If you grew up playing Final Fantasy, you surely remember the Active Time Battle system that was standard for a long time, and other variations of turn-based battles. But the latter games in the series has lacked this, and it won't return for the upcoming Final Fantasy XVI either, as explained by producer Naoki Yoshida in a Famitsu interview (translated by VGC).
Yoshida said that while he does understand the appeal of the turn-based system, younger gamers does not:
"I'm from a generation that grew up with command and turn-based RPGs," Yoshida said. "I think I understand how interesting and immersive it can be. On the other hand, for the past decade or so, I've seen quite a number of opinions saying 'I don't understand the attraction of selecting commands in video games'.
This opinion is only increasing, particularly with younger audiences who do not typically play RPGs."
He continues by explaining his thoughts about this further:
"For several console generations now, all character expressions can be done in real-time. Actions such as 'press the trigger and your character will shoot a gun' and 'press the button and your character will swing their sword' can now be easily expressed without going through a command system.
It's now common for gamers younger than me to love such games. As a result, it seems that it does not make sense to go through a command prompt, such as 'Battle', to make a decision during a battle."
So, if he wanted to be able to sell more games, he had to make Final Fantasy XVI action-based:
"As I said, I believe I know the fun of command system RPGs, and I want to continue developing them, but I thought about the expected sales of Final Fantasy XVI and the impact that we have to deliver."
Would you like Final Fantasy to go back to turned based battles again, or do you prefer action?