tri-Ace has brought its 2010 cult RPG back for a third time. Resonance of Fate Enhanced Remaster is out now on PlayStation 5 and PC via Steam, priced at $34.99 / £28.99 / €34.99. If you already own the 2018 Resonance of Fate 4K/HD Edition on PS4 or PC, you don't have to buy it again: the Enhanced Remaster is a $9.99 upgrade. The new release goes further than the 4K/HD Edition did, adding native 4K output, HDR, a 120fps option, upscaled character and environment textures, and a 2x game speed toggle.
What the Enhanced Remaster adds
The 4K/HD Edition was mostly a resolution bump for the original PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 game. This version works on the presentation as a whole. According to tri-Ace's own store text, the graphics menu now has many more options. The headline additions are native 4K, HDR support and a 120 frames-per-second mode, which is the biggest change for a battle system built around fast aerial gunplay. The studio says the textures for characters and environments have been upscaled as well, so the game's rusted, industrial world should hold up better on modern displays.
The quality-of-life feature fans will probably care about most is the new 2x Game Speed setting. Resonance of Fate is known for long dungeon crawls and lots of combat, and speeding up the moment-to-moment play makes grinding and revisiting areas much less of a slog. tri-Ace describes it simply as a way to enjoy the game "at a more comfortable pace."
A gunplay RPG that never quite had a peer
The game's battle system is still the main draw. tri-Ace calls it a "gunplay symphony RPG." Fights blend turn-based planning with real-time movement: you plot a character's run across the battlefield, then let them leap, flip and fire in mid-air. Damage splits into scratch damage, which builds up, and direct damage, which locks that build-up in. Working out how to chain heroic actions and resonance attacks between your three characters is the core of the strategy.
The story follows Vashyron, Zephyr and Leanne, three mercenaries who take jobs for the ruling class of Basel. Basel is a huge tower-like machine that keeps a poisoned Earth breathable. The setting is a far-future steampunk world, and its tone runs from deadpan comedy in the party's hideout to something much heavier as the plot unfolds. The soundtrack, composed by Motoi Sakuraba and Kohei Tanaka, comes back untouched.
Price and how to upgrade
On PlayStation 5, the Enhanced Remaster sells for $34.99 / £28.99 / €34.99, or ¥4,070 in Japan. PS4 owners of the 4K/HD Edition can step up to the new version for $9.99.
The Steam setup is a little different. On PC, the Enhanced Remaster appears as a $9.99 add-on to the existing Resonance of Fate 4K/HD Edition store page, and the base game is listed at $34.99. Existing PC owners just add the upgrade to their library. Newcomers buy the 4K/HD Edition and the add-on together.
PC requirements
The Steam listing targets 720p with anti-aliasing off at minimum spec and 4K with anti-aliasing on at recommended spec. Both tiers need Windows 11, DirectX 12 and a hefty 90GB of free storage.
- Minimum (1280x720): Intel Core i5-3330 or AMD FX-8350, 4GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti or AMD Radeon HD 7770
- Recommended (3840x2160): Intel Core i5-8600K or AMD Ryzen 5 3600, 12GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 or AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT
Fifteen years of Resonance of Fate
Resonance of Fate (End of Eternity in Japan) first launched in 2010 and was published by SEGA. tri-Ace now handles it on its own, and this is its third outing. The 2018 4K/HD Edition brought it to PS4 and PC for the first time. The Enhanced Remaster finally gets it onto PS5 natively with a modern feature set. For anyone who missed it, the full game on PS5 or an upgrade fee for existing owners is an easy way into one of the most unusual combat systems the JRPG genre has produced.
