Ever since the series starting deviating so strongly from it's old styling, it's crazy to me that square haven't done a spinoff final fantasy series which is essentially made in the vision of the PS1 classics (7, 8, 9)....
Similar level of narrative ambition, same ambition with art direction, so fully proportioned characters, not chibby esque (Bravely Default/WOFF) or HD pixel art. Same level of commited effort for battle animations and camera angles, so the camera actually being active/cinematic (unlike Bravely default etc), characters fully running up to enemies when attack, still turn based....
But a return to text boxes instead of every character being voiced, exploration is a modern equivalent of the prerendered backgrounds with fixed cameras, a return to world maps, only the big set pieces being fleshed out into full on cutscenes (similar the PS1 classics) , fixed camera angles mean less environmental work. A good level of detail but not photorealistic like the newer games.
A title like this could actually match the current sales of mainline AAA Final Fantasy but at a fraction of the budget and hit all platforms including Switch. If they made FF8 and 9 in 2 years, they could make a similar scope title in 2 years and actually return to an era of frequent new and original Final Fantasy. This spin off series sit in-between the big AAA releases.
