The demo is a scam, but in a good way. The demo walls off the entire amazing portion of the game. Imagine if a SMT 4 demo walled off right at the Minotaur fight and that is basically what you're missing. Mechanics after mechanics and fun after fun. It also makes Persona 4's 4 hour tutorial seem like a joke, because ReFantazio doesn't actually start 'til about 10 hours in and oh boy is it hype.

If you are curious to buy it or not, allow me to give you some info since I have finished it, do not go in expecting in-depth open world JRPG. Instead it is important to know that this game is at foremost a Story telling game. The game itself is trying to provide a Fantasy story with a rather significant message about it with rather mature themes. If you played the mainline Megaten games before SMT V you would be no stranger to this. If you are unfamiliar with the series but familiar with Final Fantasy, imagine FF5 with FF6's story telling, that is to say some classes are locked until late game, by the time it reaches the end you're probably in tears and almost done with the game.

When it comes to explaining the 'vibe' of the story it has the magic of old children's stories or some fantasy Ghibli movies while mixing in rather abrasively harsh plots. That is to say it has beautiful and emotionally invigorating great happy moments while also having absolutely tragic parts hence the ff6 parallel which is often considered an incredibly depressing Final Fantasy. While SMT games especially like Strange Journey and 4 in their own respect are dark, the reason why I am comparing it to ff6 is because the cast of ReFantazio is easy to get attached to just like in that game. Overall, I understand why Yoko Taro (director of Nier/Drakengard) is unable to provide a clear and concise answer on "How is ReFantazio?" ReFantazio is one an emotional rollercoaster its difficult to put into words and two its like seeing reality through a looking-glass. I won't elaborate beyond that but needless to say it still has odd anime moments and corny stuff, but so did many other emotional JRPG stories. Absolutely love it. Below I run through mechanics and not elaborate much since my demo review already explains it indepth.


The gameplay consists of various elements from a variety of RPGs, I drop a small box to not elaborate on it. It really is just something you really have to experience yourself.



Absolutely beautiful and while the OST is not nearly as long as I would like it to be it serves it's purpose in the OST whether generic dungeon number 4 or important scene. It is a shame some songs appear like once or twice, but they serve their purpose there. I think the reason why some parts hit so hard is because of how great the music is. Shoji Meguro and the other Atlus composers are no stranger of being able to invoking feelings and tension with Music, look no further than Digital Devil Saga, Strange Journey, and Nocturne, I widely consider his part on these some of his best work. This soundtrack, Shoji Meguro along with other composers with Atlus did absolutely amazing.


There are most certainly valid criticisms to be made about the game. But most of these can be slightly(?) justified, once again you can could probably state "This game doesn't feel like a game". These criticisms probably spring up from the fact the content loop is very basic, in a very streamlined fashion it boils down to "go to area, story, finish story, do quests, do social thing, repeat" while have some generic designs for the 'side dungeons' or Jpeg city number 5. Some complaints can be coughed to be an error of Persona's core gameplay loop, and realistically as previously mentioned first and foremost the game appears to be mainly a storytelling game with a ton of magical elements. In other words, don't expect grind or large exploration like Monster Hunter, Elder Scrolls, or FF12. The game's progression feels much more like a poetic fantasy story like Ghibli or some other children's story along with the basic Persona content loop (Story, Story, dungeon, story). So yeah, sadly the dungeons might not be in depth and there may not be side villages that are not Jpeg files, and by the time everything is unlocked the game is basically ending, but overall it is satisfactory if you're going in for a story jrpg and not just a 'big gameplay jrpg'.


Overall, I waited like 7 years for this game, and overall I would say I am definitely satisfied with the end product. I have felt so much emotions and was conflicted time and again. There are personal complaints and I see the reason to other's complaints. But while experiencing it was honestly very refreshing to have something so unique and feel the magic of sorts. Let alone the twists that came along with it, had pleasantly surprised me quite a lot. I had a buddy asked if there should be a sequel, and personally I think no. Even though, world lore wise, technically there are sequels and may hint at the direction that series is taking considering it's core mechanic is tied to DS and 3DS and can be considered dated. Atlus tends to create direct sequels or remakes and a lot of the time it undermines the entire game or misses everything that made it good. This was also probably my last 'new' Atlus purchase. I am kinda done with Atlus with their actions in recent years and made a personal promise to only purchase older titles if ported, and I will try to hold this firmly having supported them for like nearly 2 decades it feels theyre outta touch and hate their fans. But I am pleasantly satisfied with my 'final' purchase of their newer titles. Heres to hoping their other great older titles get ported soon. Definitely recommend ReFantazio and recommend to just play it and finish it.

I have had Resonance of Fate on the Xbox 360 but I was pretty young when I originally played it and didn't remember much aside from it being pretty brutal. I have had it on Steam for years, and during those years it collected cobwebs my inner sentience and frontal lobe kicked in. I would make progress drop it, make progress and drop it. This time around I decided to finish my progressed save.

Resonance of Fate is a both a simple and overly complicated JRPG. It is, however, a strong recommendation to those who want an interesting story that feels relatable along the concept of faith and human struggles. I would dare even say it may land itself along the works of iconic 90's Anime or surreal animated films like Satoshi Kon's works, GITS, Trigun, and Angel's Egg.


The story is easily the most confusing part of this game as there are so many events that end up referencing one another and it mostly being portrayed through NPCs and the interactions during cutscenes. But to summarize without spoiling the secrets, the game is set in a Tower, with a machine at the top. On Christmas Day on year a lady tries to jump to her... yeah... and is saved by a young man, eventually you are introduced to the main trio: Vashyron a former knight, the lady who jumped, and the young man. This tower has a theocratic society that was united under a lady named the prelate (whom is dead before the game). The people in this tower live in both a theocracy and a sort of class hierarchy based living standard. Where the poor live at the depths and the most affluent and faithful live in the top.

Throughout the game your trio does work for cash. In between that you learn pieces about the society, sort of why people live in the tower, and the personal struggles of the most faithful at the top with the main trio. The main trio themselves likely do not believe in faith, where as the most faithful's beliefs are waning as people believe the machine at the top is the God of the world. Yet the most faithful find the idea preposterous that a machine is their god and try to defy it. Each of their struggles are posed with their own perceptions of reality based on how they lived, what they experienced, or attempting to follow the prelate's words. In almost a way it feels relatable since the trio hardly question or acknowledge the existence of god, and the most faithful wondering if the machine at the top really is god. Regardless, that is just a tiny snippet, but the story feels pretty relatable these concepts of questioning faith, lost knowledge, and trying to figure how they should live their lives. It is neat setting and I think for what Tri Ace was doing here, I cannot exactly seeing it working in any other medium. But the story is pretty confusing and I would recommend a NG+ run to soak it in after slowly learning the world the first time.


This game's battle system is often touted as being incredibly difficult, and honestly thats truthful for about the first few chapters where the game pits you around pretty mean circumstances. The way battles works is you do two types of damages scratch which weakens enemies, and direct damage which kills them. The two guntypes and grenades do these different damages: SMGs being scratch, and Pistols/Grenades being direct. Along with this you have to do trigonometry constructing triangles over and over, but not all the time because there are gems that you have to keep in check. These gems are spent when doing sprints and actions in a fashionable way or it will take gems away en masse if your party experiences max scratch damage to their HP bars. If the gems are gone your characters take direct damage and will begin to panic, not aim correctly and struggle to charge or attack properly.

This system is often convoluted and confusing to many. But it ends up being pretty basic as the game is pretty graceful at calculating insane angles. If the game were to get a remake because honestly i doubt there would ever be a sequel as it flopped the first time around despite being planned as a trilogy during an era of gaming were JRPGs were mostly dying. I think there are maybe ways to possibly improve the formula. A lot of the game's status aliments and ammo systems are inconvenient often feeling trivial late game why use specific bullets when dual wielding SMGs with a ton of attachments just feels better? I am not entirely sure, but grenades and ammo is important early on, but kind of fall off as they neuter your charge and potential damage output much later. While it is true at times ammo can penetrate past shields in high rank arenas and Neverland it felt inconsistent. I think reworking the grenades and ammo is a good idea, and possibly include a stat system or a way to provide more granular control or agency to the player like stats you can raise. Overall though, the game is difficult and smooth sailing, into Neverland which is a form of torture itself. Its pretty good all around.


Motoi Sakuraba and Kohei Tanaka did absolutely splendid here. I would say the music is so damn pivotal to the style and cutscenes. I wouldn't have any other composers here. They handle it goofy, they handle it perfect, and everything compliments the events in the game. Mystery, Jolly, Rock, Smooth Jazz as a taunt for pure torture in Neverland. Basilica straight up sounding to a similar soundfont of Ornstein and Smough. It is great, my personal favorite pieces are Resonance of Fate, Best Friend, Patertopolis B, Lifting Shadows Off the Fate, Battle to Pay the Debt B.


The game looks like an Xbox 360 game, and honestly most of Tri Ace's games are kind of lacking to be honest. I wonder if i would keep the semi realism style or go with a heavier stylized format here, but I feel like I would go with latter. Despite this there is pretty good cinematography when it comes to angles, POVs, and certain shots. The game does look dated for sure but the pre-renders look pretty acceptable and I still believe the opening sequence is easily one of the most kino openings in gaming especially with that immaculate opening soundtrack. I don't think a game can personally top the desire that runs through you to learn more about a setting with that opening.


This game rarely goes on sale, its pretty long and confusing. I love it for what it does. It earns itself not in S tier storytelling its around an A or B, but it earns its place as this human feeling experience with a surreal relatable story. But it is absolutely S tier in style and ambition. Sheesh that music too, if you are patient willing to grind a slow burn with story where you have to infer a lot I would say I recommend it then. Its truly a shame we have only seen this trio in Project X Zone and Tri Ace has never returned to do anything else with them. I loved them.