《最终幻想 Resonance》评测——往昔之链

Final Fantasy 4 was one of the first games I ever truly loved. I remember when, back in my earliest gaming days, I dove into the classic RPG’s Game Boy Advance port, and was completely enthralled by it. It swept me way with its epic fantasy tale, its vast and memorable cast of characters, its compelling role playing and exploration mechanics, its engaging turn based battles, and so much more.

Years and years later, it remains one of the best games I have ever played, and one that continues to shape my tastes in RPGs and games as a whole.

"This is an old school RPG through and through"

I’m telling you all this because ever since I played Final Fantasy 4 more than two decades ago, I’ve been desperately hoping for the Final Fantasy franchise to deliver another brand new experience that tries to stick to those retro roots- and very rarely has the franchise even attempted to do that, much less done it successfully.

Final Fantasy Resonance, however, changes that. This is an old school RPG through and through, and it evokes the highs of the franchise’s older era in all the ways you would expect- gorgeous pixel art visuals, spectacular music, captivating turn based battles, a globe trotting journey, a vast and colourful cast of heroes. Final Fantasy Resonance doesn’t break new ground, no, but it does deliver a compelling Final Fantasy experience that perfectly toes the line between retro and modern, while also feeling like a wonderful celebration of the series as a whole.

Final Fantasy Resonance tells the story of Rain, a knight of the kingdom of Grandshelt and the commander of an airship squadron. As the game begins, in classic old school Final Fantasy fashion, Rain and his deputy commander Lasswell are dispatched by the King of Grandshelt to one of eight crystals scattered across the land that together protect the fabric of the world and its existence. Trouble quickly arises, however, when a menacing knight clad in black named Umbra and his companions, together known as the Sworn Six, arrive on the scene.

Not only do Umbra and the Sworn Six swiftly destroy Rain and Lasswell’s entire squadron, but in a terrifying show of strength, they also shatter the Earth Crystal. Rain, Lasswell, and a mysterious, amnesiac girl named Fina – who comes to their aid against the Sword Six in the nick of time – soon set out on a sweeping, globetrotting quest to unravel and put a stop to the plans of Umbra and the Sworn Six.

There isn’t much that Final Fantasy Resonance is doing from a narrative and storytelling perspective that we haven’t seen countless times before in RPGs, and even in Final Fantasy games. That is, of course, very much the point here though. From a noble knight protagonist and an amnesiac girl to elemental crystals and more, Final Fantasy Resonance ropes in a great many familiar elements, but it makes use of all of them confidently and in fairly compelling ways.

Not one of the major elements of the storytelling here – not the writing, not the voice acting, nor the twists and turns along the way – ever exceeds or subverts expectations, and yet the experience consistently remains sufficiently engaging. Whether to see the cast expand with new and colourful personalities, or to discover more about how Rain and co’s quest connects to an ancient war between the forces of magic and technology, I was consistently actually invested (or at least invested enough) in the story.

"There isn’t much that Final Fantasy Resonance is doing from a narrative and storytelling perspective that we haven’t seen countless times before"

That said, much more so than the solid yet decidedly by the numbers story, one of several things that will truly compel you to keep playing Final Fantasy Resonance is its world. The game features a classic RPG overworld (complete with random battles), allowing you to move your character sprite (on foot, on chocobo steeds, or, later, in airships) across a diaroma-esque map of a large and varied world with lots to do and plenty of room for exploration.

Across its meaty runtime (which can be significantly meatier depending on how much you’re engaging with the side content), Resonance takes you to various different biomes and a smattering of towns and cities, from deserts and grand castles to lush grasslands, mining towns, and more.

Exploration always remains enjoyable and, for the most part, rewarding. There’s plenty of optional and hidden dungeons to find, side missions to tackle (a surprising number of which are better than you’d expect), collectibles to hunt down, and quite a bit more. Exploring towns is also always a highlight, whether you’re raiding chests and conversing with townsfolk or simply admiring the sights in the many different cities and villages you visit throughout your journey. Fans of RPGs in particular will find plenty to love here, as far as the exploration department is concerned.

Also scattered throughout the world are locations known as Sanctums of Light, which serve as the vehicle for one of Final Fantasy Resonance’s central mechanics- Visions. Each Sanctum houses a Vision crystal that gets you access to a Vision- an avatar of a hero pulled in from a different world in a different dimension. Essentially, each Vision is a protagonist from a different mainline Final Fantasy title, and after showing and recapping their stories, each crystal lets you add a Vision to your growing roster.

From Cloud to Terra, there’s several different visions to track down and collect. You can equip one to each character in your party, and these effectively almost serve as a job system. Each Vision has their own abilities and special attacks, which you unlock more of as they level up alongside the character that they’re equipped to.

Of course, you always have the option to swap Visions as you see fit, while you can also set the abilities a character has unlocked with them to that character’s own moveset, all of which also allows for plenty of flexibility and opportunities for mixing and matching.

"From Cloud to Terra, there’s several different visions to track down and collect."

On top of all of that, the characters in your party also level up and gain new abilities and enhanced stats of their own, while you also always have to ensure that they have the best equipment (or the best that you can afford, at the very least). Between all of that, there’s plenty to juggle and keep an eye on where Final Fantasy Resonance’s progression mechanics are concerned, with an impressive level of player expression, flexibility, and mechanical depth on display.

The combat is equally impressive, if not even more so. Like in other areas, Resonance harkens back to the series’ older era with a turn based combat system, but it’s one that’s deceptively deep and compelling. There’s no ATB system in play, which means at its core, this is a plain and simple turn based system- but there’s plenty else that adds layers of strategy and complexity to the proceedings.

Like Final Fantasy 10, you have a timeline of the battle to keep an eye on in every skrimish on top of the screen, which means keeping a close eye on the order of upcoming moves and, in turn, knowing which enemies to prioritize focusing on with your attacks, is always key.

Each enemy also has a stagger bar, and once staggered, as you’d expect, they become significantly more vulnerable to damage. Finding each enemy’s elemental weakness and staggering them also becomes central to combat, then, especially thanks to sweeping staggers, which is when you successfully stagger all foes in a single round.

Stagger a single enemy, and the character who did it gets a bonus turn at the end of that round, while accomplishing a sweeping stagger lets all characters in your party partake in the aforementioned bonus round. Meanwhile, sweeping staggers also let you unleash all-out attacks known as Resonances at the end of your turn, which are special attacks unleashed by one of the Visions you currently have equipped in your party.

Then there’s limit breaks, summons (known as espers here), and plenty more- all of which is to say that between all of that, combat in Final Fantasy Resonance certainly has a lot going on, and in no way ever feels simplistic or stagnant.

Though it retains all the strategic and deliberate charms of turn based mechanics, Resonance’s combat also feels genuinely dynamic and explosive. There’s truly something incredibly satisfying about maintaining long streaks and chains of attacks with critical hits, staggers and sweeping staggers, resonances, bonus attacks, limit breaks, and more to unleash devastating combos of moves on foes, all without letting them get a single attack of their own in.

"Though it retains all the strategic and deliberate charms of turn based mechanics, Resonance’s combat also feels genuinely dynamic and explosive."

Though FF Resonance can definitely be a challenging game when it wants to be, it’s also one that does let you play with (and even break) its systems in a way that will let you overpower enemies (hell, it even encourages it)- and I absolutely love it for that. It’s difficult not to admire the confidence with which it presents its many systems, knowing that they do boast the level of depth required to keep players genuinely engaged.

Meanwhile, at the end of every battle, you can also get little performance based bonus rewards, like extra gil for taking no damage throughout the entire encounter, or boosted progression for your Visions if you end the battle with a move that staggers a foe- and those little dopamine hits also never lose their charm.

Another area where the game shines is its visuals. It should be no surprise at this point that HD-2D games look as good as they do- because they consistently have, and no FF Resonance doesn’t buck that trend. That is, of course, Final Fantasy’s first ever HD-2D outing- but certainly not the last, I’m hoping.

This game is absolutely gorgeous, and through stunning environments, dynamic camerawork, expressive pixel art, and solid cutscenes that perfectly showcase the game’s charming diorama-esque look, it keeps finding ways to highlight just how visually stunning it is. Also worthy of a shoutout is the excellent soundtrack, which is full of typically incredible tracks that won’t take long to worm their way into your ears.

In more ways than one, Final Fantasy Resonance really does feel like a celebration of the franchise, and especially of its history- whether that’s with its central Visions mechanic, the excellent turn based combat system, the gorgeous pixel art HD-2D visuals, or something else. This is a wonderful, meaty, nostalgia-fueled experience that knows exactly how to echo the biggest strengths of Final Fantasy’s retro golden age, while still feeling modern and polished in the way you would want from a new, contemporary Final Fantasy title.

Sure, it wouldn’t exactly be accurate to call this game innovating or subversive in any way- what you see is exactly what you get here. But what you’re getting is a well design, addictive, mechanically deep, and expansive old school RPG that genre fans absolutely will not want to miss. The wait for an HD-2D Final Fantasy title has been a long one, and the one for a major brand new turn based entry in the franchise even longer, but thankfully, Final Fantasy Resonance is well worth the wait on both those fronts.

This game was reviewed on PlayStation 5.