week, I spent a bit of time playing, and finishing the main story of Final Fantasy XIII through to the very final boss- an estimated 40 hours of total gameplay. That's not the end of the road though, as there are still post-game content that can be accomplished just for the sake of completion, since they (in particular, the Mark Quest) are not related to the story in any form. Anyway as usual, a brief of my impression toward the game before I write a lengthy review some time later:

  • Linear, linear and linear. I feel that the "real" FFXIII only started at chapter 10 (out of 13 chapters....) when all playable characters are assembled and you can form your own party. Chapter 1-9 were merely 20 hours of movies. Your party and movement was very limited, there's no such thing as exploration during those period which made things boring and uninteresting. I really wish SquareEnix could just compact those 9 chapters into 1-2 chapters and extends the remaining 3 chapters. What's the fun when you're forced to play with Sahz and Vanille in your party =.=
  • combat difficulty: chapter 1-10 were rather easy, then at cp11 it started to get difficult as some stronk monsters started to appear (since the world started to become huge and you encounter all sorts of monsters). But Chapter 12 almost drives me nuts. The monster combinations, especially after Eden was so difficult to beat that I often need to change my party/Paradigm just to adapt with specific monster combination. And then we're forced to battle against the friggin Adamantoise and King Behemoth...they're beatable but since I didn't power leveling much...
  • character evaluation: I agree with the general concensus that Lightning, Fang and Hope are the best combination of character from chapter 10 to the end of the game - balanced offensively and defensively. Fang is a must because of her brute strength, Lightning is so awesome with her Army of One (seriously easy 999% stagger), while Hope, although he is so paper, was very useful because of his huge AoE elemental magic (and highest magic stat) and synergist support. Snow comes close next because of his obscene amount of HP, plus Sentinel role is very valuable at the end of the game. Vanille is okay, but she kinda lack good ravager skill and I don't really want to have 2 Saboteur in a party (since having Fang is a must). While Sazh, well, I never like this guy to be honest. Weak as a Commando (can't even Launch), average ravager but good synergist. So if I were to tweak my party, I need to party Sazh and Vanille together for their Sab+Syn combo.
  • The gameplay is actually pretty fun. One of the review I've read gave a bad rating to the gameplay because the reviewer said we did nothing but "Press X". Uh...excuse me, but what rpg/turn based game didn't? At mid-end game, you almost always want to change paradigm in every tough battle (hence pressing L1), therefore that kind of claim was not making any sense. In fact I believe Auto-battle is a good feature because the gameplay is revolved around speedy, active time battle. The only thing that might annoy people (and myself too) is that we can't set how the AI work, so sometimes it frustrate me that Hope didn't cast the buff that we actually want. And, I wish the AI would know how to use their ultimate skill, so that I can build combo/stagger to 999% with Lightning, then finish off with Fang's Highwind XD
  • story: Can't comment much, because I lost interest with the plot at mid-game. TOO MANY CUTSCENES!! Are we playing a game or watching a movie? Hence I skipped many scenes, although I still have the rough idea of what actually happened (Fang and Vanille's action, the role of fal'Cie etc). In fact I even skip all 6 scenes leading to the final battle, AND the ending.... well I guess I don't mind missing the ending since I would surely revisit the final boss again after I powered up my party, to get the Superstar Achievement/Trophy and get Lightning's theme :3333
  • Lightning = Cloud Strife w/boobs. But an awesome upgrade of Cloud. If only her summon Odin (or should I say, ALL summon in FF13) is any more useful than just to refill hp...


Overall: I'd say FFXIII was a nice game to play for RPG fans, but lacks variety in term of exploration and sidequest. No town, little NPC to interract, always on the run, little sidequest (except near the end of the game). IMO the game only started to get fun at chapter 10 onward, which is rather late considering there are only 13 chapters in total. Oh and, SquareEnix, please don't make cutscenes every 5 minutes, it's tad annoying :(


p/s: next stop: Nier Replicant/Last Rebellion


Wednesday, May 12, 2010

The Tales of Cosplay

Later this month, Namco Bandai will release Tales of Vesperia: The First Strike, a prequel to Tales of Vesperia, on Blu-ray. Grab it and you’ll get access to an extra costume for Yuri and Estelle. The Keroro outfit made Namco Bandai a modest sum and that was only 500 yen ($5.50). Tales of Vesperia: The First Strike on Blu-Ray is 8,190 yen ($88) and you know some diehard fans are going to rush out to buy it on May 28 just to get these costumes.
[source]

Yup, you heard it right. As it was well known, PS3 version of Tales of Vesperia was blessed with so many extra contents compared with the original version released on Xbox 360. Extra sidequest, extra playable characters, extra Artes, and of course, extra costumes. And A LOT of costume, to be precise. Added to that, you can purchase even more downloadable costumes from PSN, just for the lulz of it. Well, a good news announced by Namco is that there'll be yet another (final) downloadable costume available for download as a bonus for purchasing Tales of Vesperia: The First Strike (the loooooooong awaited movie in my list :D)

With that, Tales of Vesperia is officially known as Tales of Cosplay =.=


no shit, there's way too many costumes in PS3 version of ToV

I wonder if I should order the blu-ray movie too, just to get this extra costume. But then, I haven't even started my PS3 playthrough of Vesperia (no time, no time) so I guess I'd almost certainly miss this extra costume. Finger crossed on English version nonetheless.

Monday, May 10, 2010

400GET, and everything finally comes to an end

FFFFFFFFF щ ゚Д゚щ

What a crazy season has it been. From the top of the table to the bottom. The title was not decided until the final day, although it's Chelsea's to lose. Arsenal, thought having the "easiest" run ins after their loss to Man Utd and Chelsea, unexpectedly surrendered their ambition of ending their trophyless season by losing to Spurs and Wigan, and even in the final game, they still risk from losing their third place to Tottenham. From pushing very close to their first EPL title last season, Liverpool unexpectedly failed in every competition this season, not even manage to get into top 4. The final Champions League spot was the fiercest ever with Tottenham, Man City, Villa and Liverpool trying to grab the spot. Until March, there are 5 to 6 teams who could possibly get relegated, although unfortunately, the excitement ended early as the relegated battle was decided in the penultimate game (Hull City). And finally, the title was decided on the final day when Chelsea convincingly trashed 10-man Wigan 8-0, ending Man Utd's ambition to win it for the fourth successive season. That's how crazy English Premier League 2009-2010 has been.

Not a good season for Man Utd I guess. Lost the title at the final day, losing the FA Cup to Leeds, of all team, AT HOME as early as the third round, and even tupidly gave away 3-0 lead at home to lost on away goal to Bayern Munich. I was like, wtf щ(゚Д゚щ) The defeat away at Burnley, along with defeat and draw at home to Aston Villa and Sunderland respectively looked costly now. Did the selling of Ronaldo and Tevez cost Man Uyd the title? Maybe, but I personally think the squad are good enough even without the two mentioned, especially Nani who improved massively this season. It's just that sometimes they didn't perform as expected when it matters (the game against Liverpool and Villa for example). And the fact that at one point they only has one recognised defender playing (Patrice Evra, while the rest are injured) didn't help either. Carrick and Fletcher playing at the back, now that's something.

Nevertheless, Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool were underperformed (especially Liverpool) this season (just look at the number of defeats these teams shared). Although I'm kinda cluthing my straw at the way Man Utd lost to Chelsea, both home and away (the foul that never was at Stamford Bridge, and that offside goal at Old Trafford), in the end of the day, Chelsea proved to be the better team and they're the worthy champion this season. Their result speaks for themselves. So, congratulation to Chelsea for their third EPL title.



best things happening this season: Rovaldo-esque dive and the beach ball

Looking forward to next season, but first thing first, let's see how the World Cup goes in 5 weeks time :D

p/s: yes, this is indeed the 400th post of this blog \o/

Saturday, May 01, 2010

Review - Resonance of Fate [XBOX 360/PS3]

Steampunk Slice of Life at its best

The time when the earth's surface is heavily contaminated with toxins to support living things, human resorts to create a gigantic Tower-like structure called Basel to survive, designed to purify the atmosphere. As times goes, civilisation formed inside the Basel as building houses and cities were built inside the structure, which in turn put additional strain on Basel's gears. As more people settled into this tiny constructed world, they come to repeat the mistakes of the past....

That's the premise underlying Resonance of Fate. The game offers grand experiences and excitements to you in a way you rarely see, both in term of gameplay and story telling.
Developer: tri-Ace
Publisher: Sega
Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Release dates: Jan 28 (JP); March 16 (NA); March 26 (EU) 2010
Genre: Role-playing game

Story: 7/10
Depending on how you perceive the story telling, I can say that the rating for the story can go from rock bottom 0 to almost full marks 10. Really, Resonance of Fate uses unique approach to tell the story. In jrpg, we often see how the plot-driven story emphasised on character development, journey and interaction with the antagonists, and in the bigger picture, how they are related to the world's crisis. This is not the same with Resonance of Fate. The story can be very confusing. Each character's background was vague, and even what's actually happening throughout the game were not explained properly, making things rather confusing to players. From the way I see it, Resonance of Fate is a sort of Slice of Life - not plot driven, lacks in-depth story and everyone is a winner in the end - pretty much what you saw in most slice of life tv show. The story focus more on the actual characters itself rather than the theories behind the world - the likes of Basel's existence, Zenith and quartz, and pretty much what's been told to you during each chapter. They are all significant in giving the rough idea of the character's background, but in the end what's importantly they are all live happily together - even though we never know how the world surface is restored, what's Rebecca (the loli demon girl) really is, and many more. We are free to speculate what's actually happening rather than seeing straight, linear plot-driven story. Hence, although the story might be poorly presented, the way it was told and how Tri-Ace made the main three characters revolve around the story without delving too deep into the matter were rather fascinating for me. I would love to see some kind of sequel where Tri-Ace would actually put more effort in explaining the story.


On top of that, Tri-Ace made up for the lack of story with funny and interesting characters, and a lot of comedies, on and off the scenes. All three of them are likeable, although I would argue that sometimes Zephyr can get on my nerve with his emo attitude, slightly. Vashyron with his pervertness and tendency to tease the other two; Zephyr with his "night vision" but always with that serious look on his face, while the cutie Leanne is, well, do I really need to say? She's almost always become the victim of the other two's teasing, even in battles. Hilarious stuff. On top of that, they are all so close and cares a lot to each other.

p/s: as I mentioned previously, there is a very good topic on gamefaqs board discussing and speculating about the story, which can be found here.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessage.php?board=959317&topic=54076899


Gameplay: 9.5/10
If anything, the gameplay is probably one of the most memorable features of Resonance of Fate, and quite simply one of the most enjoyable combat system I experienced in awhile. The game applies a unique modification of Turn-Based concept similar to what you might see from Valkyria Chronicle, and another Tri-Ace game, Valkyrie Profile Silmeria (opps..). In short, you control 3 (and the only available characters in the whole game) characters in battle. Each characters take turn to attack, either by charging standing still and charge/shoot or perform what is called "Hero Actions", where they run along a pre-determined path, shooting and performing various acrobatic maneuvers. There's more to that. There are more features to the gameplay, like Bonus shots, Smackdowns, Tri-Attacks (where all three characters attack in unison), Hero gauge, Resonance point, many of which are probably only made sense if you personally play the game or watch it on youtube or something. Simply put, memorable and enjoyable.



In battle, you can wield either handgun, machinegun or grenades to attack enemies, with additional MG rounds to deal extra bonus effects/damage. You can even dual-wield HG or MG for some extra kicks. Handgun allows you to deal direct but weaker damage, while machine gun deal regenerative but stronger scratch damage. While there are many types of grenades you can use - poison, electroschock, freeze, oil, simple hand grenade etc. Leveling in Resonance of Fate is unlike normal rpg - characters have their own guns/grenade levels, and a character 's level is the sum of each of their weapon - HG+MG+Grenade. Each maxed out at level 100, making it possible for each character to go to level 300 max. To add efficiency in battles, you can customize your HG and MG by adding numerous parts - scope, extra magazines, adapters, barrels to the point that the weapon looks ridiculously over-customized. Too bad these were not shown visually in battle. Anyhow, since the combat system really revolve around MG scratch followed by direct damage clean off with HG, hence only Machinegun is worth leveling to the max level because of the full scratch bonus, and the only reason you want to level the other two weapons is to get some extra hp (veeeeeeeery crucial for bonus dungeon Neverland). I'd like to give the gameplay a full 10, but minus 0.5 point because after awhile, the strategy for each battle become stale and you'd pretty much stick with one method - full scratch enemies with machine gun, then finish off with handgun or grenades.


Graphic/Visuals: 10/10
My, who doesn't like steampunk concept? Resonance of Fate is probably one of THE most beautiful games I've played in recent times. Remember the stunning sceneries in Valkyrie Profile Silmeria? That's what you see in Resonance of Fate. The cities and characters were beautifully designed that I really was left speechless the moment I start playing the game - simply amazing. Some of the downside as far as the graphic are concerned is that the the battle field lacks varieties- in the same dungeon, one room and another doesn't really differ much. One more thing, I would love to see the customised weapon to be seen exactly as it was customised, but thinking that at end game you can have something like THIS, I guess it's better not to show the customised part in battle lol.



What else. Character design. Another magnificent creation from Tri-Ace, far outclassing their work in Star Ocean 4. Imagine the fact that 8,000 polygons were used for Leanne's hair alone, with a total of almost 40,000 polygons for each character. Tell how much details they put on the visuals. Adding to that, you can play Barbie with your characters - A LOT, and I mean A LOT of costumes are available for you to play with. You can switch their tops, skirts, jeans, jackets, boots, belts, scarf, and even hair and eye colors. And the good thing, their costumes appeared in cutscenes exactly as you customize them, except in certain scenes where a character sticks with a white shirt. Beware though, since there are too many options, sometimes you might end up spending hours just to choose the best outfit for your characters!


Sounds/Music - 8.5/10
Overall the musics are not really memorable, but Tri-Ace uses variation of musics to fit with the scenes and battles. Something for everyone to listen to, from bass, techno to jazz and hard rock. The musics itself changes frequently in battle into a more upbeat, fast tempo music when you made Heroes Action and performing Tri-Attacks, making the battle even more lively. Talk about the voice acting, again, almost a full score for me. At the start of the game, they allows you to choose either English or Japanese voice, although this can't be changed in-game. Both versions are well casted, each character really comes alive with their voice acting without some fake, misfits voice (*COUGH* STAROCEAN4*COUGH*). Vashyron (Ken Narita/Nolan North) sounds like a mature elder bro, Zephyr (Hiro Shimono/Scott Menville) like a rebellious teenager, while Leanne (Aya Endou/Jessica DiCicco) like a fine but a bit spoiled young lady :3


Quests/Replay Value - 8/10
The game is divided into 16 chapters, and you have the freedom to choose when you want to advance to the next chapter. There are 60+ quests in total in the game, some story-related and some are optional, all which are only available in specific Chapter. Given you control when chapter advance, there's really no reason not to complete all quests for a nice Achievement/ Trophy. With that said, the quest lacks varieties and in every chapter, you pretty much do the same odd job - kill enemies in the marked hexes, explore dungeon to fetch something, or just a simple deliveries. Other than that, there is also Arena battles for you to train your characters and get some awesome items, some of which are extremely useful in bonus dungeon Neverland. Speaking of Neverland, it was a typical Tri-Ace end game dungeon, like what you've experienced in Seraphic Gate or Cave of Seven Stars. Except that the enemies in Neverland is extremely nuts. Careful preparation really is needed just to pass your first random encounter in that place - the enemies are so strong that they can easily 1-hit kill you if you are not prepared enough.

Typical of Tri-Ace, Resonance of Fate do have replay value, depending on how you see it. Remember Valkyrie Profile Silmeria's 50 Crystal run? It's the same with Resonance of Fate. Everytime you beat a game in higher difficulty, you unlocks and even higher difficulties...until 10 times. Worth doing? Maybe for a challenge. If you re-do the same difficulty run, you keep virtually everything you possessed - levels, money, items, clear hexes... this is not the case if you play through a new difficulty though. Nevertheless it's still worth playing the game a 2nd time for the fun factor, plus you get 2 Achievements/Trophies by completing the game for a second time.


TL;DR -

Overall, Resonance of Fate offers a refreshing experience for those who seeks something different in jrpg - addicting gunhappy combat system with slice of life story, coupled with magnificent visual to please your eyes. The game lacks varieties in quests and dungeon exploration, but this downside was covered by the entertaining gameplay; while the lacks of depth in story was complemented by interesting characters and light comedies all around.


overall verdict: 8.6/10 - a worthy addition for Tri-Ace fan