Over the years, Final Fantasy has been nothing short of inventive, as its largely anthology-based approach has led to various experiments in JRPG game design. Yet in recent years, it feels like the franchise has strayed from its roots, with more old-school fans yearning for a return to the days when Final Fantasy focused first and foremost on an RPG.
These fans can rejoice, because this legendary return has finally arrived in the form of Final Fantasy Resonance. Although a lot of noise has been made about it being a retooled version of the decommissioned mobile gacha game Final Fantasy Brave Exviusthis is an oversimplification of what Square did with this project. While it may be based on the plot of that mobile entry, this is an all-new, truly blue Final Fantasy classic that celebrates the series’ legacy. If you enjoyed any of the old turn-based Final Fantasy games, this is the game you’ve been waiting for.
Set in the land of Lapis, Resonance primarily follows the story of Rain and Lasswell, captains of the airship division of Grandshelt’s army and peacekeepers in the service of its good king. Life is pretty laid back for these two until the Earth Crystal is attacked by a powerful Dark Knight who claims to be a member of a group of super-powered villains called the Sinister Si… uh, the Juror Six.
He defeats our heroes and destroys the crystal, warning them that he and his compatriots will find and destroy the other elemental crystals in due time. However, our heroes won’t have to face this new threat alone, as they soon encounter an amnesiac girl who has emerged from the shattered crystal and gains the power of the Visions, the spirits of past Final Fantasy protagonists who can help through multiversal shenanigans.
So, our new group sets out to find out what they’re up against and hopefully put an end to the Sworn Six before they destroy all of the crystals keeping Lapis from falling into darkness.
It’s a good enough story to keep you interested in the world, but it’s true that it’s in this aspect that Resonance’s roots as a mobile game are most painfully felt. The characters are charming and play off each other well, but the group members are often defined more by their gender tropes than their nuances.
Still, there’s a nice mix of goofiness and sincerity as the adventure unfolds, bolstered especially by the side quests that do a lot of work fleshing out the characters’ backstories and their connections to the communities around them.
The gameplay strictly follows traditional JRPG design, eschewing many of the more innovative advancements of later entries for a good old classic-style adventure. A world map, explorable towns and dungeons, a task system, and turn-based combat are all on point here, blending together to create a comfortable and engaging journey that fits perfectly with what Final Fantasy was all about.
The combat system is based on exploiting weaknesses and careful planning of turn orders. Below their health bar, each enemy has a stagger bar that decreases every time they take damage, and it positively melts if you hit them with an elemental attack they’re weak to. Once staggered, not only does the enemy take more damage and lose their turn, but the character who took that last hit gets a bonus action at the end of the turn. If you manage to falter all enemies on the field, you will trigger a party-wide stagger that will give all party members an extra move and allow you to end the turn with a flashy super move that can destroy enemy health or grant powerful buffs and debuffs.
The timeline at the top of the screen indicates when characters will act next, giving you the option to either deny the enemy’s turn by neutralizing the next enemy, or warn you of a big super attack coming next turn that you will need to prepare for.
It’s not a complicated combat system, but it rewards tactical decision-making and thoughtful planning in how you build your team. Especially in larger boss fights, executing actions is a careful and rewarding process of taking into account your team’s strengths and extracting the full potential from their kit.
A form of the classic Final Fantasy job system returns here with Visions, spiritual beings who each represent a protagonist from an older FF. Iconic allies such as Cloud, Tidus, Lightning, and Noctis all make an appearance, and they can be traded and equipped onto party members to grant them various active abilities and passive buffs. The longer you equip them, the more you’ll increase their Mastery Rank and unlock access to more powerful abilities, some of which may be permanent.
This is where the fun of character creation really kicks in, as you can mix and match abilities from different Visions over time to create insane group compositions. One Vision may have a passive that halves the cost of MP, while another partially increases the cost of spells and doubles their effectiveness. Put both of these on a character you build as a mage, and they can easily wipe out swaths of enemies with little effort. As you add more Visions to your repertoire, there are more and more opportunities for synergies like this, making it feel like your party becomes much more powerful over time, much more than just increasing their stats as they level up.
Exploration follows the familiar formula of immersing yourself in a vast (chocobo-navigable) world filled with towns, caves, dungeons, and other points of interest. Best of all, the world design follows a largely non-linear format in which you can participate in activities and locations as your curiosity dictates. There is a rush of excitement when you access a new area and see a variety of caves and sights scattered throughout the area that invite you to delve into their secrets.
The world feels large without being sparse or overwhelming, and there are cool, modern quality of life features, such as fast travel and detailed side quest tracking, to streamline exploration and reduce aimless wandering.
Square’s HD-2D engine is implemented here to great effect, running at a speedy 60fps while adding a noticeably more cinematic feel to the camera direction. While previous games using the engine were content to keep a static camera for most cutscenes, Resonance speeds things up, often using dynamic camera angles and cuts to add more energy to big story scenes.
It’s an interesting evolution of an art style that some found a bit stale after it was reused in multiple games, and shows how committed Square is to keeping it fresh without losing what makes it special.
Naturally, the sprite work is top-notch, employing a high-end art style that goes far beyond what was possible back when new entries in the series were all 2D. The boss fights are a particular highlight given the detailed animations and artwork on display, while there’s also a lot of variety in the aesthetics of the different parts of the world: at the start, the first chapter takes place on a traditional medieval-style island, while chapter two takes place in a more modern location with neon lights and steam engines.
This diversity helps make the world seem even bigger than it is, while giving artists more freedom to depict distinctive characters and cultures.
The only minor issue here is that the hyper-realistic art style of the summon and Vision animations can be a stark contrast – it’s a bit weird to suddenly see Cloud appear for a big attack that looks exactly like the one in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. But these animations play out pretty quickly on their own, and there’s an easy option to skip them if you just want to continue the battle.
Along with a host of dozens of original songs, the soundtrack features the remixed return of many iconic Final Fantasy themes that are used to good effect, going a long way to solidifying the feeling that you’re playing a lost retro entry from earlier in the series.
One element that feels decidedly more modern is the voice acting, packed with expressive, distinctive and just the right amount of ham. Although pixel art graphics can sometimes struggle to convey the same level of emotion as singing, cutscenes generally seem elevated by performances here that go far beyond what simple text boxes would be able to accomplish.
Gn tech
