Tri-Ace has something in store for fans come TGS 2018, and judging from recent developments, it’s looking like it will be related to Resonance of Fate.
For those unaware, Resonance of Fate is an oft overlooked RPG developed by tri-Ace and published by SEGA which was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 back in 2010. Overall, it was a pretty good game with a fast-paced strategic combat system and decent story, but was held back by graphical inconsistencies.
Back on topic, speculation about tri-Ace’s announcement began last night when an article in Japanese gaming website Games Talk revealed the developer was poised to announce a new title at TGS 2018 on Sept. 20. And it didn’t take long for three prime suspects to emerge soon afterwards: Star Ocean, Valkyrie Profile and Radiata Stories.
Unfortunately, there is a problem with all of these guesses: they all belong to Square Enix — why would tri-Ace be the one to announce them?
More than that, however, there are good reasons why at least two of them would be the game the developer has in store for us. Valkyrie Profile seems to be trapped in mobile hell, with SE providing no indication that it intends to move the franchise back to consoles; Star Ocean was already confirmed to not be getting any new entries in the near future (the mobile game is actually pretty good and doing well, too, so there might not be any impetus to develop it immediately); while Radiata Stories, though more likely than the other two, is a game so old (it’s from 2005), that SE would have likely done something with the game by now if it had any intention do anything at all.
On the other hand, a game like Resonance of Fate fits the bill perfectly. There have been plenty of requests to see the game ported to current-gen platforms and the game is popular enough that it made an appearance in both Project X Zone titles, as well as the Star Ocean mobile game, Anamnesis.
Beyond that, there is tangible evidence which suggests we’re looking at a Resonance of Fate announcement.
To start, you’ll notice that Takayuki Suguro is one of the people involved with this announcement. Well, you might remember him as the director of RoF, and it’s certainly intriguing that he would be appearing here despite him not being with tri-Ace anymore.
In addition, there have been some odd occurrences going on related to the franchise that is hard to consider a mere coincidence. It hasn’t even been 24 hours since tri-Ace’s declaration, but we’ve already been hit with news that the German USK has rated Resonance of Fate for the PlayStation 4 and PC, and the official character Twitter accounts used for promotional purposes back when the game originally launched — @Reanbell, @Zephyr_eoe, and @Vashyron — have become active again for the first time in eight years.
To be clear, this doesn’t confirm that tri-Ace has something related to Resonance of Fate to share with us, but it’s hard not to come to any other conclusion considering what has been happening over the past several hours. Between the namedrop, the rating on the PS4 and PC and reactivated Twitter accounts, an announcement concerning RoF is looking pretty damn likely.
And assuming that’s the case, we still have to wonder what exactly the announcement will be. Are we looking at a remaster or do we have a sequel on our hands? A sequel further refining the original’s fantastic battle system would be great, but a remaster addressing its graphical issues would be perfectly fine too.
At any rate, something is clearly up with tri-Ace and Resonance of Fate, so all that’s left is to wait until next week at TGS 2018 to figure out what that is.
