Final Fantasy Resonance Game Review

The Kingdom of Knights, Grandshelt. Its people lived peaceful lives, blessed by the power of crystals. Rain, commander of the airship squadron, receives a royal decree—investigate the Earth Shrine, where the magical barrier protecting it has waned, and determine the cause together with Lasswell, his childhood friend and deputy commander. Upon reaching the innermost chamber of the shrine, the two encounter a mysterious man clad in black armor. Overwhelmed by his immense power, Rain and Lasswell are defeated, and the Earth Crystal is shattered before their eyes. Though Rain and Lasswell narrowly survive, their airship is wrecked, and their comrades have fallen…

When Rain and Lasswell return, they find Grandshelt under attack by the armored man—Veritas of the Dark. They manage to rescue the king, but once again suffer a crushing defeat. To protect the remaining Crystals scattered across the world, Rain and Lasswell set out on a journey in pursuit of Veritas of the Dark, joined by Fina, the mysterious girl they met in Grandshelt. At this moment, none of them could have imagined the turbulent fate that awaited them. And so, their quest began…

The Kingdom of Knights, Grandshelt. Its people lived peaceful lives, blessed by the power of crystals. Rain, commander of the airship squadron, receives a royal decree—investigate the Earth Shrine, where the magical barrier protecting it has waned, and determine the cause together with Lasswell, his childhood friend and deputy commander. Upon reaching the innermost chamber of the shrine, the two encounter a mysterious man clad in black armor. Overwhelmed by his immense power, Rain and Lasswell are defeated, and the Earth Crystal is shattered before their eyes. Though Rain and Lasswell narrowly survive, their airship is wrecked, and their comrades have fallen…

When Rain and Lasswell return, they find Grandshelt under attack by the armored man—Veritas of the Dark. They manage to rescue the king, but once again suffer a crushing defeat. To protect the remaining Crystals scattered across the world, Rain and Lasswell set out on a journey in pursuit of Veritas of the Dark, joined by Fina, the mysterious girl they met in Grandshelt. At this moment, none of them could have imagined the turbulent fate that awaited them. And so, their quest began…

For a franchise that has spent much of its recent history embracing more action-oriented combat, Final Fantasy Resonance feels like a return to its roots, bringing back traditional turn-based combat alongside a gorgeous 2D pixel art style. As someone relatively new to the Final Fantasy franchise, Resonance also marks the first time I've experienced one of its more traditional, turn-based 2D adventures. In truth, that made the experience even sweeter, because I was able to appreciate what makes this style of Final Fantasy so special without necessarily having the same nostalgia for the classics as someone who grew up playing them.

What makes Resonance particularly interesting is that it isn't an entirely new game. It's a remake of Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, a mobile game that has since been shut down, with this new release specifically adapting its first story arc. However, to the credit of the developers, you would have to look incredibly hard to find any significant remnants of its mobile origins. Rather than feeling like a mobile game that has simply been brought over to consoles and PC, Resonance feels like a fully-fledged Final Fantasy adventure in its own right. Square Enix and Lancarse have done a superb job modernizing the experience, and I would imagine that someone unfamiliar with the original would have absolutely no reason to question where it came from.

Final Fantasy Resonance primarily follows Rain, a knight of the Kingdom of Grandshelt, alongside his adopted brother Lasswell, who also serves as a knight of the kingdom. Following an attack by a mysterious group known as the Sworn Six, which results in the destruction of one of the world's crystals and leaves Grandshelt facing devastation, the two brothers find themselves caught up in a conflict that threatens the entire world. The attack very nearly costs them their lives, but they are saved by Fina, a mysterious young woman who appears to have lost her memories in the process. Together, the three set off on a journey to stop the Sworn Six before they can destroy the remaining crystals and bring about the end of the world.

Naturally, Rain, Lasswell and Fina aren't exactly equipped to take on the Sworn Six by themselves, at least not initially. Thankfully, this is where the game's defining mechanic comes into play: Visions. Through the power of light, the party can connect with the memories of legendary warriors from other worlds, drawing upon their abilities to strengthen themselves in battle. If you're familiar with the wider Final Fantasy franchise, you've probably already guessed where this is going, because these warriors are characters taken from previous games in the series.

From the original Warrior of Light to Cloud from Final Fantasy VII, alongside plenty of other familiar faces, Resonance brings together characters from across the franchise in a way that feels much more meaningful than simply including them for fan service. Each Vision has its own particular role or class, such as a warrior, brawler, or mage, and can be equipped to one of your party members to provide access to additional abilities. While pairing a Vision with someone who has a similar role is generally a sensible approach, there's absolutely nothing stopping you from experimenting with different combinations. For example, you could equip a magic-focused Vision to a character who would otherwise be primarily concerned with physical attacks, giving them additional options in combat.

The sheer number of possibilities is surprisingly extensive and, if I'm being completely fair, a little overwhelming when you're first introduced to the system. However, the more time I spent with Resonance, the more I appreciate how much freedom it gives you when developing your party. A large part of that comes down to how the progression system works, as Visions aren't simply abilities that you equip and forget about once something better comes along. Instead, they have their own progression tied to the relationship they develop with whichever character is using them, meaning there is a genuine incentive to experiment rather than sticking with the same combinations throughout the entire adventure.

As you use a particular Vision, its bond with the equipped character gradually increases, unlocking permanent stat improvements and abilities that can be learned and equipped using AP. What makes this particularly rewarding is that certain benefits remain available even after you've moved on to another Vision. This means you can gradually develop your party members in ways that aren't necessarily dictated by their starting roles, giving them additional support or offensive options depending on how you've chosen to progress. You could, for instance, spend time developing Rain, Lasswell and Fina with more healing-focused Visions before switching to something more aggressive, allowing you to build a much more versatile party without completely sacrificing the benefits of those earlier combinations.

It is a genuinely excellent progression system that rewards experimentation without making it feel like you're wasting your time. I often found myself trying out different Visions simply to see what additional abilities I could unlock, rather than because I necessarily needed to change my approach to combat. The system becomes even more interesting once you gain access to the Moogle of Light, who can enhance Visions using Magicite. Each Vision begins at zero stars and can be upgraded through three additional star levels, with each improvement unlocking access to more powerful abilities. Between these enhancements, the bond system and the ability to mix and match different roles, there is an impressive amount of flexibility here.

Thankfully, actually using these abilities in combat is nowhere near as complicated as the progression system might initially suggest. Outside of Visions, the combat system is relatively traditional for a turn-based RPG, particularly one carrying the Final Fantasy name. You have a clearly displayed turn order at the top of the screen, while your characters have access to the usual selection of commands, including basic attacks, skills, defending, items, and the option to flee. Vision abilities are kept within their own dedicated submenu, making it easy to distinguish between a character's standard abilities and those provided by their equipped Vision. It's all very straightforward to understand, even when you've started accumulating a fairly substantial collection of abilities.

Of course, there is considerably more to the combat system than simply selecting whichever attack happens to deal the most damage. Enemies have their own weaknesses and resistances, with certain opponents only taking significant damage once you've managed to stagger them. Every enemy has a yellow stagger gauge displayed beneath its red health bar, which can be reduced through attacks, particularly when exploiting elemental weaknesses. Once that gauge has been depleted, the enemy becomes staggered, leaving them vulnerable and opening up additional opportunities for your party to deal damage. It's a fairly familiar system for anyone who has played a modern RPG, but the way Resonance builds upon it is what makes encounters particularly satisfying.

If you manage to stagger every enemy on the battlefield, you'll trigger something known as a Sweeping Stagger, granting your entire party an additional attack phase. At the end of this phase, you're able to unleash a powerful Resonance attack tied to one of your currently equipped Visions. Selecting which ability to use is as simple as choosing one of the four directions on your controller's D-pad, with each direction corresponding to a particular Vision. These attacks are essentially the Vision equivalent of a Limit Break, and they can be incredibly satisfying to pull off, especially when you've carefully planned your attacks to stagger several enemies at the right moment. I also really enjoyed the way these particular abilities are presented visually, although I won't spoil that aspect here.

Your regular party members also have their own Limit Break abilities, which become available as their respective gauges fill during combat. These come with unique animations of their own and provide yet another option to consider when deciding how best to approach a battle. Between the standard combat commands, character abilities, Visions, stagger mechanics, and Limit Breaks, there's a surprising amount to think about without the game ever becoming unnecessarily complicated. You can also increase the speed of combat if you prefer your turn-based encounters to move along a little faster, although I personally never felt that the default speed was slow enough to warrant changing it.

Visually, Final Fantasy Resonance is a lovely-looking game, with its HD-2D presentation doing an excellent job of bringing the world and characters to life. That said, I don't think it's quite as visually memorable as some of Square Enix's other games that have adopted a similar art style. There's nothing particularly wrong with the presentation, and there are certainly fantastic-looking game moments, especially during some of its more elaborate attacks, but I never found myself quite as impressed by the environments as I have been with other HD-2D titles. It's a very attractive game overall, just not necessarily one that pushes the style to new heights.

From a technical perspective, however, I genuinely couldn't ask for much more. I played Resonance on PC, and throughout my entire time with the game I didn't encounter a single bug, crash, or noticeable performance issue. Running at native 4K with the highest available graphical settings, I was able to maintain a locked 114 frames per second without any problems whatsoever. Admittedly, this isn't an especially demanding game from a hardware perspective, but it's still refreshing to play a new release that performs this consistently from beginning to end. Given how often technical problems can distract from otherwise excellent games, being able to focus entirely on the adventure without worrying about performance was very much appreciated.

If there's one aspect of the presentation that impressed me even more than the visuals, it's the audio. From the individual sounds of attacks and abilities to the combination of classical Final Fantasy music and new compositions, Resonance is an absolute delight to listen to. There's something incredibly satisfying about hearing music associated with the wider franchise woven into this adventure, particularly when combined with the appearances of its most recognizable characters. Even as someone who hasn't experienced many of the earlier games firsthand, I found the soundtrack incredibly effective at creating that unmistakable Final Fantasy atmosphere.

The voice acting is similarly impressive when it's actually present, with several members of the cast delivering genuinely memorable performances. Gilgamesh, in particular, was a personal highlight, and there were several moments where the performances added a great deal of personality to the characters. Unfortunately, this also highlights one of my few frustrations with the game, because a considerable amount of the dialogue isn't voiced at all. I appreciate that this is hardly unusual for a game of this style, but when the performances are this entertaining, their absence becomes much more noticeable. There were plenty of occasions where I would have loved to hear more from the characters rather than simply reading their dialogue, and it's a shame that the voice acting isn't utilized more consistently throughout the adventure.

Outside of those relatively minor criticisms, I genuinely struggle to find much that I would change about Final Fantasy Resonance. Whether you're someone who has followed the franchise for decades or a relatively new fan like myself, there's an awful lot to appreciate here. The turn-based combat is consistently enjoyable, the Vision system gives you a tremendous amount of freedom when building your party, and the overall presentation captures much of what makes Final Fantasy so recognizable. Perhaps most importantly, I never found myself playing simply because I wanted to reach the end of the story. I was enjoying the experience so much that I regularly found myself thinking about it even when I wasn't actively playing.

That, however, isn't even the highest praise I can give Final Fantasy Resonance. Somehow, this game managed to make me feel genuinely nostalgic and even emotional about a period of the franchise that I never experienced firsthand. As someone who came to Final Fantasy relatively late, I didn't grow up playing those earlier turn-based adventures, and yet Resonance managed to capture something about them that made me feel as though I had. I don't think there's a much greater compliment I could give a game that sets out to celebrate the history of such an iconic franchise. I enjoyed every second of my time with it, and for me, Final Fantasy Resonance really is an adventure for the ages.