If there's anyone here on the forums playing Resonance of Fate right now, I ask you this: is it as hard as review outlets are saying it is? I don't mind hard games, necessarily, but I can't play a game where I'm constantly having my ass kicked or one-shotted by enemies. So, in your experience, how tough a time have you been having? And if I were to really dig into the side quests, will battles become a bit more manageable?
 
I really like just about everything I've seen about this game, but as someone who isn't usually extremely good at games (but still competent!), the supposed difficulty of this game worries me a bit.

I think the proper word is challanging.  The game throws you into the world of a ragtag trio of hunters and the tutorial is helpful but very vague in which it doesn't explain when or why you should be using tactics.  The manual has some hints that help out, but most learning will come from trial and error.  However, by Chapter 3 or 4, you should have the system down and it plays out like a tactical game rather than a straight turnbased RPG.  
 
If you are willing to learn, the rewards are pretty nice.  I spent close to an hour fighting the first boss until I just got fed up and just grenade spammed him, using up all my grenades.  Yet, at the start of chapter 2 I started to get more serious and by chapter 3, I was getting the system down.  Both in battle and outside with customizations, hex system for world map, and CLOTHES SHOPPING!  YAY!
 
The story is great, and wants to make you want to not screw up so you can see what happens next.  If you're a fan of the older animes in the late 90s and early 2000s, this is a great representation of that.  Each chapter has it's own story and supposedly comes together at final stages.  So it's worth learning to experience.  :)
 
EDIT:  Plus it's worth it alone for the amazing intro the game shows you.  It's so beautiful and poetic...and yet so much mystery and magic. 

I'm about 5 hours into the game, and like KaosAngel says, it's more challenging than hard. Standard enemies by themselves are relatively weak, but knowing what moves to pull out and when equals the difference between getting killed and dominating. And to top it off, even if you get killed during a battle, you can always opt to retry that battle for a tiny fee. 
 
Basically, once you get the hang of the battle system, you're good to go. 

It comes down to how well you can manage the bezels.  Without them, you're pretty much screwed.  Whenever I lost a battle, it was because I made a careless move.

I don't understand why people call this game hard. 
Challenging, sure. 
Is there a culture now that if you die during a game...that game is hard? 
Bayonetta is said to be hard, but it's not really. Cheap at time, but not hard. 
Neither is Ninja Gaiden really. 
 
Mega Man 9 on the other hand..thats hard.

much harder, bone hard

It's hard, I don't even know how to repair the bridge in the beginning. Or fight.

I like how I bought this game and still haven't opened it.

I just got the game. It's awesome, but yeah. I would say it's a good challenge, but the fact that it costs money to retry battles instead of re-loading a save is REALLY annoying.

@Shadow said:

I just got the game. It's awesome, but yeah. I would say it's a good challenge, but the fact that it costs money to retry battles instead of re-loading a save is REALLY annoying.

Pretty good thread to bump. I enjoyed it.

It's a huge time commitment and it can be very dull at times but it has a lot of good, complex systems all around and it is at its best when you're fighting a giant boss at the end of a dungeon. The difficulty is wierd in that everything can be going excellent but you're always only one mistake from entering critical condition, which can cost you the battle even if there is only one weak enemy left, and it will most likely drag the battle out a good 15 minutes if you choose not to reset immediately.