I've reviewed a lot of games for GamingExcellence. I've reviewed long games, short games, fun games, crap games, complex games, simple games, and pretty much everything in between.

But I've never reviewed anything quite like this. Hell, in the thousands of games I've played in the past twenty years, I've never even played anything quite like this. Resonance of Fate is a shockingly original JRPG title that is just the exact tonic the stagnating genre needed. Going up against Final Fantasy XIII and its "sit-back-and-watch-while-the-game-plays-itself" mechanics, Resonance of Fate goes in the opposite direction, providing a fresh take on the genre, provided you're willing to put in the effort.

The only portion of the game that feels been there, done that before is the presentation and plot. An unspecified time in the future, humanity has polluted the planet to such a point where the entire human race was on the verge of dying out. Only through a hasty construction of a atmosphere processing tower called Basel, were the last shreds of humanity able to settle again and live out their lives in relative peace. However, the machinery that runs the tower is beginning to fail, causing violence and monsters to begin infesting the massive tower.

If you're going to play RoF, forget everything I just told you about the plot, because for the first half of the game it's entirely irrelevant. You play as a band of twenty-something mercenaries named Vashyron, Zephyr, and Leanne. The first half of the game has you doing odd jobs and quests that have nearly zero impact on the main plotline, and rather getting to know the characters. The storytelling runs from Japanese quirk and crushing heavy handedness, and everything in between. It's awkward, and the plot will not be the reason you keep playing the game.

Once you get to the meat of the gameplay, you'll quickly realise that all the conventions of the JRPG genre have been turned on their ear, and it all begins with an insanely in depth combat system that will have newbs running to their mommies and will challenge even the most stringent JRPG fan. Trust me when I say that the tutorial is a must, as the game throws the entirety of the battle system at your feet right off the bat and its sink or swim from there. Even the tutorial on its own takes more than an hour to complete, and it'll be several hours more until you have any sort of comfort level with the mechanics.

Trying to describe this system with any sort of simple clarity is probably the biggest challenge I've ever faced as a game reviewer. The system is a mixture between real time and turn based, with a closer leaning to the real time end of the spectrum. All the battles are fought with guns, grenades, and modern weaponry. Your enemies are constantly taking their turns while you take yours. You can select any character at any time, allowing you to really strategize and place your characters anywhere along the battlefield, whether behind cover, over top of crates, or close up to deal more damage quickly. Each turn allows you to run around the field while a time gauge drains.

There are two different kinds of damage to be dealt to your enemies in the game, direct and scratch damage. Handguns deal direct damage, which is actual permanent damage to the target. Scratch damage is done via machine guns and is generally more powerful than direct, but heals over time. The key to success is to deal enough scratch damage and then convert that scratch damage to actual damage with a few well placed handgun shots.

If that description alone didn't make your brain explode, then just wait, because the grey matter is really about to hit the flowery wall paper. In order to attack, you have to charge your attacks. The closer you are to your enemy, the faster your attack will charge, making you choose between being wide open and being able to attack quickly, or being safer on the opposite end of the map and attacking slower. The higher your character's level, the more times you can charge your attack in a single turn, causing more damage and adding special attack perks.

Beyond the charging, you have to keep your eye on the hero gauge on the bottom of the screen as well. This doubles as your ability to use special attacks and represents your health levels. As long as you have at least one block of the gauge full, all damage inflicted on you is dealt as scratch damage. If enough scratch damage is dealt to bring your HP to zero, you lose one of the gems which shatters and scatters across the battlefield. Gems are regained by defeating enemies or taking out their shields and body parts. If your hero gauge drains completely, you might as well restart the game, because your characters will move and attack slower, won't be able to use hero actions, take direct damage, and the game over screen kicks on once any one of your characters bites the dust.