An open-world Final Fantasy 16 ‘would’ve taken 15 years to make’, claims producer | VGC
It is practically impossible to ask for everything"Final Fantasy 16 ditched turn-based combat to appeal to younger generations, producer says | VGC
Final Fantasy producer Naoki Yoshida has said that Final Fantasy 16 will ditch the turn-based combat in order to appeal to a new, younger audience.Listing the main aims for the project, Yoshida said: "I want a story of a hero who saves the world, because this is Final Fantasy. I want a summon to go wild and destroy the map. I want to release this game as soon as possible. I cannot release this game in parts.
"When considering these four main points, I believe it is practically impossible to ask for everything. If we had a development period of about 15 years, we may have had the opportunity of challenging ourselves with an open world [smiles]. After all, it's almost impossible in terms of time and cost to create a global story within an open world.
Speaking in the latest issue of Famitsu, translated for VGC by contributor Robert Sephazon, the developer said that the team had to reassess the audience Final Fantasy was appealing to:
I'm from a generation that grew up with command and turn-based RPGs. I think I understand how interesting and immersive it can be. On the other hand, for the past decade or so, I've seen quite a number of opinions saying 'I don't understand the attraction of selecting commands in video games'.
This opinion is only increasing, particularly with younger audiences who do not typically play RPGs.
Yoshida went on to explain that he believes the evolution in console technology has pushed RPGs towards action-based mechanics rather than turn-based:
For several console generations now, all character expressions can be done in real-time. Actions such as 'press the trigger and your character will shoot a gun' and 'press the button and your character will swing their sword' can now be easily expressed without going through a command system. This is not an argument of what is good or bad, but there is a difference based on the player's preferences and age. Furthermore, there is a big difference between a command system and a turn-based system, and these are often conflated, but are two different concepts. RPGs