‘Final Fantasy XVI’ Producer Naoki Yoshida Doesn’t Have A “Clear-Cut Answer” About Future Entries Going Back To Turn-Based Combat
Naoki Yoshida — producer on Final Fantasy XVI, director and producer of Final Fantasy XIV — was asked in an interview if the series would return to its turn-based combat roots after the success of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. He could only say it was “not a clear-cut answer.”
The mainline entries in the Final Fantasy series have moved away from turn-based combat in recent years. Yoshida was previously quoted as saying Final Fantasy XVI was action-based to appeal to a younger audience, and how realistic graphics didn’t gel well with turn-based combat; this after higher-ups reportedly wanted the studio to showcase the technical power of the PlayStation 5.
This year we’ve seen the smashing success of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a turn-based RPG with realistic graphics. Hmm.
Rhys Elliott, Alinea Analytic’s head of market analysis discussed part of the reason for its success with GamesIndustry.biz back in May. “There was also an opening for a modern, realistic-looking JRPG. Square Enix was reticent to do it with the Final Fantasy series. Now it’s probably kicking itself.” A recent interview finally put the comparison at Yoshida’s feet.
During an interview with George Yang of Anime News Network at Anime Expo 2025, Yoshida was asked about the Final Fantasy series going multi-platform for future releases, what he’d learned from developing Final Fantasy XVI, and more. Yang opened the killer question by stating, “There’s a game called Claire Obscur: Expedition 33 that has a lot of critical acclaim and successful sales.”
“One of the things that stood out about the game was its turn-based combat. Expedition 33 was inspired by games like Final Fantasy and Persona. I know that you said in the past that Final Fantasy XVI‘s more action-based combat was sort of a natural progression, or way of keeping up with modern gaming,” Yang explained, alluding to Yoshida’s previous comments.
He then asked, “But with the success of Expedition 33, do you think that possibly mainline Final Fantasy games could go back to being turn-based, as that seems to be something that players have an appetite for?”
Yoshida prefaced, “With this question of turn-based versus action, it tends to isolate the gameplay to just the battle system. That doesn’t take into account what kind of game the creators want to deliver to players.”
“For example, based on a certain graphical quality we want to present to our players, or the narrative we want to deliver to our players, it relates to how we set up the game’s systems around it,” he continued, adding, “This includes the battle system, game design, and gameplay feel.”
Yoshida then admitted, “It’s not a clear-cut answer, whether it will become all turn-based, or if it’s going to become more action-based.”
“[I’m] not necessarily going to be on Final Fantasy 17, so we also don’t want to obstruct or limit our future director or whomever will be producing the games like 17 or even 18. We don’t want to put them on a rail,” he declared.
Nonetheless, Square Enix are still making turn-based and action-based RPGs — though admittedly their biggest budget titles of late have been leaning on the latter. Yet when these titles have failed to meet their expectations, there are other factors in play such as platform exclusivity, other games bombing, and potentially the budgets of those Triple-A RPGs.
