Final Fantasy Resonance Reviews Beat Square Enix's Previous HD-2D RPG

Square Enix's first HD-2D take on its biggest franchise is a mixed bag

Square Enix's HD-2D art style has captivated the hearts and eyeballs of RPG fans since 2018's Octopath Traveler, and now the company is bringing the aesthetic to its marquee franchise for the first time with Final Fantasy Resonance. The game pulls inspiration from the Final Fantasy Brave Exvius mobile game, which ran from 2015 to 2025. But Resonance eliminates all the gacha and microtransaction elements that existed in the free-to-play version, while adding a 16-bit-inspired overworld map and turn-based combat that calls back to the Final Fantasy series' early games.

June's The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales was Square Enix's most recent foray into retro-style RPGs, blending hack-and-slash action with Zelda-like exploration. That game's sitting at a solid 78 on Metacritic, and it seems like Resonance is meeting a warmer welcome as reviews trickle in. The PlayStation 5 version of Final Fantasy Resonance is currently sitting at a score of 85 (with 30 reviews), while the Nintendo Switch 2 version gets a slightly lower average score of 82 (after 24 reviews). Here's what the critics are saying about Final Fantasy Resonance.

A gorgeous art style

Pretty much across the board, folks who reviewed Final Fantasy Resonance loved the way the game looks. Game Informer's Nadia Oxford wrote, "Resonance wears the HD-2D aesthetic confidently; Square Enix has obviously listened to past criticisms of its beloved graphical style, and it paid off. Resonance is an HD-2D game, but its highly detailed character sprites and occasional jaw-dropping pixel-based "cinema" scene differentiate it from the Octopath Traveler series and the Dragon Quest HD-2D remakes."

In his review for IGN, Michael Higham also pointed to the game's mashup of 2D and 3D art styles as a highlight of the experience. "Now, it usually takes more than spectacle to win me over, but Final Fantasy Resonance is an exception," he wrote. "When it matters most, the strongest moments are uplifted with some of the best cutscene work in HD-2D, wielding camera movement in a 3D plane effectively as character sprites and pixelized special effects coalescence through fluid animation that conveys emotion dialogue wouldn't be able to capture alone. The art style may have been born out of nostalgia, but Resonance proves that we're past that point and it can lead to new, evocative ways of creating worlds and elevating stories beyond the sum of their parts."

While Resonance's diorama-inspired aesthetic may look terrific, the game's fixed camera is not always conducive to thorough exploration. In his review for Shacknews, Ozzie Mejia points out that "wandering through towns will fix the camera at a static angle and it won't always be clear which way you're going. Some set pieces can get in the way, especially if you're trying to look for hidden treasure chests. Navigating towns shouldn't be the low point of a game like this, but the fixed camera was not a great choice."

A lightweight story

While praise for Resonance's visual presentation has been near-universal, reviewers as a whole have been less impressed with the game's narrative. Eurogamer's Dom Peppiatt notes that Resonance feels more like a collage of the series' highlights rather than a distinctive entry in its own right: "Resonance, puffing up its chest as it stands in line next to its esteemed siblings, tries hard to fit in, but in doing so picks up all these tropes without really understanding why they (kind-of) work in those other games. So you're left with a grab-bag of nonsense."

Elsewhere, VGC's Dave Aubrey notes that the new cast often takes a backseat to longtime franchise favorites, even in what's supposed to be their own story. "Aside from one major exception, most of your party members are downplayed by the plot past the chapter in which they’re introduced," he points out. "They’re functional party members that give you more options in battle, and rarely more than that."

Those sentiments were shared by Polygon's own Willa Rowe, who noted, "When Resonance’s narrative occasionally finds its rhythm, it can offer some wonderful emotional catharsis. A standout moment centers around an Aerith/Yuna-like priestess who balances the weight of duty with the desire to live for herself. Too often, however, the tendency to bring other Final Fantasy games to mind only leads to comparisons that aren’t in Resonance's favor."

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