Square-Enix Should Resurrect Its Graveyard Of Mobile Games After Final Fantasy Resonance

One of the bigger surprises of the recent Nintendo Direct was the announcement of Final Fantasy Resonance. Billed as "the first HD-2D Final Fantasy," Resonance is a remake of part of Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius, a mobile game which was known for some gorgeous 2D spritework. This remake follows on the heels of Octopath Traveler 0, which was also an adaptation of a mobile game, Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent. The difference is that, while Champions of the Continent is still running, Brave Exvius is no more, having been shut down everywhere but Japan in 2024 and in Japan late last year. 

This is a pretty big deal, because--as someone who dabbled a bit in Brave Exvius--there was a lot of effort put into that game, and it was awful to see it just disappear. Square-Enix and partner Gumi created a unique setting, plotline, and characters that a lot of fans came to love. By bringing Brave Exvius back in this non-live service form, both people who missed out on Brave Exvius' story and players who have memories of the original can now enjoy Brave Exvius again. Yes, it's not a one-to-one port--the original was a free-to-play mobile gacha game, designed both around the mechanics of the platform and a structure built around monetization. However, adapting it to be an offline console and PC game with updated art is more effort than I honestly expected from Square-Enix.

You see, Square-Enix's mobile games are notorious, and not for good reason: The company has a serious body count when it comes to mobile games. These aren't just weird, no-name games either: among the departed are titles like Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia, Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier, Kingdom Hearts X, and Echoes of Mana. And these are the ones that made it out the door--some, like Kingdom Hearts Missing Link, were cancelled before they even launched.

One of the most notorious shuttered mobile games is Nier Re[in]carnation, which is packed with juicy lore nuggets for die-hard Nier fans, but turned off many who didn't want to engage with a mobile gacha game. A firestorm broke out online recently when some fans re-engineered and revived Nier Re[in]carnation in a free, unofficial capacity for the benefit of those who missed it during its run. While well-intentioned, it kicked up a hornet's nest that exposed differing cultural attitudes in game preservation: Some Japanese users equated this to wanton piracy and bastardization of the original work, saying that only Square-Enix had the right to decide what to do with the game and making their anger apparent on social media.

With a chunk of Brave Exvius now coming back as Final Fantasy Resonance, it might seem like those arguing against such fan revival efforts may have their arguments justified. But that's all up to Square-Enix: they have to fully recognize that, yes, these games could be repurposed into offline titles, and that there are people eager to experience them that way. It's not just a matter of leaving money potentially sitting on the table: it's keeping the legacy of your company's biggest franchises alive, even if they are just one small portion of the bigger whole. 

In my opinion, though, all of Square-Enix's old mobile catalog should be considered for revival, not just those with big-name brands attached. Much of the excellent Chaos Rings series, for example, is delisted and unplayable, despite the consistent high quality of those games. There are all kinds of wonderful deep cuts in Square-Enix's back catalog, too: Did you know that there was a mobile-only rhythm game called Demon's Score, developed by Inis (of Elite Beat Agents and Gitaroo Man fame) and designed by Yoko Taro, with music by a who's who of famous Japanese game composers? You probably didn't, because Demon's Score's monetization was so horrible at launch--requiring you to buy new stages after the first--that it was dead on arrival and got delisted two years later. Which is tragic, because the game looked and played wonderfully, and it's full of that deliciously wicked weirdness that fans of Taro's work adore. Certainly it deserves another chance at life, right?

I'm hoping that Final Fantasy Resonance is just the start. Games shouldn't die completely when the servers get shut off, especially when they've successfully made a world that their players love. I've played through numerous mobile-game shutterings--including a few Square-Enix games--and while the writing was clearly on the wall for a few of them, many still had plenty of gameplay and story to offer players, but were simply cut down too soon. Let these games live on in new, offline forms, and they'll earn fans forever.