There are some things that never change, like the UK's unpredictable weather, the tastiness of Skittles and Final Fantasy being a turn-based RPG. But Square Enix have hinted at a future for the series that might be a little different, suggesting that they're taking the successes of Western RPGs onboard and noting that you ignore such dominant trends 'at your peril'.

'I think the nature of the franchise is to present something new each time,' said Yoshinori Kitase, producer of Final Fantasy XIII-2. 'In the global market we see many players moving away from games that used turn-based systems toward what you might term an action-RPG.

'That's a trend, and you ignore things like that at your peril.'

Kitase also suggested that Final Fantasy XIII's battle systems showed that the series was progressing, although I challenge anyone to look at FFX, FFXII and FFXIII and tell me that the most recent venture didn't seem like a corrective step back after the creative risk-taking of FFXII.

'FFXIII and FFXIII-2's battle systems have those elements of speed and action that are the key words for us, though that doesn't necessarily mean we're going to stick to the same route in our next game,' continued Kitase. 'That's something only time can tell.'

Well, they have to do something. Final Fantasy XIV proved so bad that not only did it manage to topple several executives, but CEO Yoichi Wada made a public apology for the game and admitted that 'the Final Fantasy brand has been greatly damaged'. Still, there's always FFXIII-2 to look forward to. [EDGE]

http://www.dealspwn.com/square-enix-hint-actionrpg-future-final-fantasy-83748

What do you think of this? Would you miss turn-based combat or do you like the idea of FF being an action RPG series?

Versus XIII.

If Versus sells great, expect FF to go down that route for a game or 2.


And they better do my VII remake before they kill it.

I mean it seems likea natural progression if done right. Look at tales it does real time in a unique way and theres alot of strategy involved. Versus should further prove to people that only want turnbased that real time can be just as good.
I always get confused when people say they want the same battle system from ff4-9. You want the developer to make the same system their entire careers? Thats boring and developers shouldnt have to limit themselves for nostalgia.

I think FF XII had an interesting fight system...

FF XII's battle system was better then XIII's. It had auto-attack yeah but you couldn't sit there the entire fucking game and kill everything by doing solely that.

didn't tales basically have the same battle system their entire career?

has the tales series system gotten boring yet?

im not even going to act like im surprised

so basically Square has confirmed that the new using 1 character in battle is here to stay now?

man

i cant even get mad at them though -_-

I would've been more optimistic if I hadn't read the reason behind the decision. Giving up turn-based just to please modern tastes, kind of meh move, taking into account those tastes will keep changing.

But, it wont really matter, if I'm having such a hard time finding a reason to finish XIII, I probably won't pay much attention to the next iterations of the franchise.

Just when I tought SE couldnt take any more worse decisions, they overdid themselves. No wonder FF X was the last good FF game with a dramatic story and great gameplay, Sakaguchi and Nobuo Uematsu left.

*sigh* I buy Final Fantasy for it's deep turn based combat and stat management. If I want an action RPG I'll play Kingdom Hearts or Skyrim.

go back to ANYTHING between FF and FFXII. XII was my favorite combat system, you had to program your characters and were actually able to control them all. kinda pathetic how XIII went for all flash and no substance.