Review: Final Fantasy Resonance is a nostalgia bomb filled with highs and lows

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Final Fantasy Resonance is everything longtime fans yearning for a return to the series' roots have wanted, but its characters and story offer little beyond nostalgia.

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Nostalgia is a mighty tool. It is no accident that, over the last decade, dozens of entertainment products have leaned heavily on it. From remakes of classic games to collaborations between consumer goods and established brands aimed at generations aged 30 and up, affective memory sells. And it sells well.

The episodic remake of Final Fantasy VII, awaited for over a decade until the first game's release, and the Final Fantasy collaboration with Magic: The Gathering in 2025, which broke Magic's best-selling expansion record while still in pre-order, are examples of two successful fronts that stirred the memories of those who fell in love with the franchise.

But not every memory needs a visual coat of paint. Sometimes it comes from the feeling and the experience you had at an important moment in your life. Maybe it is the feeling of playing your first Final Fantasy, or the comfort of when games seemed a little simpler. It could be a negative nostalgia, like a refusal to accept what the series has become over the last decade, or even a longing for a period you did not live through but hold retroactive affection for.

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Final Fantasy Resonance, an adaptation of the mobile spin-off Brave Exvius, is this kind of nostalgia. The story, for anyone who never followed the title, is new. But it is the collection of established characters, like equippable Visions, the return of the sprite model in a world remade in HD-2D, and one of the best turn-based combat systems the series has ever had that create a product built to capture the passion of fans who miss the classic formula, while also serving as an introduction for a new audience.

This is not a perfect game. The plot stumbles more often than desired, with moments that would make a more attentive player question the writing quality of some dialogue or the excess of drama. The storytelling formula is predictable for anyone already used to the franchise, and the characters sometimes sound so stereotyped that they end up with negative charisma once we have seen their tropes in dozens of other works of fiction.

The rest, however, works so well that it ends up making up for the script's flaws.

Everything as It Used to Be

The premise of Resonance, in every aspect, is the repetition of formulas that worked in previous titles. The player follows Rain and Laswell, two knights of the kingdom of Grandshelt, and the mysterious Fina, on an adventure around the world to save it from the Sworn Six, an organization that destroys the Earth Crystal at the start of the plot. Along the journey, the trio meets other characters directly involved in the dilemmas, conflicts, or cultures of each region, forming the team that unites to defeat the villains.

Each arc, besides moving the main plot forward, explores a theme previously addressed in some main title of the franchise, but with its own elements. Zoldaad, for example, echoes the Gestahlian Empire of FFVI and even uses terms like Magitek. However, it deals with a bit more depth with the totalitarianism inherent to both, with examples of high inflation and the use of military forces to violate individual rights, while also addressing lines of succession and royalty.

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The game constantly reuses memories of another title, becoming a pleasant experience full of references for longtime fans. It is a quality permeated by other factors. Combat, for instance, reuses the turn-based system formula in the vein of Final Fantasy X, instead of using the ATB, the franchise's trademark between Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy IX.

Exploration follows the mold of SNES and PlayStation One classics, where navigation gains new layers as the plot progresses until it culminates in flying through the skies in an Airship. Encounters are not random, but they merely make explicit the formula in which each step increases the probability of a battle starting until it happens. The world map design was redesigned to meet more contemporary demands with more activities, but it follows the same style the franchise used for over a decade in the classic games.

Combat and Visions

Equipment and combat also recall other titles. The Visions, most of them made up of protagonists from the franchise's main games, work similarly to the Guardian Forces of Final Fantasy VIII. Each character can equip one and level it up to increase attributes and gain new abilities that can later be used even if the character attaches another Vision. All of them have three levels of abilities, reachable by improving them with specific types of Magicite found in side quests or as part of the game's natural progression.

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The difference lies in how Visions work in combat. As in Final Fantasy XIII and other more recent titles, enemies have a Stagger bar. Once it is emptied, they become vulnerable for one round. If the player empties every enemy's bar in a single round (which seems harder in theory than it actually is in practice), all characters gain a bonus action and, at the end, you can choose one of the equipped Visions for a special attack.

Each Vision has an ability with elemental attributes, attack types, or distinct hit counts, while each character excels better in one attribute at the expense of others. The build puzzle involves understanding what works for each one with a specific Vision, or which one balances their weaknesses, including elemental ones, since each character has attacks of a specific element, while others must come from the equipped Vision to broaden the range of exploitable weaknesses.

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For example, Fina has many qualities as a healer but lacks offensive power for most of the plot. Equipping a Vision with elemental spells, like Terra, makes her more efficient in combat. From an optimization standpoint, a Rain build with Cloud, based on increasing the chances of physical critical hits and breaking the damage limit, carried parts of the game's final chapters on its own.

Combat is where Resonance, despite evoking some nostalgia, departs from the old and modernizes the concept of turn-based battles for current standards. Every enemy has weaknesses and resistances, and exploiting them is the most efficient way to empty the Stagger bar and end encounters. In practice, it works in a way that recalls the Persona series, where taking advantage of these attributes becomes essential to preserve resources like MP and items.

HD-2D Visuals Work Much Better Than They Seem

This was the first Final Fantasy made with the HD-2D mold Square Enix had already presented in other smaller titles. Resonance proves that an ambitious work or an adaptation of another game also works exemplarily in this model. Taking a few steps back in the graphics race in favor of a more consistent experience is a trade well received by the audience, and I am sure many fans of SNES classics would come away satisfied with the same treatment applied to titles from that era, especially the games the developers openly admit are too complex to build a full remake in the style of FFVII, like Final Fantasy VI.

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Where the visuals fall short, as in other parts, is in the lack of originality and the excess of leaning on nostalgia. Enemy designs are mostly reused from the classic games. Since Resonance is based on a gacha spin-off released years earlier, it is natural that it reuses visual elements, but as a full game whose campaign lasts around 30 hours, not counting side quests, it lacked a bit of originality.

Scenery is the definitive high point. The cities and villages are fun to explore, and the visual effects in dungeons take a tremendous step forward from the classics Resonance draws inspiration from. Even the cutscenes take advantage of these visuals to impress and raise the question: "why did they never did this before?"

A Plot Full of Ups and Downs

Plot is the most divisive element of the work and also the hardest to evaluate. As in other aspects, Resonance's story is an amalgam of things present in other titles, with a new coat of paint, and longtime fans can identify these tropes and often know where they are going. The story, however, should not be evaluated only from a fan's perspective. The new player, especially younger ones, will probably find plenty of reasons to want to discover what happens in the next chapter.

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Nevertheless, the plot is constantly balancing between excellent and terrible. Some situations and dialogue leave such a deep cringe feeling that they lead you to question the writers' quality. When the game tries to move you, it gets the dose wrong and ends up being overly dramatic. The playable characters, despite having their own personalities with dilemmas, fears, and ambitions, are not very memorable and, in some cases, stereotyped to the point where even the banter between them makes you roll your eyes for how obvious it becomes.

It is not that the story is bad. When it gets going in some arcs, it becomes much more interesting, but the engagement lasts a few hours before it stumbles again and loses its rhythm. From start to finish, Resonance maintains this constancy of ups and downs and ends the final hours with the feeling of an poorly-written conclusion.

Pros and Cons

Pros

- Pure nostalgia from classic Final Fantasy titles.

- The Visions system offers a variety of builds for each character.

- HD-2D visuals fit Final Fantasy very well.

- A wide range of side activities.

Cons

- The title leans too heavily on nostalgia and has little identity of its own.

- Excessively stereotyped characters.

- A plot full of ups and downs.

- Little originality in post-endgame content.

Score

8.0

Verdict

For longtime fans, Final Fantasy Resonance is a mandatory title in the franchise. The amalgam of elements taken from previous games and condensed into a work with its own plot and mechanics makes it a simultaneously innovative and nostalgic experience. You start and finish the game smiling at a reference, and the plot's lows are more tolerable when your eyes are glazed over by the haze of good memories. It is, after all, the Final Fantasy that every fan longing for a "return to the roots" always wanted.

The title's challenge lies with those who do not follow the franchise or have never played many of its titles. Resonance takes advantage of references the entire time. For those who do not identify them, it sounds like a generic JRPG, with stereotyped heroes, generic villains, excessive melodrama, and plot twists that neither convince nor move. Those players can stay for the battle system, the variety of builds, and for Resonance ultimately being a fun game that does not require excessive attention the whole time. However, unlike other recent competitors among turn-based RPGs, it will not be that memorable game people talk about for months.

Resonance, after all, is a Final Fantasy for the fans.

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