From Final Fantasy Brave Exvius to Resonance: Plans to create an HD-2D instalment in the series have been on the table for 6-7 years

The game's producer and director discuss bringing turn-based combat back to the series and the titles that have most influenced this approach.

Text: Alberto Garrido

Published 2026-06-16

The recent Nintendo Direct brought us a host of surprises, and perhaps because some of them were on the scale of Kingdom Hearts IV, or the announcement of a remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, other titles due out this year went by without causing quite such a stir. Final Fantasy Resonance is perhaps one of them.

Resonance also marks a return to the series' classic roots, as producer Keisuke Nakashima and director Hiroto Furuya explained in an interview with IGN. However, it isn't an entirely original story, as it draws heavily on elements seen in Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, a turn-based JRPG released exclusively for mobile devices. Although the game dates back to 2015, with the rise of the Nintendo Switch, the Resonance project began to take shape around 2019.

"Back in the days of Brave Exvius, we also received a lot of feedback from our player community saying they'd like to be able to enjoy this game on a console. That was what initially sparked the idea of a console adaptation. We can't reveal the exact development timeframe. However, the development itself was much shorter. It was more about the moment the idea first emerged, when it was just me and a very small team working on the concept and planning."

They also talk about the influence of titles that they, as players, enjoyed and which have left a lasting impression on them to this day, and how this shapes the way they make games. Nakashima said: "My first Final Fantasy was Final Fantasy V, and I felt there was scope to explore that classic Final Fantasy experience where you don't need a lot of reflexes. For example, some of the features that evoke that classic Final Fantasy experience, such as airships capable of travelling across the overworld and exploring the various content scattered throughout that world, really immersing you in that aspect of exploration. So, again, personally, I also wanted to go back and relive and re-experience the classic fun of the Final Fantasy games from that era."

Finally, Furuya points to the recent resurgence of the JRPG genre, fuelled by recent hits both in Japan and abroad, and attributes this to a new generation of creators who grew up with these mechanics and can now contribute to their evolution.

"I feel that many of us creators who grew up playing turn-based games are now making our own video games. (...) It seems there's a general movement towards revisiting and possibly re-evaluating or rethinking some of the experiences we personally had when we were young."

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