GameFreak has been known to hate on people and do things that make their lives painful. Like 5% catch rate on Dittos :/ And contant running legendaries. Even when asleep. lolwhat.
Resonance of Fate:
Finally completed. Long ass game, especially if you do all the sidequests (I did, so...). 92 hours clocked is my end game time and have most of everything completed (World map fully cleared, most red hex battles done). Only the sekrit dungeon and lol50stararena is left but I don't think I'm about to do that yet. I want to work on other games, either FF13 or ToV is next up. Would take suggestions from people with reasons explained much appreciated.
So final thoughts, comments on the game - Tri-Ace game basically at its best when focusing on the stuff that makes Tri-Ace games good: Silly plot, and the battle system. I'm kinda amazed at how this turned out though since the core formula itself again, is really simple but they manage to put enough situations in it such that you're forced to try different tactics, set ups and equipment. I mean, fundamentally, you're not learning game breaking skills at some point, and the things you learn early carry you through to the end. But maybe that's what makes it good. You're constantly being tested and reminded of core fundaments, but you have to adapt the fundaments to different situations in order to come out ahead whether because of terrain, enemy formation and what you're equipped with. Game also has its fair share of gimmicks here and there, which is weird of course, but nothing you can't take care of.
So let's start off with what's bad about the game and what could be improved on. There are some complaints I have. Most of it is just poor polish issues which keeps the game from going higher. There are four main issues that I can basically list which plague the game and keep it from an 8 to me:
1) Enemy hit boxes. Especially the big enemies have really weird hit boxes. I'm not just referring to you shooting them. I'm also referring to when you go into Rob mode and try to maneuver around them but OH SHI- you bump into them when the path clearly is at least several metres away from where they should be. It's not even that they walked into your path - it's just weird hit boxes. And its frustrating sometimes since you could have a run route planned but lolzno and you run into the enemy and take 2HKO or OHKO damage. I remember one case where I jumped behind the enemy and then came to an abrupt halt for no apparent reason. It didn't make me reset, but its frustrating nonetheless. Is it really so hard to keep enemy hit boxes exactly as they look? Well I guess based on Homogenius series, the answer would be a yes.
2) Coloured Hexes. Now this one leaves me puzzled and I dock points for it. Why can't you exchange one coloured HEX for another coloured HEX? I mean seriously Tri Ace/Sega? You want me to fight level 4 enemies at end game just so I can finish paving my coloured HEX path from terminals? I don't get it. What's the value in this other than raw grinding? It just shuts out a raw gameplay feature away from the game for way to long.
3) This also leaves me puzzled. Why isn't there a remove all feature from gun customization? I have to tediously remove each part piece by piece. What value is there? You don't even have to scrap the current lay out. You just add an extra button or option or something that dismantles all the parts that are currently equipped. I don't believe for a second that this is difficult to implement.
4) Enemy targetting and field surveying could be better. You can tell who might be attacked based on the symbol on the bottom right (goes from yellow meaning targetted to red meaning will be attacked) but it doesn't tell you which enemy is locking on to you. I mean, one of the things that was cool in VP2 was that you could see the attack ranges. This is like like covering up the attack range essentially. Yeah, you know they're going to attack you, but you don't know who they're aiming for. Now, it's not a huge hinderance at all times. But there are certain terrain maps where it definitely helps in making better decisions. The terrain could be covering a shot from someone who's hiding and the gauge would be red for example.
Other than that. Tri Ace plot. When it tries to be serious, it's a mess. I've played through the whole game and I can confidently say that if I hadn't read Kouli's plot summary I still wouldn't understand what the deuce happens during the game. It's that awesome. On the other hand, when the game doesn't try to srs bsn, it's alright and kinda amusing in a way (more on this later).
The gameplay could be improved if the characters had more differentiation in combat, but for what its worth, it's okay standalone. Early on, there'some notable PC limitations due to the weight restrictions, but the farther you get in the game, the less and less difference there is between the PCs. That's kind of a downer. In addition, that comment about HEX colours? Yeah, one of the neat things about RoF is that it has a similar sealstone type system with terminals. However, due to the tediousness of getting certain HEX colours, you could be barred from setting up HEX effects for a while which kinda limits the strategic choices you are making other than grinding. That's obviously not good design.
On the other hand, the crux of the game is handled very well. You've still got some interesting choices to make. For example: You get certain gun models throughtout the game (5 Pistols/4 M.Guns) and their base stats differ enough that you might not want to customize one over the other. Further adding to that, you have two weapon slots. You can choose to dual wield, which ups your firepower/stun chances but you lose utility value from equipping a box (Grenade/First Aid/Magazine). Certain set ups also work better than others (Magazine case should never go with the pistol) and there's some choices for equipping accessories too. Finally, those terminal effects are double edged - any bonus applied also benefits the enemy. So if you're heading to an area that might have some fire damage and you link Double Amp and Fire damage boost together, well the enemy using Fire also gets x4 mult to their attack. There are definitive ways of mitigating it so the enemy can't benefit off as much as you (Heat Protectors/Shields), but that's the set up choices and strategy choices you end up making.
Overall, I'm fairly impressed with the game. The character interaction is always pleasant, and focusing on that saves the story a bit. In fact, if the game kept the same story telling style for the first 7 chapters as they did with the rest of the game, the core plot would be like 50x better. The first 7 chapters gives us some pretty good insight on the each character's past and how they're trying to live out they're regular life despite some of the troubles that have haunted them before. It's when the game starts reaching chapter 9 and onward and tries to be serious that it really starts falling apart since there is no heads or tails of what the shit is going on. Barring that, the game's probably 7.5/10 for me overall. It's decent enough to warrant a try, but most likely not everyone's cup of tea.
Other thoughts...
Gun Models and the like...it's definitely clear that some of the guns are better than others. Leanne's starting gun (the B-N84)is trash. Bad customization ports and it specializes in RAPID FIRE of all things (FYI, this is a stat that only matters if you run out of Rob metre, which is something you should never be focusing on). The pistol that Vashyron starts with though (1191.45 Auto) is pretty decent since it specializes in gauge breaking - an effective form of stun - and lasts thoughout the entire game and it generally has better expansion and customization options. The SG-B226 is meh. It's bases aren't that impressive and specializing in magazine size for a pistol is terrible since they deal low damage. Decent customization port options though so it might see some mid game use. The LP-09 when you get it, is probably the best overall gun based on availability and bases. Highest charge time and its base acceleration is actually decent. It loses out on...RAPID FIRE. Oh noes. Yeah. Great model and you should focus on buying this over the SG-B226. The Z-40 is also really good, specializing in charge acceleration with a decent base charge time and good custom ports to boot. You get it way too late though and you need to do a huge fetch quest for it. That's still better than the MI50A which requires tedious arena grinding and is likely never seeing the light of use. Best base model however at least, so you're doing the work for something.
Overall rank here would be: LP-09 > 1191.45 Auto > Z-40 = SGB226 > B-N84 > MI50A.
For M.Guns, well, you only have one (SMG-05) for a long time. And thankfully, it's got good customization options. Default bases suck though, but the custom ports really save it from being junky. That and good usability. You can get the PDW-XN.V2 next at around C.7, but it's overall not terribly good. Due to the design and custom ports, it ends up being the least customization on the most important M.Gun stat. So I pretty much ditched it when a better model was available and didn't use it for much longer otherwise. Now, the NP-05.C is the deal. Great custom ports, specializes in the most important stat for a machine gun and decent bases all around. This thing is beastly. 300000 grand though and only available in C.13. Regardless, it's well worth the buy. The last model (PDW-XN.V3) is servicable but not great. You get it with only 2 chapters left and it can't be customized nearly as well as the SMG-05 or the NP-05.C
Overall rank here would be: SMG-05 > NP-05.C > PDW-XN.V3 > PDW-XN.V2.
The cases offer some interesting options over dual wielding. The biggest trade off is losing extra firepower from having two guns. However, having two guns makes that character 1 dimensional and you basically lose utility options you get with the cases. The biggest debate is usually over the Magazine case since it just seems like dual wielding M.Guns flat out beat it. It probably does if you ony compare raw power. But the Magazine case can also boost its bullets with terminals. Connect something like Fire boost and all of a sudden, that incidenary round is doing 2x more damage than a regular bullet and easily makes up for a lack of dual wielding. You do need good spread and a large charge acceleration in order to make it worthwhile though. The Magazine case also has some retarded good cheese in there. Like Armor Piercing. Some of the hardest enemies in the game are hard because they have so many layers of armor. Armor Piercing goes lolz to them. They also have Percussive rounds. Yo Dawg, I heard you liek gauge breaking, so we included a gauge breaking round into your M.Gun so you can gauge break while you go Rob. It's a playstyle choice mostly. Dual wielding is better for general randoms since you don't have to equip the right ammo type to get better damage, but it doesn't maximize your output obviously. The Grenade case is awesome early on since Grenades just have so much more power for direct damage compared to hand guns. Especially the EX. versions. Later on though, it's not really worth swapping over since the gauge breaking on pistols is just too valuable to lose. I guess you could go Smash grenades there, but they're not spammable without arena grinding. First Aid kit is always nice to have since it can Heal, use Escape Hexes (This is arguably the most important) and they have Anti items to reduce damage. Enemies rack up damage pretty noticably and you either use some physical resistance accessories (Hi-Polymer Padding) along with Anti items to reduce damage or you feel the pain pretty quick. Overall, all the cases are useful. Although they vary for usefulness depending on where you are in the game.
For gun stats, this is pretty simple. Rapid Fire is a garbage stat for stated reasons already. Weight is also usually not a concern once you hit around chapter 4-5 or so. So it's pretty much the other stats competing for each other. Charge is obviously the most important. You need a good charge in order to attack. Good charge also lets you attack faster so you can interrupt an enemies charge. Or if you tie them, you still come out ahead since during the animation of the attack, PCs are psudeo invincible (some attacks will just right out whiff). Good charge is also needed to get the acceleration going. So yeah. No brainer most important stat here. Charge acceleration is pretty useless in the first few chapters. Once you hit around chapter 9 though, it starts becoming critical because enemies just start having a lot more health and their attacks are deadlier. You need a good charge acceleration on your M.Gun to get good damage mults. And you want a good charge acceleration on pistols to stun enemies. Spread is important especially over long distances and if the target is small. Larger targets and close range attacks reduce spread's importantance. Magazine size is always good to have (especially for M.Guns) but never critical like the above stats. I should note: Charge does eventually have a optimal point though. 100 charge is basically enough to snipe things to death and anything above 100 is sorta wasted.
So: Charge > Charge Acceleration > Spread = Magazine size > Weight > Rapid Fire.
PCs/Bosses in DL
RoF is sort unrankable since its one huge massive interp headache. PCs can't actually kill unless they can deal direct damage. They can't do relative damage without M.Guns. Oh and if you give these options to them, everyone becomes the same, so the end. If you stick with starting options (Tal and I have discussed this), it sorta becomes a more rankable idea but still kinda weird.
Vashyron: 1191.45 Auto/Grenade Case are his initial equips. I've gone over both already so it should be easy to imagine what he has in a duel. Stun + grenade status ailments. Grenades in particular are pretty devastating since they deal a lot more relevant direct damage over hand guns, and their only flaw is not pronounced in the DL (can't spread damage so you never know which part of the enemy you are hitting). It should be noted that gauge breaking and then dropping HP past the break point recovers lost Rob meter in game. So if you allow that, he can probably start with smash grenades or the pistol and then swap over to something stronger (like Hand Grenade EXes) and then bomb away to recover Rob metre. Possibly the best PC because of this. Pistol really doesn't have much use in the grand scheme of things but it's range and charges faster than any thrown weapon. Approx. max twink potential stats: 110 charge, 61% acceleration rate, 9 bullets per attack, 97 spread (shots should hit dead where they are). Would be lower in DL since some of this requires hard grinding, but yeah. Most likely some flavour of Middle.
Zephyr: SMG-05/Magazine case. He can't deal direct damage ever. In order to win any duel he basically has to drop the Magazine case and use his melee attack (...). Sorta a shame since the Magazine case would be interesting otherwise. Simple strategy. Rob mode and charge up a huge attack mult. Then move in and strike physically to win. I should note that the melee attack in game is garbage since you have to dead close to the enemy and they end up having really quick charge times to the point where you're often at best tying them to attack (so he definitely takes an attack back in return). Scratch damage heals over time though, so despite the fact that he can aim to snipe, he might not want to if he wants to make damage stick permanently. Approx. max twink potential: 107 charge, 59% charge acceleration rate, 18 bullets per attack, 84 spread (mediocre but not horrible). Same comments as above applies. Also likely Middle.
Leanne: B-N84/First Aid kit. Uh....Mint mk.2. The pistol deals sad ass damage. However, she has boatloads of healing under this interp. So she can stun lock for like 20 damage, and keep doing this. If the enemy breaks out of stun and deals damage, she can heal it and resume stun locking. YESZ. Block or resist stun (no enemy in game does this, although the stun tolerance is different for every enemy) and she's SOL pretty much. Some form of Light.
Now for boss... (SPOILERS)
Boozehound Priest aka. Lagerfield: First notable boss character in game and he's a gimmick! Fights Zephyr alone. How much credit you give his gimmick is up to you - he basically has perfect frontal evasion. You can only hit him if he's either attacking or by running past him in Rob mode and shooting him in the back. His durability blows, but he's got good damage otherwise if you trigger his gimmick (counter teleport knifing for 2HKO damage). So...some iteration of a Lambda redux I suppose only more trainwrecky. If you give him some credit at least for the gimmick (which you might since he's the first gimmick boss you fight in game and you're likely to fall for it at least once), he's probably Heavy since perfect evasion + 2HKO counter attack is pretty nasty. If you don't he's probably Light. Never recovers from Scratch damage in game so yeah. Did I mention his durability sucks?
Crazy Artist aka. Giligano: I have no clue. I killed him before he could attack him. That should say enough
UOM: Also no clue. See above.
FE7's Hungry Cavalier aka. Rowen: Uh...how good he is really depends on how you interp some of the mechanics in game. He's kinda weak for damage (lol 6HKO damage but upgrades to GT 3HKO once he's lost like 25% of his health!) but his durability is nutsy. 100000 RoF HP is at least 3x better than UOM. You can't just Rob mode him and he dies. Oh he also has several armor parts covering him so he can absorb some punishment initially before they get blown off. Also, if you give support credit, he gets better. The most notable being the Assault guys since they deal around high 4HKO damage as well. With 4 of them spawned, he can drain a weaker PC down to nothing and then some. AND he can summon an infinite number of them although only 4 on the field at once. What makes him notably worse is the levelling mechanic of RoF. You don't level up at the end of battle. You level anytime you deal damage enough to bring you up to a level. This causes him to unable to make damage stick since thanks to his HUEG HP, its possible to level up off him at least once or twice, allowing you to full heal. If you consider that into the equation, then his WHOAMG awesome durability becomes less awesome, but still pretty good. Just not nutsy anymore. Some form of Heavy I wager.
Other lesser rankable people...
Not commenting on everyone, just who I remember
Electric Tortoise: Weakish armor plating. However, his damage is 3HKO and it inflicts Slow. Slow is pretty nasty in RoF since it cuts away your charge speed noticably. Armor plating might let him live past one attack. Other wise, you get some Metal Rounds here and they deal increased damage against him, which makes him fall pretty quickly once his armor shell drops.
Nutjob aka. Gelsey: Well he can status you with low 5HKO damage! ...uh yeah. Probably some form of Light. He's notably frail since he has no armor covering and his support dies quickly. POIZN is a nasty RoF status though, however much credit you want to give him for that. Past that, he can also inflict RoF's version of slow. Yay?
Truckasauros: He has GT OHKO damage. Yeeeah. Also several layers of armor plating. He would be incredibly scary if his AI wasn't garbage. He doesn't tend to use his OHKO damage unless at close range and sometimes he just wanders around because he's not within range to do much. Rob mode around his ass in game gets him killed although it takes a few shots to do the trick. Mmm...Heavy? Godlike? Dunno
Turret Swarm: Pretty nasty in game since all of them together 2HKO easily and its hard to run and shoot the leader down. Downside: In the DL, the main leader can get outsniped by having good charge times in game. So uh...you can outkite him fairly easily and I've never seen the main cannon attack because of that. No clue as a rank.
