In the recurring discourse on violence in video games, the first two Plague Tale games gave the most pause on the topic. Centered on Amicia, the older sister of Macula-stricken Hugo, both A Plague Tale: Innocence and A Plague Tale: Requiem provided a heartbreaking account of the psychological toll of embracing violent means to solve problems. What emerged from those stories were some of the most impactful lessons on how structural oppression and an imbalance of human rights and dignity cause irreparable pain and trauma; the haunted screams and screeches of voice actor Charlotte McBurney are seared into my memories.
But Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy is a spin-off. Its goals are not the same. In fact, it took me a while to actually refer to the game by its true title and not A Plague Tale Legacy: Resonance. Rather, the game refocuses the attention on the charming pirate Sophia, whom the player meets in A Plague Tale: Requiem.
For a spin-off, this is the most obvious and logical choice. Sophia is smart, instantly likeable, and both fierce and understanding. When we meet her in Requiem, she occupies a tenuous spot as a surrogate older sister to Amicia. It’s clear that Sophia has passed through a similar rage to what Amicia is going through and is willing to put up with her outbursts, patiently prodding her away from violence. So the story of how Sophia became a role model is intriguing and worth exploring, and diehard fans will also get a massive peek behind the curtains of a world grappling with the Macula.
In Resonance, we get to play through Sophia’s character-defining moments, but without the same level of nuance as the Amicia-Hugo story. Developer Asobo Studio instead starts with lower-class victims, marginalized to the corners outside of civilized society. Sophia is the child of a smuggler, or plunderer, and is raised by a found family of pirates, where violence is the standard. We’re introduced to many NPCs who are equally likeable with immense individual personalities.
The opening segments of the game give us a clear background on Sophia’s childhood. Daughter of a seemingly traditional, honorable man, Alec, when Sophia’s mother discovers that Alec is actually a plunderer, the girl is sent to a convent for redemption. Instead, the nuns inject her with Macula and have her draw out visions on paper. These are dark, charcoal sketches that outline monsters and caverns that turn out to exist on the fabled Minotaur’s Island. Her father and right-hand man Faros compile these drawings into a book and set out with gold glinting in their eyes, hoping to find a mass of treasure on the island.
Instead, they find death. Years pass. Alec dies in action on the island, and Faros takes command of the plunderer’s gang. Meanwhile, Sophia and the player, are trained in a sword and dagger combat style that pulls from Ghost of Tsushima with the same yellow and red warning flashes and weighty clashes.
The opening mission is set in Venice, where Sophia and her probably-more-than-friend Leni are stationed on the rooftops to help pull off a heist for a key that the gang believes will finally get them through to the island’s treasure. But I set down the controller before I got too much further into the mission.
The vistas of the city arrested my attention. Asobo’s art direction has never faltered, and in Resonance, it’s never looked better. A tremendously detailed and packed city set in the twilight of Carnival, the setting has no precedent but sets a high bar for the remainder of the game. There’s never a disappointing moment, visually; somehow the game’s presentation would feel bigger than the TV screen I played on. The lighting, framing, and subtle but bespoken idle animations continue to delight throughout the entirety of the game. Once I recovered, picking the controller back up was easy, and we’re properly introduced to the combat.
It’s simple in the best ways. You have a parry and block mapped to the same button, so timing will be the deciding factor there. You’ve got your classic action RPG dodge, and the main attacks will be a slash of your sword, with a charged attack tied to a dagger thrust for higher damage. These are the foundations of gameplay. What makes the combat stellar in Resonance is how the skills allow you to emphasize or lean into a few of these aspects. There are only 5 abilities and then a branch of two options to enhance those abilities. But they matter, and they allow you to easily craft and recraft a build. I enjoyed parrying in this game and dumped my abilities and their associated rewards into the timing of my blocks. While those looking to finely tune their builds may find it lacking, this system makes up for that issue by having each ability feel extremely meaningful.
Combat encounters are frequent and well telegraphed, but with substantial challenge. On normal difficulty, Sophia has three hits before you die, and you can never increase that health meter. The only method of healing is when you dispatch an enemy. The design here encourages you toward aggressive play, which is partly why I opted into a parry-based build. Resonance will push you. Normal isn’t exactly a walk through a Mediterranean park. Should you fail a lengthy encounter in a single arena, there aren’t checkpoints during combat (though there are generous save points between encounters); you’ll be back at the beginning, rethinking how you can safely course through a challenge.
Tangentially, Resonance also doesn’t offer a waypoint by default to guide you through its braided-path levels. There’s a deliberate friction in the combat, puzzles, and navigation that I found to be smartly inserted with surgical precision. For folks longing for the days of an action adventure game that does not hold your hand, Resonance stands off to the side, in the shadows, and allows the player to squirm. You only get help when you ask for it, and that’s true of the puzzles. An icon will show up reminding you how to request a hint, but there’s no real pressure to get through any part of the game quickly.
Resonance is a linear game. But the path forward is a tangled knot of choices. Something that may look like the correct way to advance will instead loop you to a collectible, passive bonus, or just back to another part of the main road. I loved this primarily because it felt so effortless in its design and natural to the Greek island you traverse. I never took my eyes off of the scenery, figuring out for myself what I thought would be a critical path or shortcut. Having the waypoint and overhead compass gone was liberating, in that I relied wholly on dialogue or my own intuition to work my way forward.
Every detour is worth it, as collecting passive bonus items will multiplicatively benefit the player in combat. For example, should you stumble across a bead or bracelet, Sophia will automatically equip them and you’ll get a failsafe bonus. You may dodge an arrow without pressing an input, or your parry window will increase. The more you collect of a single item, the higher the likelihood that the bonus will proc. Again, like the combat, it’s simple but potent and meaningful. You’ll get a quick flash in the corner of the screen when one of those items has benefited you, and it’s a great reminder that the collectibles are valuable.
Meandering your way through previous expeditions and failed attempts to access the Minotaur’s treasure is littered with surprises. Sometimes, an enemy group may just break down a wall designed for codebreaking, and I couldn’t help but chuckle at the literal brute forcing to make progress. Sophia has a greater respect for the ruins, however, and would Indiana Jones her way to a solution before kicking a door down.
Walking further through the trials of the island, Sophia has what feels like premonitions and then visions and then noncorporeal connections with a Greek warrior, Theseus. This echo from the past walked the same path that Sophia follows centuries later as a participant in King Minos’ bloody ritual of appeasing the Minotaur. The intertwined narrative proved to be a fantastic exercise in parallel storytelling, and the depths of the labyrinth reveal not just Sophia’s character and motivations but also how the conflict with the Macula began and what mistakes were made regarding it in the past.
Resonance balances these two stories with mechanical pacing between puzzles, combat, and stealth. Some sections kept my attention better than others. There are probably two stretches of puzzling that, despite their clever design and satisfying solutions, dragged on, and I was ready for something else to happen. These longer moments had their narrative reasons for being the length they were, but oftentimes it would be a conversation between Sophia and another that would run out of steam.
As the game gears up for the final approach, a surprise narrative injection kept the climax of the story at bay a bit longer than expected. When I strode out into the finale, however, the sheer spectacle and Sophia’s resolve gave me another boost to walk the slow march towards the credits.
Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy is a tremendous entry in the already compelling world of A Plague Tale. The game hinges on Sophia struggling to come to terms with not only her own past but the Minotaur’s island’s history as well. The narrative plays out as a coming-to-terms story rather than a coming-of-age one, which is a more mature way to examine the game’s themes. However, the game’s conclusions don’t go much beyond filling the shoes of a prequel and are beholden to answering secondary questions in a story that already has its primary answers.
