Resonance of Fate examination- Part 4: Terra Incognita

We're coming to the home stretch with just two parts remaining. For this part I'm going to focus on what you'll be doing in the various towns and how the world map works.

Within each town you'll find the same services starting with the hunter's guild. This is where you'll get side quests, the quests themselves are linked to the specific chapter if you end the chapter before completing them then they will be lost. These quests range from killing specific enemies, to getting specific items. Rewards come in the form of items and sometimes weapon parts, along with hunter points. For every 100 hunter points you earn you'll receive a reward of additional items.

There are three types of shops you can visit; the general store has basic items which can also be used for crafting. Sometimes the shop may offer a weapon that you can buy for a lot of rubies (in game currency). The scrapper's purpose is to break down items for components that can be used in crafting. Each item costs a fee and the game is nice enough to tell you what items should be sold, which ones should be broke down and which ones should be used in crafting.

Finally the tinkerer is where you'll create new items, as the game progresses more available options will become open. This is where the majority of your parts and accessories will come from and it can become pricey. Some parts require items dropped from enemies in the field while others will need other weapon parts to create.

I notice that towns had different stocks for shops and the tinkerer's options also changed by a town by town basis. Some towns have a place that you can rest (the home town has your base which also serves this purpose), resting will recover full health and refill your hero gauge.

The world map itself is hex based, you can move through any open hexes and time does progress while moving. When it is dark out the encounter rate for enemies will increase and the people wandering around in safe areas will change. Certain hexes on the map will have a white icon appear next to their name at the bottom of the screen, this represents safe hexes that you won't have to worry about fighting. The world itself takes place in a tower with elevators allowing you to travel to different floors.

When you first get to the world map you will notice that a lot of hexes are covered in white, this goes with the story that these hexes are not powered and need to be charged up to access. In RoF you can place down your own hexes on to the map, each type of place able hex is like a Tetris piece.

There are three types of hexes you can place, the first are clear hexes. These are used to just open up the world and you'll be using them the most out of three. Next are colored hexes, they come in variations of shape and color. Colored hexes create an area of influence around that color and are vital for terminal use which is coming up in this entry.

The last type is station hexes. Unlike the previous two that can be found off of enemy drops, station hexes can only be obtained from story missions and trading in five same colored hexes to get one station hex. The station hexes serve two purposes, first they create a rest and save zone where ever you place them. Second they can be used to create an area of influence of that specific color anywhere that you place them. The only limit for station hexes is that they can only be placed on safe hexes.

For the other two types of hexes there are certain limitations to where you can place them. You can only place a hex that one part is either adjacent to or on top of an already powered hex. Also you cannot have any parts of the hex piece not on a hex, such as having some being blocked by a wall or space in the floor.

Besides progression there are two other reasons for powering up the hexes. Certain hexes have items that you will obtain for powering them up, you won't know until you powered them up. These items range from basic stuff, to clothing for your characters to bezel shards.

Second we have terminals which are a part of advance play. Terminals occupy certain hexes on the map and they have an effect to give out. From increasing experience to lowering enemy encounter rate and so on. To activate a terminal you must have enough same colored hexes both covering the terminal and adjacent to it as determined by the quota shown above the terminal on the map.

Once the quota has been met, all those colored hexes next to the terminal and any more you add will give out the effect. Also if you cover the entrance of a dungeon with an effect, that effect will spread to the entire dungeon. You can also spread effects across floors by covering the elevator with the hex. The use of terminals can make your life easier but it will require a lot of work to gather the needed hexes.

Lastly I want to talk about special hexes that you'll travel to. The first are hexes marked with exclamation points, these represent fights for side quests that you'll need to do to complete the quest. If the fight is too much you can retreat back to the world map.

Hexes marked with traffic cones are required fights. These are used for both story progression and side quest progression used to block your path. You can run away from these fights if you want but to open the hex up you'll have to beat all enemies.

Finally there are dangerous encounters marked by a red hex. These are tough battles either with huge groups of enemies or a few high level ones. Beating these fights will usually earn you useful items or bezel shards. However unlike the other fights you cannot run away from these. It is a good idea to save your game before trying these in case you get stuck in an impossible fight.

We're almost done, for part 5 I'll be giving out advance tips and giving my overall impression of RoF.

Josh.

Links to previous parts:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3