Written by Jim Sterling

Wow, this is pretty heavy stuff. According to Square Enix president Yoichi Wada, Final Fantasy XIII might be the swan song of the traditional RPG at Square Enix. Although Wada expects XIII to do great things for his company, he believes that Square's internal studios should be put to work on creating "next generation" gameplay. 

"I believe Final Fantasy XIII is going be something special, and that it’s going to be well received by the audience," states Wada. "But whether we are going to continue to internally create this type of game remains to be seen, because I actually feel that the team that was involved with Final Fantasy XIII should next move on to create and generate some 'next generation' forms of play.

"I really think that the Final Fantasy team could create something completely different, but at the moment they’re strictly catering to the particular audience they have now."

This is actually pretty astounding. Final Fantasy might have tried all manner of different combat and character progression systems over the years, but its core JRPG gameplay as always remained intact, and of course won Square Enix a huge fan following. Abandoning that winning formula is pretty bloody huge, and if Squenix dared to do it, I wonder what its hardcore fanbase would think. 

What do you think, first and foremost? Should Square Enix abandon all the old ways and focus on doing entirely new things, or are there some aspects of Final Fantasy that should never change?

Source: http://www.destructoid.com/final-fantasy-xiii-might-be-last-true-final-fantasy-159676.phtml

Panic coming up in 3..2..1..

From what I hear, FFXIII isn't even a true FF. A lot of differences that FF fans may not like.

About time...

I hope that they reconsider, as I said before in a similar thread, this could be a move that can potetianly alieanate their entire fanbase, and it would be a shame for it to be so.

They could focus on creating new main IP's based on the Final Fantasy name, kinda like Nintendo did with Mario and the Mario&Luigi saga which is a JRPG, but at least keep the main saga intact.

@nightsurge

Every FF since FFVI has been labeled a "not true FF" because each time they innovate on the FF formula and add things that some previous FF fans dislike. It's the same thing with FFXIII.

People forget that the essence of FF is innovation, it has been like this since the days of FFII when they added some (at that time) newly used WRPG mechanics (such as individual stat and weapon growth).

Next-gen gameplay = FPS? |:

and there goes my dreams of playing a "real" FFXXX before I die.

Square Enix propably forces the die-hard Final Fantasy fans to buy the new game in March 2010, because they want people to believe that only a huge success will change their opinion.
Attempted Extortion! I'm calling Amnesty International!

I think he meant that he wanted the Final Fantasy franchise to end.

@nightsurge - whoever told you that lied.

OP - he says he wants the te involved with XIII to move on. This is the same team that did X I believe. How does that mean the end of true FF games?

when FFXIII sells 10 million they will realise they shouldn't do that

Square, you wanna do that, start a new IP called Final Quest Hearts or Dragon Hearts Fantasy or something!!

I'm sure Final Hearts Quest can be the NEXT BIG THING! (FHQ for short)

in 20 years we'llbe waiting for a FHQ 7 Remake!!