The advent of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has generated a lot of conversation this year about whether we’re going to see a resurgence in the popularity of turn-based JRPG gameplay—conversations that have admittedly felt a little confusing to anyone who, for example, has played an Atlus game in the last decade. Even Final Fantasy 14 director and FF16 producer Naoki “YoshiP” Yoshida has been drawn under the discourse spotlight.
In an interview with Anime News Network, Yoshida was asked whether Square Enix was considering a return to Final Fantasy’s turn-based roots for its next mainline entry, given that Expedition 33’s developers have cited the series and other classic JRPGs as key inspirations. According to Yoshida, that’s a question that’s too narrow in scope.
“With this question of turn-based versus action, it tends to isolate the gameplay to just the battle system. That doesn’t take into account what kind of game the creators want to deliver to players,” Yoshida said, noting that the direction of a Final Fantasy game’s battle mechanics is one that’s determined in concert with the gradual production of its visual style, narrative, and other game systems. “It’s not a clear-cut answer, whether it will become all turn-based, or if it’s going to become more action-based.”
Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see Final Fantasy return to form sometime in the next decade or two. But ultimately, Yoshida says the design and direction of the next mainline Final Fantasy will be determined by—you might want to sit down for this one—what its designers and directors choose to make.
“[I’m] not necessarily going to be on Final Fantasy 17, so we also don’t want to obstruct or limit our future director or whomever will be producing games like 17 or even 18,” Yoshida said. “We don’t want to put them on a rail.”
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