Is Final Fantasy Resonance Worth It? Critics vs Players

Evidence-based review · scores read on 25 October 2026. AFK Journal has not played Final Fantasy Resonance: this verdict combines published critic reviews and Steam player data through a public formula, shown in full below.

Final Fantasy Resonance is worth it for anyone who wants a classic turn-based Final Fantasy: critics average 85 on OpenCritic and 97% of Steam reviews are positive, which gives it 8.9 (Great) on our formula. The catch is the story, which several major outlets call the weakest part of a game rebuilt from the shuttered mobile title Final Fantasy Brave Exvius.

This review is built on the OpenCritic and Metacritic pages, Steam's review and player data, Square Enix's launch details and ten published reviews, including IGN, Eurogamer, GameSpot, Nintendo Life and Game Informer. The game launched on 22 October 2026 on Switch 2, Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC (Steam and the Microsoft Store) at a suggested price of £49.99, according to Square Enix; Steam lists it at $49.99 in the US.

What is Final Fantasy Resonance?

Square Enix calls it the first Final Fantasy in the HD-2D style, the mix of pixel-art sprites and 3D scenery it uses for Octopath Traveler. It is developed with Lancarse and adapts the first story arc of Brave Exvius, a mobile game that ran from 2016 to 2025, into a full console RPG. Square Enix stresses that it has been rebuilt rather than ported.

The plot follows Rain and Lasswell, two knights of Grandshelt, and Fina, a girl with no memory who emerges from a shattered crystal, as they try to stop the Sworn Six from destroying the world's elemental crystals. Chocobos, espers and airships return, and so do familiar faces such as Cloud and Tidus in the form of Visions.

What do critics agree on?

The HD-2D presentation is the most consistent compliment. IGN says Resonance sets a new benchmark for the style, Game Informer says it wears the look confidently, and Nintendo Life points to more dynamic camera work in story scenes than earlier HD-2D games, which mostly kept a static camera.

Combat is the second point of agreement. Battles run on a visible turn order rather than an Active Time Battle gauge. Hitting an enemy's elemental weakness drains a stagger bar, and staggering a foe costs it a turn and gives the attacker a bonus action, as both Nintendo Life and IGN describe. Nintendo Life calls the system simple but rewarding to plan around, especially in boss fights.

Visions are the third. Each party member equips a projection of a past Final Fantasy hero, among them Cloud, Tidus, Lightning and Noctis, to gain active skills and passive bonuses; mastery grows the longer a Vision stays equipped. IGN and Game Informer both compare the result to the job system of Final Fantasy V. IGN adds a spoiler warning of its own: the shrines that unlock Visions recap the stories of older Final Fantasy games.

Critics also agree on what was left out. Resonance turns the first season of Brave Exvius into a traditional RPG with an overworld, towns and dungeons, and IGN stresses that it has no gacha mechanics or microtransactions. TheSixthAxis lists the classic furniture that came with it: random encounters, Limit Bursts, Phoenix Downs and the familiar level-up jingle. IGN's verdict also credits the music, and Nintendo Life singles out expressive voice acting that lifts the cutscenes.

Where do critics split?

Mostly on the story. Eurogamer gave it 3 out of 5 and calls the writing by far the weakest facet, with a cast it says has no chemistry and plot events that leave the world unchanged. IGN (8/10) calls the story underwhelming, and Nintendo Life (8/10) says this is where the mobile roots are felt most. At the other end, Game Informer (9/10) argues the cast is the game's real strength, and Shacknews (8/10) credits Rain, Lasswell and Fina's character work for lifting the plot.

Difficulty is the other disagreement. IGN found most enemies and bosses pushovers in the first half, because stacking one element against a known weakness could trivialise fights, before the late game got tougher. Nintendo Life, by contrast, describes the bigger boss fights as a careful process of planning around each character's kit. OpenCritic's median score is 90; in our sample, Eurogamer (3/5) and GameSpot (7/10) sit lowest.

What do Steam players say?

Players like it even more than critics do. On 25 October the Steam store page rated it Overwhelmingly Positive, with 97% of 1,994 reviews positive. Steam's daily review histogram counts 1,947 positive and 54 negative reviews since launch, and no day so far has dropped below 95%. That is a small sample three days in, but it is a consistent one.

Steam stopped serving review text through its public endpoint on 22 October, so we could not sample written Steam reviews as in earlier roundups; Steam also excludes off-topic review bombs from its scores. For recurring themes we read the r/Games review thread (606 upvotes, 406 comments on 25 October) and the game's own subreddit.

Two themes stand out. Before launch, a recurring doubt in the r/Games thread was paying full price for an adapted mobile game, and commenters split over the story much as critics did. Since launch, the most upvoted grinding posts on r/FinalFantasyResonance are tips for farming experience, such as a Chapter 2 XP spot with 247 upvotes. TheSixthAxis makes the same point from the critic side: building the perfect character can become a time sink of maths and level grinding.

How does it run on Switch 2, PS5, Xbox and PC?

Reviews disagree on Switch 2. Nintendo Life reports a smooth 60fps; TheSixthAxis saw the frame rate drop in busier areas and on the overworld, though it says this causes no real problems in a turn-based game. Most reviews in our sample were played on Switch 2 or PS5, and as of 25 October we found no detailed technical analysis of the PC, Xbox or original Switch versions.

Steam's minimum PC specification asks for a GTX 1650, RX 6400 or Arc A580, 8 GB of RAM and 15 GB of storage, and targets 1080p at 30fps on the Low preset. A free demo covering the opening chapter, about 3 to 5 hours according to Insider Gaming, is available on every platform, and its save carries over to the full game.

How we got to 8.9

Our formula weights critics at 70% and players at 30%. The critic input is OpenCritic's Top Critic Average divided by 10; the player input is Steam's share of positive reviews divided by 10, which we only use once a game passes 500 Steam reviews. Resonance clears both thresholds comfortably.

We applied no correction. The Switch 2 frame drops are reported by one review and contradicted by another, and we found no documented monetisation or launch problems. The result sits at the top of our Great band (8.0 to 8.9), a tenth below Essential: the players' enthusiasm pulls it up, the story debate keeps the critic side at 85.

Should you buy Final Fantasy Resonance?

• Buy it if you miss SNES-era Final Fantasy: turn-based battles, an overworld, airships and a job-style system, with no gacha.
• Buy it if you liked the HD-2D look of Octopath Traveler: IGN calls this a new benchmark for the style.
• Play the free demo first if story is what you want from an RPG: the writing is the main split between reviews.
• Think twice if you played Brave Exvius for its story: Resonance retells the first season rather than continuing it.

For more Square Enix RPGs on current consoles, see our Kingdom Hearts Collection review; if swapping Visions appeals, the class system in our Dragon's Dogma 2 vocations guide works on a similar idea. Everything else that launched this month is in Upcoming Games in October 2026, and future coverage will collect on the Final Fantasy Resonance hub.