Final Fantasy Resonance: We Played the First Turn-Based HD-2D FF Game | IGN Exclusive Preview

A turn-based HD-2D Final Fantasy, huh. It’s hard to judge it’s real. As idiosyncratic who grew up connected old-school Final Fantasy games and JRPGs, it's besides hard to judge I was capable to play Final Fantasy Resonance for astir 3 hours astatine Square Enix arsenic portion of an IGN exclusive. From the struggles of finishing Final Fantasy IV and VI erstwhile I was conscionable 5 years aged to the hundreds of hours I proceed to happily put successful Final Fantasy XIV, and everything successful between, the bid continues to assistance signifier me. So, to spot it benignant of horseshoe backmost astir to its origins present successful 2026 with turn-based combat and expressive pixel creation for a full, console-style RPG is chaotic to see. I person a ton of details to interruption down, but I'll preface this by saying successful a twelvemonth packed with promising games, Final Fantasy Resonance is the 1 I'm looking guardant to most.

To acceptable things up a bit, Resonance is an adaptation of Brave Exvius, the Final Fantasy mobile crippled that shuttered successful 2025, which had a 10-year run. And to beryllium abundantly clear, determination are nary microtransactions; Resonance is not a gacha game. Now, you mightiness beryllium reasoning this is similar however Octopath Traveler 0 was a revamp of the mobile crippled Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent – however, Resonance is simply a batch different. This is not a larboard oregon adjacent a remake of Brave Exvius, alternatively it serves arsenic the communicative instauration with a full caller combat strategy and overworld. Its communicative has been tuned for a accepted RPG that's informed by Brave Exvius' archetypal play with everything other built from the crushed up. It's got airships, chocobos, the summons you cognize and love, and an HD-2D creation benignant that's much elaborate than what we've seen before.

This is not a larboard oregon adjacent a remake of Brave Exvius, alternatively it serves arsenic the communicative instauration with a full caller combat strategy and overworld.“

Resonance follows the main protagonist Rain, a good-natured knight from the Kingdom of Grandshelt who has a analyzable narration with his begetter who is besides the king. And aboriginal connected his radical of friends articulation the combat to support the world's magic crystals from being destroyed by the Veritas of the Dark. This radical includes Lasswell, a no-nonsense knight and Rain's puerility champion friend, Lid who's an aspiring maestro technologist pursuing the footsteps of each Cid earlier her, and Fina an amnesiac who's a summoner tied to the crystals that sphere the world. It's immoderate existent Final Fantasy setup going connected here, and if you've played Brave Exvius, past this volition each dependable familiar.

In the demo I played, I got to research a spot of the overworld which is divided into aggregate continents divided by water, sojourn the municipality of Dwarves Forge wherever you're greeted with a hearty Lali-ho, implicit a afloat communicative dungeon on with a large brag fight. It seems similar a much lighthearted and colorful escapade disconnected the bat and the much playful dependable acting besides supports this conception of a brighter benignant of drama. It besides reminds maine of the caller Dragon Quest remakes successful HD-2D successful presumption of its tone, and Resonance plays up its goofy broadside rather a bit, though similar each things Final Fantasy, I'm definite it has a darker broadside astir the corner.

The dungeon I completed had maine tracking down Borin, a maestro technologist who Lid has an affinity for, since he's gone missing from Dwarves' Forge. The Dwarves accidental he's been kidnapped, and you already cognize he's being taken for his talents and being coerced to bash immoderate mysterious evil deeds. This leads you to the Mobliz Shipyard, a maze-like dungeon that has immoderate airy puzzles, communicative cutscenes, a timed flight sequence, and a sick brag combat against a monolithic motorbike with laser cannons portion riding connected a speeding freight train.

So, let's speech astir combat itself. Resonance does not usage an ATB system, and alternatively opts for a consecutive crook bid displayed astatine the apical of the screen. Enemies person a stagger metre that builds with each hit, and they instrumentality connected much stagger harm erstwhile you deed their elemental weakness. It's benignant of similar a turn-based twist connected what we've seen successful Final Fantasy XIII oregon VII Remake. Elemental affinities are a immense portion of combat, truthful having the breadth of elements covered successful your enactment creation is important. But you're not conscionable swapping successful the close enactment members to screen this; alternatively you person what are called Visions – you tin deliberation of these arsenic personas from the Persona bid oregon JoJo Stands that each quality tin equip, each of which travel with their ain skillset to bring further powers to each enactment member.

While galore of the Visions are archetypal characters, 1 of the large appeals of Brave Exvius and ostensibly Resonance, is that each mainline introduction successful Final Fantasy is represented by a prima quality who shows up arsenic an equippable Vision. For example, Y'shtola from Final Fantasy XIV is simply a Vision who brings h2o and healing spells, portion Cloud from Final Fantasy VII comes with a assortment of thunder spells and hard-hitting carnal attacks. They bash not replace the movesets of enactment members who person them equipped and alternatively adhd extent to what they're susceptible of.

So, successful a battle, you should beryllium aiming to stagger enemies due to the fact that enactment members who stagger an force are granted an other crook successful a bonus phase. And if you stagger each enemies, you tin besides telephone upon 1 of the 4 Visions equipped successful your enactment to bash the all-out attack-style Resonance to inflict a ton of harm oregon bring immoderate overmuch needed enactment successful pugnacious situations. When you enactment up each the close spells and attacks on with staggering enemies and calling upon Visions, battles tin snowball into a relentless bid of large harm numbers.

Each mainline introduction successful Final Fantasy is represented by a prima quality who shows up arsenic an equippable Vision. “

Calling upon Visions is accompanied by these bespoke CGI cuts, similar the animations that play erstwhile utilizing summons successful older Final Fantasies, but I find them kinda awkward – not due to the fact that they don't look cool, but it creates this weird uncanny vale betwixt abrupt CGI cinematic playing and astonishing pixel creation of the existent game. It feels retired of place, but it's 1 of those things wherever you ticker it the archetypal fewer times, but yet skip each clip afterward. However, the existent pixel creation for Visions is fantastic – seeing their ethereal beingness backing up each enactment subordinate looks beauteous sick, but besides their in-engine animations bring them to beingness successful a caller mode that you didn't get successful their archetypal games. In summation to Y'shtola and Cloud, I besides saw the Warrior of Light from Final Fantasy I, Terra from Final Fantasy VI, Zidane from Final Fantasy IX, and Shantotto from Final Fantasy XI. And I can't hold to spot the remainder of the series' stars manifest arsenic Visions successful Resonance.

Another absorbing twist to combat is that Fina is simply a existent summoner, the lone 1 who tin telephone upon Espers to travel into battle, making her a genuinely unsocial enactment member. While I was lone to usage Siren from the start, the songstress who tin heal and enactment similar nary other, I besides got to enlistee the lightning deity Ramuh. In Resonance, you unlock caller Espers by uncovering them successful optional dungeons and warring them successful a pugnacious brag battle. They're tucked distant successful corners of the overworld, and it's 1 of the ways it taps into the old-school exploration. You'll privation to bash this not conscionable due to the fact that they look chill successful combat, but due to the fact that they deepen Fina's capabilities and tin crook the tide erstwhile called into battle.

The aforesaid goes for the Visions from Final Fantasy's legacy. You find these shrines successful the overworld and are treated to this dream-like montage of scenes from the precise Final Fantasy that Vision is from. You're past asked to reply a bid of questions related to the communicative of that quality and their crippled earlier unlocking them, arsenic this benignant of ode to the series. I'm not wholly definite however the answers impact things, but it's a neat small quiz that contextualizes your answers to trial your representation of the bid (beware of spoilers if you haven't played them, since they summarize the communicative and amusement scenes from those games).

So overmuch revolves astir Visions and strategically equipping them for battle. Each 1 levels up individually the much you usage them and person progression tracks to unlock further spells, attacks, and passive buffs. While each Vision tin beryllium attached to immoderate enactment member, there's immoderate wide advantages to uncovering a bully pairing that tin complement a character's halfway abilities. If there's 1 introduction to constituent to arsenic inspiration, it's Final Fantasy V – successful an interrogation with shaper Keisuke Nakashima and manager Hiroto Furuya which you tin work present connected IGN later, they often pointed to Final Fantasy V arsenic 1 of their idiosyncratic favorites and however overmuch they loved its Job system. These games stock a level of flexibility that I truly bask successful RPGs, and I anticipation this leads to a deeper acquisition that evolves beyond simply accounting for elemental affinities.

As I said astatine the top, I'm looking guardant to Final Fantasy Resonance much than thing other successful the twelvemonth truthful far. Not due to the fact that I'm convinced that it lives up to the legacy, but due to the fact that it's a fascinating determination that galore of america person been looking for – a turn-based Final Fantasy with slick HD-2D stylings. It's got euphony with classical bid leitmotifs, the full Brave Exvius soundtrack on with 33 caller songs arsenic well. Octopath Traveler has much oregon little taken up the mantle arsenic the modern-classic RPG, and if you cognize me, you cognize that I won't unopen up astir however overmuch I adore Octopath 2 and Octopath 0. The Final Fantasy sanction comes with definite expectations, however. And not that I'm expecting it to deed maine emotionally similar Octopath oregon the mainline Final Fantasy games, but this thought of adapting stories from mobile games to a accepted format is truthful astute successful preserving those stories and bringing them to an assemblage that wouldn't person experienced them different – I mean, I'm devastated astatine the thought of missing retired connected the communicative Octopath 0 (and possibly Nier Reincarnation is owed for the aforesaid treatment).

But hey, for now, Final Fantasy Resonance seems to beryllium doing thing the bid has needed for a while. It's got the condiment from the 3 hours I played of what's said to beryllium a 30-40 hr crippled (or 60-80 hours for completionists), and I can't hold to play much erstwhile it launches connected October 22 this twelvemonth for PlayStation, Xbox, PC, and Nintendo Switch 1 and 2.

Michael Higham is an exertion astatine IGN who regularly contributes with reviews, previews, features, and quality successful written and video form. He's usually entrusted with covering agelong RPGs and tech products, but he's got scope erstwhile it comes to games. You'll besides drawback him astatine events and hosting video content, including IGN's play podcast Unlocked.