Resonance of Fate
"Resonance of Fate" was first hinted at prior to April 2009, then announced as an untitled "mystery" RPG at the beginning of the month. According to Shimano, its codename "Project Cobra" had been bandied about prior to the reveal, but no-one had suspected anything about its true nature. Its official Japanese title, along with details such as tri-Ace's partnership with Sega, were unveiled on April 8, 2009. "Resonance of Fate" marked the first collaboration between tri-Ace and Sega—most of tri-Ace's previous games had been published by Square Enix. The reason for the choice was two-fold: tri-Ace wanted a different publisher due to the radical nature of their new game, and Sega wanted a title to break into the RPG market. As "Resonance of Fate" seemed unique enough to stand out in the market, Sega agreed to take up publishing duties. According to staff, the Japanese title was originally going to be either "Resonance of Fate" or "Resonance of Time", but Sega asked it to be changed to "End of Eternity". This fell in line with a trend among many Japanese games of referencing endings in their titles. It was officially announced for a Western release in May 2009. The game debuted in Japan on January 28, 2010 with a March release in North America and PAL regions. The European version came with text localization in English, French, German, Spanish and Italian.
Resonance of Fate
The character and world designs were handled by art director Kentaro Kagami, and artist and graphics designer Masashi Nakagawa. Leanne was the first character to be envisioned, before most of the game's concepts had been finalized. The second was Zephyr, who was nicknamed "Boy of the Demonic Possession". The third was Vashyron, who was dubbed "ultimate gentleman". While originally conceived as a "glistening" character, he was reworked as a big brother figure, which in turn led to the scene where he and Zephyr first fight. Rowen's early artwork depict his position as an authority figure looking down on the world from the Zenith System. According to Kagami, his character artwork was created in consultation with Norimoto and Suguro. The three main characters went through multiple design revisions. While Zephyr and Vashyron were designed to reflect the grim environment of Basel, Leanne was meant to contrast against them. Zephyr was initially a lighter, less antagonistic character due to him being younger than Leanne. Unlike other characters, Vashyron's design went through a fairly smooth development process, with his clothing remaining consistent through the design phase. Leanne's clothing took a long time to finalize: earlier versions of her were based on a concept of her being fashion conscious, but this made her look odd next to the other characters. The small cast was something decided upon at an early stage, along with adjusting the male characters to appear less feminine than others from Japanese RPGs. The latter change was made with a Western audience in mind.