dailynewsnblog
Final Fantasy Resonance is the first Final Fantasy game to use Square Enix’s housemade “2D-HD” graphical style, as it revives the now-defunct mobile game Final Fantasy Brave Exvius and turns it into a full-fledged console RPG with all the trappings you’d expect. The demo was suitably impressive at showing how Resonance will tell an original Final Fantasy story that also pays homage to the entire series up to this point. But the element that sold me most was the sense of humor it seems to have about itself, which is encapsulated in one dialogue exchange.
Resonance leans heavily on nostalgia. This is most apparent in the use of Visions, which are heroes of past Final Fantasy games that can be equipped similarly to Final Fantasy 6’s Espers. They level up while equipped, granting the user benefits and teaching new skills. To earn a Vision, you typically have to answer some questions related to a brief rundown of their story, set against a video montage showing moments from their respective games. And besides just Visions, the whole game is a medley of Final Fantasy’s 16-bit glory days, with an art style that often recalls Final Fantasy 6–if it were made at a much higher level with modern art.
So it was in that spirit that I felt so tickled by a dialogue exchange in the demo. Somewhere around the midpoint, you come to the lab of the mad scientist Dr. Lazarov–again, the combination of fantasy and sci-fi elements in this way feels very classic Final Fantasy. Lazarov has been using the bodies of your deceased comrades for experiments, and the heroes, Rain and Lasswell, are understandably pissed off. They challenge him to a fight, but instead he summons one of his abominations to fight you. You know, typical mad scientist villain stuff.
You defeat the monster, it crackles and sizzles just like a boss from Final Fantasy 6, and you assume the fight is over. But then this happens:
Dr. Lazarov: Oho… It appears you meddling maggots are tougher than you look. But, unfortunately for you… I've got a reviving potion! Ploink!
[the monster reappears alongside two undead guards]
Lasswell: What!? I see you're not above using dirty tricks!
Fina: Yeah, no fair--and now we've got more baddies to take care of, too!
Dr. Lazarov: Oh that's rich coming from you lot! I know you use potions and Phoenix Downs, and the like, too! Well, time for me to skedaddle. Minions! Keep them busy!
A couple of things to note here.
One, he says “Ploink!” Out loud, as dialogue. I’m sorry, but that’s just extremely funny.
Secondly, he’s correct! As the heroes in a Final Fantasy game, you all have been using Phoenix Downs liberally the whole time. I had used several during that very fight. The series has established there is a readily available magical item that can bring people back from the dead. You can buy them at any corner drug store, usually for about the same price as a mid-range healing potion. Why wouldn’t the villains use it? Frankly, it’s strange that they haven’t before.
This was the moment that I felt fully sold on Final Fantasy Resonance. It looks great, it scratches the itch for a classically styled Final Fantasy with some nice modern touches, it feels enjoyably nostalgic and capitalizes on my love for the series. But that exchange also made clear that it isn’t taking itself too seriously and can play around with some of the series’ own tropes. This is a Final Fantasy game that seems keenly aware of its own history by bringing in cameo characters from across the franchise. That means the meta humor of a villain essentially peeking into your inventory to comment on you using a game mechanic doesn’t feel strange or immersion-breaking. It fits into the spirit of Final Fantasy Resonance as a celebration of the series as a whole, including some lighthearted ribbing.
That alone made me more interested than I would be in a more straightforward nostalgic throwback, and more importantly, it just made me laugh. When’s the last time a Final Fantasy game did that?
