Tough competition

In North America, Resonance of Fate will be released a week after Final Fantasy XIII.

Let’s put the actual quality of both games aside and ruminate on that for a second. I’m not sure if Sega actually gets the problem here, because it just seems like near suicidal move to throw Resonance of Fate in the midst of Final Fantasy XIII fanfare like that. That would be a shame considering that tri-Ace’s latest game looks like it will be an interesting release.

Combat

Set in the future, Earth has been clogged with toxic gases that have made the surface completely inhabitable. It almost drove mankind to total extinction. But with some human ingenuity, Basel – a gigantic air purifier – was built underground, which purified the air around it. The hope is that Basel will eventually purify the rest of the planet as well, but until then, underground is where civilization has settled in Resonance of Fate. The aristocratic live in opulence high up in Basel, while the poor and destitute live in the lower level. Kind of strange, considering how the surface is where the danger is at, but I digress. It is an interesting premise and the game begins when Basel begins to, well, not work right. That is bad news for everyone in it, rich or poor.

Playing Resonance of Fate might be a tricky situation initially. Its combat system is an amalgamation of real-time, turn-based and general madness. Combat takes place on a general field, where you take control of one of the characters and then give it direct inputs in real-time. You will be on a timer once you start moving, so it is imperative that you make snap decisions before your time is up.

That’s really just the cusp of the battle system. All attacks require a charge and the longer you hold a charge, the more devastating your attack will be. Charging also takes into account the distance between you and the enemy you are targeting. The closer you are, the faster the charge, but that comes with the risk of being much more vulnerable to enemy attacks and vice versa.

Customization

Outside of the combat, you are going to see a lot of familiar Role Playing Game mechanics at play. Buying and equipping new gear is rather straightforward, but it dramatically changes the look of your characters. The gear is such highly fashionable stuff it is almost a misnomer to call it “gear”. Some of the equipment has been planned up by fashion designers, so they look incredibly attractive aesthetically and while the statistics behind the clothing are important, just as much can be said about looking trendy while running down the poorest districts of Basel.

A great amount of customization can be put into guns your characters will wield, allowing you to join a number of different parts together to the craft the firearm of your choice. As far as pure gameplay goes, Resonance of Fate looks like a stuffed, complete Role Playing Game. A promising battle system and lots of customizability for your characters and your weapons looks

The visual result is really something to be at awe at. Battles look spectacular, with tons of camera cuts, slow-motion and general disregard for even the most basic laws of physics. It is like the V.A.T.S. on five different energy drinks and direct-to-the-heart injection of adrenaline.

The game refreshingly uses pre-rendered backdrops for the explorable areas. They are packed with a million details – rusted pipes, the rubble on the streets – it all looks fantastic and gives the game an almost old-fashioned feel to it.

Solid

Resonance of Fate is looking incredibly solid. It has everything going for it – a neat world, a great-looking battle system and enough character customizability to dig through for hours. It’s just, again, why is this coming out a week after Final Fantasy XIII? If Sega has any reason left in them, they will release the game right now. Right now. Forget about the marketing thing, there is no time. The only chance it has of surviving in North America is if gets out there immediately, right this instant, so that it at least functions as a kind of appetizer before Square’s epic finally drops down.