Whether or not Final Fantasy Resonance, the new reimagining of the now-defunct Brave Exvius mobile game…resonates with you will probably depend on when you started playing Square Enix’s long-running RPG series. Though Square Enix says it wants the game to be a potential entry point into a franchise full of them thanks to its anthology format, after putting about a dozen hours into the game, I feel like it’s the kind of nostalgic comfort food that is mostly for people who grew up during the series’ 8- and 16-bit era rather than something that might pull anyone else in.
After stripping out all the gacha mechanics from Brave Exvius and giving the visuals an HD-2D facelift, Resonance is the kind of thing that some fans, those who miss the simple days of gorgeous pixel art and turn-based battles, are likely yearning for. It also has one of the least engaging stories and casts I’ve ever experienced in a Final Fantasy. Its party is full of some of the most one-note Final Fantasy heroes to ever exist, presented here as living tropes that harken back to the old days when Final Fantasy wasn’t presenting some of the most emotionally resonant stories in the RPG genre, and much of its story reads like a first draft that was never really spruced up.
Resonance is working with the bones of a gacha game that probably had different priorities than creating an engaging world and storyline, so I’m not terribly surprised that the world its characters travel through mostly feels like a generic backdrop, but if you aren’t a diehard for the relatively simplistic trappings of old-school Final Fantasy, I cannot imagine how Resonance would ever be the game to draw you in.
That’s all the more apparent when the most compelling thing about it is also deeply rooted in early Final Fantasy. Most of Resonance’s turn-based battles have you doing the genre-standard stuff of targeting enemy weaknesses and avoiding resistances, but on top of having your usual party of four on the field, you also have Visions, which are manifestations of characters from various Final Fantasy games. You recruit them through what is essentially a quick history lesson and quiz about their respective games, and it’s a fun trip down memory lane seeing footage from various games playing in the background as a disembodied voice tells you about their adventures.
Then, these Visions become an equipable secondary party member that gives you a separate batch of abilities and skills with which to take on enemies. It’s an effective way of letting you mix and match team compositions, perhaps giving characters who might be at a disadvantage against one enemy a different set of tools that could help them gain the upper hand. Plus, you get to see cool pixel art of your favorites like Cloud from Final Fantasy VII and Noctis from Final Fantasy XV hanging out during the battle. Each time they use one of their special moves, a 3D rendered cutaway appears on screen that is cool the first time you see it but which you will skip every other time. Still, the way they can change a team’s composition and open up new strategies is a neat touch that adds some strategy to an RPG that’s otherwise straightforward to a fault.
But my god, it is pretty. I’m honestly annoyed at the cinematic cutaways of old Final Fantasy characters because Resonance looks its best when it’s creating elaborate shows of its stunning pixel art. I’ve been playing on my Switch 2 and it looks great in handheld mode, but now I’m just wishing I had spent all that time playing it on my TV because it is so gorgeous to behold.
Those moments in which Square Enix flexes its sprite work are when I’m most happy to be playing Resonance, a game that otherwise underwhelms me at nearly every turn. Resonance is undoubtedly going to hit for those craving an old-school Final Fantasy experience, and on paper, I’m down for one of those myself. I just wish that Resonance didn’t feel so barebones in between its moments of fanservice.