When I think of turn-based JRPGs where you explore vast worlds, Final Fantasy was once the first thing that came to mind. Yet for over two decades, Square Enix has deprived the Final Fantasy franchise of the gameplay style that made it a household name by taking it in an action-RPG direction with mixed degrees of success.
Over the years, I cynically grew to accept that Final Fantasy would never return to the classic turn-based gameplay style I loved and instead opted for Square Enix's other turn-based franchises like Bravely Default and Octopath Traveler.
That is, until this year, when Square Enix announced Final Fantasy Resonance. This game is the franchise's first HD-2D JRPG, and it aims to bring back the classic turn-based combat and open-world exploration gameplay that made retro fans like me love it in the first place.
It felt too good to be true at first, but after being impressed by Final Fantasy Resonance's playable demo, I decided to give the game a chance when I was given an opportunity to review it on Xbox Series X with a code provided by Square Enix.
After playing it for the past few weeks, I can confidently say that, despite some minor issues, Final Fantasy Resonance (available for $49.99 on the Xbox Store) is a heartwarming return to form that players who grew up on Final Fantasy's 16-bit and PlayStation One golden age should not miss out on.
Final Fantasy Resonance launches on October 22, 2026, for Xbox Series X|S (with Xbox Play Anywhere support), PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC via Windows and Steam.
This review was made possible thanks to an Xbox Series X code provided by Square Enix. The company had no input nor saw the contents of this review before publication.
Final Fantasy Resonance — Story, setting, art
Final Fantasy Resonance is a home console adaptation of Final Fantasy Brave Exvius’s first story arc, a 2015 free-to-play mobile game that was shut down in 2024.
Like its source material, Final Fantasy Resonance tells the story of Rain and Lasswell, two noble knights hailing from the kingdom of Grandshelt, and a mysterious girl with magical powers named Fina.
They're on a quest to save their world's life-giving crystals from being destroyed by a group of evil knights who call themselves the ‘Sworn Six’. These despicable knights have dark, vengeful goals that they seek to accomplish by any means, regardless of collateral damage or casualties.
The story of Final Fantasy Resonance is a fairly standard JRPG fantasy adventure laden with tropes and clichés that players experienced in the JRPG genre will see coming (although it did a couple of admittedly surprising twists).
The story also has a couple of annoying moments that disrupted the pacing, which could've been fixed if they played out as cutscenes instead of pointless boss fights, but I won't get too deep into that as it's very spoilery.
However, these are minor quibbles, as Final Fantasy Resonance's story beats, lore, and action set pieces are well put together with satisfying dramatic payoffs. Not to mention, its story is refreshingly easy to understand and follow, which is a blessing because many modern Final Fantasy games tend to have needlessly convoluted plots.
Additionally, Final Fantasy Resonance does have moments where it actually managed to make me laugh as the game snuck in some cheeky jokes that will tickle the nostalgia funny bones of long-time Final Fantasy fans like me.
As for its characters, Final Fantasy Resonance does have a cast of interesting villains once you start to discover who they are underneath their armor. Its playable heroes are also competently written and likable, with some decent character development but nothing too thought-provoking.
What helps Final Fantasy Resonance's story and characters resonate with the player is its presentation. This is the first Final Fantasy game to use HD-2D graphics, and Square Enix spared no expense in making them look absolutely STUNNING.
The pixel-art character sprites and 3D models look so immaculately detailed and animated with their charming facial expressions and epic battle moves. The HD-2D art style gets even more lavishly detailed during cinematic cutscenes and in-game boss battles to create some magnificent works of digital art.
Final Fantasy Resonance's presentation elevates its story further with some respectable voice acting in both English and Japanese and an incredible soundtrack that's filled with extremely catchy tunes, epic battle themes, and emotional melodies.
Final Fantasy Resonance — Gameplay
The gameplay of Final Fantasy Resonance follows the classic formulae set by earlier Final Fantasy games. You travel across a world map, visiting towns for quests, gear, and lore, exploring dungeons to loot treasure, and fighting monsters and bosses in turn-based combat.
It starts very linear, but the game opens up fairly quickly with plenty of side-quests to complete, optional dungeons to explore, and hidden areas you can only find with a trusty airship.
You have no idea how much this game filled me with nostalgic joy riding in an airship and exploring a world map to find all its secrets again after being restricted to grounded corridors for decades in modern Final Fantasy games.
The turn-based combat is simple at first, but Final Fantasy Resonance quickly adds lots of fun mechanics to improve its complexity as you progress, keeping it from becoming stale.
Alex Cope, Windows Central
Its dungeons, however, are somewhat disappointing, as Final Fantasy Resonance took a quantity-over-quality approach. Many dungeons in this game are painfully short, as they feature two or three rooms with very basic puzzles to solve.
I would've liked these dungeons to be made in-depth, with more labyrinthine layouts so the player could get into more random encounters to stress-test their dungeon-crawling and resource-conservation skills like the older games.
Let's move to the main reason that made me want to play this game in the first place: turn-based combat.
Like the first ten mainline Final Fantasy games, Final Fantasy Resonance's turn-based combat system has your party take turns to defeat enemies using weapons and magic, while keeping each other alive with healing magic and restorative items.
The turn-based combat is simple at first, but Final Fantasy Resonance quickly adds lots of fun mechanics to improve its complexity as you progress, keeping it from becoming stale.
These mechanics include Limit Bursts, which allow you to unleash a player character's ultimate attack if their Limit Gauge gets filled in battle by either getting hurt or stunning enemies; summoning Espers in battle to aid you for a few turns and also depleting an enemy’s Stagger Gauge by hitting their elemental weakness to stun them for a turn.
Once you stagger all enemies at once, you will be rewarded with a free round of turns to batter the stunned enemies for extra damage without fear of retaliation, culminating in a devastating super-move performed by your Visions.
What are Visions, you may ask? Visions are spiritual manifestations of heroes from previous Final Fantasy games and Final Fantasy Resonance-exclusive heroes who grant the player characters powerful abilities and passive traits to help them excel in battle.
Some of these abilities include being able to stagger enemies more easily, protect the entire party from incoming damage, prevent incoming status effects, perform multiple actions in a single turn, and so much more.
Experimenting with Visions to create the ultimate party and using their newfound powers to stun-lock challenging bosses before they got a single turn was so empowering and cathartic.
Alex Cope, Windows Central
I love the Visions system because it offers so much character-building potential on par with Final Fantasy's classic Job System from previous games.
You can use it to double down on a player character's inherent skills (like turning the main hero Rain into an unstoppable tank) or turn a character into a jack-of-all-trades fighter (like giving a healer character a damage-dealing Vision so they can hurt enemies and heal allies).
Experimenting with Visions to create the ultimate party and using their newfound powers to stun-lock challenging bosses before they got a single turn was so empowering and cathartic.
Yet after playing the game for 75 hours, I still felt like I was scratching the surface of what the Visions system can do, so I can't imagine what will happen once pro JRPG players get their hands on it.
Granted, level-grinding the Visions to gain all their abilities can be pretty tedious and repetitive. But it's so worth it in the end, especially when you hit Final Fantasy Resonance's late-game and post-game bosses because they do not mess around.
They hit fast and hard, have tons of health, and are hard to stagger (especially on Expert Mode). Plus, these endgame bosses will often require you to change your Vision builds to defeat them due to their varying strategies and countermeasures that will punish players for being too aggressive or too passive.
They're extremely tough but so satisfying to beat once you figure out their gimmicks and get the right Vision abilities equipped.
Final Fantasy Resonance — Conclusion
Overall, I was thoroughly astonished and surprised by how good Final Fantasy Resonance was.
It's a loving tribute to Final Fantasy's classic turn-based era that's able to stand on its own merits with addictive combat, an in-depth Vision system, and an entertaining story with decently written characters. Not to mention it has a great wealth of side-quests and difficult optional bosses to take on even after finishing the main campaign as icing on the cake.
If you're an old-school Final Fantasy fan who doesn't like the action-RPG direction the mainline Final Fantasy games have been taking, or just love turn-based JRPGs you can play on go via Xbox Play Anywhere, then I highly recommend not sleeping on Final Fantasy Resonance.
If this game is just based on Final Fantasy Brave Exvius's first story arc, then I hope Square Enix makes more adaptations of this mobile game so I can see the rest of its story arcs in full HD-2D glory.
Final Fantasy Resonance isn't going to make you rethink how you see JRPGs, but it will certainly leave you entertained with its addictive Visions system, refreshingly simple story with amiable characters, and extremely well-done turn-based combat that's sure to please old-school Final Fantasy fans who prefer that style over modern Action-RPG Final Fantasy titles.
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