Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy, not to be confused with the upcoming Control Resonant or Final Fantasy Resonance, is the third Plague Tale after Innocence and Requiem, which I consider to be generally great AA games. Developer Asobo Studio wears its influences—specifically Naughty Dog games like The Last of Us—on its sleeve, but manages to pull some unexpected moves that make its games more than cheap imitations.
With Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy, Asobo Studio presents its most complex and ambitious project to date, but doesn't fully leave its comfort zone. Is this a bad thing? Not necessarily, and I think that if you enjoy the previous Plague Tale games, Resonance will probably strike a chord with you, no pun intended. At the same time, I'm walking away from it with the sense that Asobo Studio hasn't quite left everything on the mat.
Despite this, there's a certain quality to Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy that keeps it above the bar of mediocrity. It may be a budding quality, one that manifests inconsistently, but it's one that could very well make the next Plague Tale a proper masterwork.
Taking place about 15 years prior to the events of A Plague Tale: Requiem, Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy follows the early life of Sophia, a character introduced in Requiem. When we first meet her in Resonance, she is a very young girl being experimented on by nuns in a remote convent. After being broken out by her outlaw father, Sophia grows into the outlaw lifestyle herself. Sophia and her crew seem to be bandits of some sort—every character simply refers to them as "plunderers"—and during a particular heist, things go belly up and Sophia winds up fleeing to the mysterious Minotaur Island, which has been beckoning her through hallucinations ever since she left the convent.
While I'm being vague to avoid spoilers, the above description is a fairly comprehensive summary of Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy's opening moments: the story feels remarkably rushed in the beginning. It introduces you to several different characters, and then assumes that you've immediately grown fond of them, but it's not earned. Secondary characters are generally among Resonance's weakest elements. Many of them seem to only exist to either aid or thwart Sophia in her journey, and key interactions often come across as contrived. There are plot beats that only seem to occur because a character's personality changed dramatically off-screen, or because of a screaming match that could have realistically been avoided.
Such criticisms don't apply to Sophia herself, who I found to be a thoroughly compelling and relatable character. The journey she undergoes in Resonance is an arduous one, and you can see that: she's extremely tough, but not unwavering, and her adventure takes a palpable toll on her. Sophia's essential humanity is greatly supported by Anna Demetriou's terrific voice and motion capture performance, brought to life by regularly impressive facial and character animation. The script may occasionally call for more melodrama than I'd like, but Demetriou always sells it.
She's not the only highlight of Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy, either. Visually, Asobo Studio has once again outdone itself, creating a rendition of Minotaur Island that's as archaic and alluring as you'd expect from mystical Grecian ruins. Resonance's graphics are great, but its art direction is where it truly holds dominance over its predecessors, which were already quite aesthetically pleasing. Asobo has continued its knack for panache, laying out FromSoft-level area reveals, Uncharted-influenced action setpieces, and striking cutscene direction. While Resonance can fall short in terms of plot and pacing, it is consistently pleasing to look at, listen to, and just exist in.
The stealth gameplay of the previous two Plague Tale titles is enjoyable, but restrained. There are gestures to depth, the suggestion that you have more mechanical freedom than you really do, but never a full commitment to such ideals. With Resonance, I was hoping that Asobo Studio would really double down on the gameplay department, making it as polished and nuanced as its presentation. My verdict is mixed.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://gamerant.com/resonance-a-plague-tale-legacy-review/
