When Final Fantasy Resonance was announced, I was over the moon. An HD-2D Final Fantasy? A full fledged game?! Turn based?! It felt like Square Enix was making sure I was teleported back into my youth. Then, of course, I had my concerns. Visions of characters in the past? A free mobile game transformed into a priced game? What is going on? Was Square Enix taking advantage of that nostalgia?
Afte Final Fantasy Resonance is such an amazing game both visually and mechanically that you’d be doing yourself a disservice if you did not play this. So let’s break it down.
A Familiar Tale
Final Fantasy Resonance puts you in the boots of Rain, a young knight and commander of an airship squad. We are accompanied by our lifelong buddy and fellow knight, Lasswell. Together, we are sent on a mission to find out why our Earth Crystal is losing its power. You best believe the Crystals are a main point of the story.
While investigating, our big bad shows up to destroy said crystal and escapes with his evil plan fully in hand. Now, we must find out why the evil is here and stop it. Pretty straightforward.
Along the way, we meet, recruit, and enjoy a bunch of characters. Some join your party and quest, while others are Visions. Visions are characters from Final Fantasy’s past. We call upon them to use their special abilities and skills and aid us against the foes we come across.
The story itself is familiar. The Crystals harness power and protection. Bad guys want to steal that power and use it for their own nefarious gains. We have to foil their plans. It is also taken and reshaped from the Final Fantasy Brave Exvius mobile game. But just because it is familiar doesn’t mean it is bad.
The pacing of the story goes relatively quickly. It doesn’t seem to linger or draw out any plot points. So since you’re always moving forward (minus a few side quests, of course), you feel like you are constantly making progress. There are plenty of mysteries to solve and relationships to build. I really enjoyed watching the plot unfold and was genuinely invested in the character arcs along the way. Nothing really felt flat to me.
How’s Your Vision?
The Vision system was something I wasn’t quite sure would be handled in a way that made sense. And honestly, it was fine. Without spoiling too much, along your journey, you’ll find some sanctums that hold a powerful crystal that gives you the ability to call upon a character from a different world. A past Final Fantasy character.
Additionally, each character comes with its own build type (think Jobs from past FF games), skills, and abilities. You are able to equip, swap, and level up these Visions at any time. Looking for a tank-type build for Rain? Level up a Vision that comes with those stats and abilities. Or how about a mage? Well, we have healer Visions too.
Picking and choosing a build type over bias proved to be difficult for me as I wanted to level up some of my favorite characters over ones that maybe made a bit more sense for the progression path. Either way, I still made due with whatever I wanted to use as you can still take advantage of enemy weaknesses and such.
It’s Your Turn
Turn based combat is back! Now, I am firm believer that this does NOT define a Final Fantasy game. I LOVED Final Fantasy XVI. However, for the art style, this makes perfect sense.
You’re going to be discovering enemy weaknesses and taking advantage of that left and right. Optimizing your build and Vision in each reason is important as different zones will come with different elements.
Fighting bosses gave me the same thrill it did back when I played Final Fantasy VI. And VII. And XV. They’re menacing, they’re tough, they are what you are here for. Without diving into spoiler territory, there are definitely some bosses that are very good callbacks to previous games. I could not help but get all in the feels with the music and atmosphere surrounding these fights.
The difficulty doesn’t spike too much with your progression and you’ll get the hang of the systems themselves rather quickly. Earning extra attacks by exploiting weaknesses and stagger mechanics just feel right. A nice modern update to a proven system.
You’ve Seen This Before, Haven’t You?
Pixels. We love them. They’re a flagship for nostalgia and boy do they work well here. Final Fantasy Resonance has you feeling like you have seen this game before and at the same time wowing you with its cities and atmosphere.
I wrote an article about RPG Towns That Felt Like Home during Summer of RPGs and Resonance definitely has a few of those here. They’re not overly large but they feel like places you’d actually visit in these worlds.
The characters look and feel lively. With solid animations and voice acting to go along with them. I know it’s hard for some people to get attached to a sprite, but this game makes it fairly simple.
The world is also crafted well. With dungeons and the overworld sporting branching paths or puzzles to unlock treasures and new routes, you’ll get that classic RPG feel without any extra bloat or unnecessary hinderances.
Final Fantasy Resonance expands on what made the older games so great. Taking great design and world building and placing it right into the modern day age of gaming.
For Your Convenience
Final Fantasy Resonance does not take advantage of your time. With plenty of options to traverse the world (Chocobo, airship, fast travel), it makes sure you can get to where you need to go whenever and however you’d like. It may seem a little back and forth at times with some quests and the fast travel, but it is nice to know that if I needed to head back to a town that may have had a quest or item I missed, I can do so at my leisure.
In battle, you’re able to skip summon sequences, limit breaks, and Vision abilities to speed things up. While they’re cool to watch the first few times, sometimes you just want to see those damage numbers. Square Enix allows you to do so. Watch them, or don’t. It’s your choice.
The same goes for dialogue. You can listen, read, or skip however you’d like. I really am glad convenience like this exists in games like these. As a kid, I could play for 10 hours a time no problem. As a working adult, my time is limited. As great as the sequences are, sometimes I just need to get to where I am going faster.
What Can Go Wrong When Saving The World?
The truth of the matter is this: I didn’t find many downsides in my time with Final Fantasy Resonance. There were some repetitive side quests that will have you bouncing back and forth between the same areas. Even some where it is “go here and defeat 3 of these enemies and come back.” Some of the random battles sometimes were lengthy for what they should have been with enemies that may take longer to stagger or have tanky health bars. But to me it felt exactly how a classic RPG should.
I felt the progression of some of the Vision system could have been a tad quicker. As soon as you hit a certain point it takes quite a bit of time to level up their mastery rankings. But overall, it wasn’t bad. There isn’t anything keeping Resonance from being a game you should play. Because you absolutely should.
Limit Break or Bust?
Final Fantasy Resonance is a love letter not only to Brave Exvius, but to old school RPGs I grew up with. Fantastic music, animations, and characters will hit you right in the feels. If you’re new to the series, you’ll be introduced to a world full of magic, suspense, and amazing world building. For $49.99, I think it is exactly where it needs to be to fit into your rotation. From veterans of the series to newcomers, Final Fantasy Resonance is an absolute must-play.
I give it a 9 out of 10.
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