Since the series began, Final Fantasy has embraced change, offering distinct adventures that can often vary significantly from previous games. That openness to change has been a hallmark of the series, and has led to some of the games that are considered the best in the series. Final Fantasy will likely always have elements that keep the games connected (like Moogles and Chocobos), but Square Enix vice president Yoshinori Kitase has indicated that the company could take things increasingly farther, based on input from younger staff members. In an interview with Bloomberg, Kitase even said he’d be open to a first-person shooter entry like Call of Duty someday!ย
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“My imagination really has its limits, so it’s really great to have a new generation of creators on board,” Kitase told Bloomberg.
That type of change might go too far for longtime fans, and there’s already concern that Final Fantasy XVI might already do just that. The game’s combat puts a much bigger focus on action than previous entries, which is a far cry from the turn-based mechanics that popularized the series. In that same interview, Kitase says that Final Fantasy XVI‘s development team has a lot of respect for what came before, but he allowed director Naoki “Yoshi-P” Yoshida freedom to do what he pleased as “it’s risky in that we might be hanging on too closely to past values.”
“I always tell him: ‘There’s no need to ask; you can just do what youwant,’” Kitase told Bloomberg. “Whenever he comes to me I tell him, ‘Don’t ask meanymore.’”
With any long-running franchise, there’s always a concern about falling into a rut, so it makes sense that Kitase and Square Enix are open to exploring different possibilities for future Final Fantasy games. It’s probably a safe bet that we won’t be seeing a Final Fantasy game where players have to gun down Cactaurs, but if Square Enix can come up with a concept that keeps the Final Fantasy feeling, it sounds like Square Enix will explore it.
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