Final Fantasy Resonance was among the most surprising announcements of the June Nintendo Direct. Based on the first season of the Final Fantasy Brave Exvius mobile game, the first 2D entry in the series by publisher Square Enix in a very long time launching this October on PC via Steam, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2 will lean heavily into classic game mechanics like a turn-based combat system, true random encounters, and a high challenge that felt like they were going out of fashion in the past few years, but this is a deliberate choice to bring a certain memorability that modern JRPGs have lost.
"Symbol encounters allow players to engage in battle whenever they want. In that sense, symbol encounters are there to accommodate the players’ freedom of playstyle. On the other hand, they could also end up resulting in less battles that are truly memorable. This is my personal experience playing some of the recent RPGs that feature symbol encounters," said producer Keisuke Nakashima to AUTOMATON. "I do think that random encounters can feel like a hassle at times, but they also allow you to make memories, like remembering the time you struggled against a really tough enemy or felt the joy of getting lucky with battle rewards. I think those are the kind of moments that actually stick with you. So, with that “memorability” being one of the big advantages of the random encounter system, we decided to adopt it for Final Fantasy Resonance."
The return of random encounters, however, will be balanced out by toning down some elements that can cause frustration. For example, in dungeons with puzzles, the encounter rate will be reduced, and the minimap color will indicate how close the player is to a fight, Nakashima-san explained.
"The idea of conquering the dungeon itself is also tied to the fact that we chose to have random encounters," added director Hiroto Furuya. "It’s more about taking down all the enemies you come across as you progress through the dungeon, rather than choosing whom to battle against. So, we steered the game in the direction of making battles fun, while sticking to the random encounter system. In our pursuit of the classic Final Fantasy experience, this is the decision we ultimately arrived at."
As many JRPG fans are lamenting the loss of certain elements from modern games, the return of random encounters in Final Fantasy Resonance to recapture the feel of actually conquering a dungeon with proper resource management can only be welcome. The lack of this sort of positive friction is really felt in modern JRPGs (and was really evident in modern reimaginings of classics such as Dragon Quest VII Reimagined), so it's great to learn that some developers are aware of it.
Final Fantasy Resonance is set to bring back this memorability with a challenging normal difficulty mode.
"We designed the Normal difficulty setting to be a memorable experience that offers a certain degree of challenge. If it were made so that you can take down all of the enemies, including the bosses, quickly and easily, it wouldn’t be as memorable. It was important for us to leave some room for players to devise new strategies even if they get beaten by the boss at first," said combat director Takashi Shiraga. "We turned the bosses into these big obstacles that will motivate you to reflect on your team composition, which is why the Normal difficulty poses a bit of a challenge. The demo we’ve shown you was set to Normal, but we also have the slightly easier Casual difficulty setting for players who struggle a bit with RPGs."
Being the game that will offer a true sequel to the classic NES and SNES entries in the series, it's not surprising to see how much the community is excited by Final Fantasy Resonance. Hopefully, the game will do well enough to show publishers how there's a demand for this sort of game as much as there is for modern JRPGs with action-oriented gameplay, possibly reconciling the fractured fandom.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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