Naoki Yoshida, the director of Final Fantasy 14 and the upcoming Final Fantasy 16, has revealed he believes the series is “struggling” to adapt to industry trends.
In a new interview with Inverse, Yoshida revealed that the studio gets a number of different requests regarding the direction of Final Fantasy titles, especially with the industry rapidly evolving.
“In terms of whether Final Fantasy is successfully adapting to industry trends, I believe the series is currently struggling,” he said. “We’re now at a point where we receive a wide variety of requests regarding the direction of our game design. To be honest, it’d be impossible to satisfy all those requests with a single title.”
He went on to say that he’s not worried about not keeping up with those industry trends though. “My current impression is that all we can really do is create multiple games, and continue creating the best that we can at any given time.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Yoshida said he wants to make another massively multiplayer online (MMO) game from scratch.
Earlier this year, the Final Fantasy director also said that he doesn’t see the metaverse itself as “entertainment”, but rather as a vessel for “entertainment content”. He went on to say that he “doesn’t really think about” the metaverse. He followed that up by saying the reason Final Fantasy 16 won’t be incorporating turn-based combat is to appeal to a younger audience.
“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 other news, it’s been confirmed that the delayed Life Is Strange: Remastered Collection is finally coming to Nintendo Switch next month.
The two-game bundle, which brings together remastered versions of the original Life Is Strange game and prequel Life Is Strange: Before the Storm, is set for release September 27 and has been renamed Life is Strange: Arcadia Bay Collection.
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