As Control: Resonance approaches its final confrontation, it suddenly shifts from a third-person action game to a 16-bit-style JRPG during the "Rebuild" segment. Players will experience turn-based battles and learn about the trauma Jesse and Dylan suffered after encountering the power object "Slide Projector" in their childhood. The following contains significant late-game spoilers.
Lead Level Designer Anne-Marie Grönroos stated that this plotline builds on Hedron attacking Dylan's consciousness and shattering his sense of reality. The team wanted the game's form itself to fracture accordingly, allowing players to personally experience Dylan's confusion. The developers initially considered creating a text adventure, but since Alan Wake 2's DLC had already used a similar approach, they opted for an old-school JRPG style instead.
Senior Level Designer Arhi Makkonen, who was in charge of this mission, listed Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Bahamut Lagoon, and EarthBound as sources of inspiration. Among them, EarthBound's visual style particularly fit the atmosphere of a mysterious American small town.
This part is not a true 2D game. The relevant scenes are actually built within a small area of a 3D world, using an overhead camera to create a 2D effect; the internal systems are written in Lua, with many actions and texts requiring manual coding item by item.
Test players' reactions to this segment were polarized. The team once discussed significantly shortening the content but ultimately decided to keep it, adding fast travel and partial skip options.