Ariana Grande and Sora are playable in Final Fantasy Resonance!

Square Enix cut Ariana Grande from the official Final Fantasy Resonance cast. Modders, however, have already brought her back.

The FFR Vision Studio mod, spotted by Eurogamer, lets you add guest characters missing from the final game in just a few clicks, including the former Dangerous Woman bunny who first appeared in Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius in 2017. Sora from Kingdom Hearts and 2B from Nier Automata are also part of the deal. A Reddit thread posted by user NightWaIker in r/FinalFantasyResonance made the rounds in the community to show the mod in action.

Producer Keisuke Nakashima had nonetheless justified the singer's absence to Kotaku:

Ariana Grande's character simply wouldn't fit the atmosphere we've created for Final Fantasy Resonance.

Keisuke Nakashima

A decision consistent with the darker, more measured HD-2D identity of the reboot, but one that leaves a gap for nostalgics of the original free-to-play game.

What makes this interesting is the timing. The mod currently only runs on the demo, available more than a month before the game's release - see our dedicated preview for a full review of this trial version. But the save file from this demo will be transferable to the final game. In practical terms, nothing technically prevents Ariana Grande, Sora or 2B from resurfacing once the game launches, even without official blessing from Square Enix.

It remains to be seen whether the publisher will tolerate this kind of mod on a monetized mobile game, or whether it will lock the door upon release. For now, the community is having fun rewriting the cast even before the game has come out.