hard? maybe rewarding? DEFINETELY
the battle system is composed of:
normal attacks:
surprisingly enough these are the ones you'll be using the least,since they're the least effective,least stylish and less rewarding...think of it as playing safe as performing them means you're not consuming a hero bezel (similar to a power barr,i'll get to it in a moment).
hero actions:
these are the ones you'll be using the most. They consist on you getting from point A to point B shooting,jumping and being immune to enemy attacks,theese however,consume a hero bezel wich,when depleted puts you in "critical condition" wich means you're pretty much bound to hit "retry". and last but not least:
tri-attack:
this one is what will tell how good you really are: do at least one hero action that passes between both other characters and you'll get a hero point wich then can be used to perform the tri-attack in wich all 3 characters will run the triangle they just made while shooting at the target,one at a time. the more hero points you have,the more laps of the triangle you'll perform.
it's a quite difficult battle system to get used to,but when you do,the game really starts to get interesting and you'll have a blast even with random encounters.
the game itself is hard,even random encounter enemies will kick your ass,gladly....so strategise wisely.
boss fights are brutal,challenging and rewarding,so don't get too surprized if you see yourself screaming at the tv often,either from anger or from joy from seeing that huge boss going down aat last for a change.
apart from gameplay,the story of the game is....convoluted to say the least,and it seems to hold back untill later in the game to show itself...for the first 5 or so chapters you'll wonder if there is even a story there...i'm on chapter 11 and am about 40h in on the game and the story STILL is reluctant to fall in place,few bits and pieces of it are given to you but i'm still to find out how they all fit together...
that being said,RESONANCE OF FATE is a HUGE game,it has about 60 hours of gameplay, and if you decide on going trough the side-quests,open up the world map to it's full extent,and find the bezel shards hidden troughout it, that time can really grow by a few dozen.
so...is there anything bad about it? well,in my oppinion,nothing so much that it spoils your fun...some side-quests are a pain to complete just for the fact that they are boring and the story thing that holds the game back a little,nothing to be worried about though,the weappon and character customization, extremelly humorous cut-scenes and awesomely epic battle system more than make up for it.
this is a must buy for fans of a good old challenging game for a change (modern warfere 2,i'm looking at you...)