Resonance of Fate Preview

SEGA will be hoping Final Fantasy XIII won't steal Resonance's thunder

It doesn't end there either. If you perform a Hero Run and make your character move through the middle of the other two party members, you'll gain a Resonance point. This lets you pull off a special three-way attack wherein your entire party runs around in a big triangle pattern with their weapons blazing: Character A runs to the spot formerly occupied by Character B, who is already on their way to the point where C used to be standing, and so forth. You can actually store up multiple resonance points to prolong the length of the attack, but to get the most out of a Resonance attack, you'll need to have your party carefully arranged around the enemy; given the through-the-middle requirement of the Hero Runs, it takes quite a lot of careful planning to pull off these moves efficiently.

Let's take a break there, because I've just hit you over the head with four paragraphs worth of technical description - and by now your head is probably spinning. As it happens there are other features I've not even mentioned - the ability to charge attacks, for one, and the fact that there are two different kinds of damage that can be dealt to the enemy. I could go on about the nuances of the combat system, but hopefully you get the idea by now: Resonance of Fate has plenty of tactical options when it comes to a good old scrap. The first time you watch a battle, things will seem hideously complicated, but it's actually fairly simple to get the hang of proceedings. The various special moves and actions have a neat way of working with each other, rather than existing as isolated options - and besides, there's an informative but concise set of tutorials that walk you through the basics.

The bottom line is that the combat is a pleasing mix of slick, show-off moves and strategic flexibility. Like the rest of the game, it feels like an unusual mix of Japanese and Western values: fights are pretty much turn-based, but they still have the faintest touch of third-person shooter about them. There are still random battles while you're wandering the map, but when you enter a dungeon the game reverts to a single, constant fight - you can see all your enemies here, and can skirt right around them if you wish.

It was slightly harder for me to get a sense of the story from my brief hands-on, but then it always is with games of this size and scope. What I will say is that I was quite taken with the general design and look of the world. Lead character Zephyr is a typically feminine-looking Japanese hero: he's all smooth cheeks and long hair, though thankfully he seems to come from the "tough-but-cocky" school of character design, rather than the "tough-but-sulky" gang. Still, he seems to have a certain charisma about him, and his taste in leather jackets is fairly badass (you can change characters' costumes by buying clothes in local stores). On a wider level, I find the towering spires and plates of Bazel itself to be fairly intriguing. Large gears and other bits of clockwork machinery are built into parts of the town, and while we've seen this kind of thing done before in steampunk RPGs, there's something quite fresh about how clean everything looks. There doesn't seem to be the usual grime and obsession with shadows that accompanies so many steampunk RPGs - although obviously, I've seen only a tiny fraction of the environments on offer.

At any rate, something about Bazel has caught my eye - and having spent a morning arcing through the air, slinging out bullets in a ballistic ballet, I know that the combat system has real potential. Lets hope the rest of the game has the chutzpah to match.

Resonance of Fate is due for release on Xbox 360 and PS3 in the spring.