For the love of god, not everything needs to be Final Fantasy VII Remake

Final Fantasy Resonance is a pretty good game. If you’re here for that statement, then you can leave. I’ll get into what works and what doesn’t work a little throughout the article, but that is not the main focus of this piece.

We all know that development cycles have gotten rather long. Naughty Dog’s last new title was released in 2020. Beyond Good and Evil 2 still isn’t out. The less said about how long Metroid Prime 4 took, the better. Final Fantasy also isn’t exempt from this problem – the gap between Final Fantasy XV and Final Fantasy XVI was seven years, and there’s not even a small sign of Final Fantasy XVII right now. It’s unsustainable, especially if companies want to keep their IPs in the public consciousness.

That is, unless they make more Final Fantasy Resonances. Obviously, titles like Octopath Traveler exist and are explicitly inspired by Final Fantasy, but they’re also doing their own thing – so why can’t we get more of these between mainline titles?

Final Fantasy Resonance is a remake of Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, a mobile gacha game. It’s similar in a way to Octopath Traveler 0, a title that can be worked on while something bigger is also worked on. It costs less to make than something like Final Fantasy VII Remake; it has a quicker turnaround, and it is able to keep the franchise in the minds of people while the next major release is worked on.

For those not in the know, Final Fantasy Brave Exvius was a mobile game that was first released in 2015, and closed down in 2025. It’s essentially a classic Final Fantasy game in gacha form, with a full rarity system and chase characters. While Resonance removes those gacha elements (there is no longer a rarity system at all, and the “Visions” that you get throughout are no longer party members, but instead act as a sort of job system), you can still feel that it was originally a mobile game – part of the design sensibilities of the title still exist in this remake. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing – it’s nice to still feel the origins of this world, and it’s nice to be able to trace it back. It doesn’t really affect the quality; it just makes everything feel a little more handmade. Though, I will say, I think it would have been really funny if the Ariana Grande collaboration (yes, it’s real, look it up) was still in Final Fantasy Resonance without any elaboration.

Do I wish the side quests were better? Very much so; they’re essentially just fetch quests for the vast majority, with only a few standout moments – Gilgamesh being the primary example, even possibly being the side character I loved the most. He has a side quest that actually fleshes out his character in an interesting way, but most of the other side quests feel just like busywork. I also wish the pacing was faster in the first half, as it feels like it takes the actual story a while to get going (but when it does, it’s fantastic). Still, I love the art style, I love the world, I love the way Resonance leverages past Final Fantasy releases without ever feeling like it leans too much into nostalgia, which is a danger with something like this.

I’m not entirely sure why Square Enix isn’t immediately rushing a remake of Final Fantasy I into development with an HD-2D style. I know people will point to the Pixel Remasters as a reason why, and I get it – some people will just be satisfied with those releases. But there are enough people who would be intrigued by an HD-2D Final Fantasy I to buy it. Hell, Naoki Yoshida (director of Final Fantasy 14) has said that a remake of Final Fantasy VI would have to be massive, that it would have to be released in “four instalments, or maybe even five instalments”. This just isn’t true; remake it as an HD-2D game with the same sense of scale as Final Fantasy Resonance and people will be happy!

Not every remake needs to be filled with bells and whistles. Not every remake needs to be a full reimagining. It is possible to use a remake just to apply a new artistic style, to test out a few new ideas. As long as it offers a new perspective on things, as long as it feels like it is trying something new, then people will be happy to pick it up.

If Square uses Final Fantasy Resonance as an overall template, and improves upon the pacing and the side quests, then what is stopping it from releasing something like this between mainline releases? Surely it would help to keep people thinking about the franchise? Especially since people have been clamouring for a return to turn-based Final Fantasy for years now – if Square Enix has a release schedule like this, then it can satisfy both a crowd who prefers real-time combat and the turn-based crowd.

Game code was provided by the publisher.

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