The new weapons and the revamped rewards systems aren’t wholly new ideas that Bandai Namco and developer Shift thought up for this remaster. Both are taken from the upcoming GOD EATER 2 Rage Burst title that will see a U.S. release next month. I can’t help but wonder if this was done so Bandai Namco could garner enough interest in the series so there would be more interest in the new entry when it arrives next month. It’s not a bad motivation, per se, but it does leave Resurrection in this weird spot where it feels like a bit of a placeholder. That feeling is most apparent when trying to find a co-op session.
Even a week after its release, joining a random person’s game at any given point in time was extremely difficult. Three weeks later, it’s next to impossible. Unfortunately, the only way to ensure you have a group of people to play with on a consistent basis is to do so with your friends, which means buying up to four copies of the game. This is nothing I hold against the game or the developers, as it’s possible there just aren’t a whole lot of people playing it now, but it’s something that’s worth highlighting from a co-op perspective as battling Aragami with other players is a far better experience than playing alone.
The main crux of any confrontation with an Aragami is that it has certain weaknesses to different elements (Blaze, Frost, Spark, and Divine) and different damage types (Sunder, Piercing, and Crush). For the most part, you can easily choose the appropriate combination of weapon, gun, and bullets to cover any one Aragami’s weaknesses. However, as the difficulty progresses, you’ll face off against multiple Aragami with very few (if any) overlapping weaknesses. This is where your companions are the most beneficial.
With a group of human players, you can work out who is going to equip what so you have the best chances of being able to bring down the enemies efficiently. The Aragami never seem to scale based on the number of players, so the more the merrier. If you’re not able to find enough human players then you can always fill empty spots with an NPC, which could be one of the preset A.I. bots or an A.I. controlled version of a human player you’ve played with previously. The latter is achieved thanks to an interesting mechanic where you can trade “Avatar Cards” with any human player. This card stores two of that player’s equipment sets (which are done in the Loadout menu) as well as some metadata about their preferred play style, e.g., do they favor guns over weapons, how often do the heal their comrades, so that the A.I. can mimic that behavior. It’s similar to the pawns in Dragon’s Dogma.
If you’re forced to rely on the built-in NPC companions, don’t worry. For the most part, they do just fine and can act as suitable meat shields when needed. The biggest drawback to them is the lack of customization. While you can customize their “Personal Abilities” (i.e., abilities that boost their health, defense, make their attacks poison the aragami, and more), the equipment they use is fixed. This means you’re the one that has to adjust to them and you will likely have to spend more time replaying some missions in order to get the proper components to upgrade all of your gear instead of just that particular set you like.
There’s just enough that GOD EATER: Resurrection does right that I’m interested in seeing more. I’m curious, now, to see what comes of GOD EATER 2 Rage Burst and hopeful that it does a better job of fixing those areas where Resurrection still falls flat. I came away from the game feeling like there’s some promise here for a solid franchise and that it makes a case for why the hunting/crafting variant of the action-RPG can be fun, even if the proceedings aren’t always that exciting.
Our Co-Op Review of GOD EATER: Resurrection is based on the PlayStation 4 version. A code was provided by the publisher for review purposes.
Verdict
Co-Op Score
Overall
The Co-Op Experience: Team up with up to three friends online to take on story mode missions and use the team’s combined skills to topple Aragami and enjoy GOD EATER RESURRECTION’s storyline together
Co-Optimus game reviews focus on the cooperative experience of a game, our final score graphic represents this experience along with an average score for the game overall. For an explanation of our scores please check our Review Score Explanation Guide.