Final Fantasy Resonance is a weird hang. That isn’t a statement on quality, just on the feeling of experiencing it. The series as a whole launched three years before I was born, and I was a SEGA player for much of my childhood. I would not play the game until years later; maybe I was 9 or 10, when I was able to pop in Final Fantasy VI, though at the time it was III in the US because releasing games abroad in the 90s was a nightmare. You would be hard-pressed to be a fan of the series and say what their favorite title is without them just regurgitating the first title they played. In my case, that probably rings true.
Because of this, I already felt like I had a connection to this spin-off from the moment the title popped up on my screen. The HD-2D title from Square Enix has been a massive success in its own right. Even beyond the Octopath games, Star Ocean 2, which is possibly my favorite game, got excellent treatment. If anything, it feels weird that it took so long for Final Fantasy to get the same treatment. A harkening back to the games, if I am being honest, had the most profound effect on me as a gamer. And from the first moments, I got that blast of remembrance of the late nights long past.
While Final Fantasy Resonance is technically a remake of the mobile game Brave Exvius, the two are not a direct translation, though a lot of the core elements remain. You take the role of Rain, a knight of Grandshelt. Joining him are his childhood friend Lasswall, as well as a mysterious girl with amnesia named Fina. The group is also in direct conflict with the Sworn Six of Paladia, who aim to destroy the crystals around the land and doom the world. This sets the protagonists on a globe-hopping, seven-samurai-infused quest, just like old times.
There is a lot more to this, of course, complete with the typical twists and turns and late-game plot reveals and a lot in between, and for the most part I enjoyed it. The characters are fleshed out with solid voice performances throughout, though these are relegated to major moments. The voice cast does have good chemistry with each other, allowing for major story beats to flow, with moments of sadness and triumph being given heightened gravitas thanks to the performances behind them.
Where this title succeeds over all the games that came before it is the dynamic storytelling. Typically, even with the depth provided by the backdrops, you still get a typical pixel sprite narrative. Characters walk in, the camera stays stationary, maybe somebody moves, or it pans in. Final Fantasy Resonance brings dynamic camera angles to everything. We constantly get to experience the world, which pops out at us as the sprites move about it.
This also allows the personalities to come through not just through voice acting but through the dynamic sprite animations that you get to see close up quite often. Lid (the best character for whom I will fight anybody about that status) is constantly jumping for joy or punching the pervy character Jake. You get to see these close up, from multiple angles, with the grounding of the world around them. And that is before factoring in the many action-packed sequences that are beautifully crafted. There are even a few moments with this pseudo-pixelated 3D that are just gorgeous.
Where the narrative stumbles a bit is in its pacing. There is this weird flow to points where, in a few places, the story drags on way longer than it needs to, and in others the characters just decide to do a thing; the characters feel rushed along their tasks. Obviously, they are in a race to save the world, but I can take 10 hours hunting down the cave masters and a few minutes to let the plot solidify. This was especially noticeable around the third city, Olderion, which introduced plenty of minor characters for that chapter, each having serious importance but not enough setup to feel attached.
One other way I left the world’s fate hanging while getting lost in the world around me was the side quests, though they also felt lackluster. The best thing I can say is that more than a few offer some additional narrative that was engaging. I at least wanted to see them through. Unfortunately, most are simply fetching tasks that require you to jump from location to location if you teleport. This isn’t hyperbole either. A lot were simply going from place to place to interact with one thing, then travel to another place. Not even a boss fight in there to shake things up, and there is a lot of those types.
It’s the combat where the game fully hits its stride, and the game is filled to the brim with it. I might complain that the base rate for encounters is a little high, but that would be minor at best. On a personal level, I know the game is going for a full retro aesthetic, but the best thing that ever happened to the genre was adding enemies to maps so you can avoid them if it works for you. Final Fantasy Resonance has a CRAZY drop-off around level 30 in your EXP, making it more prudent to choose your battles rather than wasting MP and health on a fight that will yield next to nothing.
This said, once you are in combat, there is a shockingly modern depth to fights. This all starts with the blend of 2D pixel sprites and 3D animations for firebombing enemies. The real stars of the show, though, are most of them representing a character from the franchise’s history. That was Brave Exvius’s bread and butter too, but it translated really precisely. Moreover, there is no Katy Perry in this version (yes, that was a real thing), so it’s already better. They also all get these high-quality action sequences when you unleash their special powers that really are showstoppers.
I wish there was more variety in them, which might be unfair, but it is a shame that the lead characters pop up and literally nobody else does, save for this ONE character. Other than that, it really is just the leads. Maybe we will get DLC; this feels like a game full of possibility for that, and the selection in there is fairly good. You will have familiarity with at least a few, and having them on display is one of the best parts of the experience.
They also add an interesting shift to traditional turn-based combat. For one thing, while every character grows along a set path—with Rain using fire abilities, for instance, or Lasswell using ice spells—visions can cover for characters’ limitations. You attach one to a character that has the wrong attributes in an area, and they are instantly viable again. You then get to level these visions up, adding even more variety. Even better, these visions have specific levels for each character, adding more AP and abilities, so you can vastly customize each party member in some incredible ways.
All of this is also set to an absolutely fantastic orchestral score that highlights and hypes every location and well-placed critical hit. This element in particular is what brings me back to my childhood the most. It is of a higher quality than a classic PlayStation game, yes, but the beats can bring combat to a grinding halt as they just absorb you in their hook. I cannot state enough how amazing it is to hear the victory fanfare where it belongs, rather than being hummed by a character. Not that I hate the latter, but it really feels good.
Even while the music in dungeons is, again, infectious, these were the parts that let me down the most. There is ‘some’ puzzle-solving involved. You need to traverse these paths to hit the switches to lower the path. There was this fun one in a water cave where you travel by boat to raise and lower the water with a crystal to traverse further. It’s not like it was all bad… But they are minimal. Maybe I’m hypercritical after only recently reviewing Tales of Eternia Remastered. That said, most are one room with the puzzles being very obvious.
The fire dungeon, or a dungeon that had fire, has three switches cleanly outlined on the left and right that you need to hit. There is a puzzle of moving floor panels to traverse across a scaffolding and hit one. Overall, the entire area took me around 10 minutes. And this was the experience across them all. There really just wasn’t a lot of depth in them. Some others are just a short path forward. Added tasks, such as if the door to the boss is locked and you might need to walk over a room, then back, with very little else.
Thankfully, that world map—oh my god, that world map. This is where you really get to see just how the mix of graphics plays so well together. You wander the areas, get into fights, and slowly traverse forward while taking it all in. It feels more like an homage, but that isn’t a bad thing. Then you get that all-familiar airship and get to savor the scope of it, and the amount of hidden wealth in there that you didn’t even piece together until right then and there. The airship does have some minor control issues, but they never prevented me from enjoying the freedom.
Verdict
Final Fantasy Resonance is by no means a perfect experience. In the end, it probably isn’t my favorite experience. It is my second favorite game to feature Clive in it (god, the things I would do to Ben Starr). What the game is is a testament to the longevity of Final Fantasy. This is a franchise that has made it 40 years and has run the gamut of gameplay from turn-based to action to soulslike. And this works. What Final Fantasy Resonance does is expand that offering in a meaningful way that brings back some more traditional elements of the series, mixed with more modern ones. I would like to see that continue, alongside the other experiences, complementing each other along the way. It makes me feel that way exactly because it is a great game in its own right.
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Reviewed on PlayStation 5, also available on Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC
Publisher/Developer: Square Enix
Release Date: October 22, 2026
Pros:
+Beautifully crafted HD-2D World complete with world map
+Fantastic score to accompany everything the player does
+Great twist on turn based combat, offering Visions to compliment party as well as pat homage to the franchises history.
+Solid story that feels somewhat nostalgic, with solid voice performances
Cons:
-Dungeons are incredibly short to complete
-Narrative has occasional pacing issues
-More variety in the Vision offerings would have been nice.
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Final fantasy Resonance
