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Resonance of Fate was given a North American release window of spring 2010 way back in May, leaving the question of its Japanese release (as End of Eternity) unanswered -- until just now. Sega previously launched a cute "count-up" site to reveal the date, which has finally arrived at January 28, 2010*. The official game site now shows this information, as well.

Earlier this month, producer Mitsuhiro ShimanoIn told Joystiq that, with Resonance of Fate development on schedule, Sega had the freedom to set the Japanese release date "when it's going to be the best time to fully reach the potential." Apparently, the best time is ... a month after Final Fantasy XIII?

*Note: At the time of this posting, our browser still shows that several hours remain, suggesting that the counter is based on one's local time zone.

[Via Andriasang]

Immediately after I got my first chance to play Resonance of Fate, with my ears still ringing from virtual gunfire, I met with director Takayuki Suguro (tri-Ace) and producer Mitsuhiro Shimano (Sega) to discuss the futuristic title. In our brief chat, the developers talked about the unique setting, the guns, and the difficulties of making both a multiplatform game and a game designed for a worldwide audience.

And if you ever wondered what tri-Ace does to unwind after a hard day at the RPG mines, that happens to come up too.

The first TGS trailer for Resonance of Fate (End of Eternity in Japan) had us very excited due to its unique John Woo-inspired bullet-riddled action. However, the second (and presumably last) trailer for the game from the game show goes back to traditional JRPG form by focusing exclusively on the game's heavy-handed story.

While there's chance for greatness in tri-Ace's upcoming story, we can't say that's what's keeping us interested in the game. For once, could it be that a JRPG is keeping our attention more for its gameplay than its pre-rendered cutscenes?

The stylish Resonance of Fate (End of Eternity, as it's known in Japan) blends a semi-turn-based, conventional RPG battle system with a high-speed action game -- with guns. Guns fall into three categories: machine guns, handguns, and grenades. (Machine gun–class weapons do "scratch damage," which depletes an enemy's life, but leaves the possibility for it to regenerate over time.)

I got to check out the TGS demo before interviewing its developers, giving me this opportunity to tell you about it. More importantly, though, the experience gave me something to talk to the developers about (more on that later), and in turn I avoided a very awkward social interaction.

Sega has seemingly forgotten that Tokyo Game Show hasn't started yet, by releasing a brand new trailer for its upcoming Resonance of Fate (aka End of Eternity in Japan). Tri-Ace is breaking the JRPG norm by creating a trailer that isn't entirely comprised of CG cutscenes. There is a lot of gameplay footage here -- and as noted earlier, it's bizarre.

Resonance of Fate creates a rather distinct look for itself by giving its main characters guns, and moves that would make Chow Yun-Fat jealous. It's entirely over-the-top, and gives the game an original feel missing from tri-Ace's previous works. It'll be interesting to see if Japanese gamers will pry themselves away from Final Fantasy XIII long enough to give this game a fair shake.

[Via Sega Nerds]

You won't see enormous breasts in this game, we were told by a Sega producer, as he started playing through an untranslated Resonance of Fate. While this is rarely used as a selling point (especially in games), he wanted to emphasize the gritty "realistic" look of tri-Ace's upcoming RPG. Gone are the over-the-top wacky hairdos, cute talking mascots, giant swords and neon-colored hover-vehicles that seem to permeate nearly every Square Enix JRPG. Instead, this fantasy world is meant to resemble our own.

Granted, the people of Bazel, the fictional world in which Resonance of Fate takes place, still have perfect hair and outfits from the trendier shops of Shibuya. It may still not jive with the American sensibilities of "reality," but it's certainly a far cry from tri-Ace's other current-gen efforts, Star Ocean and Infinite Undiscovery.

Resonance of Fate is being billed as a significant departure for tri-Ace. Its first non-Square Enix-published game comes with a brand new graphics engine, and a few new ideas to boot. The word "cliché" was uttered more than once during the presentation -- to describe exactly what the team is trying to avoid. Considering the studio's track record, we obviously had our doubts.

It's not often we're able to do this so long before a game is released -- before we've ever even seen the game on a screen other than the Joystiq Blogtop 3000s™ we're assigned -- but we can categorically name Resonance of Fate as our game of the year as of this morning. Why, you ask? Three simple words, friends: Dogs wearing jackets.

New screens of the game, coming from Japan (likely from End of Eternity, the Japanese title of RoF), look, in certain cases, a bit less than thrilling. Sure, the game's CG trailer looked like 95405000 yen, but we're talking still shots of RPG gameplay here -- not exactly life-altering stuff. That being said, well, there's a dog. And he's wearing a jacket!

European gamers are getting their hands on an exclusive special edition of Star Ocean: The Last Hope. Launching on June 5, The Last Hope has already made the trek to North American gamers, but European users have an exclusive pack headed their way to sweeten a possible purchase.

Included in the special edition is the game, a 32-page guide, five Last Hope character cards, a compilation CD soundtrack and limited edition packaging.

While we should be jealous of the bonuses included in the pack, we're more envious of the digistack packing used for the set. Thanks to this special edition, PAL users won't all have to deal with three discs stacked on top of each other, like North American gamers did. Lucky!

New details about tri-Ace's latest RPG, Resonance of Fate, have surfaced, shedding some light on the game's battle system. As if resonating with the fate of most J-RPGs, RoF is your standard turn-based affair, though it does try to shake things up by blending in some potentially strategic damage rules and pseudo-real-time combat (think Eternal Sonata).

The way battles play out is a little something like this (as laid out by 1UP): the player chooses a party member and controls one character at a time. While in control of this character, a timer counts down signifying the duration of this character's actions, which include running around and shooting stuff up. Interestingly, enemies don't have their own individual turns; instead, they attack at the same time while the player's character is currently in action mode. This means enemies can only target the character that's currently being controlled.

Additionally, different damage types add to the strategic gameplay. There are two known types: direct damage, (which is a basic attack) and scratch damage (which is a weaker attack that allows HP to slowly regenerate). We're not sure how this all plays out, but we're assuming there might be more damage types to be discovered later, as the game seems to revolve around guns and ammo (possibly linked to ammo type?). Perhaps, we'll find out more at E3 next month. That is, if RoF shows up.

Sega today released the newest trailer for Resonance of Fate / End of Eternity, and boy is it dramatic. While it doesn't give away anything new about the tri-Ace developed game than last time around, it is, in fact, a proper American trailer and not just footage from a presser in Japan (read as: not in Japanese).

A woman steps from an impossibly high ledge, bullets fly in every direction, a face is pushed, and somewhere in there, things go "totally extreme" and the guitar solo kicks off. The (totally CG at this point) graphics and world give off an almost Cowboy Bebop-esque/future film-noir vibe that we could see ourselves digging. Oh, but the trailer's music? It's awful. It was actually better in the Japanese trailer. You've been warned!

Remember last month when we reported on a few trademarks filed by Sega for Resonance of Fate and Resonance of Time? Turns out our predictions have been validated, as Sega has announced plans to bring the tri-Ace developed JRPG End of Eternity to the US and the company is calling the game ... wait for it ... Resonance of Fate!

The Sega blog is pegging a release date on the title for Spring 2010 -- roughly half a year after its Japanese doppelganger -- and offers scant details on the title. However, it does note quite curiously that this is the first time in history the developer is teaming up with a publisher other than Enix (and recently, Square Enix) to release one of its games. Maybe that has something to do with Square Enix's recent Western ambitions? Who knows! Why not rest your worried head in the gallery below? It'll make all the hurting stop.

There isn't much to see in the debut trailer for End of Eternity, tri-Ace's upcoming RPG for the Xbox 360 and PS3. In fact, we're hesitant to even refer to the trailer as a trailer -- the entire thing is comprised of moving screenshots. Also, every bit of explanatory text included is in Japanese, so we can't make sense of it.

Thankfully we already know End of Eternity follows a trio of characters in a world where Earth has become a toxic place to live and civilization has huddled into large towers for survival. It's a dark vision of the future... where Al Gore was right all along!

Having followed the guidelines for teasing the announcement of a new RPG to the letter (almost as if the guidelines were written retroactively in response to the game), tri-Ace has moved on to the natural next step: the exclusive reveal in Famitsu magazine (before the countdown expires), which is then immediately scanned and made available worldwide.

The new game is End of Eternity, being published by Sega on PS3 and Xbox 360 this winter in Japan. According to Siliconera's translation, the game stars characters named Zephyr, Subject 20, and Vashyron, the last of whom is "employed in a private military firm." The battle system, accordingly with the military theme, involves real-time gunplay elements. Of course, there's been no announcement of an international release, since the Japanese release was announced just now.

If there's one thing that generates more anticipation than a new game announcement, it's the announcement of a forthcoming new game announcement. Though it may draw some opprobrium from know-it-all blogs (who will write about your tease even whilst bemoaning it), a teaser website is the ideal catalyst for heated speculation. Be miserly with your information, but be sure to cover some basics: Mention the developer (eg. tri-Ace), the targeted platforms (eg. Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3) and, of course, whether or not the RPG in question is new (see: www.newrpg.jp) or old (see: Square Enix).

Step 2: Initiate a countdown

What good is anticipation if it's not represented through a visual countdown? Modern web technology accomodates a wide range of temporal measurements for your countdown, allowing you to mark the agonizing wait with as much precision as you prefer. If your game's reveal is around the corner, why not opt for days? Of course, you can also resort to counting down the years if your project is a little early or Final Fantasy XIII. Protip: Make the most of your countdown before it's down for the count by counting down to another countdown!

Step 3: Toss fans a fricken bone

Your unflappable fans deserve something special for visiting your teaser page. Now, be careful, you don't want to give the whole thing away! Why not titillate with a piece of art from your RPG? Go with something ambigious and comforting, like a ruined fantasy landscape or a team of pointy-haired adventurers battling a recently unsealed ancient evil.

Next week: How to promote Famitsu review scores, which will be much higher than anyone else's!

[Via Infatuated Gamer]

The more we see of the upcoming tri-Ace developed, Square Enix published, Star Ocean: The Last Hope, the more excited we seem to get. Not only is the Star Ocean series one of the most beloved, classic role-playing franchises still kicking around, both the CGI and in game footage of the game look impressive. Honestly though, we just get overly excited when effeminate heroes jump out of their spacecraft pilot seats to stare blankly at a monitor and luckily this trailer showcases that move twice. 'Round these parts we call that, "Supreme pimp pointing." Star Ocean: The Last Hope lands Stateside on February 24.