It has now become a great classic, seen and considered that every time anything comes out of Final Fantasyone of the comments I read most often is the classic “It’s not a real FF if it’s not shifts”. Guys, we love you, but I strongly believe that RPG purists – especially those focused on the final fantasy – in a certain sense live decontextualized from the historical period they belong to. Let me be clear I am not talking about tastes, but I emphasize that times necessarily change and productions must keep pace with the industry. It follows that making an IP like that of remain anchored to the past Final Fantasypinning it to a shift system that involves different game design choices, would be a truly unforgivable own goal.
The shifts were already gone
For many the shifts have begun to practically disappear from the saga with Final Fantasy XIIIwhich is also right if you think about it, but I would like to take a further step back by making you analyze the combat system of the XII, substantially the basic framework of what was developed in the XIII. Already from the twelfth chapter the turns were a little more hidden: the action bar returns, the characters move by themselves after receiving an order or a sequence of moves, a sort of first draft of a combat system that over time would have brought the series to its greatest evolution. In fact, already in the thirteenth chapter, the improvements in this sense are there: Lightning is an agile and lean fighter, capable of concatenating truly spectacular moves ringing different attacks to create a sort of “combo”, the conclusion of which often gave a lot of satisfaction.
We have received the coup de grace in this sense with Final Fantasy XVwhich from the very first trailer made it clear the direction of the production (and of the saga). Excluding the game that we will not face here, we found a very combat system closer to Kingdom Hearts that a Final Fantasyfeaturing jumps, combo moves and stunts never seen in gameplay before. Final Fantasy XVI seems to further evolve the combat system, finally taking it to the next level. To succeed Square Enix relied on a leading figure for the creation of this mechanic, we are talking about Ryota Suzuki, who previously worked for Capcom at Devil May Cry 5, Dragon’s Dogma And Marvel vs. Capcom 2.
The gist of the speech is also another: if we previously said that times change and that the new generations are rightly more attracted to unbridled and chaotic action, I would like to point out to fans how the fights took place in the past in the past. CGI during movies. To refresh your memory, I’ll take an example that I’m sure the fans have impressed, the combat in the simulator between Sephiroth, Genesis and Angeal: spectacular moves, pure action and violent swaps with swords. This is basically what we have seen over the years after the change of direction towards the action, so it is natural to say that in the heads of the developers to bring Final Fantasy in this direction had always been a bit of the dream, only that the limited technologies brought in the past to make choices rather than others.
What is the future of turns in Final Fantasy?
It seems evident that, by now, the space for shifts in the main chapters of Final Fantasy there will be no more. However, this may not be the only solution or the only way forward. Let’s take for example Final Fantasy VII Remakethe game in which more than all fans have reviewed – at least after the first trailers – a combat system closer to Kingdom Hearts only to change his mind as the months go by. In the title we see a perfect hybrid combat system, which blended a pure action with a sort of shifts, useful to maintain that bit of tactics that did not hurt at all in the general economy of the game. What do we mean by this? What space for certain romances, if we want to define them that way, there will always be, even if maybe reported in a different way: we all agree that it would have been a wasted opportunity to do a Remake of that kind by re-proposing the classic turn-based fencing, right?
It goes without saying that we are sure that the shifts will find space in other productions, even of thickness, but certainly the way – at least for the main chapters of Final Fantasy – is marked. The sixteenth chapter seems to be a very specific point of no returnthere will even be fighting between the Eikons which seem completely off-scale clashes, but at this point it is legitimate to make a small confession. My first Final Fantasy absolutely it was the X, and when the adventure put me in front of the clashes between Aeons, I always imagined them as the ones we saw in the FF XVI trailer. The last movie then makes you dream truly millions of fans who, finally, see the Final Fantasy materialize that most of us have always imagined.
Conclusions
This speech was not made to put a plaque on the turn-based system, but surely for Final Fantasy the discussion ends. There are other great titles even outside the brand that still use this system, just think of Triple A productions such as Dragon Quest And Person, just to name a couple. However, to say that it is not about “Final Fantasy “ just because of the absence of a particular mechanic, it’s really something unfairespecially against a production that seems determined to want to bring the IP back to the glory of the past.
The Director of the game Yoshida he is a historical fan of the saga, which immediately catches the eye to those who know its history. In the two trailers there are moments that breathe the air of what it really was Final Fantasynot a fantasy based on reality, but a profound story based on wars, death, political intrigues, magic really much else. Giving up on such a production just on a whim, especially if you are a decade-long fan of the saga, is really unfair to you. You can also understand the people who have been disappointed and burned by some events or choices seen in the past, but do not give credit to Yoshida it would really be a mistake, you are warned.
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