The PS3 version of the game will be out in February 2010 and will feature additional languages and additional characters in the hopes that you'll make this title an addition to your game collection.

The game features a time-based battle attack system.

Have a look at these new screens of 70-year-old "Enquirer of Knowledge" Antorion, gothy Veronique, fashionista Garigerrnon and the curvy Barbarella. They're looking at you! Right now!

『エンド オブ エタニティ』物語に絡む聖職者たち - ファミ通.com [Famitsu]

In upcoming tri-Ace developed, SEGA published role-playing-game Resonance of Fate, the game's models are designed to take advantage of HDTVs, but the text is SDTV friendly. Yay!

Other good news: You can quick save any time in the game, there's a handy battle retry option and Resonance of Fate is disc-swap free.

Resonance of Fate reveals new features [Sega Nerds]

The tri-Ace developed title will be released January 28 in Japan. No word about the Western release.

As we mentioned earlier, the game is set on the man-made spire of Basel. That's where the residents of Earth live in the future, now that we've polluted the planet to the point that it can no longer support human life or even vegetation.

As with most future societies, Basel has an easily understood hierarchy of placement on the spire. The rich rest comfortably near the top, the dirt-poor peons near the bottom. Your team of Private Military Firm employed heroes-Vasheron, Zephyr and Leanne-naturally live closer to the bottom, amongst the gears and levers that power the giant machine that is Basel.

エンド オブ エタニティ、カウントアップ中の発売日がバレて公式サイトが自虐に走る [読みゲー ]

Published by SEGA, Resonance of Fate will be released in the West next Spring.

Dubbed Star Ocean: The Last Hope International, the game will be hitting the PS3 February 4, 2010 and priced at ¥8,190 (US$90). The game features reworked menu screens and a tweaked battle system with auto-targeting. SO4: International also features English and Japanese voice acting options. It really is international!

Sega reps at Gamescom said that Resonance of Fate is "not the traditional RPG" that one might expect from tri-Ace, with a heavy emphasis on gunplay, some of it real-time, some of it turn-based in action. We got to see some of that action in real-time, as demonstrated by a Sega rep this week at Gamescom, to get a better sense of how just non-traditional Resonance of Fate is—dogs in formal wear and all.

The game is set on the man-made spire of Basel. That's where the residents of Earth live in the future, now that we've polluted the planet to the point that it can no longer support human life or even vegetation. Yes, it's a bleak future without the comfort of cotton, with our heroes likely forced to battle in leather and polyester.

As with most future societies, Basel has an easily understood hierarchy of placement on the spire. The rich rest comfortably near the top, the dirt-poor peons near the bottom. Your team of Private Military Firm employed heroes—Vasheron, Zephyr and Leanne—naturally live closer to the bottom, amongst the gears and levers that power the giant machine that is Basel.

Vasheron, Zephyr and Leanne will take jobs from various citizens of Basel, exploring the world's hex-based environment. Access to that environment is given to your team with the use of "hexers," essentially keys that unlock portions of the world map. You'll be given hexers upon the completion of certain missions and from defeated foes which, when used, give Resonance of Fate a bit of a strategic puzzle aspect in parts.

The battle scenes tend to veer a bit closer to what one expects from a traditional Japanese RPG.

With the exception of the game's focus on gunplay—and a lack of fancy armor and ornate swords—the battle system may look a little familiar. We watched as Vasheron, Zephyr and Leanne each took their turns trading bullets with a team of humans in futuristic battle gear (and a dog in a neck tie). Some of the attacks, like the semi-automatic machine gun fire, dealt "scratch damage," a rapid fire shot that chips away at an enemy's hit points. That scratch damage can be recovered by enemies, so the heavy shot members of your team will need to step in a deal heftier blows to finish them off.

Most of the action appeared to be input by simple commands, but the Sega rep controlling the demo did have to decide when to make characters jump and fire, two choices that will affect how much damage your team of PMFs will do to foes.

One interesting aspect of the battle system is the concept of squad leaders. It's pretty simple, just finish off the leader of the group and your opponents will scatter. Good for ending a fight that's potentially close, but less beneficial in terms of gaining experience points and item pick ups.

Sega wouldn't offer much in the way of information beyond what we saw in the demo, holding some of Resonance of Fate's features close to its chest. The game's due out in Spring of 2010, so we're guessing that we'll know a lot more about tri-Ace's original effort soon... probably by the time Tokyo Game Show rolls around.

But tri-Ace's upcoming role-playing-game End of Eternity (Resonance of Fate in the West) is being published by SEGA, not Square Enix.

Explains tri-Ace developer and EoE director Takayuki Suguro, "Because SEGA has a more open attitude towards accepting new RPG ideas than Square Enix, we'd decided to have SEGA release End of Eternity." Previously, Suguro worked on Square Enix titles Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy Tactics.

The multi-platform End of Eternity is set in a future where mankind near extinction due to environmental changes. EoE is slated for release late in 2009.

Resonance of Fate [Spong via ゲームメモ via はちま起稿]

I've not seen much of Resonance of Fate, formerly End of Eternity, outside of the Americanized butt rock trailer McWhertor posted back in May. It actually looks rather interesting, though all of that gunfire in my surround sound system is sure to piss off my neighbors. Normally I wouldn't care, but they are cooking something that smells amazing right now, and I want to maintain my status as potential leftover recipient.

As evidenced by the newest trailer—still heavy on the pre-rendered CGI—for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 role-playing game, Sega's proud butt rock tradition will continue with Resonance of Fate, which goes from piano and clarinet duet to hot shredding royalty-free rock faster than you can say "What's wrong with the name 'End of Eternity', anyway?"

Hey, ours is not to question why. Ours is just to point and mock.

For reference's sake, please watch the original End of Eternity trailer before viewing the Japanese language free U.S. debut of Resonance of Fate. We think it's worth it. For the context!

It'll be out in the spring of 2010.

The title will hit Western shores with a new name (Resonance of Fate), and if the Western release is anything like the Japanese one, it'll be available for both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

SEGA Announces Resonance of Fate! [Sega]

The childhood friends are both around 8 inches tall and come in window box — each with their own weapons*. Those interested in picking them up can find them online or at your local Japanese figure shop or both.

*stars and planetary terrain not included

Star Ocean 4 -The Last Hope- Play Arts Reimi Saionji & Edge Maverick action figure by Kotobukiya [Neko Magic]

The debut trailer from the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 RPG is full of things you'd expect from your teasers, including Japanese text, pretty girls, evil faceless organizations, and fancy lads with expert weapon skills. The CG looks spot on—which it had better, considering the entire thing is pre-rendered.

With End of Eternity shipping this Winter in Japan, it makes me wonder what takes Square Enix so damn long in getting those Final Fantasy games out. tri-Ace knocks 'em out like once a year!

While tri-Ace's pleasantly androgynous characters are par for the JRPG course, End of Eternity mixing things up with its focus on gun-play, not swordgun-play. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game is due this Winter in Japan, telling the dramatic tale of teenagers and twentysomethings as they struggle against the military-industrial complex.

For less sarcastic details, read a more accurate description of the game's storyline. Or just skip ahead to new media.

Lots more of it. Ten more years of it, maybe.

At the SEGA press event today in Tokyo, it was excitedly stated that End of Eternity was a "truly epic title" and this was a title SEGA will support for the next years.

Sure, this could be press conference hyperbole (probably is!), but if people buy this game like they have other tri-Ace titles (Star Ocean, for example), damn right you'll be seeing this franchise for the next ten years — or beyond, even.

End of Eternity is slated for a Winter 2009 release.

『エンドオブエタニティ』 [Famitsu]

It was announced last week in game magazine Famitsu, and Famitsu.com has now posted screens as well. While these same screens ran in the magazine, blurry scans meant it was hard to get a closer look at the game.

Set in futuristic towering megapolis Bazel, EoE's main characters are 17-year-old Private Military Firm (PMF) mercenary Zephyr, 26-year-old ex-solider Vashyron and 19-year-old young woman Test Subject No. 20. She's escaped from a research facility where she was housed. All this set against the background of Bazel, which acts as an environment purifier to cleanse the pollution surrounding the Earth.

Basel is divided by class with the middle and wealthy classes living in the middle-to-upper echelons, and the lower classes living below. Each floor is broken up into a field of battle, where your party can be thrown into random encounters. When there is a random encounter with an enemy, the switch to battle mode is seamless.

The game uses a third person point-of-view perspective for controlling the characters, and the battles are in semi-real time with the ability to switch to between other characters in your party. The game's a multi-platform title (Xbox 360 and PS3) and is slated for this winter. Check out the screens below.

トライエース×セガの新プロジェクト『エンド オブ エタニティ』 [Famitsu]

Tri-Ace launched it today on April 1 in Japan — you know, the day when the internet turns to crapola. The countdown website features logos for the PS3 and Xbox 360 — typically, Japanese gag sites for April Fools day do not feature real product names. Check out the PrayStation 4table for reference.

Previously, Tri-Ace has developed titles for a myriad of platforms including the Super Famicom, the Game Boy, the PlayStation, the PlayStation 2, the Nintendo DS and most recently the Xbox 360 with role-playing-game Star Ocean 4.

Giving validity to the chances of this not being an April Fools Day joke, the reveal for the new RPG is next Friday when the countdown clock ends. Japanese magazine Famitsu goes on sale on Friday, so often new titles are announced them.

Granted, we're not ruling anything out. This is April Fools day, the day that the internet turns largely into crap. Though, creating a phony countdown clock only to announced a fake multi-platform tri-Ace game? If that's a prank, it's not funny.

If it's a game, then hey, we're all ears.

The NEW RPG PROJECT [tri-Ace]

There will be two types of character portraits in the battle scenes — one for each region. One is getting anime faces, and the other is getting CG models.

Likewise, the menus will be different. So which is which? (Hint: Look for THE JAPANESE WORDS.)

Different Region, Different Star Ocean: The Last Hope Interface [Siliconera]

It’s shaping up as a safe, safe game. Like most Japanese games on the showroom floor, if you stripped back the graphical improvements a new generation of hardware has brought, you’d be forgiven for thinking you were playing a PS2 game. You still wander a linear overworld, you still encounter enemies, you still engage in closed-off battles with your party, the action is still punctuated by text-based conversation.

Basically, if you like Star Ocean – or JRPGs in general – you know what you’re getting yourself into before you even drop the disc into your 360.

What you won’t be ready for will be this game’s graphics. The in-game action looks crisp and clean, with a vibrant colour palette and bold character designs helping the game stand out on the 360 amongst the its Square Enix & Mistwalker competition. Cutscenes using the in-game engine look even better, with so few ragged edges around the player models that they trump many other game’s rendered sequences.

As for Star Ocean 4’s rendered sequences…they’re simply amazing. I didn’t catch many on the showroom floor, but in an interview with the game’s producer Yoshinori Yamagishi, they had a 50” LCD running the game’s intro sequence. And I know, this was so rude, but I couldn’t help but be continually distracted by it. If you’re the type to grind through a JRPG for the fluff sequences, you won’t find many better than those in this game.

As for the mechanics of the game, new nuts & bolts, etc, sadly the demo ran for only 10 minutes or so, enough time to only get a few quick battles in and go for a run outside before the game shut down. Still, from what I saw, I didn't notice much new stuff. Combat did seem a little easier than previous games, with switching between characters being a lot faster, and there were a range of new charged attacks available for each character, and…that was about it.

As with most JRPG titles this generation, it seemed a case of same old gameplay, shiny new graphics. Which may seem lazy to most (including myself), but hey, to Star Ocean fans, it’s probably exactly what you’re after.