FINAL FANTASY RESONANCE is a Delightful Return to the Series’ Classic Roots

It’s 1996. I’m happily traversing via chocobo and airship a magical world full of moogles, espers, crystals and magitek. I’m dazzled by the vibrant pixel art.

It’s 2026. I’m happily traversing via chocobo and airship a magical world full of moogles, espers, crystals and magitek. I’m dazzled by the vibrant pixel art.

FINAL FANTASY RESONANCE is the first time that Square Enix has applied its trademarked “HD-2D” style to its flagship franchise. Like in Triangle Strategy and the Octopath Traveler games, it combines expressive 2D pixel art sprites with 3D environments, cinematic cameras, dynamic lighting, particle effects, and depth of field into a compelling, hybrid aesthetic.

Several RPGs experimented with a similar look back on the PS1 (including Square’s own Xenogears), and the HD-2D games aren’t so much a throwback as they are emissaries from a parallel universe where pixel art was never supplanted by full 3D and instead evolved. With nearly a decade of practice in the style, FINAL FANTASY RESONANCE might be the best and most pushed it’s looked yet.

The story is an adaptation of FINAL FANTASY BRAVE EXVIUS, a free-to-play mobile gacha RPG that ran from 2015 to 2025, but this is no simple port or visual upgrade. Developers Square Enix and LANCARSE have built and balanced the combat/progression systems and world anew on top of that original story into a fully featured, single-player, single-purchase RPG. It’s a love letter to the series and a nostalgic return to its foundational roots with a modern upgrade, much like FINAL FANTASY IX did over 26 years ago.

First Fantasy

FINAL FANTASY RESONANCE follows childhood friends Rain and Lasswell, knights for the idyllic Kingdom of Grandshelt. That idyll is shattered when a mysterious, powerful, armored man attacks the castle, steals a magical relic, and destroys the sacred Earth Crystal under the kingdom’s protection, throwing everything into chaos. Joined eventually by Fina, an amnesiac spellcaster with some connection to all of this,  and a party of unique individuals each with their own reason to stop the impending chaos, they set out to stop the Sworn Six from destroying the world’s other elemental Crystals, each protected in different lands.

Beyond being a visual throwback, this back-to-roots story is a direct return to the original style of archetypal fantasy narrative that dominated the first five entries in the series before FINAL FANTASY VI (my first and still personal favorite) started to really widen the dramatic and narrative scope of their storytelling ambitions. A party of four or more heroes endeavors to save the world-infrastructural elemental Crystals from some great peril. It’s a comfortable mythopoetic space that’s still very open-ended and easy to iterate for a classic-style RPG.

Like in the classic games, the high-fantasy melodrama of the overarching plot is balanced out by a brighter tone that’s often quite lighthearted from scene to scene. This levity keeps it fun and easy to play through but also helps land the heavier emotional beats by contrast.

Everyone Line Up

In addition to returning to the series’ aesthetic and narrative roots, FINAL FANTASY RESONANCE is also going back to classic, menu-driven combat. It’s not even Active-Time Battles, like the series iterated from FINAL FANTASY IV on, but fully turn-based, with a timeline on top of the screen showing the upcoming action order of allies and enemies. This adds a satisfyingly strategic layer to combat as you can preemptively react to the enemy, prioritizing targets and minimizing incoming harm.

A central new combat mechanic is that every enemy has a stagger meter. Every attack available to you indicates proportionally how much damage it does to both health and stagger. When you deplete an enemy’s stagger meter, they are stunned, losing their action for the round and taking more damage. The character that staggers an enemy gets a bonus action at the end of the round, and if you stagger every surviving enemy, you trigger a “sweeping stagger,” which gives your whole team a bonus end-of-round action.

Combined with a classic framework of elemental weakness/resistance and status effects (poison, blind, silence, charm, etc.), with targeting weaknesses doing more health and stagger damage, this creates a very satisfying old-school combat flow. Characters also progress in a very traditional fashion, gaining predetermined stats and a fixed, unique list of skills and spells as they level up.

Visions of the Past

Lest you worry about a lack of customization, however, FINAL FANTASY RESONANCE has it in the form of Visions. These are the echoes of past FINAL FANTASY characters who lend Rain and his allies their powers in battle. So far, I’ve seen the Warrior of Light (I), Cloud (VII), Terra (VI) and Zidane (IX), with many more left to find scattered around the world in shrines. Each of your party members can have one Vision assigned at a time, gaining access to their abilities. Triggering a sweeping stagger also allows you to unleash its special Resonance attack, complete with a full 3D summon-style cutscene.

Fighting alongside Visions increases that character’s mastery level with them, unlocking more abilities, which can then be equipped up to a fixed point limit even with a different vision equipped. The combination of a character’s base skills and their Vision’s plus any others you’ve unlocked and equipped, gives quite a bit of latitude in how you construct each character’s kit, which I found myself situationally changing as I went to match the demands of whatever dungeon I was in.

It’s the most obvious echo of the game’s gacha roots in FINAL FANTASY BRAVE EXVIUS, but stripped of all randomness and monetization. What’s left is just the compelling hook of wanting to find more cool characters to play with, especially if, like me, you have a longstanding history with the games. FINAL FANTASY RESONANCE is very rewarding to fans in general, at every level chock-full of clever little nods and references to across the series’ whole history, like a bard you meet off-handedly describing himself as “spoony.”

Conveniences of the Future

Like so many of the best remakes and nostalgic media, FINAL FANTASY RESONANCE succeeds by capturing your memory of the originals, rose-tinted glasses and all. All sorts of thoughtful little modernizations shave off those corners and bits of friction that can make the earlier games a little bit of a slog to replay. Enemy weaknesses and resistances are shown forever once you’ve found them, making it much easier to blaze through repeat combats, which are also accelerated by variable speed and skippable summon cutscenes. You can also avoid unnecessary random battles entirely by fast traveling to any previously visited location from outside of dungeons.

All these touches add up to make a smooth experience that respects my time. It’s a charming throwback, with a satisfying and thoughtful rhythm of play that I’ve missed in modern RPGs, but in a sleek and modern package. Throw in a bit of nostalgic fan service for good measure, and I expect to be enjoying this for quite a while.

FINAL FANTASY RESONANCE is available now on XBOX Series X|S and XBOX on PC. Play it on both console and PC at no extra cost with XBOX Play Anywhere. Try it for free with a demo of the full first chapter, which carries over on purchase.

FINAL FANTASY RESONANCE Digital Deluxe Edition

SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD.

☆☆☆☆☆ 1

★★★★★

Get it now

Pre-order Bonus: Magitek Airship & Squire Starter Pack This set contains an item that transforms your airship’s appearance into a magitek vessel, along with useful items to aid you at the start of your journey. Pack Contents: • Magitek Airship Passkey x1 • Knight’s Greatsword x1 • Chestplate of Preparation x1 (Increases EXP gained in battle by a certain amount) • Magicite Shard x1 • Tent x3 • Mist Potion x3 *These bonuses are available only to customers who pre-order the product and are not available to customers who purchase the product after release. *After progressing past a certain point in the game, you may claim the items from the postbox in front of the inn in the Town of Mitra. *The airship’s appearance can be changed by turning the Magitek Airship Passkey “ON” under the Items section of the main menu. ——————— This product is a bundle that includes the FINAL FANTASY RESONANCE base game along with the Magitek & Grimoire Deluxe Pack, which contains an item that transforms your chocobo's appearance into magitek armor, an item exclusive to this pack that unlocks a certain character's Fel Meteor Limit Burst, and useful items to aid you at the start of your journey. Digital Deluxe Edition Contents: ▼ FINAL FANTASY RESONANCE Base Game ▼ Magitek & Grimoire Deluxe Pack 　 Pack Contents: 　 • Magitek Armor Key x1 　 • Archwitch’s Grimoire x1 　 • Mastery Ring x1 　 • Tent x5 　 • Mist Potion x5 　 • Mist Ether x5 　 • Phoenix Down x5 　 • Remedy x3 *After progressing past a certain point in the game, you may claim the items from the postbox in front of the inn in the Town of Mitra. *The chocobo’s appearance can be changed by turning the Magitek Armor Key “ON” under the Items section of the main menu. *The content included in this bundle is also sold separately. Please be careful to avoid making duplicate purchases. ——————— Early Purchase Bonus: Squire Kickstart Pack This set contains useful items to aid you at the start of your journey. Pack Contents: • Blessed Cuirass x1 (Increase gil obtained by a certain amount) • Mist Ether x1 *These bonuses are available only to customers who purchase the product by November 5, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. local time. *After progressing past a certain point in the game, you may claim the items from the postbox in front of the inn in the Town of Mitra.

FINAL FANTASY RESONANCE

SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD.

☆☆☆☆☆

★★★★★

Get it now

Pre-order Bonus: Magitek Airship & Squire Starter Pack This set contains an item that transforms your airship’s appearance into a magitek vessel, along with useful items to aid you at the start of your journey. Pack Contents: • Magitek Airship Passkey x1 • Knight’s Greatsword x1 • Chestplate of Preparation x1 (Increases EXP gained in battle by a certain amount) • Magicite Shard x1 • Tent x3 • Mist Potion x3 *These bonuses are available only to customers who pre-order the product and are not available to customers who purchase the product after release. *After progressing past a certain point in the game, you may claim the items from the postbox in front of the inn in the Town of Mitra. *The airship’s appearance can be changed by turning the Magitek Airship Passkey “ON” under the Items section of the main menu. ——————— Return to the pixel‑art world of FINAL FANTASY, evolved from its classic roots. Travel with companions bound by fate and call on Visions to aid you in battle to uncover the truth behind a force that threatens to bring everything to ruin. ◆ Cinematic pixel art What if FINAL FANTASY had continued to push the limits of pixel art? The first FINAL FANTASY to join the HD‑2D lineup, FINAL FANTASY RESONANCE delivers a visually striking experience that feels both nostalgic and new, enhanced by dynamic camera angles and pixelized 3D models that make every moment more dramatic and immersive. ◆ A return to the familiar A classic RPG adventure unfolds in a world filled with beloved FINAL FANTASY elements—airships, crystals, espers and moogles woven into the fabric of the story, and so much more. ◆ Strategic turn-based battles Exploit enemy weaknesses to stagger them—breaking their defenses to seize extra turns and gain the upper hand with powerful Resonance attacks in cinematic battles shaped by smart choices. ◆ FINAL FANTASY legends Bolster your team with Visions, echoes of beloved FINAL FANTASY characters, who fight alongside you with unique skills and abilities for deep party customization. ◆ Hours of side content to discover The world is full of secrets, including the wandering swordmaster Gilgamesh, a Colosseum with deadly monsters and rewards to match, the Chamber of Arms with formidable foes sealed within legendary weapons, and a showdown with Ultima Weapon. ——————— Early Purchase Bonus: Squire Kickstart Pack This set contains useful items to aid you at the start of your journey. Pack Contents: • Blessed Cuirass x1 (Increase gil obtained by a certain amount) • Mist Ether x1 *These bonuses are available only to customers who purchase the product by November 5, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. local time. *After progressing past a certain point in the game, you may claim the items from the postbox in front of the inn in the Town of Mitra.

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