"God Eater: Resurrection" mimics the Monster Hunter formula, in essence, with slight variations and overall generally faster combat than it's brother Monster Hunter. I'll break the game down into several segments, consisting of story, gameplay, quality, and replayability, and judge the game on all of these criteria.
Story:
Arigami.
No one knows where they came from. Only that they were born into the world because human evolution had progressed so far. They had one goal in mind: to devour the world and to start over. However, humanity would not surrender so easily. Humanity evolved further, using their technology to counteract the Arigami threat. Constant evolution from both sides has made the war a stalemate. With the inclusion of a new power from Dr. Paylor Sakaki, the tide of battle would soon change in humanity's favor.
Oracle power. This new substance was crafted into weaponry, in common assault rifles to swords and other intricate tools. In return, Aragami kept evolving, they kept destroying humanity by Devouring them and their Oracle power to strengthen their own. The bright minds of Dr. Paylor Sakaki, Johannes Von Shicksal, and Aisha Shicksal worked together in tandem to provide an ultimately new insight to Oracle Power, one that could help turn the tide in the war against Aragami. Aragami exist in this world only to Devour humanity. But what would happen if an Aragami Devoured another Aragami? This question is what prompted extensive research into manipulating Oracle power to create a deadly weapon that could defeat and counter Aragami once and for all.
A God Arc. And the one who took up the power to wield this massive weapon was deemed a God Eater.
This story was pulled straight from the anime rendition of God Eater. If you haven't watched it, I highly suggest you do so, as the next section will become incredibly spoiler-y. The plot above consists of the plot from the anime, so what of the game itself? After the incursion of Aragami, you play as an unnamed hero you create (we'll be calling them Alpha-One for the rest of the review). When Oracle Power was formed into God Arcs, a coalition of different heroes was established under Johannes' name, called Fenrir. Multiple branches of Fenrir expanded rapidly into other countries of the world to stop the Aragami threat. The story of God Eater: Resurrection takes place mostly in Fenrir Far East branch, a la Japan. Alpha-One joins Fenrir in order to ultimately stop the Aragami threat and to put an end to their wrath.
But things aren't always in black and white. During one of Alpha-One's exhibitions, the team finds a small human child, who they name Shio. They promptly bring her back to Fenrir Fast East Branch and care for her in secret. Dr. Paylor Sakaki, a man of respectable wisdom and experience, dubs Shio as a "half-human, half-Aragami". As they care for the young Shio, she begins to exhibit more and more natural actions and reactions that humans would do, paving the way in new research to better fight against Aragami.
All the while, Johannes von Shicksal is crafting a new world. One in which there will be no Aragami, no war, and no violence. He calls it the Exodus Project. When Director Johannes realized the Aragami were eviscerating the human population, he set out to make an alternate world. A paradise in which Aragami would not exist and would not ravage on Earth. He collects the power of fallen Aragami and feeds them into a machine-island called Aegis, which houses the Exodus Project. On the surface, it sounds fun, doesn't it? But it's all a front. A handful of Alpha One's team members, Sakuya Tachibana, and Alisa Illinichina Amiella, decide to investigate the Exodus Project,only to realize that it's just a bunch of spaceships. The entire goal of the Exodus Project was not to save humanity, but to launch them into space to save themselves from the Aragami threat. Alpha-One and team eventually fight Johannes, but the souls from Devoured Aragami have all amalgamated together into the Aegis, which secured the destruction of the world and all humanity and Aragami within it, so that all the happy people in space can make babies and repopulate Earth. Gross.
All in all, even with the anime plot coinciding with the game plot, it was actually a really good interpretation of the other (I don't know if anime came first or the game. Usually in these situations, it's game first then anime). The entire prospect of humanity continuously evolving to overcome barriers and obstacles is a neat plot point. If you have not watched the anime interpretation yet, I highly suggest you do. You can find all the episodes on Crunchyroll.
Overall: 8/10.
Gameplay:
The bulk of the review is going to be in this section, mostly, as there is a lot of ground to cover and I have so many screenshots of all the different things you can do in the game.
So the basic premise is this: You go out on missions as Alpha-One and you kill Aragami. You then Devour them and grab their goodies that they drop. You use said goodies to help the R&D (Research and Development) team make new weapons, armors, and items that can help you against the Aragami threat. Rinse and repeat. Even though it sounded kind of cool...the gameplay just got a little bit same-y after a while. It was always kill this kill that, no variation in between. And although that's kind of the point of Monster Hunter games, they at least provide a little bit something different with Monster Hunter Stories as a fully-fledged RPG, and then Monster Hunter Generations coming in. But within God Eater: Resurrection itself, there wasn't too much terribly different in terms of gameplay. Smash this guy's face in, eat them with your God Arc, smash some more. It just felt repetitive after a while and it was the reason why I ended up taking such a long break from the game.
As Alpha-One, you maneuver around the Fenrir Far East Branch as a sort of little "hub world". Here, you can take missions, talk to other members of the Fenrir Fast Each Branch, and take a look at your equipment load-out for the next mission.
In the Equipment sub-menu, there is A LOT of variety you can do with your setup. Most Aragami will not be weak to everything, so it is in your best interest to take more than one weapon setup for combat. For example, taking a weapon that is Freeze element so that Aragami who are weak to Freeze are easily countered, and then taking a weapon that is Divine element for those who are weak to Divine. Each weapon will have a variety of effects associated with them as well. So for example, a Long Blade might swing slower but hit harder than a Short weapon. They also have their own effects, such as greater Stamina, HP, or Oracle Power (which fuels your ranged weapon).
You can also upgrade your weaponry so that it becomes stronger against Aragami. Upgrades will make your weapon stronger, but also upgrade its available skills. So for example, a Blade Wielder V now becomes a Blade Wielder X. Very intricate, and you can also fully customize your weaponry so that you can had more skills to your repertoire.
If you add a specific effect to a weapon, you can bring it to combat. You can have effects ranging from extra rewards when you win a fight, to having more straight up Strength, to having faster attack Speed. It mostly depends on what kind of character you want to build and how you want to do it. I went with a Paladin-esque character that relied on crowd control and taking the brunt of hits while everyone else deals damage. While also providing healing shots that raise Defense. The possibilities you could do as far as character customization go, are endless.
You can also dress up Alpha-One. I have beautiful clown tights on.
The basic premise of fighting is comprised of hitting the X Button for Light Attacks, Y for Strong Attacks, B to dash around (which costs Stamina), A for jumping, RB to switch between your God Arc forms (melee and ranged), LB to lock-on to the current target.
There are a lot of different enemies to combat in the world of God Eater. My personal favorite enemies are called Quadrigas, huge tank-like Aragami that shoot missiles and fuck you up. Borg Camlaans are also unique enemies: giant scorpions with large tails and metal shields that resemble knights.
The above picture is a Quadriga doing what it does best. Fucking us up.
Oh, I forgot to mention, before each fight, you can take which members of Fenrir's Far East Branch you want to take. So you can take party members that compliment your playstyle. You can have up to 3 other party members, including Alpha-One. My setup usually consisted of two ranged party members that just spammed shots, a tank, and then me as a crowd control setup. It was honestly quite good. And you can customize your party members any way you want, by having them have more HP, do more damage, have the ability to do Healing shots if they are a ranged character, and others.
Mostly, I liked the gameplay. It was boring at times and same-y, so I ended up taking a break from the game for a little while. Mostly, my complaints about the game are the slow loading screens from the game. Loading screens take a long time (like twenty seconds to almost a minute), and it was unbearable sometimes, because the loading screens also appear during some cutscenes. Another gripe that I had was the voice acting. It felt sluggish and forced at times, even though the majority of the script was alright. Other than that, the combat was mostly boring and loading screens were long.
Gameplay: 6.5/10.
Quality:
Like I did in my Tales of Zestiria review, the same people who did the animated cutscenes during the game (of which there were only a couple, sadly) were made by UFOTable. Also, this game is very very bloody. But the anime is worse. The anime has Attack on Titan levels of blood. That's gross.
From an overall quality standpoint, it was alright.
Quality: 7/10.
Replayability:
After the credits roll when you defeat the final boss, you go about your daily life swinging at Aragami once again, and since the threat of Aragami has lowered, less big Aragami and smaller Aragami are more apparent. This is the part where I stopped, however, because after the credits roll, that's the end of the game. No matter what anyone says. So while there is a certain concept of going back and redoing what you were doing before, it still continues on the plot as normal. When I get more invested into the game, I will see where this route goes, but for now, the general consensus is, you roll the credits, the game stops.
Replayability: 7/10.
Now, it's time for the final wrap-up. In this section, I'll detail if this game is truly one for you, and if you should decide to play it or not.
Would I recommend this game?:
Yes. If you like the Monster Hunter formula and want an anime change of pace, then this is the game for you. If you like the Monster Hunter games, then you would like this one, just the same. For $50 on Steam, you get God Eater: Resurrection, and God Eater 2: Rage Burst, two games in one. Which in my opinion, is a good deal, and look forward to a God Eater 2: Rage Burst review coming in just a few months.
Overall rating of the game: 7.3/10. A good game.
Now for the opening theme of the God Eater Anime to finish things off.
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