---
title: 'Final Fantasy: Resonance - First Impressions'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=aGkKnk3oT4c'
video_id: 'aGkKnk3oT4c'
date: 2026-10-23
duration_sec: 593
channel: 'Mortismal Gaming'
---

# Final Fantasy: Resonance - First Impressions

> Source: [Final Fantasy: Resonance - First Impressions](https://youtube.com/watch?v=aGkKnk3oT4c)

## Summary

The video presents first impressions of Final Fantasy Resonance, a new JRPG that combines pixel art cutscenes with characters and themes from across the Final Fantasy series. The creator discusses the game's story, combat mechanics, and progression systems, while expressing curiosity about how well these elements will coalesce into a cohesive narrative.

### Key Points

- **Introduction and Purchase** [00:08] — The creator introduces the video as first impressions of Final Fantasy Resonance, which launched the day before. They mention they paid for the game themselves, as Square Enix did not provide a review key.
- **Game's Concept** [00:20] — The game is based on a gacha mobile game, similar to Octopath Traveler Zero, and aims to bring together elements from the entire Final Fantasy series, including pixel art cutscenes and various characters.
- **Technical Performance** [01:38] — The creator reports zero technical issues so far, and notes that Steam reviews do not mention widespread performance problems, which is a positive sign.
- **Story Premise** [02:05] — The story begins with a flashback of a war-mongering nation attacking crystals, which are dispersed across universes. The main character, Rain, is sent to investigate a disturbance at a shrine, leading to an attack on the capital.
- **Visions Mechanic** [03:11] — Visions are equipment that can be attached to party members, providing abilities and stat boosts. They are acquired from previous Final Fantasy characters, and their bond with the character grows over time.
- **Progression Systems** [04:07] — Progression involves finding equipment, leveling up characters, and unlocking summons (espers). Some summons and visions require tracking down, adding exploration elements.
- **Exploration and Side Quests** [04:44] — The game features traditional JRPG exploration with towns, dungeons, and a world map. Side quests have been well-received so far, and exploration can lead to discovering espers and other content.
- **Party Members** [05:23] — The main party includes Rain, Lasswell, Fina, and Lid, who has access to Mechcobo, an upgradeable mechanized Chocobo. The creator finds the character names amusing and is curious about unique mechanics for each member.
- **Combat Mechanics** [06:03] — Combat is turn-based with an initiative order timeline. Players can use abilities, items, or defensive actions. Dealing damage chips away at an enemy's stagger bar; staggering triggers extra attacks, and staggering all enemies triggers a sweep, granting the whole team an extra turn.
- **Limit Breaks and Summons** [07:08] — Limit breaks and espers (summons) can be used for extreme damage. Espers join combat temporarily and perform a big ultimate move before disappearing.
- **Overall Impression** [07:34] — The game seems to gather everything that makes Final Fantasy what it is, but the creator is unsure if it will feel cohesive or just a mashup. They hope the inclusion of characters from other games serves a narrative purpose.
- **Final Thoughts** [08:26] — The creator loves the pixel art cutscenes and art style, and finds the game enjoyable so far. They plan to review it fully before the release of Phantom Blade Zero and Crimson Desert DLC.

## Transcript

This time bringing you my first impressions for Final Fantasy Resonance, which launched just yesterday from the time of this video. Though it's not the first time I have spoken about it, as I did check out its publicly available
demo a couple of months ago. Now, in the case of this game, worth a mention that I did in fact pay for it. Sometimes Square Enix will give me review keys on not happen here. So, I just went ahead and paid for it as I was always going to
review this game one way or another. Not least of which because of how very interested I was in all the different things that it is doing. Namely, its combination of like some incredible pixel art cutscenes, how it mixes that
with some themes and characters across the entire Final Fantasy series. And part of me is extremely curious to see if this game can bring all of those different things together into one cohesive narrative or is it just going
to wind up feeling like something trying to appeal to everything Final Fantasy if you get my meaning. But the reason the game is like that at all is because from my understanding, Final Fantasy Resonance is based on a sort of gotcha
game, much in the way that we saw with Octopath Traveler Zero, where they took full-fledged release, which is what we're getting with Final Fantasy Resonance here. And at least in the early hours, that's not something I
mind. And I think long term, it's just going to come down to how I feel about how it handled all of those different things over the course of the game, like little more specific. So, on the technical side of things, I have had
zero issues thus far. Still early, of course. But given that uh all of the Steam reviews don't mention anything about performance other than a single am not inclined to believe there are currently at least any widespread
issues, which is always great to see and hopefully it stays that way. But let's talk a little bit about the story. So, as I mentioned just right away, the on look incredible, but we of course want that attached to an actual
narrative. So, let's talk a little bit about that. Resonance here begins with a about that. Resonance here begins with a flashback of sorts to an event between a wararmongering nation as they tried to uh attack some crystals. They were
ultimately thwarted at the time, it would seem, as the crystals themselves seem to be dispersed across universes, whatever. Before the game cuts to our main character, Rain, who is a knight of the kingdom of Grand Shel, who is
quickly sent to investigate a disturbance at the shrine to the north of the kingdom, where it turns out those very same people who were causing issues in the earlier cutscene have come back to finish the job, it would seem, and
thus they showed up to destroy a crystal that was housed at this shrine, followed by attacking the capital proper. And this sets us on the main story to stop these individuals from trying to destroy these crystals in a very uh Final
Fantasyesque story. But where it gets really interesting is how it involves other characters across the series. So one of the main mechanics of this game is its visions or basically just other Final Fantasy characters from previous
entries that you can acquire as visions. These visions are effectively an equipment that you can put on to your individual party members. And as the bond between all of them grows, they get more abilities. You can also upgrade
to make them stronger, which then unlocks more abilities for them. And that in combination with your character sort of base class, if you will, is what combines to give them their available move set and abilities alongside a whole
bunch of stat boosts, as you would probably expect. Now, so far, outside of a couple of combat things, this is pretty much entirely just combat. These narrative role in any sense. And I'll be curious to see if any of them do wind up
early on it doesn't seem like it. It seems like they're mostly just going to join you and then be equipped on to characters for their stats and whatnot. system in and of itself, the rest of progression is, I would say, more
going to be finding equipment, putting it on your characters. They'll be leveling up, getting passive stats and abilities as they go. And in typical Final Fantasy fashion, you will also be fighting and eventually unlocking
summons to carry with you. Though, some of them, of course, do require you tracking them down, which is also true of the visions themselves. You do have not particularly difficult to find, at least thus far. So, it'll be fun to find
out if there are any like hidden ones, I suppose. Now, gameplay and exploration suppose. Now, gameplay and exploration wise, it is uh very traditional JRPG stuff. However, I do think they have thus far had some really good side
quests in there. But, broadly speaking, you have your individual locations that like towns and dungeons. And then when you are outside of those, you're on the world map proper. And while you are on foot here at the beginning, you do get
expect. And while you're doing that exploration, you can pick up a variety of content or simply learn about the world, like the location of espers and things to find as you move through it and choose to either grind out enemy
encounters to level up or chase down the main story, etc. And you'll do all of that alongside your cast of characters, which because we're first impressions here, I have not unlocked all of them. But you've got your main two, Rain and
Lasswell, followed on by a young woman named Fina, and then a mechanic named Lid, which I thought was funny cuz her name is just Lid. I will say though, Lid has access to Mechco, which is a mechanized Chocoo, which is an
interesting concept in and of itself, if I'm being honest, I much preferred the heavily armored ones that we see in the Eile setting. But Mechcobo here is meant to be uh upgradeable in some form or fashion from what I understand, which is
mess around with because if that applies to a singular character, I'm always just default. But there will of course be other party members and who knows, they may well have their own individual unique mechanics as well. Now though,
let's talk a little bit about combat. So on the combat side of things, it is a turnbased affair as you would expect. It does use an initiative order. So every turn you'll have that timeline bar up in the upper left there that will show you
the order of the turns that are about to take place. So you can act accordingly. But on your turns, your individual character can take actions based on their unlocked abilities, their vision abilities, or the usual run of items or
a defensive action in order to anticipate what the enemy is doing ahead of their move. But as you deal damage to enemies, you will chip away at their stagger bar. When this is empty, an enemy is of course staggered, and that
enemy is of course staggered, and that will then open up them to extra attacks. But the act of staggering an enemy gives the character that staggered them an extra attack at the end of the turn. However, if you stagger all of the
enemies in battle, then you trigger a sweep, at which point your entire team gets an extra turn at the end of the turn, which is when you can set up and prepare for some extreme damage, especially if you combine it with things
like limit breaks or a discerned weakness that the enemy actually has. Outside of those limit breaks, you'll also occasionally be able to uh summon in the espers that I mentioned, and they will join combat for a little while
before disappearing as they perform their big ultimate move. And thus far, that's all pretty expected from any sort of Final Fantasy title. Which moves us towards the end of the video here, which is basically just a reiteration of the
fact that everything this game seems to be trying to do is gathering up everything they think makes Final Fantasy Final Fantasy and putting it into this particular game. And while that's all very fun if you enjoy the
series so far, when it comes to the actual review, I will simply have to see cohesive and like they're doing something with all of it, or if it's just mashed up purely to be Final Fantasy, I suppose, which I mean, even
in that case, isn't necessarily a bad thing if it's done well. But part of me does hope all of this like pulling in characters from different uh games and whatnot is going to serve a narrative purpose beyond just being something fun
to do. But make no mistake, it is fun to interact with that stuff. So far, as I mentioned, I absolutely love what they're doing with the pixel cutscenes, especially the opener one. I really enjoy the art style overall. And while
it all does feel very traditional so far, that's again not necessarily a bad thing and I am enjoying it. So, for the review, I suppose to put it more simply, whether or not it feels like those things overstay their welcome or if it
is solid all the way through. But when it comes to the actual review, I don't know exactly how long that's going to take me, as I'm not entirely sure how long this game is for starters, but also how much they pulled in from that mobile
game. But my hope is to have it done before the release of Phantom Blade Zero and the Crimson Desert DLC towards the end of the month. but hard to gauge if I But one way or another, it will get done. And I'm excited to jump in and
play this in full, which is pretty much all I've got for you guys today. So, I am going to turn it over to you. If you are checking this game out or playing it you think about it down in the comment section below, which of course means to
like, comment, subscribe, all the YouTube jazz. But regardless of any of that, truly just thank you so much for watching. I really do appreciate it. May you wander in wisdom and have an amazing day.