Final Fantasy Resonance Brings The Series Back To Its Classic Gameplay, Yet

What the report says

This Summer's announcement of Final Fantasy Resonance came as a massive surprise. For decades, the series developed by Square Enix moved past its 2D roots to deliver 3D games that shared little with the classic entries in the series released in the late 80s and early 90s on NES and SNES, preferring to launch new series to provide nostalgic fans with their classic JRPG fix. As such, the announcement was fully embraced by most fans of the Japanese publishers, myself included, although a question remained on my mind: would nostalgia be everything the game got it going for itself?At Gamescom 2026, I was able to answer this question with a resounding no.

While the 60-minute-long session Square Enix invited me to was shorter than I would have liked, it was more than enough to show that Final Fantasy Resonance could have passed for Final Fantasy VII, if Squaresoft decided to release another entry in the series on the SNES in the late 90s.Set during Chapter 2 as Rain and his companions venture to the Wind Shrine, there wasn't a whole lot of story in the demo to evaluate how much things have been changed since Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, upon which the new entry in the series is based.

The little that was featured showed plenty of promise in a sort of classic way, with fully voice acted dialogue sequence that help bring it to life like the first six entries in the series never could. Still, I can already tell I am going to like protagonist Rain, as his hot-headedness feels immediately endearing.While the demo featured little in terms of story, it was thankfully chock-full of gameplay, which immediately felt both familiar and fresh at the same time. The return of the series to turn-based combat is compounded by some mechanics lifted from recent entries in the franchise, such as the Stagger mechanics, which allow the player to stun an enemy by filling up a dedicated gauge with attacks against which the enemy is weak.

Key details

Staggering all enemies grants the opportunity to unleash a devastating Resonance Attack, essentially dictating the player's approach and the overall flow of combat. With a clearly visible turn bar at the top of the screen, it may be possible to stun all enemies and defeat them in a single turn, something fans of the Octopath Traveler series should be quite familiar with.One element that will distinguish Final Fantasy Resonance from other entries in the series are the Visions mechanics, which allow players to assign the spirits of other characters to use their signature abilities.

Akin to the Job System largely employed in so many entries in the series, the Visions will deliver deep customization possibilities, with additional skills getting unlocked as the Visions power up alongside the character. With a wealth of passive skills, magic, and all sorts of offensive and support abilities, I cannot wait to see what it will be possible to achieve with this system.The Visions system also doubles down on the nostalgic feeling that permeates Final Fantasy Resonance. Many of them are characters from the rest of the series, ranging from the Warrior of Light to Cloud, Squall, Zidane, and Noctis.

The recruitment process for these Visions is an emotional dive into the classic games, as players need to answer questions related to the character they are about to unlock. A small touch that shows how much love is going into this project.Level design also seems to be on point. Although the Wind Shrine is one of the game's smallest dungeons, it was well designed, featuring a few optional paths with treasure and plenty of enemies to fight. Both mobs and the final boss at the end were a little easy to defeat, but as characters were confirmed to be overleveled for this demo, and with the developer aiming to deliver a challenge, I am not too worried about the matter.

More from the announcement

Ultimately, it was a matter of hitting weaknesses to fill the Stagger gauge, but solving the combat "puzzle" to defeat enemies as quickly as possible (and receive bonuses similar to those seen in the Octopath Traveler series) made battles fun, even with the low challenge level of the demo.Although I was already looking forward to Final Fantasy Resonance, my time with the game at Gamescom 2026 only made me even more excited.