Between the upcoming Final Fantasy XVI and the remainder of the remake of VII, Square-Enix clearly has plans for the franchise over the next few years, which is great. But there’s been a trend I’ve noticed that I wanted to talk about; the series transformation from a traditional turn-based JRPG to a hack n’ slash. It was announced that the upcoming 16th mainline installment had contracted Ryota Suzuki as “Battle Director”. You may be familiar with his previous work on the combat of Devil May Cry V, a phenomenal action game. It seems clear from trailers and such that Square is hoping to replicate that style of combat in Final Fantasy XVI. This is not the first time a FF game has been built around hack n’ slash gameplay, but it’s funny how a series that helped define the RPG genre is trying to move on and lean more towards hardcore action rather than tactics and party building.
The origin of this trend could arguably be traced back to 1991’s Final Fantasy IV, which introduced “Active Time Battles”. That was a shake up to standard turn - based game play where everyone, well… took turns. This system changed the flow of combat so that everything moved in real time while the player was inputting commands. This gave encounters a greater sense of urgency than its contemporaries such as Dragon Quest.
The series took another, albeit smaller, step with Final Fantasy VIII which introduced timed button presses. Later on, Final Fantasy XII would overhaul combat to introduce movement creating a hybrid of real time action with the waiting of turn-based combat. A combat system that would later be refined for MonolithSoft’s Xenoblade series, by the way.
Final Fantasy XIII certainly wanted to LOOK like an action game. It (and its two sequels) followed a turn-based formula where the player inputs commands and, after a short wait, the character performs them. To help make this “not an action game” feel like an action game, several moves could be input at a time to mimic a hack n’ slash combo. Additionally, the player would only maintain control of one character at a time rather than controlling the whole party at once.
The transformation to a hack n’ slash was finally completed with Final Fantasy XV. Charging into combat, targeting enemies, racking up combos, block, parrying, dodging, and quickly switching weapons replaced colliding with an enemy in the over world and being whisked away to “everyone wait your turn” land.
Since it seems clear that Square wants to continue with this style for the foreseeable future, it’s worth asking; is this good? And that… is subjective. It’s different. There are pros and cons to both turn-based and hack n’ slash gameplay. The big difference, in my opinion, is the player’s relationship to the characters. In a turn-based RPG you command the entire party at once, placing a greater emphasis on things like teamwork and understanding enemy weaknesses. In an action game it’s more likely that you’re playing as a single character with backup.
Now, both FFXV and the remake of FFVII had unique mechanics implemented to maintain older gameplay themes. XV wanted that emphasis on teamwork, so it filled combat with combo moves between Noctis and his party. They also made other mechanics outside of combat like photography and cooking dependent on party members to maintain that sense of teamwork.
The VII remake opted to instead take some core combat elements from the original, such as materia and ATP, and adjust them to function in a hack n’ slash. They combined this with the ability to switch control of party members quickly, making the player feel like they're controlling a team rather than just one person.
With all this said, I’m very curious as to what Square-Enix plans to do to make the combat in the upcoming FFXVI implement series staples while still being a hack n’ slash. It’s also entirely possible that they could be hoping to drop certain mainstays and just go full arcade action (though I personally hope they don’t). On the other hand, I do miss the more traditional combat for which the series was known. I would love to see what a turn-based Final Fantasy with an AAA budget would be like.
Regardless, it seems that, for now, the future of Final Fantasy involves a lot of hacking and slashing.
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