Will Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest embrace turn-based battles again?

Last year was an incredibly good one for Japanese role-playing games, probably the best ever. Among the releases were hits such as Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, Mario & Luigi: Brothership, Metaphor: ReFantazio, Persona 3 Reload, and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth.

Something all these games have in common is that they are turn-based. And in April, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was released, a French turn-based role-playing game built on the same foundations as the Japanese ones, which has been a huge success in terms of both ratings and sales.

Now Genki reports that it seems Square Enix's owners have taken note of what can only be described as a trend. During a meeting with shareholders, one investor stated that he thinks future Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy games should be turn-based, citing the success of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 as an example. Square Enix acknowledged that they had taken note of the game and said that turn-based battles are their heritage. They also stated that they will release such titles in the future.

Square Enix has previously admitted that none of their three latest major role-playing games - Forspoken, Final Fantasy XVI, and Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth - have sold as expected, and all of these have action-based systems rather than turn-based ones. It is therefore easy to imagine that they are willing to leave no stone unturned to find something that players would rather have.

Incidentally, the Final Fantasy series used to always be turn-based, with the last traditional one being Final Fantasy X (although Final Fantasy 12-13 also had a variant of Active Time Battle), so really it's only parts 14-16 and the remake of part 7 that have had an action-focused setup.

What do you think, is it time for Square Enix to return to a turn-based setup for its role-playing games?