The success of Sandfall Interactive’s RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has prompted Square Enix to acknowledge that there is still a market for turn-based RPGs, especially with its Final Fantasy franchise. As spotted by X user Genki_JPN, Square Enix president Takashi Kiryu responded to questions about the future of the Final Fantasy franchise, especially with regards to the most recent mainline entry leaving behind turn-based combat to instead adopt action-styled gameplay.
Kiryu reportedly acknowledged the popularity of turn-based RPGs, and seemingly plans to have Square Enix develop and release more of them down the line. However, it is worth noting that no announcements or confirmations were made about whether we would see Final Fantasy return to its turn-based roots with Final Fantasy 17. In fact, the company is likely busy with the franchise in terms of several upcoming games, including the third part of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy, as well as the upcoming Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles.
The latter – a remaster of the seminal Final Fantasy Tactics released for the original PlayStation – was announced earlier this month. The game is slated for release on September 30, and will be coming to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2.
When it comes to the deeper aspects of the remaster, The Ivalice Chronicles will include Enhanced and Classic versions of the game. It will make use of the translation from the War of the Lions version that was originally released on PlayStation Portable. The Ivalice Chronicles will also include more modern visuals as well as some quality-of-life features.
As for the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy, Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade recently got announced for release on Xbox Series X/S. While no release date has been given, the title will be coming to Xbox in Winter 2025. This likely also means that the second title in the trilogy – Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth – might end up coming to the platform some time next year.
Final Fantasy 16, on the other hand, recently made its way on to Xbox Series X/S. You can check out more details about the game in our review.
Back in March, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 game producer and Sandfall Interactive co-founder François Meurisse spoke about how the RPG was inspired by classic Final Fantasy games as well as more modern action games like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
“Those are big childhood games for Guillaume [Broche], our game director,” Meurisse said, talking about Final Fantasy 7, 8, 9, and 10. “He wanted to have like kind of feeling that he imagined would have remained in modern Final Fantasy-like games, if they had kept doing turn-based stuff. But he mixed also lots of different inspirations. Definitely Final Fantasy and JRPGs are the preeminent gameplay heritage we have. The defense system is more inspired by Sekiro and From Software games. It has this kind of rhythm element and a more real-time component in it. More skill-based.”
Meurisse also spoke about other inspirations, including card games like Slay the Spire that allow players to make use of unique mechanics through different combinations of cards.
“There are also lots of different smaller inspirations,” said Meurisse. “For example, the idea of having action points for skills in the battles is more inspired by deckbuilding games than having the usual like magic points scores or mana in RPGs.”
