I had few expectations going into Final Fantasy Resonance, the premium sport primarily based on Sq. Enix’s cellular gacha Courageous Exvius. These expectations lowered within the first 10 hours, because of its frankly atrocious writing. However after clearing many of the story and approaching the endgame, I discover I’ve modified stances completely. Resonance is all the things Closing Fantasy has struggled to realize over the higher a part of 20 years — assured, modern, participating, and, most significantly, utterly and unashamedly itself. It is the blueprint Sq. Enix must comply with for the collection’ future.
No matter Resonance‘s faults, and there are numerous, it is a Closing Fantasy sport that cares little for something outdoors itself. It is not battling some existential disaster about what a Closing Fantasy sport must be, or make it “related” for contemporary audiences. There is not any craven devotion to the previous or some vaguely shaped notion of legacy. It is arguably even much less involved with legacy than Bravely Default, which, regardless of some intelligent makes use of of traditional Closing Fantasy, nonetheless depends closely on the collection’ bygone period.
Okay, there’s some craven devotion to the previous in Resonance, like when it throws out “spoony bard” or different painfully on-the-nose references. However as soon as it settles into its groove after the mid-game, Resonance is simply itself, for higher and worse. A number of planets? Witches turning into chocobos? Zombies, magic, and science coexisting with out anybody batting an eye fixed? Positive, why not. Something goes, and Resonance is assured sufficient in its personal logic to tie all the things collectively so it feels pure as an alternative of discordant.
If you happen to’re questioning why that type of confidence issues, take into consideration the previous 15 years of mainline Closing Fantasy. It is a interval characterised by uncertainty and self-doubt. For Closing Fantasy 13, Sq. Enix prioritized status over all else and delivered one of many loosest tales within the collection that took two (equally free) sequels to type out. Then they sacrificed Final Fantasy 15 to the transmedia gods, splitting it into a number of elements distributed throughout books, films, an anime collection, and video games, as a result of that is What Media Did on the time. It capitulated to open-world tendencies with out actually needing to, as properly. Sure, driving round an enormous world actually underscores the bromance street journey really feel of all of it. However there’s a lot empty house and never rather a lot to do, so I at all times really feel like the sport is actively making an attempt to make me not get pleasure from it. Final Fantasy 16 suffered the most from this approach, with its seemingly mandated 30-hour size, Sony-style motion, and compulsory darkish fantasy inclusions like swearing and nudity — all attribute of contemporary gaming, however not Closing Fantasy. Sq. Enix squandered alternatives by worrying an excessive amount of about making its flagship collection trendy and interesting, when it did not have to tick any bins. It simply wanted to be itself.
Resonance is proof that you do not want over-the-shoulder motion or pointless tweaks to battle programs to maintain Closing Fantasy related. Resonance‘s handful of adjustments to the collection’ traditional job system — new fight roles, completely different spells, and a deal with staff builds over particular person ones — are sufficient to utterly refresh it. The world map introduces a component of non-linearity with out bogging down the expertise. Later aspect quests develop on character improvement and subplots with out requiring dozens of hours of animation, modeling, and voice work — or a full sequel — to elucidate itself. It is essentially the most trendy Closing Fantasy’s felt since FF12.
In equity to Sq. Enix, it is exhausting to think about a state of affairs the place Closing Fantasy’s trajectory may’ve taken another route. Again in 2015, there isn’t any probability it, or any writer, may’ve justified promoting a sport that seemed like Closing Fantasy Resonance at a premium value. The race towards photorealism and bigness as a mark of high quality had but to steer the video games business off the profitability cliff at that time. Indie video games had been but to interrupt by the best way they’ve now. And the overall consensus amongst customers and the media held that turn-based video games had been simply outdated. Asking individuals to by $50 for a 2D, turn-based sport would have been a horrible thought.
Loads’s modified since then. Publishers realized the exhausting manner that spending a whole lot of tens of millions on a sport does not imply you get a whole lot of tens of millions again in income. Shoppers realized that video games can nonetheless be pleasant even when they do not appear like films. Nostalgia probably deserves some credit score for the latter revelation. Individuals yearned for “traditional” RPGs, and Sq. Enix delivered with Octopath Traveler. It is a stilted, overly formulaic sport, nevertheless it kicked off the HD-2D development that Sq. Enix has steadily refined over time.
Resonance is among the first HD-2D video games that pushes the boundaries of what HD-2D can obtain, too. Different video games, just like the Dragon Quest remakes and even Octopath Traveler, are primarily backward-looking. HD-2D exists to make old-style artwork look first rate for contemporary audiences. Resonance, in contrast, takes a cinematic method to pixel artwork and even FMV-style cutscenes harking back to those you’d discover in PS1-era Closing Fantasy. The result’s lovely and infrequently even fairly shifting. You do not want realism to impress individuals. You simply want type and good artwork path.
And so I discover myself serious about the potential of one other Closing Fantasy sport created with panache and assured imaginative and prescient on the forefront, not leftover tendencies different studios have already picked clear. A lot as I would love Sq. Enix to take a radical swerve and totally ditch its improvement patterns from the final decade, I totally count on it’ll stay dedicated to some outdated notion of status for Closing Fantasy 17. However I hope there’s one other Closing Fantasy alongside it that continues what Resonance began.