If you’ve seen gameplay of Final Fantasy 16 (Final Fantasy XVI), then you’ve no doubt seen that the Final Fantasy 16 combat system is not turn-based like in previous Final Fantasy games, but it’s more action-oriented with everything happening in real-time.
- Related Reading: Final Fantasy 16 Has No Loading Screens, Will Feature 11 Hours of Cutscenes, PC Version Incoming “At Some Point”
Speaking in an interview Final Fantasy 16 Producer Naoki Yoshida and Director Hiroshi Takai explained why FF16 is not doing turn-based combat, and it has to do with today’s modern gamers and game sales.
Creating a Final Fantasy, a numbered Final Fantasy, has become such an endeavor, to the point where your development costs can go upwards of $100 million, just to create one game. And so to recoup that development cost, you need as many people playing your game as possible. And while a lot of the older fans are used to what Final Fantasy had in the past, a lot of younger [players] have never played a Final Fantasy game. They grew up playing first-person shooters, they grew up playing games like [Grand Theft Auto], where basically you press a button and something happens immediately. – Naoki Yoshida, FF16 Producer
Yoshida adds that gamers these days expect a response immediately when they press a button, and that to appeal to today’s gamers, going the action route was “pretty much the only way.”
It’s not a command-based system. When you press the square, your guy shoots. Why do you have to wait for him to shoot, I should be able to press square and he shoots immediately. You have this whole generation of gamers that grew up with this, [and you need] to get those generations to come in and also play [FFXVI], which has this image of not being that type of game. You have to make it appealing to that group as well. And so to get that group to come in and introduce them to the series, we decided to go down this route – action was pretty much the only way. – Naoki Yoshida, FF16 Producer
Given how fantastic the combat in Final Fantasy 16 is looking so far, it seems the devs made the right call.
In other FF16 news, Square Enix also explained why the action-RPG is exclusive to the PS5.
Final Fantasy 16 is scheduled for release on the PS5 this June 22, 2023.
Source: Game Informer
Ugh, combat looks boring as as stale as most games released in 2001. QTE’s? F that.
Seriously, would people be happy if Devil May Cry and God of War started moving towards turn based combat? No. So why would FF fans be happy the series removed the last strand of RPG elements and turned into a hack and slash game?
Look at the poor sales for Strangers of Paradise. There’s literally no difference between that game and this numbered FF game.
Just bullshit… I hate the weak reasons behind the decision that don’t even hold up