Final Fantasy Resonance is the first FF game to be made in the HD-2D style, and much like the spectacular Octopath Traveler 0, it’s built off of a phone game of all things. Resonance is based on the first story arc of a now-defunct title called Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, now bringing an experience many players didn’t have a chance to fully enjoy due to the free-to-play structure and stigma surrounding mobile games. Back when the global version of Brave Exvius launched, I took notice of the absurd level of quality on display and immediately dreamed of this game receiving a console version.
Now, that’s exactly what’s happened! Retaining the amazing sprite work of the mobile game while creating a fully explorable world to ground the story scenes and locations helps the game fit snugly within the grand Final Fantasy series and stand against other RPGs with ease. The world of Lapis is certainly one well worth exploring, perhaps sitting as one of the best RPGs of 2026.
From Touch to Tactile
As I mentioned nary a moment ago, Final Fantasy Resonance is a reimagining of a decade-old mobile phone release called Final Fantasy Brave Exvius. The process of reimagining and reformatting eschewed the twin-worded subtitle in favor of something fresh, yet undeniably fitting. Without mincing any words, Final Fantasy Resonance directly lifts the main plot of Final Fantasy Brave Exvius season one. So, if you were a fan of that game and kept up with the storyline, you’re not really getting that much new or exciting out of this if that’s all you care about. To top it off, this is season one’s story, yes… out of FOUR.
This begs the question of whether the success of Resonance could result in a lavish side series of its own with another game or three. I’d be down for sure, but the reason I drew a broad and indefinite range of potential sequels here is that while Resonance adapts the first chunk of Brave Exvius, it does so by cutting some things, updating others, and creating new content to bridge the obvious gaps there are between a full single-player RPG and a gacha game.
Drawing a direct comparison, the version of the main story we get here in Resonance has some trimming. As Brave Exvius was text-only without voice acting, this makes some modicum of sense. Resonance’s main scenes are all fully voiced and rewritten when compared to its progenitor. Some of the additional writing and changes are in service of a tighter narrative flow, as there’s a lot less hanging on the same narrative points, and now some of the side characters that were briefly present in FFBE are now relegated to their own sidequest lines. Almost all of these changes are in lieu of making a mission-structured game into the shape of a classic Final Fantasy experience, so it’s hard to be upset when it’s accomplished to such a degree.
Outside of plot and character updates, it’s the gameplay and structure that have seen the absolute most re-tuning, and when I say re-tuning, I mean this is an ENTIRELY different game. Comparatively, the story is almost untouched. Lapis was originally navigated mostly via tapping menu icons with the occasional walkable town. Now, the entire world is fully explorable with a full-blown overworld map, airship flight, puzzle-filled dungeons, and optional areas galore. It’s actually insane how far the developers went in making this a real FF game through and through.
That Classic FF Flair
What comes to mind when you think “HD-2D” or “Final Fantasy”? Words such as “flashy”, “innovative”, and “eclectic” are strong contenders, honestly. Both can be quite in your face with certain graphical elements while providing an experience that feels totally new and innately inspired. HD2D, as an art style itself, hinges on mixing nostalgia with modernity, and marrying it with Final Fantasy, a series that certainly has not been afraid to ask you to put some rose-tinted glasses on, seems like a match that took WAY too long to happen.
Presentation is a huge part of Final Fantasy’s identity as a series, and this has pitched and yawed over the years to meet the needs of any individual project. Classic Famicom-era Final Fantasies had detailed sprite work that put a fully viewable party in the spotlight of battles, Super Nintendo’s Mode 7 added a deeper sense of scale to taking to the skies, and once the 3D era hit, good lord, Final Fantasy sought to put film to shame. Those are some absolutely gargantuan shoes to fill, so how does Final Fantasy Resonance stack up to its brethren in the Final Fantasy series and its HD-2D cousins? It goes excellently, actually. Important scenes and extravagant battle animations are the best you’ll find in any HD-2D game to date. There’s real camera work even, with excellent shot composition, motion, and extravagant animation to top it all off. Battles and cutscenes both have a top-notch presentation.
While the vast majority of this game is an absolute spectacle that tickles the imagination, there are some less than stellar qualities to a near-perfect presentation. Fidelity-wise, I find the Dragon Quest HD-2D remakes to be superior, and I prefer the art direction of Live-A-Live, but what we get here in Final Fantasy Resonance is still great. The art design is quite good, and the variety of environments is appreciated, making the slight drop in fidelity understandable. Plus, there’s way more sprite animation going on than any other HD-2D game, but they are almost entirely from Brave Exvius. I wouldn’t call art differences or a reimagining reusing assets bad, though, but what I will call bad is one specific part of the UI. Generally, I’m unoffended by the UI. It’s alright, but I do miss the beautiful blue textured text boxes from FFBE. What is unforgivable to me, however, is how ugly the battle UI can be.
The Command menu and timeline are fine, but the real offender is the character info cards. The font and boxes are terrible-looking to me and don’t even quite match up to the main menu or dialogue boxes. Really out of place. I also take a bit of issue with very small things with navigation. I adore the secret paths to get treasure, but I sort of hate how most of the side content is spoon-fed to the player. Every side quest goal is clearly indicated on the map; if you don’t go into the settings, that is. I recommend, just like with the Dragon Quest remakes, turning off navigation help if you want a more faithful Final Fantasy experience. Goodbye minimap! Well, I used it for completion purposes (hypocritical, I know), but I found that most of the side content could easily be found as long as you talked around and explored.
At least these nitpicks don’t ruin the experience; in fact, I barely thought of them because I was so enamored with the game. It’s also hard to hate this game in any fashion when it has some of the best execution of pure, undiluted Final Fantasy series references. Resonance doesn’t just point and shout, “Look! It’s this thing from this game! Get excited!” as shamelessly as it does with the Visions. Visions are at least meant to be a loud and direct reference, but the parallels and theming are so much more subtle and deep than a flimsy allusion. Of course, there’s some of those as well, but they make logical sense in how they’re implemented.
Wild Rose imagery for rebels will always hit me in the heart, the Visions’ roles like Sentinel and Commando are just like FFXIII’s, and the legendary Invincible airship from FFIII and FFIX! To me, these are quite respectful, and on top of these easier inspiration points are deeper thematic parallels. Rain and Lasswell echo Cecil and Kain in many ways, especially with Rain leading an airship brigade. The library dungeon also takes tons of inspiration from FFV’s Library of the Ancients, and the legendary arms from V return in new yet equally optional form. You also can’t forget the awesome Espers hidden throughout the game, giving you familiar epic animations and some epic fights. Countless more examples lurk in the shadows, but they never get in the way of the story, characters, and world that Resonance is truly about.
Visionary Combat
Throughout the history of HD-2D games, let alone the entirety of Square’s or Final Fantasy’s history, battle systems have been reused, reimagined, or outright newly innovated. Many titles throughout the Final Fantasy series have utilized the same underlying ideas across several titles, with ATB being a great example. The Active Time Battle system had its origin in the original release of Final Fantasy IV, where it didn’t even have the iconic meter gauges that indicate the passage of time – the menus and flow were just continual. Of course, this system iterated and diverged several times, with not one implementation being the exact same.
I say this because Final Fantasy Resonance borrows a lot from previous entries in the series but also evolves the principles found in Octopath Traveler’s battle system, the founder of the HD-2D style. So with this in mind, I can confidently say that Resonance not only has a truly great FF battle system but also has possibly the best combat of any HD2D game. I found the combat to be so fun, fulfilling, and brisk that I rarely changed the battle speed. I definitely do see the utility in cranking it up to 2 or 3 times speed for some additional grinding, but really the pace of battle is so good that I never really felt the need to make them any faster. On top of that, I, personally, was growing a bit sick of not only Octopath’s, but most games’ Break system. Luckily, that’s not the case here. Elements like Sweeping Stagger and the Bonus Phase make the battle system feel even more rewarding for learning your opponents, letting you stagger each foe and then formulate a strategy to wipe them out as fast as possible. Figuring out how to compose a party that covers physical attacks, magical attacks, multiple elements, buffs, and debuffs is part of the appeal as well as it’s essential to overcome the excellent encounter design.
Character building is quite addictive and has a lot of depth. Composition of your party is integral to success, and the game isn’t afraid to check you on certain aspects. I typically tire of games whose entire combat system relies upon weakness exploitation, but the variety and freedom of builds, along with some amazing encounter design that mixes things up every chapter, is phenomenal. Even if a battle utterly decimates you, going back to the drawing board is part of the fun. Mixing and matching different characters who all have their own stat distributions and move pools with Visions that expand their repertoires with even more battle skills and passive abilities. Rain’s fire- and physical-focused abilities can be supplemented with a Vision like Bartz because Bartz is physical-focused as well, lending to Rain’s literal strengths, while giving Rain access to wind, lightning, and earth-based physical attacks. It’s also useful to use Vision abilities like Cecil’s Multi-Cover if you want Rain to put his general beefiness towards tanking and combine that with various counterattack passives. There’s tons and tons of potential here and more than one way to get through any battle. I can easily see this being a very replayable game for many RPG fans.
I’ve Seen This Person Before…
Characters are truly what drives this game forward, in multiple senses. The main cast itself is quite strong, but I feel that the Visions, with their siren-song calling of yesteryear’s fan-favorites, overshadow the mental real estate of potentially nostalgia-brained players. Don’t fret, however! The Visions themselves, outside of the deep character building, series reverence, and demonstration of the main characters’ abilities, have very little plot relevance. In fact, outside of the Vision Crystals casually SPOILING elements of every mainline Final Fantasy game, characters like Firion, Squall, or Y’shtola are never mentioned by name – memories are all they remain. To me, this is perfectly fine because ultimately, this is a story about Rain and co. We don’t need every FF spinoff to be like World of Final Fantasy or Dissidia. It’s honestly quite interesting and refreshing to have a new cast in a new world that pays reverence to the classics rather than expanding their legacy.
On that note, let’s talk about these characters. In short, this cast is amazing! Early into the game and in your initial meetings with characters, some of them feel a bit flat. As the game goes on, however, you learn about them, and they deepen. At first, Rain, Laswell, Fina, Lid, and so on, feel one-dimensional, with Lid being cartoonishly obsessed with money or even Jake being a womanizer. Once you give them some time to express themselves and grow closer to the rest of the main cast, they deepen and latch onto your heart. Learning about why Lid NEEDS money, why Lasswell pushes himself so hard, and about Fina’s past connects you to these characters just as deeply as the greatest of Final Fantasy entries. What shocked me immensely was that the character writing isn’t only relegated to the main story scenes, but side quests and Active Chats offer even more characterization and tidbits about life in Lapis.
Resonance also doesn’t stop at just making its main cast well written, as this trickles down to the villains and supporting cast as well. Many of the game’s sidequests involve fan-favorite generic units that appeared in the gacha of Brave Exvius. It’s nice to see them have their own minor storylines that flesh out the world even more; plus, several characters like Amelia the maid assassin are acquired as a minor vision once you complete the mandatory main story segments and the necessary side quests. I won’t spoil that much, but learning more about the Sworn Six of Paladia is a huge thing I’m super appreciative of in the story. Just like the main cast, when the Varitas of the various elements appear to wreak havoc, you get the impression that all they are is an imposing villain group meant to be stopped. However, as you learn about the people beneath the armor, you can really begin to understand their motivations, despite many of them having a death grip on hate. Truly, the characters that populate Lapis, big, small, important, and insignificant, are quite easy to resonate with.
Resonates Deeply
Final Fantasy Resonance is truly a borderline masterpiece, with everything I could ever want from a fully fledged Final Fantasy title. Some may try to pass this top-notch experience off as nostalgia bait or overlook it as a mobile spinoff remake, but it’s so much more than pixels and nostalgia. Like any Final Fantasy worth its salt, Final Fantasy Resonance pushes the boundaries it lives within. Battles are snappy, exciting, and tactical, with the Vision system adding a deep level of character building that’s satisfying beyond belief as it expands over the playtime.
The characters, story, and tone are completely nailed, perfectly balancing the lighter and heavier moments through the various arcs, leaving a feeling of fulfillment that only classic FF can deliver. Characters are multi-faceted, with each party member having fun quirks and deeper motivation. This trickles down to many of the villains as well, with a great level of humanization that doesn’t disrupt their antagonist status. Side quests not only build up the world in greater detail but also flesh out both side and main characters where the main plot isn’t present, giving even optional scenes weight. Even the HD-2D wrapper that envelopes it is pushed to the highest potential possible, with extravagant framing and animations aplenty. Cutscenes look amazing, with more action and flair than any other HD-2D game packed in every nook and cranny.
The only things preventing perfection are some smaller aspects of the game’s design. Personally, I find the UI generally uninspired, but inoffensive, until it comes to the battle UI. The action timeline is fine, but the little character info cards look out of place and have a poor font choice. Aspects of the minimap and quest tracking are also a touch infuriating if left on, with new locations and quest goals laid out obviously. On one hand, this makes it easier to navigate, but on the other, discovery suffers. Advertising loved showing off the “pixelated CGI” cutscenes, but that shader could have honestly used a bit more polish to make the aesthetic work better. Lastly, I do believe that the direct lifting of Brave Exvius’s plot may be a sticking point against Resonance for some, possibly preventing it from landing as hard to those familiar with the original.
In the end, though, Final Fantasy Resonance is absolutely phenomenal, with only the most minor of quibbles and design ethics holding it back. If a few parts of the experience were tightened up and if the game were an entirely original concept, it’d be perfect beyond a doubt. The characters, music, combat, and excellent content will keep fans, including myself, coming back and yearning for more.
Disclaimer: Square Enix provided a PlayStation 5 copy of Final Fantasy Resonance for review purposes.
