Final Fantasy Resonance is a game about trying to be two things at once. It is a turn-based RPG that wants to feel fresh while leaning heavily on the past. The result is a project that takes the job system from Final Fantasy 5 and the distinct characters from Final Fantasy 6 and mixes them together as a single experiment. It is a bold move, and it is also an adaptation of a mobile game called Brave Exvius.
Combat System
The combat system in Final Fantasy Resonance is the clearest place where the developers are reaching for something new. According to Resonance producer Keisuke Nakashima, the idea started as a simple question:
“What if we take the job system from Final Fantasy 5 and the unique characteristics of each character in Final Fantasy 6, what would that look like?”
That is exactly what the team built. They took the stagger system and rebuilt it, folding in the individual traits of characters from Final Fantasy 6. The result, Nakashima says, is a system that offers both distinct characters and room for customization.
The idea has not been attempted before. The developers had to do research and innovate to make it work.
Vision System
The other major nod to the past is the Vision system. These are summonable characters from across the Final Fantasy series, one for each game from the very first Final Fantasy through Final Fantasy XVI. They first appeared in Brave Exvius, and they have a narrative reason to exist in that game.
But when that mobile title was turned into a single-player game, there was a moment when they almost did not make the cut. Resonance director Hiroto Furuya told Kotaku that the team considered leaving the Final Fantasy series characters out entirely.
“There was a time in development where we explored leaving the Final Fantasy series characters out,” Furuya said. “However, we ultimately landed on incorporating them, even though there is difficulty in intermixing their worldview with ours.”
The decision came down to spectacle. Furuya pointed to Cloud’s Cross-Slash and the bombastic CG sequences as examples of what drew the team to the idea. The Vision system delivers on the spectacle and fun that the developers were drawn to.
Story Tweaks
The story of Final Fantasy Resonance stays largely the same as Brave Exvius. It has been reorganized for better flow, with certain events moved around and some locations made grander. Battles have been reworked, and new scenes have been added to the story.
Nakashima notes that the original mobile game was known for having a fairly grim story, featuring what he describes as a lot of “negative” scenes. No major changes have been made to the overarching plot, but there are slight embellishments to try to balance the tone.
“We’ve maintained the overall storyline,” Nakashima says. “However, we’ve incorporated more neutral scenes or positive scenes and interspersed them to kind of balance it.”
The public demo shows this approach in action. Specific characters like the Esper Siren and the Grandshelt knight Emma have been integrated directly into the story in Chapter 1. In Brave Exvius, these were separate “character episodes” that players could unlock through a gacha system. Now those details and narrative beats sit inside the main story.
New Scenes and Cutscenes
The most obvious brand-new addition is a handful of lavishly animated cutscenes for key story moments. These are noticeably higher-quality than the game’s basic scenes, and Nakashima confirms they are supposed to feel a bit like the CG cutscenes of older Final Fantasy games, which highlighted big moments.
The demo opens with one of these, huge and bombastic in setting the stakes and tone of the game. To achieve this, Furuya says they started with a 3D environment, then placed the pixel-based characters on top of that, and then layered the camera work on top.
Then there is a trick to help match the motion and action of the scenes. Furuya explained how the team made it work:
“We created it in a way where, following the character movements, we replaced the pixels so it would kind of match the movement of the cameras to create that dynamic 3D feel. Once we have the motion, the scene set in place, then we apply post effects like lighting, blur, or shadow.”
The effect is a blend of retro and modern. The game uses the HD-2D visual style that has become Team Asano’s calling card, mixing retro 16-bit sprites with modern graphical effects.
Legacy Question
Final Fantasy Resonance is a game that exists partly because of where the series went. For years, the franchise leaned toward action games. Now it is going back to its turn-based roots.
As the first turn-based single-player entry in years, Resonance has the unenviable task of feeling both new and old at once. It is also co-developed by Square Enix’s Team Asano, the studio behind the HD-2D games.
“As a foundation, it’s very important [for us that] we have knowledge of Final Fantasy’s history and its past,” Furuya says. “But we’re also gamers at heart, so of course we play the latest games that are available outside of Final Fantasy. We have the sensibility of knowing Final Fantasy’s history, as well as the general feeling of playing more modern games.”
That sensibility shows in the combat system, the Visions system, and the story work. The developers are not just reaching for nostalgia. They are trying to build something that respects the past while serving the present.
What Remains Intact
The story of Final Fantasy Resonance is mostly the same as Brave Exvius. The core plot has not changed, and the major events still happen in the same order. The team has simply rearranged some scenes and added new ones to improve pacing and tone.
The gacha-style character episodes have been folded into the main story. Specific details from those episodes have been carried over into Resonance’s main narrative.
The Vision system is a different matter. It is a new feature that was born in the mobile game, and it has been kept in the adaptation. The team chose to include it despite the challenge of mixing its worldview with the game’s own.
Bottom Line
Final Fantasy Resonance is a game that knows what it is doing. It is an adaptation of a mobile game, but it is not a simple port. The team has taken the source material and rebuilt it, adding new scenes, new cutscenes, and a new battle system.
The job system from Final Fantasy 5 and the character traits from Final Fantasy 6 are combined in a way that has never been attempted before. That is a genuine experiment, and it is one that the developers are proud of.
The Vision system brings characters from across the series into battle. The story has been reorganized and lightened. The cutscenes are spectacular.
This is a game that respects its history while reaching for something new. It is a game that understands the pull of nostalgia while refusing to be trapped by it. Final Fantasy Resonance is a bold adaptation, and it looks like it is worth playing.
Source material: “Final Fantasy Resonance’s Combat Was An ‘Experiment’ To Combine FF5’s Job System with FF6’s Unique Characters,” Kotaku.
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