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The Guided Fate Paradox review

On January 13, 2014 by Ash Meehan

SG Gaming Info takes a look at what it means to be God in NIS America’s roguelike RPG, The Guided Fate Paradox.

The Guided Fate Paradox is a brand new roguelike RPG created by Nippon Ichi Software, and the game was developed by the same team behind Nippon Ichi Software’s flagship Disgaea series.

Renya Kagurazaka, a typical high school student was never the luckiest person in the world, he never won a lottery or anything for that matter, but one day on the way home from shopping a girl in a maid outfit convinces him to try his luck in her mall lottery. After reluctantly accepting Renya takes part and to his surprise he wins the grand prize, and what is the grand prize you ask? Oh, just becoming God. Yes, in The Guided Fate Paradox you play as a newly chosen God. Renya’s mission as God is to listen to everyone prayers and answer as many as possible, and to make matters worse for him its isn’t just the prayers of humans he has to answer it is also the prayers of those from the past, future, fairytale characters, and more. However the task isn’t that insane as he has his own personal angel, Lilliel Saotome, the girl who convinces him to take part in the mall lottery. With the help of Lilliel and six other angels you as the newly chosen God must grant prayers chosen by a powerful machine called the “Fate Revolution Circuit”. But, there is more than meets the eye in Renya’s new life as the angels keep secrets such as why he has to answer prayers, what is his purpose as God etc.

For the most part the stories in the Fate Revolution Circuit do a great job of holding my attention as they create an interesting cast of characters from a zombie who is being bullied to Cinderella who is sick of her life as a fairy tale character. The game’s overall story did a good job of keeping my attention, especially how angels and devils were portrayed. In world of The Guided Fate Paradox nothing is truly black or white.

The game’s main characters are a hit and miss they can be funny, but their humour isn’t for everyone. Each character has their own personality with Cheriel an ex-devil loving to use innuendos whenever she can, and Kuroiel who loves to cook food and eat with her fellow angels. The game’s main protagonist, Renya is probably my favourite character, he is a reluctant character at first, he doesn’t believe he is God, but once told he has no other choice, he admits he’s God and follows the advice of the angels. With that said he isn’t blind and you can see him question what is going around him. The characters really are something of an acquired taste and if you have never playing an NIS America published game before then you might not enjoy their personalities.

One thing that I can’t complain about is the voice work for the main characters. The English dub is close to perfect, the actors/actresses do an amazing job of expressing the characters feelings and some of their quirky personalities. This is definitely a game that should be heard in English even if you are Japanese audio purest.

The strongest aspect of The Guided Fate Paradox is its combat system. The system requires you to use strategy as one false move can lead to your death and the loss of all your hard earned items.

Yes, the game’s combat isn’t exactly forgiving as the penalty for dying is that you lose all the items you were holding at the time of death. To add to this the game throws in two more additional challenges with a strict levelling system and a energy bar that makes you complete you want to reach the final floor of the dungeon as soon as possible. When you enter a dungeon you start at level 1 and so the first thing you need to do inside the dungeon is level up as quickly or else you will be left defenceless in the latter levels, so with this in mind you are likely to grind as many levels as possible before reaching the end, but there is a catch. If you spend too much time levelling you risk burning up all your energy and dying, you can counteract this by eating certain items, but these items are scarce. This is where strategy really comes into play as you have to make a plan before entering a dungeon – you can stock up on food and try and force your way through, but if you do that you won’t be able to pick up as many items and you run the risk of losing on your energy before you even get to the end.

If you successfully complete a mission the levels you gained are added to your total level and an increase to your base stats. Along with this you receive holy icons these are items that further increase you or any of your angels’ stats.

If there was a major flaw to the combat it would be the difficulty curve, it is too inconsistent. This is especially noticeable in boss fights. Where one boss fight requires you to defend a character against a horde of demons in a tower defence environment, and a later boss battle requires you to simply destroy a book

The game’s death penalty might turn off some people, but the penalty adds to the experience and forces you think before you rush into combat.

Conclusion

The Guided Fate Paradox has an uneven difficulty curve that can leave to some frustrating moments, but these moments of frustrating are covered up by humour and a combat system that rewards players that use strategy.

Pros/Cons

+ The game has you use strategy in battle
+ Good voice acting
+ Humorous main characters

– Uneven difficulty curve

Should I buy The Guided Fate Paradox?

Yes. If you are a fan of roguelike RPGs and any of NIS America’s previously published titles then you should enjoy The Guided Fate Paradox.

Alternative game recommendations

If you are looking for another game similar to this look no further than NIS America’s Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness for the PlayStation 3. This game is also developed by Nippon Ichi Software, and offers the same type of experience as The Guided Fate Paradox just without the death penalty.

Where to buy The Guided Fate Paradox?

NIS America, PlayStation Store (EU), Play.com, Game, Amazon (US), Amazon (UK)

Developer                  Publisher          Genre     Rating      Platform      Release Date
Nippon Ichi Software     NIS America       RPG        12+               PS3       October 28, 2013

Author: Ash Meehan

Hi, I’m the creator of SG Gaming Info. When I’m not working on my writing or creating content for this site’s YouTube channel, I like to relax and enjoy character driven story games.


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