《Final Fantasy Resonance》评测：致最终幻想40周年的一封情书

At first, I was skeptical about Final Fantasy Resonance. Turning a mobile game story into a full console RPG seemed like it might just be a cash grab. But after spending about 89 hours finishing the story and almost all the side content, I realized I was completely wrong.

Final Fantasy Resonance is one of the most enjoyable turn-based RPGs I’ve played in a long time. It reminded me why I ended up falling in love with Final Fantasy to begin with.

It Wouldn’t Be Final Fantasy Without a Wonderful Band of Misfits

The story centers on Rain and Lasswell, two young warriors drawn into a battle to protect their world’s crystals. As they travel, more and more colorful allies join them on their quest.

Rain is a genuinely good-hearted main character who always tries to do the right thing, but the real strength of the story comes from the group around him. The party has great chemistry, mixing comedy with the game’s emotional moments. Even the villains have enough depth that you can understand their motivations, instead of just seeing them as typical world-ending bad guys.

The world isn’t weighed down by too much lore. Instead, Resonance focuses on its characters, their relationships, and their personal stories.

Stagger First, Ask Questions Later

What really won me over was the combat. Resonance uses a classic turn-based system with a timeline that shows upcoming actions, similar to Final Fantasy X. This lets you plan for big enemy attacks and decide whether to heal, buff your party, or go all out to stagger the enemy first.

Staggering isn’t just a way to do extra damage—it’s essential. Elemental weaknesses make stagger damage much higher, so choosing your party and preparing well really matters, especially in boss fights. Even regular enemies in a dungeon can give you indications about which elements will help against the boss. There’s an interesting tradeoff, though. Many of your best attacks use MP, so battles can turn into repeating the same abilities while you try to save enough MP to reach the next inn or save point and use a tent.

Visions also add a lot more depth to the battle system. As you play, you meet famous characters from Final Fantasy history who become Visions. Their appearances are definitely meant to spark nostalgia, and that’s exactly the idea.

Finding their shrines, seeing scenes from their games, hearing their stories, and watching them show up during flashy Resonance attacks always made me smile. The first time I met the Warrior of Light was when Resonance really clicked for me.

More Than Just a Trip Down Memory Lane

More importantly, Visions aren’t just cameos. As you level them up, you unlock abilities you can use in your character builds, which encourages you to experiment beyond each character’s given role. For example, Lasswell is a Breaker, but you can equip the Warrior of Light Vision and give him a blend of Sentinel and Breaker abilities. By the end of the game, I was mixing abilities like Reckless Abandonment and Magic Barrage with powerful spells like Ultima, Meteor, and Flare. This lets me build combos that can unleash repeatedly while still finding ways to heal or restore MP.

Not every party member gets the same benefit from that flexibility. Characters with strong natural abilities, like Nichol’s buffs and Lasswell’s stagger skills, were hard for me to take out of the party, even though other characters could technically fill similar elemental roles using Visions.

Resonances work like impressive limit breaks that you trigger through the stagger system. They’re strong enough to be essential against tough bosses, and even though I saw some of the animations many times, I usually watched them instead of skipping.

Espers, on the other hand, don’t have as much impact as I expected. I mostly used them as temporary distractions to soak up enemy attacks, rather than the powerful summons I thought they would be.

Final Fantasy Through a Modern Pixel Lens

Outside of combat, exploring is still rewarding because of concealed passages, treasures, optional bosses, ancient weapons, the Colosseum, and Vision shrines you can find around the world. Chocobos help you get around early on, and fast travel makes it easy to revisit places you’ve already discovered.

All of this is presented with impressive pixel art. The characters and environments keep a retro look but exist in detailed 3D spaces, and some cutscenes look surprisingly modern while still using the pixel style. The soundtrack might not be the very best in the series, but it’s still excellent. Overall, the visuals and music perfectly capture the feeling the game is going for.

That blend of nostalgia, strategy, and character-driven storytelling is what really makes Final Fantasy Resonance stand out.

With Final Fantasy nearing its 40th anniversary, Resonance feels like a celebration of the time when turn-based RPGs defined the series, but it doesn’t just copy the past. The combat is strategic and fun; the Vision system encourages you to experiment, and the cast provides the character-driven heart that makes the best Final Fantasy games memorable. If you don’t like turn-based RPGs, this game probably won’t change your mind. But for longtime Final Fantasy fans, this is much more than simply a nostalgic side project.

It’s one of the best Final Fantasy experiences in recent years.

Rating: 4.5/5 atoms

Final Fantasy Resonance hits Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and PS5 on October 22nd.

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