I don't think Square-Enix can afford "cutting edge" graphics and presentation anymore. They don't have the sales to support it.

Things like Spider-Man 2 have a budget of $300 million ... I don't think Square-Enix can even afford that, not for something that might only sell 5 million copies.

That doesn't mean the graphics and presentation will be bad, it just means if you're expecting the FF series to retain top of the line industry visuals that rival things like GTA6 ... you might need to understand they don't have the numbers I don't think to make that happen for a 60 hour game.

They are probably going to be stuck in the range of visuals for FF16/FF7 Rebirth for a while.

Honestly, FF7 Rebirth already looks great. Hell, even FF7 Remake still looks good in my opinion.
For most people, PS4 or Switch 2 level visuals is good enough, it doesn't make much sense to pursue high end graphics any more unless you're a massive brand like GTA or COD or something.

Graphically, FF16 was already kinda overkill, it pushed too hard to the point where it was like 720p in performance mode even on PS5.

Rebirth looks better than XVI and runs 100x better

In could see DQ being a timed Switch 2 console exclusive though. It will release day one on pc I think though. Might be the same situation as with MH Rise

It's the reasonable thing to do in this climate, exclusives not directly funded by platform owners will become an obscure thing of the past, with few exceptions. At the very least, games will be ported over some time after, as we're already seeing for big 1st party titles.

Yeah FF16 was either really badly optimized or just had really baffling rendering priorities, cos it didn't look nearly good enough to justify how low res it was. Reminded me of something like Xenoblade Chronicles 2 on Switch where the quality of the effects was dimmed somewhat by the blurry image quality.

Bold prediction: I think there will be 2 versions of DQ 12. One is an action rpg targeted for worldwide audience for PC, Xbox, and PS (maybe Switch 2). The other is a traditional turn based mainly for the Japanese audience for Switch and Switch 2. Might be a DQ 11 situation where they made 2 versions.

I know jack squat about tech specs, but as long as it doesn't get held back in some fundamental way by lesser hardware, I'm fine with this. Though I'll always think of 3D FF as a Playstation franchise.

For sure it's the engine, which is derived from FF14s. It wasn't really built for graphical showcases in mind and probably the team worked pretty speedy to bring it up to scratch with modern standards. 

Graphically I don't think FF16 gets enough love though, it's definitely more consistent and detailed presentation then VII Rebirth but it's art direction leans more into a solemn realism which makes it pop less. Some parts of VII like the character models and VFX work are better.

It's a shame though Square was unable to realise their goals with the lumen engine. Honestly their games would be on another league if they were able to continual build on assets from the past and have all teams have access to the same tools. In particular XV had way better parkour and contextual animation than both 16 and 7 Rebirth. Navigating terrain in both of the "next gen" games is several steps back (start 2:50)

Final Fantasy is well-past its peak in popularity; this is needed for it to survive.