Dieselpunk gun-fu JRPG Resonance Of Fate might be coming to PC
Someone mod in clouds of doves, please
Pull up a chair, and let me tell you about a little game by Tri-Ace called Resonance Of Fate. Almost a decade old now, it never really made much of a splash on the PS3 and Xbox 360 - a real shame, as it's so bizarre and creative that to describe it as a JRPG feels like doing it a disservice. It's the genre-savvy story of three gunslingers for hire, making ends meet in the dieselpunk clockwork arcology they call home, spending their pay on high-fashion outfits to accentuate their acrobatic combat style.
Why mention this? According to a 16+ rating recently given to it by Germany's USK ratings board, it's coming to PC and PS4. Below, the old launch trailer, and why you should care.
While Tri-Ace are famous for experimenting with JRPG fundamentals (see Valkyrie Profile's blend of combo-based combat and platforming), nothing else is quite like Resonance Of Fate. It's an RPG where successful planning in combat results in your enemy being juggled helplessly in the air while your party literally run circles around them, utterly invincible. It's a game where you can equip seven sniper scopes on a pistol to make it faster to aim. It's a game where the world map needs to be assembled through Tetris-like blocks made of colour-coded hexagons.
Resonance Of Fate wasn't without fault - while genre-savvy, there's perhaps not enough meat on its narrative bones to justify its length. Its trio of protagonists are aware there's big things afoot, but actively avoid getting involved until late into the game. It's also notorious for its steep learning curve, with some players even dying on their way to the tutorial arena thanks to an unlucky random encounter. Still, to this day there's never been anything quite like it. To hear that it's PC-bound? Well, it deserves a second chance, or so I reckon.
While we've no idea when this will be fully announced, Gematsu have spotted that official Japanese character Twitter accounts have sprung back to life today. Apropos of nothing, Tri-Ace are also due to announce something new at the Tokyo Game Show next week - wonder what that could be?