Square Enix originally wanted Final Fantasy Resonance to be a “simple port”

Following a decade of operation, Square Enix officially shut down the mobile-exclusive Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius last year. That said, the game would later be revived and rebuilt in Square’s signature HD-2D art style for PC and consoles under the name Final Fantasy Resonance. Commenting on the title’s early success, producer Keisuke Nakashima revealed that Square Enix initially just wanted to do “a simple port.”

Officially launched on the 22nd of October, Final Fantasy Resonance has been met with a great deal of positivity, amassing a Metacritic score of 86 and an ‘Overwhelmingly Positive’ reception on Steam.

While the game is based on the bones of 2015’s mobile exclusive FF: Brave Exvius, Resonance was pretty much entirely rebuilt – most noticeably when it comes to the game’s art style, arriving as the first Final Fantasy title to make use of Square’s HD-2D aesthetic.

According to the game’s producer ‘Keisuke Nakashima’ however, this wasn’t always the case. In an interview with the publication Bloomberg (paywalled) and as reported by NintendoEverything, Nakashima revealed that “initially there was some resistance to the idea from Square Enix executives”, with the higher-ups wanting a more basic port.

As claimed by Nakashima: “I didn’t want to go down that route. I wanted to create an original version for consoles that was a full-blown gameplay experience.”
Part of the mentality behind this reimagining came due to the producer's desire to remove Brave Exvius’ gacha mechanics from Resonance, claiming that “It was really disappointing to hear people didn’t want to play it just because of the gacha elements. That was another reason we wanted to make this a console game, to bring it to a wider audience.”

Whether it be the lack of gacha, the embrace of HD-2D or a combination of multiple factors, Final Fantasy Resonance appears to be a success on all fronts. It will be interesting to see what lessons Square Enix will take away from this.

KitGuru says: Have you checked out Final Fantasy Resonance? What do you think of it? How does it compare to Brave Exvius in your opinion? Let us know down below.