Whether intentionally influenced by Super Mario Bros. Wonder, whose success Mario series producer Takashi Tezuka in part attributed to “younger people in [Nintendo’s] staff” implementing “a lot of different ideas and different thoughts,” the next game in the long-running Final Fantasy series, Final Fantasy 17 might be developed by younger creators.
“I’m on the board of directors now so I really need to watch what I say here,” Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida said in a recent interview with the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. “For the moment, I’ll just say that nothing’s been decided yet.
“That said, if I had to say anything about that… I’ve had the chance to work on two of these games, XIV and XVI, so maybe it’s time for someone new, you know.
“Instead of having the same old guys handle the next game, I think in some ways it would be good to look to the future and bring in a younger generation with more youthful sensibilities, to make a new Final Fantasy with challenges that suit today’s world.”
When asked what advice he might give a younger developer working on Final Fantasy 17, Yoshida said, “Well, basically, and this is the same for the father of the series, Sakaguchi, and for Kitase, who’s currently brand manager for the FF series… Final Fantasy is about challenging what’s been done before,” he said.
Final Fantasy XVI/Square Enix
“And while I’m certainly not looking to pick a fight with the older games, we all make Final Fantasy games thinking, “mine will be the most fun!”
“So my advice is to just dive in and first put down on paper what you believe would be the most enjoyable Final Fantasy, before thinking too hard about it.
“Then from there, you can decide things like, ‘since XVI was real-time action, my Final Fantasy is going to have both real-time combat and turn-based battles!’ Or you could go to the other extreme and return to the series’ fully turn-based, pixel art roots.
“But you just have to sit down and think about what you’re going to spend years of your life one, what experience you want your players to have, and what is it you want the fans to be playing.”
Final Fantasy 16, which just released its first story DLC and announced an additional expansion would be coming to the PS5 sometime this year, was described as the first fully-fledged action RPG in the mainline Final Fantasy series. Which gaming elements or genres might be introduced in Final Fantasy 17 if younger developers are given the chance to work on the game?
Do you think it’s a good thing that Final Fantasy 17 might be developed by younger creators? Let us know in the comments.
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