Platform(s): PS5 (version reviewed), Xbox Series, PC, Nintendo Switch 2
Genre: Role-Playing Game, Turn-Based, Fantasy, HD-2D

From 2015 to 2025, Square Enix, Alim, and gumi made bank with a 2D pixel art free-to-play JRPG called Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, which took classic FF characters like Cloud and Warrior of Light, and made them enticing gacha-able prizes for fans and potential big spenders (whales who support the company for years on end). The actual FF JRPGing experience was basic as heck, but it clearly had its legacy to make money from for a long, long while. And also added in other non-FF Square Enix properties at the time and even singers like Ariana Grande and Katy Perry, but that’s beside the point.

Years after its eventual closure -most of these gacha games do have a shelf life- developer Lancarse and Square Enix took its corpse and remade a new turn-based Final Fantasy experience out of it for 2026. Its new title? Final Fantasy Resonance, and you might as well treat it as a new entry and a possible litmus test for fans.

Elemental Funk

Final Fantasy Resonance’s plot is a fleshed-out adaptation of Final Fantasy Brave Exvius’ main story: there’s a bunch of armoured bad guys named the Sworn Six, led by the Veritas of the Dark who is going around destroying the world’s elemental crystals. It’s up to Grandshelt knights Rain and Lasswell, one the enthusiastic and chipper fighter, the other stoic and serious, as they chase down the foes and stop their plans. Along the way, they team up with mysterious girl Fina who has amnesia and can’t remember where she is, but possesses immense magic power and sounds like Pomni from The Amazing Digital Circus. They make powerful friends along the way to help in their crystal-saving quest, ranging from a female money-grubbing mechanic named Lid and a sourpuss strategist named Nichol.

You also have dangling plotlines like who the mysterious magic woman is at the start of this game’s intro, and where is Rain’s dad and Lasswell’s captain, which you can probably guess a mile away if you’ve played any Final Fantasy game in the 90s. In fact, the whole of FF Resonance’s plotline is just cherry-picked parts of Final Fantasy I to V, combined together as a “greatest hits” compilation complete with the crystals storyline, and with a bunch of new characters who occupy familiar archetypes.

You’re not going to find anything new or innovative in the story, and you will come across story beats that are worn-out tropes. However, that doesn’t mean it’s told in a dull way; the English/Japanese voice-work and additional writing help flesh out Rain and co. into being meaty two-dimensional characters with colour and flair. Familiar anime stereotypes, sure, but they’re worth listening too. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the sidequests you come across; there are duds with carbon copy NPCs, but you also have interesting and/or funny stories with unique sprites from the original gacha game like Mercedes the pirate, Roy the bard, and Verun the blacksmith.

Speaking of familiar ground, FF Resonance’s combat and exploration is what you expect from the classic 2D pixel titles, but with that HD-2D flair. You’re on the overworld exploring places and going to story objectives, and you fight all sorts of Final Fantasy monsters old and new in turn-based combat. Exploiting enemy weaknesses with elements and status effects will stagger them -an FF tradition since FF XIII. Staggering all enemies will put you in a bonus state where your party gets additional turns and can unleash Vision attacks, which are spirits of past Final Fantasy characters from different dimensions or allies who wish to land a hand after you did their sidequest.

See, each of your base party members have their own set of skills, but you can power them up by equipping them with Visions. Each Vision have their class type and unique skills that can add more firepower and passive skills. Mastering a Vision means you can equip their powerful passive abilities even with a different Vision equipped. Like to get that +20% Attack bonus from Cloud’s Vision just for Rain? Just equip him onto Rain and use that Vision for battle and soon enough, it’s in Rain’s permanent collection. Need more Earth spells and Earth attacks for an upcoming boss? Equip your characters with Visions like Warrior of Light and Onion Knight onto your non-Earth users so they’re well-equipped to stagger it faster. And you’ll need to be smart, as enemies and bosses in Normal and Expert difficulty hit really hard and can take a beating. Staggering is really important in downing enemies, and the faster you find out an enemy’s weakness, the better your chances at survival.

Even if you don’t have info-scanning spells like Libra, you can still make educated guesses based on the Chapter and continent you’re on. If you’re on Water Crystal turf, most enemies will be weak to Lightning and Earth. Veterans with long-lasting Final Fantasy knowledge will be right at home in playing this game and fitting in like a pair of comfy socks. Newbies who want to see what an old-school Final Fantasy is like will find a lot to love here, especially with quality-of-life features like instant teleportation to areas you’ve visited, menu cursor memory, adjustable difficulty on the fly, and cutscenes-skipping.

Whichever camp you’re on, FF Resonance is a load of fun due to the 30+ hour you can spend doing a bunch of quests and side activities with copious amounts of rewards, to exploring the map to find Visions from the Final Fantasy titles you like. For the record, Cloud, Terra, and Warrior of Light are found early on in the game, so you’re covered in terms of early-game power equipment. I do wish there were additional thematic challenges when finding and acquiring Visions; most of the time, you’re just participating in a short recap of their backstories with a quiz portion that has no wrong answer. While there is one iconic Vision that requires a big fight, everyone else from the mothership FF titles are just there for the picking.

While the music is just as epic and inspiring, as they’re slight remixes and remasters of the original Brave Exvius OST but with additional tracks, the pixel art is where it’s at. Some of the game’s cutscenes are done up in a Newgrounds era-style animantics that feel appropriate to the theme they’re going for, and matches the HD-2D aesthetic. While not as super-detailed as its Octopath Traveler contemporaries -these are touched-up 2015 sprites after all- they still are a visual treat that stand out among JRPGs these days. The whole package is clearly pandering towards nostalgia, and while I’m OK with that, its hook may not be for everyone looking for a fresher take on JRPGs and its pioneering publisher.

Speaking of quests, a lot of the dungeons and sidequest objectives in FF Resonance are pretty standard and not at all unique. You have simplistic dungeons with little to no puzzles attached to them, and have not-quite-windy mazes and pathways that can be figured out as long as you’re paying attention. The sidequests too just have you going to places you’ve been and just triggering an event, with a battle or two against easy enemies to spice things up. It’s not the most invigorating thing to go through, honestly.

Crystal Chronicle? Or Catastrophe?

You can’t ignore the fact that this new Final Fantasy game is cleary showing its “resurrected gacha game” aesthetics even with the new HD-2D touch-up. Its story is also pretty standard and hits all the familiar notes despite its charming heroes and side characters. Nonetheless, Final Fantasy Resonance scratches that turn-based JRPG itch you need, albeit in a familiar package.

It’s not going to dethrone the Octopath Traveler games, already the standard bearers for nostalgia-inducing JRPGing that add a lot of new additions and surprises to the table. However, Final Fantasy Resonance is still damn fine adventuring and worth your time, especially if you aren’t a fan of the direction the series is taking with part 16 and the remakes of part 7. This is clearly a throwback game, with quality-of-life touches that do get rid of the cumbersome nature of the genre. Final Fantasy Resonance is a great first step in the right direction for the franchise. With a better plot, setting, and a distinctive gameplay hook not too reliant on nostalgia, it could surpass its contemporaries.

Pros

• Cute 2D pixel art.
• Great music.
• Fun turn-based combat.
• Colourful-if-familiar cast of characters.
• Lovely quality-of-life updates.

Cons

• Story is just a mish-mash of past fantasy JRPG tropes done better in other games.
• Nostalgia-bait may turn off some fans.
• Cut-and-dry main quest levels & majority of sidequests.

Final Score: 70/100

Review copy provided by publisher.