Across all of gaming, few series have the rich history of Final Fantasy. And yet, in many ways, it feels as if the more recent games only pay bits of lip service to its past by keeping a few familiar names, tunes, and narrative themes, while the gameplay and stories barely feel recognizable. That changes with Final Fantasy Resonance, which spits in the face of that idea and not only returns to the old ways, but asks us to celebrate the franchise, the good and bad, and it does this by taking from a surprising foundation: a mobile game. What fans have now is a beautiful tribute, a return to greatness, and a sign that perhaps the old ways shouldn’t be forgotten.
Resonance is built from the bones of another FF title, a phone game known as Brave Exvius. As cool as it sounds, changing that title was probably a good idea. This new construct takes the narrative, many of the visual cues, and a majority of the mechanics from Brave Exvius, while removing the gacha bullshit and smartly expanding on everything else. It’s an impressive transformation, breaking down a discontinued mobile offering, which many players had written off, and repurposing it to make a huge impression on a much larger scale.
After so many long years, FF finally has a new single-player, turn-based game that is genuinely enjoyable, not just through the power of nostalgia, but by offering creative HD-2D visuals and strong, engaging gameplay. The combat isn’t just copied from the previous entries, but is working on a new branch as well with its Visions system, similar to the jobs in FF5 or classes. Battles in Resonance start quite easy and gradually scale up in difficulty, requiring some strategy or at least understanding of weaknesses and the stagger mechanic, but quality preparation makes everything easier.
This type of restructuring helps make the experience feel less like a port and closer to something that should have come out at a time just before the franchise experienced its first big metamorphosis on the original PlayStation. It’s clear that the dev team wanted this to play a certain way, feel like a particular type of game, recapturing a feeling from before while acknowledging everything on the timeline, with references meant for long-term fans. There are even quizzes about other games in the series that don’t affect much, but end up spoiling some major events, so be warned. The Visions themselves are a large part of where the other games come in, taking on the forms of characters from the series’ various epic adventures, such as Squall, Cloud, Tidus, and Lightning, bringing their own moves and abilities to our strategy and group dynamic.
It almost didn’t happen that way. According to Keisuke Nakashima, the game’s producer, the company originally just wanted a bare-bones port of Brave Exvius, and he had to fight to make it something more. It feels like this is something that doesn’t happen often; companies aren’t willing to put the extra money into a project they’ve already released, even if it can be made so much better. Why improve on an existing product when a quick cash-grab is an option? It’s a good thing we have some creatives willing to fight to make things better and not just think about the numbers.
Resonance isn’t perfect. The story lacks somewhat, with an expanded script that likely needed another round or two of tweaking. It’s a character-focused journey with each one getting their own side quest, or interactions that help flesh them out, but the overall story needed to be stronger, especially toward the end. Players will easily be able to put 40 hours into this game between the grinding, side quests, exploration, and optional bosses. That’s a good length for an RPG that doesn’t want to overstay its welcome, but as it progresses, the main story is kind of a letdown, losing its thematic focus, utilizing boss gauntlets, and forcing more backtracking in dungeons and across the map.
Negatives aside, though, at no point did the combat seem too tedious, as it slowly ramps up with the characters. I normally would have put some music on in the background and just ran from fight to fight, but there were some pretty killer tunes in this soundtrack, many of which had been carried over from the mobile game, so I’ll give the original its due. A strong voice cast helps here as well for all of the major interactions. The world itself is stunning, bright, and colorful with bold accents and lavish backgrounds. The dynamic character sprites stand out, and once we get used to them, all of these elements flow together with the cutscenes in a phenomenal way. The whole game simply feels so vibrant and passionate about what it is taken from and what it’s attempting to recapture.
Such a good game, taken from a mobile offering and improved, makes me wonder why more companies aren’t doing this, too. The presentation, excellent combat, and attention to the past, as well as their fans, all of it makes me appreciate Resonance and wonder why we can’t have more like it. Would it have been an even more impressive adventure without having to follow the blueprints established by Brave Exvius? Surely the team’s talent would have shown through just as well, and perhaps done even better if unbound from the mobile roots. I’m also worried that some publishers will see the success of Resonance and take the wrong lesson here, opting instead to fast-track some of these without the budget or personnel needed.
Unfortunately, it could lead to titles without the same attention and care, cheaper with cut corners, and titles that embrace worse elements from the mobile games. I’m not attempting to find the worst aspects of what is otherwise a great success, but most of us know how these businesses think. Resonance really is a sign of positivity in all of this, and of possibility, when directors and producers keep standing up and fighting to make great games. It’s simple, clean, and feels complete, with no current plans for DLC, which makes it a full and unique experience. It’s sad, but we should celebrate that.
If there are other mobile games out there that can be transformed like this, where improvements can be made to elevate the experience, I welcome more of those projects and experiments. Resonance is setting quite the bar, however, and I would hate to see its reputation sullied as the title that opened the doors for a bunch of cheap imitations. Don’t let that dream just be a fantasy, or a nightmare.
