Resonance of Fate

I got this game and played it for an two and a half hours last night and I found myself more frustrated with this game then I have been with almost any JRPG I can remember. I got my ass handed to me by the first boss three times, and after that I just took the game out and decided that this game wasn't for me.

But there's this thing in the back of my head, saying "Well I've got to give it more of a chance then that. Sure this thing appears to have a difficulty curve the size of Eve Online's, but perhaps after I get past that it'll be a lot better! The protagonists seemed to have potential, but after that period of time, I knew nothing about them, literally nothing except their names. The combat system was perplexing, but i could see a spark of something great in the overbloated mess of a UI I was given."

I'm almost never on forums ever, except very occasionally here, so I must ask you fellow tropers, is this game redeeming? Does the over-complexity of the combat system become understandable and beatable after a while. Is the first boss, just a really bad Wake-Up Call Boss and I should just try to beat my head over it again somemore?

The battle system does take a ton of getting used to, and I hear it doesn't change much throughout the game — so, while you have all your options laid out to you at the start, you do have to get it down by the time you reach the first boss, who is definitely a Wake-Up Call Boss and can be considered a test of how well you got the system. There's a really extensive tutorial in the arena.

I'm not much farther, I'm only in chapter 2 (and I left the game and the Xbox at home, so I won't be making any progress this semester). But as I recall, the idea is to cause a lot of scratch damage on the boss's extremities, then punch in the damage with Vashyron or Leanne. (I did this literally months ago, so I honestly can't remember if that was it. I'm sorry if it isn't.) Also, never do a Hero Action when you have one bezel left.

It does take some getting used to, but I hear the story picks up (whereas the battle system stays the same) later in the game. I feel it's definitely underappreciated and didn't get as much attention as it should've.

edited 1st Feb '11 10:28:01 AM by WildKnight

The combat system is actually pretty simple once you get used to it. I'm at chapter 7 and I've pretty much steamrolled through every boss except the second and sixth one.

The main things you need to remember is to use hero actions to attack from the ground and knock the opponent into the air, then jump up and time each shot to bounce them off the ground. It significantly increases the damage you do and causes items to pop out of them, making money a complete non-issue. Furthermore, be sure to always switch to whoever you have dealing scratch damage first. The only time you don't need to start with scratch damage is when you're spamming grenades on bosses.

Also, be sure to mix up your character's weapons every so often. Levels are based on the total skill for each weapon, so a quick way to become more durable is to have your characters train up weapons they don't normally use.

And as Wild said, do the arena tutorials. They're extremely helpful in getting down the mechanics.

edited 1st Feb '11 10:35:21 AM by Miijhal

The most effective tactic I found to take down most bosses is to Hero Action them with whomever has the machinegun with at least one fully charged volley, then hit them for direct damage with either a Tri Attack or another Hero Action (also with as many high charged volleys as possible). Rinse and repeat.

If the boss has one side that is less armored than the others, that's the best one to focus on.

Fully charging your attacks increases the chance that you'll break the enemy, which ultimately results in more bezels restored when you do damage.

edited 1st Feb '11 11:31:54 AM by ccoa

I've found grenades to be most effective on bosses, especially those they're weak to.

Thanks for the advice, I did the turtorial, but I'm going to admit I didn't find it very helpful as to figuring out good strategies or how to actually beat enemies.

I think it's the Bezels that keep screwing with me. What situations recharge them and what situations drop them.

All I know is that when I lose them all my characters turn into walking bags of suck.

Also, how's the plot? Character Development? Main Villian? Etc.

The plot is actually pretty good but suffers from a terrible case of Jigsaw Puzzle Plot.

I bought sometime during autumn last year and finally finished it around christmas fittingly enough. The plot pacing seem slightly odd to me but over all it's pretty good. IMO the combats starts off being slightly awkward and satrt-stop-ish but once you get your charge up above 50 and more than 4 bezels it starts flowing. Also full scrath damage and armor piercing is your friend against most of the earlier bosses.

Your hero gauge is recharged by:

• Breaking a piece of armor off an enemy.
• Doing a gauge break and then damaging the enemy below the breaking point.
• Killing an enemy.
• Finishing a battle or restarting a battle. It's filled completely this way.

Having a character's armor drop to zero and using a hero action will consume one bezel.

New bezel shards are gained by killing bosses, as well as completing fights on red glowing panels on the map.

Eventually you'll be able to continuously spam hero actions without worry, so long as you don't make any big mistakes.

edited 1st Feb '11 12:38:59 PM by Miijhal

See that's why I love this game, you have to actually know what you're doing, you can't just sit there and spam one magic skill or action, to be good at the game you have to actually learn the mechanics the game gives you, you have to actually give a crap about things like the customization to win battles, when I got to the first boss I forgot to buy parts for my gun and got my ass handed to me about five times.

Ahh that's probably it, probably need to upgrade my guns then, didn't even think about that. I was figuring I would just hit a new town and buy new guns for everyone there.

Miijhal: Thanks for pointing out how those things recharge.

I'm going to give this game one more try tonight. I don't have a lot of free time though so if it takes me longer then that to figure out how to fight effectivley I'll just send it back (I use gamefly).

You're not going to be able to buy new guns until about halfway in. And then the game has maybe six of each type.

Early on I would suggest you focus on gauge speed. Clip size is also the only significant way to increase your base damage. If you keep playing you should start focusing on gauge acceleration. That's what I did anyway. Also, this is only if you are something of a bad person (like me), an infinite money exploit becomes available around chapter 7. I would urge you to abuse it. And do the arena, but don't star any of the ranks. It is a hateful experience. And make sure you link all of the good energy stations to the arena, because it's the best place to farm hexes.

That's my advice. Almost none of this applies to you now, but it will if you keep going.

Another useful thing to consider is the effect of jumping. Jumping keeps you from bumping into things, but it also randomly spreads out your shots to various parts of the enemy's body, which can be a problem if he has lots of parts to shield his main body. If you want to focus your fire on one body part (or on the main body), make sure to remain grounded when you fire.

The best times to jump are when you want to weaken all the body parts at once (since destroyed parts restore bezels), or when the enemy's main body has taken full scratch damage, but you can't get the handgunner in position to sneak a shot past it armor.

edited 31st Oct '12 1:38:06 PM by sageoftruth

Another thing that takes getting used to is the tri-attack. Ideally, you want to position your characters so they are all standing close to the target and have him surrounded. It's tricky to do, though since you'll lose your resonance points if you don't keep doing hero attacks that pass between the other two characters.

To pull it off, make the first two characters run to the left and right of the enemy, both times passing between both other characters. Make sure they don't run past your target. If done right, they should leave a horizontal line for the third character to run/jump straight over, trapping the enemy in a triangle of death, for the perfect tri-attack. Characters recover scratch damage during this move and they're invincible, so it's great for healing and attacking at the same time.

While setting this up, make sure to take out enemies and/or body parts during your hero attacks, since the whole process will cost a whopping 4 bezels.

edited 31st Oct '12 1:48:42 PM by sageoftruth

Another trick with tri-attacks: jumping right before your character is supposed to change directions will extend its duration.

The real way to power up your characters is to upgrade their guns. Leveling them up will allow them to take more hits, but unless you mod his/her gun then you will struggled with mere mooks.

As the others have said scratch damage is key to winning fights. Give two of your characters a submachine gun, preferably have them dual wielding them, and have a third with a pistol to turn the scratch damage into direct damage.

Glad I found this thread. I know I beat the 1st boss by jumping one person up top to deal with the barrel mechs right away followed by running around the boss. And using a couple health items for the first time.

All I really want to say for now is that the start of the 2nd chapter (Blackout, the TV/bath cut-scene) has more character than some other games do for the whole game.

Hmm this game came in the mail today. I'll try it tomorrow and then post my thought.

It even had the manual and original case, which is nice.

edited 17th May '13 12:31:31 AM by Vertigo_High

I'm really enjoying it,though some of the animations during cutscenes looks awkward. The controls and abttle system take some definite getting used to but it's fun to learn and watch, and the characters are pretty cool so far too. I like being able to change their outfits, I think leanne is my favorite so far. I'm on chapter 2 right now, Tar Man killed me the first time, second time I managed to beat him. I'm not sure what to do when you get in critical condition though, seems like you're totally screwed if you happen to get in it.

One thing though is that I sort of wish is if there were actual dungeons you walk through like a typical RPG(something this game is FAR FROM, it's quite refreshing in some ways but this is a case where eh), rather than having these sort of areas with enemies, fight, move to next area and repeat. The hexagon thingy is a little weird too and kind of silly, just seems to needlessly complicate things.

The battle system definitely takes some getting used to, but once you are used to it, and have some better weaponry or higher levels (I can't remember exactly how it works), you'll be blitzing enemies like it's an appropriate metaphor. I can't remember my exact loadout from when I last played, but I remember that enemies were basically constantly staggered.

And yeah, I don't know what to do when you get into a critical state either. I think I've only ever managed to get out of it once or twice, and even then it was only through luck.

And do note that the gun customization gets very absurd very quickly once you really start getting access to attachments. Just stop for a second, and imagine what these guns would actually look like with all the scopes, barrels, grips, and extended magazines attached. Especially since, if you get creative enough, I'm pretty sure it's possible to end up with barrels pointed toward the wielder. Why? Why not?

Haha, yeah. Some of mine in NG+ were deranged. They'd have five or six scopes, three or four rows of barrels, end to end. I remember once I was messing about with the setup, and I took a photo off the screen with my phone, because there was no way I'd be able to remember what I had before if I wanted to put it back.

I beat chapter 2 yesterday, I decided to switch up weapons between characters so they could get some levels. I kind of had some trouble on the powerplant especially with the walking machine gun bots, those guys were tough!! I think I died 3 different times against them. They just take so long to kill. I'm starting to make smarter use of walls and stuff, as well as being more reserved with hero actions against guys I have trouble damaging. Tesla turtle killed me the first time but the second attempt I managed to beat him. I', not using special rounds like I should though, I think that would've made things easier. But I always worry about running out of them and grenades, so I end up rarely using them.

You will be able to make more fairly soon. And you really should use them against bosses or enemies with LOTS of armor.

edited 19th May '13 7:28:23 PM by Belian

I just got this last week and I can't stop playing. Great game, although a bit repetitive and I'd like to see a colour other than grey.

I have one major criticism of it though ... I hate these characters. They may be some of the least likeable I've ever played as. Zephyr the angsty teen would be bad enough but Vashyron is perverted even far beyond comedy anime qualities. I'm up to Chapter 5 and the team has just met Barbarella for the first time (who would be a Ms. Fanservice if not for the fact that her boobs moving independently puts her into Uncanny Valley territory) and during Vashyron's Perverted BSOD, I actually looked over my shoulders to make sure nobody was in the room. I felt dirty after that cutscene. I've even switched to the Japanese voice track just so I don't have to listen to Vashyron's cringe-inducing "Leanna goes both ways ... good to know" line at the beginning of battles anymore.

There's a right way and a wrong way to do perverted characters. Vashyron is the pervert equivalent of going "full retard" (as much as I hate the "R" word, and Tropic Thunder). There's no subtlety to it. To quote Lee Mack from Not Going Out, innuendo is supposed to keep you guessing, not paint the whole horrible picture.

Edit: Spoiler tagged, just in case.

edited 20th May '13 2:41:42 PM by Guest1001

I took it the exact other way because he is at least original compared to what I am used to seeing—a Crossing the Line Twice sort of thing. And that the other characters react realistically to his flights of fancy.