Final Fantasy has never been made in HD-2D. Not once, across every pixel-art revival and remaster Square Enix has shipped.
That changes Oct. 22.
Final Fantasy Resonance is the first entry in the series to get the treatment, the one that combines 2D pixel art with three-dimensional environments and dynamic lighting effects. The style debuted with 2018’s Octopath Traveler. Earlier this year, Square Enix’s action RPG The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales pushed it in some endearing new directions.
Resonance takes it a step further, and it does so with a turn-based story about crystals that imagines a world where Final Fantasy games kept testing the limits of pixel art in the late ’90s and beyond.
A timeline where the sprites never went away
The source material is stranger than the pitch suggests. Resonance is based on the first season of Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, the 2016 mobile game. Yes, that one. The one with Ariana Grande and Katy Perry as summons.
But this isn’t a port, and it isn’t a straightforward remake either. Square Enix is calling it an expanded and enhanced version of the story, built to deliver something richer than a copy-paste of a phone game into a console box.
Ahead of the October launch, the publisher has shared new details on the world, the cast and the way heroes from past Final Fantasy games will lend their power to this one.
If your loyalty runs to the SNES era, you’re getting chocobos, espers and airships back.
The empire is up to something, obviously
Resonance splits its world into nations powered by crystals. The Zoldaad Empire is a military state and home to the fire crystal, and it’s behaving exactly how you’d expect a Final Fantasy empire to behave.
“According to rumors, Zoldaad plans to use the airships and magitek weaponry they’ve mass-produced in recent years to invade neighboring countries,” said Square Enix in a press release.
On the other side of the map sits Mysidia, an advanced magical city and home of the Ice Crystal, which is said to exist only in legend. Longtime players will clock the name. Mysidia was also the mage-packed city in FF4.
A mysterious city full of mages is a JRPG trope I will never tire of, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise.
Meet Jake and Sakura
Zoldaad and Mysidia each produce one of the game’s two new main characters.
Square Enix describes Jake as “The leader of the rebel army opposing the Zoldaad Empire. Though Jake comes off as breezy and easily distracted by the fairer sex, within his chest is a heart that beats fervently for his countrymen, and he will do whatever it takes to end their suffering under the empire’s boot. In battle, Jake makes Lady Luck his ally, fighting with chancy abilities such as Coin Toss and Gamble Shot.”
Read that and tell me you don’t see FF6’s Edgar and Setzer stitched together. I’m not mad about it.
Sakura, the one with the purple pigtails, is harder to pin down. She “appears to be a young girl, her true age is unknown. As she speaks in a manner that suggests an ancient soul, many believe her to be far older than she seems… Sakura possesses an immense magical prowess that places her a cut above other mages. Her true origins and identity, however, are a mystery.”
Sounds like FF6’s Terra with a little FF4’s Rydia mixed in.
How the fighting actually works
Combat is turn-based, and party members get Limit Bursts, heavy attacks tied to a gauge that fills when enemies are staggered or when the character takes damage.
Espers return as summonable allies, with names you already know: Carbuncle, Odin, Leviathan and Bahamut.
The genuinely new piece is Visions. These are crystalized essences of legendary heroes that get equipped to fight alongside protagonist Rain and his companions, and they grow stronger the more you use them.
Stagger every enemy in a single turn and you trigger a Resonance with a Vision, which unleashes an exceptionally devastating attack. Think of it as a bigger Limit Break, specific to that character.
To get vision crystals, you’ll be visiting the Sanctums of Light scattered around the world.
Some of these heroes you’ll recognize instantly
Certain Visions belong to this world alone. Each main character seems to carry a handful, like Jake’s gun-toting maid Amelia and Sakura’s white mage pal, Ayaka.
Others are pulled straight from the series’ back catalog. FF3’s Onion Knight. FF12’s Vaan. FF13’s Lightning. FF15’s Noctis. FF16’s Clive. And more beyond those.
For the players who want to suffer
Plenty of Final Fantasy players show up for the optional punishment, and Resonance is packing numerous superbosses and secret dungeons for them.
“Though unrelated to the main story, these dungeons offer the perfect chance for those looking to test their mettle,” Square Enix teases.
Final Fantasy Resonance arrives Oct. 22 on Nintendo Switch, Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Windows PC and Xbox Series X.
As for whether the pop princesses make the trip over from the mobile game, there’s no official word yet on Ariana and Katy joining the cast this time around.
