One of God Eater Resurrection’s selling points is how the game is supposed to offer more connections between the original God Eater Burst and God Eater 2: Rage Burst. But, after beating the game, I don’t really feel like it’s so much a means of connecting to the next game. Rather, the additional arc feels like it’s added to give people a chance to say goodbye. It absolutely feels like it could be paving the way to a future along the way, with the new resolution, but I felt more like I was being reassured by the last opportunity to reconnect, rather than being led into the next game.
Note: there are God Eater Resurrection spoilers from here on out.
In God Eater Resurrection, we meet a rather unusual character. Shio is a young woman who happens to be an Aragami. However, she looks like a human being and is capable of speaking and learning. She’s fascinated by people and, despite belonging to a race that’s supposed to be an enemy, becomes the God Eaters’ ally. Unfortunately, her unique nature also makes her a target. Her core is the key to triggering the Ark Project’s Singularity, Nova’s Devouring Apocalypse, to hopefully wipe out all Aragami on Earth and give humanity’s best a fresh start.
Originally, God Eater’s initial arc ends with Shio regaining her sense of self after the boss fight. She takes Nova to the moon, saving the world from the Singularity in the process. We never really get a proper opportunity to say goodbye to her. Though, we do get to know that, at the very end, she began to realize what humanity and life really were. She gets her answers, but we abruptly have to let her go.
God Eater Resurrection’s new arc takes place after the God Eater Burst arc, which means we have a nearly full party again. Lindow is back after the incident that led to an Aragami infection and development of an Aragami arm. During this additional story, Shio made an appearance here too, saving his life when a Dyaus Pita was about to kill him.
The new content begins with God Eaters discovering an anomalous Bias Field. An second Nova has been born on Earth, and we get to watch it devour a Vajra and take on some of its properties after devouring its core. Soma heads to the Outer Wall to investigate and confirm its existence. Some of the Nova fragments Soma had been gathering to destroy had escaped and taken an Aragami form. It’s up to the 1st Unit to defeat it before it grows into its final form.
Due to Shio being connected with Nova at the end of the game, she is reborn on Earth with this new Arius Nova. This shadowy form of Shio accompanies the creature, attempting to stem its destruction with her own abilities. Due to her connection to this Aragami and her status, she doesn’t have the same corporeal form she enjoyed originally, and is more a shadow of her former self. Players need to go around, defeating Dreadnought Class Aragami the Nova has never encountered to strengthen their own God Arcs and be ready to face the Arius Nova. They run into the Shio shadow along the way, experiencing a Resonance when connecting with her.
When Fenrir finally defeats this form of Nova, we’re treated to a proper goodbye. Shio materializes in a beautiful dress and complete state. While she’s not able to communicate with the team, they’re able to make promises to meet and see each other again, as well as thank her for all she’s done for them. We’re given a sense of closure in this additional arc that didn’t exist in the original break. We get a hint of a possible return, but also a more reassuring conclusion.
It feels like God Eater Resurrection’s new story segment acts as a bookend. We get a sense of finality here that the original didn’t offer. We get a proper goodbye before moving on to new things. It’s an opportunity I appreciated, given the time and connections we did see both our God Eater and the other NPCs make with Shio. It feels like a good place to end things and move forward on a new adventure.
God Eater Resurrection is immediately available for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita in North America. It will come to the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita in Europe, as well as PCs worldwide, on August 30, 2016.
