‘Final Fantasy 16’ not turn-based to appeal to younger players

nme.com:

Final Fantasy 16, Naoki Yoshida, has confirmed the reason for the game’s lack of turn-based combat, saying it’s to appeal to a younger audience.Speaking to Famitsu, translated by VGC, Yoshida explained that the development team had to “reassess” the Final Fantasy audience, implying it needed to take into account the younger players.“I’m from a generation that grew up with command and turn-based RPGs,” Yoshida said. “I think I understand how interesting and immersive it can be.“On the other hand, for the past decade or so, I’ve seen quite a number of opinions saying ‘I don’t understand the attraction of selecting commands in video games’.

This opinion is only increasing, particularly with younger audiences who do not typically play RPGs.”In the same interview, the developer explained that console technology has advanced to allow complex real-time combat, moving away from classic turn-based.“It’s now common for gamers younger than me to love such games,” he said. “As a result, it seems that it does not make sense to go through a command prompt, such as ‘Battle’, to make a decision during a battle.“This is not an argument of what is good or bad, but there is a difference based on the player’s preferences and age.

Furthermore, there is a big difference between a command system and a turn-based system, and these are often conflated, but are two different concepts.”Final Fantasy 16 is set to launch in summer 2023 for PS5.

In the initial reveal trailer, PC was also listed as a platform but the website doesn’t feature a PC branding. Square Enix hasn’t confirmed if it will arrive on the platform at a later time.