Done With Final Fantasy

[Scoobes]

What I'm getting from this is a lot of Final Fantasy fans want things to be the same... but different.

What I think it really boils down to is people want to recapture the magic of the first Final Fantasy games they played, but I don't think that can be put down to just a "turn-based battle system", or "open world" or "characters that aren't whinny little shit, Hope" (actually, might be onto something with that last one).

Final Fantasy games (and jRPGs in general) are about story, world building and the overall fantasy experience. I never truly cared too much about the battle system as long as it was playable and had logical progression. The story, the world and the experience of entering those fantastical worlds is why I play. Funnily enough I always wanted the games to go real-time, and when they finally did in XII, I was disappointed by the overall storytelling!

The FF series has had to evolve, innovate and modernise its gameplay to bring new players in. There are plenty of turn-based games for people who enjoy them (I'd recommend the Tales games personally).

OP: I can understand why you might be a bit apprehensive about XV. FF XIII seemed to have no soul and stripped the Final Fantasy experience to its bare-bones. From what little I've seen of XV though, it may be able to re-kindle some of the magic of Final Fantasy whilst still being a modernised jRPG.