Square Enix has posted a new trailer for Final Fantasy Resonance, an HD2D re-build of the mobile gacha game Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, and my goodness is this peak.
First announced during the Nintendo Switch showcase earlier this summer, Final Fantasy Resonance takes the story of Brave Exvius and gives it the Octopath Traveller graphical treatment. While a great lover of turn-based RPGs made by Square Enix, the Octopath series didn’t move all that much. But my little Final Fantasy-loving heart was not prepared to see my favorite summons rendered in such gorgeous pixel art.
The trailer starts by asking viewers, “What if Final Fantasy had continued to push the limits of pixel art?” and I got the feeling that I was finally seeing the true vision of the Final Fantasy developers from 1987, that the technology had finally caught up to render these fantastic fights as their creators imagined them.
I’m also simply pleased to have a Final Fantasy game that dispenses with the notion of trying to tell a more “mature” story or one devoted yet again to the sexual tension between Cloud and Sephiroth. Resonance goes back to the early days of crystals, bad guys trying to blow them up, and a collection of misfits trying to stop that one turn at a time. I do understand though, that because Resonance is based on a Final Fantasy gacha game, Cloud and other protagonists from Final Fantasy‘s history will show up. But it is encouraging that Square Enix has decided to rescue Brave Exvius‘ story from its cancelled mobile game graveyard and make it more widely available on consoles. It’s a bit (a big bit) of a stretch but maybe if Resonance does well, Square Enix do the same with other obscure but interesting Final Fantasy games like, I don’t know, just throwing it out there, Final Fantasy Type-0. Maybe. Possibly. Please??