Final Fantasy 16 will be a very different Final Fantasy experience from anything that has come before it. One of the leading reasons for that is the decision to step away from turn-based combat. As for what those of you who will miss that have to blame for the drastic change in style, look no further than Grand Theft Auto.
Producer Naoki Yoshida spoke with Game Informer (thanks, TrueTrophies) about the decision to move away from turn-based combat. “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,” Yoshida explains. “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.”
Moving past whether or not people should be growing up playing GTA games, Yoshida certainly has a point. Final Fantasy has been a video game staple for 35 years. Those who have loved the series from the start, or from the launch of a milestone entry like Final Fantasy 7, will be fine with turn-based combat. Younger gamers who might be trying the series for the first time via Final Fantasy 16, on the other hand, might be turned off by having to wait for their turn to strike.
The issue is rooted in each passing Final Fantasy game costing more money to make than the last. That results in Square Enix having to walk a tightrope. There's a need to draw in new fans to make sure its next big-budget entry actually makes a profit, but also a need to make sure whatever changes it makes in order to bring new fans in doesn't turn off the fanbase it has built for the last three and a half decades.
Final Fantasy 16's combat director Ryota Suzuki is hopeful replacing turns with faster-paced action can actually have the opposite effect too. That long-standing Final Fantasy fans will have their eyes opened to the world of action games by the series' tweaked combat style. It'll also be the first game in the series where a character says the word f***, so lots of change for fans to get their heads around.