Last Fantasy is lots totally different than it was. Whereas lots of the early Last Fantasy titles look and play equally to one another, the collection has since grown to embody blockbuster video games like Last Fantasy XVI and the gargantuan Last Fantasy VII Remake trilogy, which don’t play very similar to the classics. However there’s nonetheless an viewers for retro RPGs and old-school Last Fantasy video games, particularly due to the HD-2D style that mixes attractive pixel artwork with detailed 3D graphics to nice impact. Sq. Enix has made a bunch of HD-2D video games already, just like the remakes of early Dragon Quest titles, however this week, it’s launching the primary HD-2D Last Fantasy sport: Last Fantasy Resonance.
Resonance, due to the HD-2D artwork, type of appears like what the traditional Last Fantasy video games really feel like in my reminiscence, however I used to be shocked at how old-school Resonance feels to really play, too — which, for probably the most half, is an efficient factor. In Resonance, I’ve spent quite a lot of time wandering round a giant world map to get from place to put, tackling random battles alongside the way in which and investigating little sparkles to select up gadgets. The cities have a well-known really feel, with the traditional inn, merchandise store, and weapons store setup. Equally, battles are conventional turn-based fights, so I’ve discovered myself spending quite a lot of time in numerous battle menus to plan out my assaults. Enemies even flash proper earlier than they assault, similar to in older RPGs.
At instances, Resonance can virtually really feel rudimentary; I’ve not too long ago been working my method via Last Fantasy VII Remake once more forward of Revelation, and Remake’s action-heavy fights really feel way more up to date. However there’s one thing soothing about Resonance’s acquainted patterns. I actually like simply grinding via some random baddies to degree up.
The story is fairly customary fare, a minimum of through the 10 hours I’ve performed. You play as Rain, a plucky blonde hero who’s morally pure and fights for these much less lucky than him. After an ideal magical crystal is destroyed, you and your finest bud Lasswell head out on an journey to cease the destruction of different crystals. Up to now, Resonance’s story hasn’t executed lots to innovate on a well-known method — I’ve already come throughout two individuals who have amnesia, a JRPG staple — but it surely all strikes alongside breezily sufficient that it’s not an enormous deal.
Resonance isn’t all old-school, although, as there are quite a lot of fashionable touches. In fights, enemies have well being bars and stagger bars, forcing you to be strategic as a substitute of simply mashing fundamental assaults; it’s normally smarter to whittle down a stagger bar by exploiting weaknesses via magic and abilities. You’ll be able to pace up fights and even skip lengthy assault animations (of which there are various). On the world map, you possibly can quick journey to any location you’ve already visited, which is very helpful through the multipart aspect quests. In dungeons, you possibly can teleport from a save close to a boss combat again to the doorway if you could resupply earlier than a giant battle.
Resonance additionally allows you to herald characters from different Last Fantasy video games to help you in battle. (It’s a holdover from Resonance’s roots as a cell title; the sport is an “adaptation” of the primary story arc of Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, which was shut down in 2024.) As you progress via Resonance, you’ll recruit “Visions” of characters like Last Fantasy VI’s Terra Branford or Last Fantasy VII’s Cloud Strife, and every of the sport’s characters can “equip” one Imaginative and prescient to provide them new strikes in battle. Over time, whereas utilizing a Imaginative and prescient with a Resonance character, you unlock extra strikes and skills that you need to use even while you don’t have that Imaginative and prescient geared up. It’s a intelligent system that provides quite a lot of prospects for attention-grabbing builds, making the hunt for extra Visions really feel like greater than only a strategy to get a success of nostalgia.
However I’m already getting sucked into Resonance like I used to with traditional Last Fantasy titles. At one level, as I used to be nodding my head to heart-pumping music throughout an intense boss combat on a transferring prepare, I noticed I used to be utterly absorbed by the sport in a method that solely a Last Fantasy can pull off. The sport’s old-school construction with fashionable enhancements lets Sq. Enix have it each methods, because the old-school strategy sits comfortably alongside a big-budget sport like Last Fantasy XVI. The collection has come a great distance because the video games that Resonance makes use of as inspiration, but it surely pulls in sufficient from newer titles that taking part in it looks like having fun with the most effective of each worlds.
Last Fantasy Resonance launches on October twenty second on Nintendo Change, Nintendo Change 2, PC, PS5, and Xbox Collection X / S.