Let me paint you an image. It is the second day of Gamescom 2026, everyone seems to be sizzling and sweaty, the schedule is quickly deteriorating as previews run late, interviewees go over their allotted occasions, and dashing from sales space to sales space provides minutes onto each single journey. I get to the Sq. Enix sales space, solely to search out that – because of some kind of communications snafu en route – my identify shouldn’t be down for the slot I had carved out to play Last Fantasy Resonance. “Don’t be concerned,” says a smiling PR attempting to maintain it collectively, “you possibly can play on Swap 2 when you do not thoughts standing up?”
No pores and skin off my nostril; I will play Resonance on Swap 2 at dwelling anyway. That is the very best kind-of preview. Factor is, I am crammed right into a room with eight PS5 models chugging away, 10 sweaty our bodies all sitting and standing in shut proximity to one another, and my large backpack slung over my shoulder as I hoist the Swap 2 as near my face as attainable to see what is going on on in the midst of all of the washed-out overhead lights.
But, in the midst of all these adversarial situations, I fully misplaced myself on the planet of Last Fantasy Resonance. It is completely spectacular. Even squinting to make out the sport, chirping its merry sounds to me via a set of pretty low-cost headphones, I may simply style the manufacturing values of this unexpectedly lush sport. The battle system is deep, rewarding, and laborious, the visuals are completely attractive, and the cameo ‘summons’ of Last Fantasy characters previous and current are so ‘hype’ that I did not skip a single animation. I am unable to wait to get this full sport in my fingers.
Last Fantasy Resonance, in case you are not conscious, is a sort-of retrofitted recompilation of Last Fantasy Courageous Exvius, taking the now-dead cell sport’s first story arc – named ‘Lapis’ and realigning it as a single-player, conventional RPG expertise. That is similar to what Octopath Traveler 0 did with belongings from Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent. The story of Resonance facilities on Rain (retaining the entire weather-based protagonist vibe alive, naturally), and his companions Lasswell and Fina, who’re tasked with defending the crystals left on the planet after the Veritas of the Darkish destroys one.
Very conventional Last Fantasy fare, then, with even the story harkening again to the primary three or so mainline titles. However this is not only a easy kitbash of a cell sport, thumbed into the form of a console title – it is, excess of that. It is actually solely the story and the thought of summoning and equipping ‘Visions’ the ghosts of “iconic characters from the Last Fantasy collection” to realize further talents which have made it over from the unique. The graphics, the battle system, and a whole lot of the music is model new. Making this the primary correct HD-2D Last Fantasy sport ever.
And actually, Resonance lives as much as that esteemed privilege. The demo I performed at Gamescom revolved round a single dungeon, culminating in an enormous, laborious boss combat. In an hour’s slot, I will say that about 20 minutes of that have been devoted to taking down the boss. This can be a correct turn-based sport – there is not any ATB anyplace to be seen in Resonance. Meaning there is a beautiful little bit of UI on the high of the display screen that denotes when you are going to assault, and when the enemy will take their turns. The massive gimmick on this sport is a ‘stagger’ bar; all strikes inflict each harm and stagger, and you may have to ‘stun’ enemies by depleting the latter bar in an effort to disrupt harmful assaults and open up their defences. Understanding parts, buffs and debuffs is important to victory, it appears – you possibly can’t simply use brute power to pressure your manner.
Those that combat might want to use supplementary talents conferred by the ‘Visions’, then. The demo got here with the Warrior of Gentle (FF1), Cloud (FF7), and two Resonance-original ‘Visions’ geared up. However Noctis was hidden away within the nook of a dungeon for intrepid explorers, and was an actual boon within the boss combat on the finish. I twigged fairly rapidly that one of the best ways to defeat the Wind dragoon I used to be preventing towards was to shatter his stamina with ice strikes (his weak point) earlier than pelting him with any and all Resonance strikes I may – these are very flashy, very fairly ‘Final strikes’ that dish out tons of harm and solid buffs on the identical time. Some heal, some offer you an assault or protection enhance, some assist to scale back stamina harm to your staff… you may have to experiment to determine the very best set-up to your occasion.
So, when you perceive the nuances of this technique, it is simple to enter a sort-of movement state. By doing sufficient stamina and well being harm, you possibly can earn bonus turns to your characters – permitting extra debuffs to energy up while your finest assaults whittle down the very in depth well being bar of the boss. It’s a actual credit score to this sport that I stood – sizzling, bothered, and exhausted – in the midst of a Gamescom sales space, and felt completely transported by the unlikely simplicity of this sport. Your mileage could differ, however I can completely see myself gulping down this battle system greedily, determining the intricacies of it and the way having successfully eight movesets between your 4 characters goes to be exploited by some gnarly encounter design.
I really assume this sport jogs my memory extra of Octopath Traveler than it does of some other Last Fantasy – that is complementary – while there are echoes of the ‘Press Flip’ system from the Shin Megami Tensei collection in there, too. I used to be tempted to write down this off as a cynical, fanservice cash-in when Resonance was first introduced, however I really assume there may be an attention-grabbing ‘I’ve not fairly seen this earlier than’ conceit hidden in the midst of all of the admittedly lovely call-backs to FFs passed by.
On my final night time at Gamescom, somebody requested which sport I had seen on the present was my favorite. “Last Fantasy Resonance”, I replied, with out pondering. Now, per week later – after sitting and writing up a number of my appointments – I nonetheless really feel the identical. FF moved away from pixel graphics and, largely, from turn-based battles in 1997. I believe I have been craving one thing like this since. Will the ultimate sport make good on a promise three a long time within the making? I actually, actually hope it’s going to.