Resonance of Fate Review Now Live

I won't lie, Resonance of Fate was a difficult game to review. This fact is primarily reliant on the fact that the game was just plain difficult in and of itself. I'm hoping that facet of the the JRPG shines through in my review, which you can now read for yourself over at Game Revolution.

I have a small stack of games I'm ready to trade in to Gamestop in the next week or so, but I wonder if I'm really ready to give up on Resonance of Fate.

A few weeks back while I was in the middle of playing through the game, I hopped on to Modern Warfare 2. I had to get out of the frustrating quest battle I was stuck on and I wanted to play something I was enjoying much more at the time. While playing, I was talking with my friend Nick and lamenting having to return to the game. Someone else on the team said "Well there's your review right there."

Regardless, I've trudged through and written a challenging review. You can read the full body of text at the following address: http://www.gamerevolution.com/review/xbox360/resonance%20of%20fate

Resonance of Fate Impressions

I was pretty excited to try out Resonance of Fate for the Xbox 360. I hadn't played a JRPG in quite some time and Final Fantasy XIII wasn't exactly appealing to me. Now I remember why it's been so long since I played a role playing game from Japan.

//I hate the grind. I hate it so much. I have little else to say about the game aside from the fact that grinding for levels in order to pass some lowly side-quest boss is the stupidest thing gaming could possibly do. It is a complete waste of time. I might decry the constant leaking of rewards and levels that other games might do, but I don't want to spend my precious gaming time feeling like a complete failure. Another big problem for Resonance of Fate's grind is the fact that it literally throwing the player against a wall from the very beginning. I'm only on Chapter 03 and I'm already tempted to compeltely give up on the game. If it weren't for a trip down south to Ventura with Jenna, and an unhealthy desire for achievement points, I'd probably be tempted to trade the game in for a copy of Just Cause 2, or maybe that other JRPG (FF XIII).
//The artwork is interesting. The back of the box item calls it a steam punk world "like no other," but I wish the backstory made more sense. Still, the overworld map is a mass of hexagonal pieces that have to be unlocked gradually, and I honestly love the tetris like aspect of it all.

//My last gripe for these quick impressions is leveled at the character design. Your party is made up of the blandest group of JRPG derivatives and the enemies are no better. All the characters take from the kind of Japanese genre tropes that are tired, stale, and overused. Please create something new! You're dying! Game development is moving westward!

Japanese devs are struggling with evolution and staying relevant, and as much as it makes me sound like a complete wuss, the difficulty and grinding and design decisions that should quickly be reversed in all Japanese RPGs. Seems to me that Resonance of Fate has taken the "evolution" Final Fantasy is attempting to make, and just laughing in it's face. Are you so determined to go down with the ship, Tri-Ace?