Final Fantasy Resonance

Alright, hear me out. I have a confession to make. When Final Fantasy Resonance was announced during the Nintendo Direct back in June, I wasn’t completely sold. I know that sounds bad, but I was trying not to get too hyped, because the trailer didn’t highlight anything about the story or how it would differ from the mobile game it’s based on.

I mean, I was incredibly excited to play the first turn-based Final Fantasy game in years, and man, that trailer made it look epic. But I wasn’t sure if the story would hook me or if the game would focus more on battles and gameplay. I can’t say that worry came out of nowhere, since most of the trailers released after the announcement focused heavily on battles. That made me worry about the story and characters, because those are the make-or-break parts of the games I truly love.

Well, guess what? That fear was gone within the first hour. Hell, I was sold by the end of the intro. This game does so much right, and I’m not going to lie, I’ve been so excited to write this review and share my thoughts with all of you.

You have no idea how hard it’s been for me to hold in all this hype for over a week. I can’t do it anymore. This review is me letting go and telling you all how much I love this game. So please comment below so I’m not just yelling into the ether. With that, let’s get into it!

Story

Since my biggest fear around this game was the story, let’s start there.

As I mentioned previously, this game is based on the mobile game Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, but this release adapts only its first arc. I’m not sure whether or not they plan to release the other arcs as sequels. Either way, this game ends neatly, so a sequel isn’t necessary, even though I would love more.

After an incredibly beautiful intro, you see an archwitch battling a group of armored foes. The battle leaves her encased in crystal and somehow triggers what looks like a dimensional shift. From there, the story takes you to Lapis, a world protected by the power of the eight crystals. How much more Final Fantasy can this story get? The answer is A LOT MORE.

You follow Rain, a knight of Grandshelt and commander of its airship squadron, alongside Lasswell (Best Boy), his lieutenant, childhood friend, and adoptive brother. When their king sends them to the Earth Temple to investigate mysterious disturbances, they encounter an armored man. (Oh no! It’s the same villain we saw in the intro!) He claims the world has forgotten its past, then strikes the Earth Crystal, splitting it in two before Rain and Lasswell can stop him. This sets a series of events in motion, leading them to meet a girl named Fina suffering from amnesia (the best trope) who’s somehow tied to it all. Together, they set out to stop the armored villains from destroying the remaining crystals and plunging the world into chaos.

This game’s story is unapologetically Final Fantasy. From villains sporting the most Final Fantasy evil armor to the mission to save the crystals, it leans into everything that makes us nostalgic for these games. But that isn’t all this game is. Beyond the main three, you meet a new teammate with each crystal you try to protect. Each character has their own motivations and circumstances, and I loved watching them develop. They kept me hooked the whole way through.

Square Enix also borrowed one of the best features from the Tales of games. As you explore, a prompt lets you trigger location-based conversations between party members. These moments let the characters’ personalities shine, and the side quests flesh out their stories even more. This feels like something I haven’t experienced in a Final Fantasy game since FFX.

Another thing this game does well is its villains. You start the game off seeing it through a black-and-white lens. Evil vs. Good. But as you make your way through the story, their motivations become less clear-cut. It reminds me of how Xenogears tackles its villains. I’ll leave it there to avoid spoilers, but if you love emotional depth in both heroes and villains, you’re in for a treat.

I don’t want to spoil too much because I want you all to experience the story for yourselves. I’ll just say that I love these characters and the journey they take. After 52 hours with this game, I can honestly say Yukinori Kitajima wrote something beautiful here, and I can’t wait to see what he gives us next.

Presentation

As for presentation, Final Fantasy Resonance drips with style. At first glance, you see the typical HD-2D graphics we’re pretty used to. But this game takes HD-2D to the next level. I need this to be the new standard for this style, because I don’t know how I can tolerate going back to the HD-2D of yore. I’ve praised games like Star Ocean 2 Remake for using its 3D backgrounds to make HD-2D feel more dynamic, and Resonance takes that further with cinematic camera angles and pixel-art cutscenes.

I was curious how Resonance stands up to Brave Exvius, since it reimagines the mobile game, so I looked it up online. I can’t see how anyone can compare the two, though. The mobile game is what you’d expect, with menus to click through, currency to spend, and areas for daily tasks. Putting that up against Resonance’s beauty doesn’t seem fair. Still, this is one of the best things Square Enix has done with mobile game material, alongside Octopath Traveler 0, and I hope they keep this trend going.

This game is pure Final Fantasy, so you know you’re getting a beautiful overworld to explore as you progress. Every location feels distinct. From deserts to a nation covered in some sort of miasma, I never got bored exploring Resonance’s world. It captures the balance between detailed environments and the charm of older games, appealing to your love of modern gaming and your nostalgia for the past. It’s wild how they managed to strike that balance, but I’m not complaining, and neither should you.

The enemy sprites in battle are detailed and great-looking. They reminded me of Octopath Traveler, and I feel like Resonance borrows some ideas from those games when fleshing out its battles. I’ll get into that later. The 3D effects and camera zooms make each fight feel theatrical. If I had one complaint, it would be the CG clips that play when you use a summon. They pull me out of the experience, and sometimes the resolution looks lower than everything else. But I’m sure there are people out there who still love them.

Audio is another strong point. The main story is fully voiced, and even some major side quests have voice acting. The performances bring each character’s personality to life and sell the funny and emotional scenes so well that I was constantly drifting between smiling like a fool and crying like one. Either way, I was definitely acting a fool.

The soundtrack is just as strong. Noriyasu Agematsu does an amazing job balancing new tracks with music that brings back some of that old-school Final Fantasy charm. He has an eclectic history, having composed for games like Wild Arms 5 and THE iDOLM@STER Million Live!, among others. Given how good this soundtrack is, I hope he keeps working on future JRPGs

Ultimately, I’m very happy with how Final Fantasy Resonance is presented. I can only imagine the planning meetings the team at Square Enix had when they decided to just make this game as beautiful and as Final Fantasy as possible. Whatever they talked about in those meetings, I think they nailed it.

Gameplay

When Square Enix announced this game, it focused on the idea that Final Fantasy is returning to its roots with turn-based battles. That was the big marketing push, and I could tell the internet was losing its mind over it. Rightly so, because we haven’t seen a turn-based Final Fantasy game since FFX, and fans have been begging for this for ages. After spending 52 hours with the game, I can say that the combat is much more than a nostalgic throwback. There’s a lot here to keep you thinking about your next move.

The battle system is menu-driven, with a timeline that shows when each character and enemy will act. That makes it easier to plan ahead and prepare for what’s coming. Each enemy also has a Stagger Gauge, and hitting its weaknesses lowers it. Break it, and you’ll lower the enemy’s defense while preventing it from taking its next turn. Being a Trails fan, I love seeing the timeline make its way to Final Fantasy. It makes planning and strategizing much easier and helps you decide whether to push toward stagger or take the time to heal. If you play your cards right, you can stagger every enemy at once, triggering something called a Sweeping Stagger. This opens an extra attack phase for your characters that ends with a Vision-specific Resonance attack (Visions will get their own section in this review). This whole sequence is so satisfying to set up, and man, does it look cool when you unleash all that power on an enemy. Mechanics like this keep you focused on combat and the timeline, so you make the right moves to destroy enemies.

Oh, and we’re not only getting turn-based combat back, but we are also getting Espers back, too! As you explore the world, you’ll find Espers hidden in caves, mountains, and even in side quests. Your job is to convince them to join you, and when I say convince, I mean fight them and prove yourself worthy. Each Esper has a distinct personality, and that can sometimes clash with your party members. This makes for some hilarious shenanigans that I definitely appreciated. Once you’ve wooed your Espers, you can summon them in battle. When summoned, the Esper joins you in battle and attacks for a few rounds before unleashing their ultimate attack and leaving the battlefield. What I loved about this mechanic is that you can summon as many as you like, as long as you have mana. Oh, and also have Fina in your party, since she’s the only one who can summon. A minor detail.

Alright, I mentioned you can explore and find Espers, but you can also do plenty of other things between battles and the main story to keep you busy. You can explore the world for all sorts of collectibles like tablet shards and magikite shards. Tablet shards are hidden around the map, in towns, the overworld, and dungeons. You can take these shards to the Oblivion Palace and give them to the lost princess so she can unlock chests with great items. As you go, you’ll slowly uncover the mysteries surrounding the palace and the princess. You’ll also find magikite shards across the world as rewards for completing side quests. These shards let you upgrade your Visions by visiting your moogle friend.

Beyond the collectibles, you can find legendary weapons, including an Ultima weapon, by exploring end-game-level dungeons and defeating end-game-level bosses. You can also fight your way through a coliseum to earn great items and bragging rights with your friends. I’m sure they’ll be impressed. But if I had one recommendation, it would be to do every side quest in the game. I can’t stress enough how much world-building each one does. You’ll get to know the characters in each nation and how they fit into the world, while also getting great rewards. I especially recommend finishing the Gilgamesh side quest. If you know that character’s history, you’ll love seeing how he interacts with the group.

Ultimately, I’m a huge fan of the gameplay. If I had one critique, it’s that the combat is a bit easy on normal, but you can always raise the difficulty for a bigger challenge. It’s been a while since I’ve wanted to 100% complete a game, but with Resonance, I’m already working on it. I think I might be addicted. In the best way possible.

Visions

One of the most noteworthy systems in Final Fantasy Resonance is the Visions system. This is what made me wary at first. Usually, when a game adds a system that lets you bring in characters from the larger series, I tend to write it off as fan service. But man, was I wrong about this game. I got completely addicted to what is essentially this game’s version of the job system and spent hours tweaking and testing different builds. So Visions are crystallized echoes of characters who join your party in battle, and you can equip one to each character. If you’ve played all the Final Fantasy games, you’ll find these Visions fun callbacks to past titles. But not all Visions are from previous Final Fantasy games. You’ll also meet in-game characters that are tied to side quests, so as I said earlier, DO ALL SIDE QUESTS.

Outside of the Visions tied to side quests, you’ll find the others scattered across the world in Sanctums of Light and possibly other types of locations. When you find one, go up to a crystal to trigger a scene where the game narrates the character’s story and asks you how you’d handle the challenges they went through in their game. Your answers don’t really matter, but it’s a fun little addition for those who have played those games. If you haven’t, though, I recommend skipping through the dialogue quickly because it has major spoilers for previous games in the series. So just heed my warning, and you’ll be fine!

Each Vision comes with its own abilities. As you battle, you’ll gain Mastery Points that unlock the Vision’s abilities based on its job type. You’ll focus on three types of unlockables. The first is active abilities, available immediately when you equip the Vision. You can expand these abilities using Magikite/Magistite shards with the Moogle I mentioned earlier. The second is passive abilities, which you learn through combat and the Mastery Points. You can equip these abilities to a character within their AP budget, so the strategy is to switch up the Visions per character to build a bank of Abilities you can equip at all times. The third is permanent stat boosts. These stat boosts are scattered throughout the passive abilities list, so as you unlock them, you also get stat boosts for your character. These stat boosts are permanent, so you can beef up your character by unlocking stats across the different Visions. I spent a lot of time mastering each Vision, and man, it tickled the part of your brain that loves min-maxing stats and exploring job systems. So if you are into that, this game is definitely for you.

What started as something I wasn’t sure I would love turned into a system I was obsessed with. The Visions system is a fun, modern way to bring back the job system. Together with the narrative, it felt like a beautiful marriage of FFV and VI. If you haven’t played those games, just know: that’s a good thing.

Closing

So, where do I land on Final Fantasy Resonance? I absolutely love it. I started the game worried that the story might not hook me, and 52 hours later, I can’t wait to spend more time in the world and get that 100% completion. I can’t stress enough how much I love the characters and their interactions. I’ve talked before about how much the party makes the game in Final Fantasy, and this one nails it. Despite all the trauma they are going through, these characters still have the heart and silliness we love to see. I’m including the villains in that statement, because they are among the best the series has seen. You can quote me on that.

As for the story itself, it’s way more than you expect at first. It’s the perfect adventure, with twists and turns that genuinely surprised me. By the end, I was so emotionally invested that I couldn’t help but tear up, laugh, then tear up again, and then laugh again. The cycle was nonstop, but I didn’t mind it, and you shouldn’t either. The icing on this emotional cake was the gameplay. The systems in place kept me invested in each and every battle. I found myself grinding Visions to make each and every party member as strong as possible. I knew I didn’t have time to spend grinding because I wanted to get this review out on time, but did I care? No, I wanted to keep playing. Luckily, I still managed to finish this review. You can thank me in the comments!

Square Enix presented this game as a nostalgic walk down memory lane through the Final Fantasy series. But it’s actually so much more than that. This game feels like what Final Fantasy XI should have been. It’s more than a throwback; it’s what could have been, and what the series could be going forward. If you love Final Fantasy, turn-based JRPGs, or just want to experience an incredible game from start to finish, I can’t recommend Resonance enough. Square Enix, please keep making games like this. I’m ready for more.