Given tri-Ace reputation in the RPG genre, what kind of leveling up system they will use for End of Eternity (aka Resonance of Fate)? Innovative according to Weekly Famitsu, let’s check it out.

All the weapons, be they Handgun, Machinegun or Grenades have Proficiency Level attached to them. Inflicting damages on your enemies with a particular weapon will increase its level and this has direct effects on the character’s level, which is the tally of all three weapon levels. For example, if the level of Handgun, Machinegun or Grenades of your character is the same at Level 1, his/her level will be Level 3. Leveling up will be harder with higher Proficiency Level so Famitsu recommend using all three weapons frequently.

The Flow of Leveling Up

Here’s the flow of leveling up (click on thumbnails for larger view). By inflicting actual damage on your enemy, your weapon will earn experience point (first screen above). The weapon’s Proficiency Level and hence your character’s level will increased when enough experience points are gathered. A notify screen will pops up when this happens (middle screen) and the battle will continue once it fades out (last screen).

So what’s the point of leveling up? Besides increasing your characters’ HP amount, they will be able to carry heavier items or accessories (as armors), which is important because some of the most useful items in the game are quite heavy.

Leveling up will also increases the amount of times you can Charge you weapon (more charges means bigger damages). Also, each weapon type has its own skills, which can be activated when charging and attach effects like “Damage UPx2: Activation Rate 33″ during attack. Skills will be different with each character. In the screens above, the skills available to Zephyr are listed on the right (left screen, click for larger view) in slightly dimmed font and the one that got activated become solid (right screen).

World Map

The Weekly Famitsu article also share more details on Field, where players move their characters on a grid of hexagons. IGN’s TGS2009’s preview of the game tell us that we can earn special items called Hexers after winning a battle and its uses are now clearer. By placing Hexers of the same color on grids with colors, the section becomes available to explore. Hexers can also be used to exchange for things like Energy Station, which lets you save and recover health. Another uses for Hexers is placing them next to Terminal to generate some kind of special effects.

Missions & PMF (Private Military Firms)

Zephyr and co. are all PMF, taking missions directly or from the Guild to earn cash, items and PMF Points. These missions, which can be Story or Side Missions, include stuff like killing monsters or items delivery. The article share three sample missions.

Source: Weekly Famitsu Issue 11/26 and Famitsu.

*Sounds good, I love LVing up in non coventional ways like in FFX... looks like it keeps the exploring elelments in also