Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has been one of many breakout hits of 2025. It is also a classically styled turn-based role-playing sport, taking cues from many fashionable collection, together with Remaining Fantasy. These two elements have each led to many questions on whether or not Remaining Fantasy may return to its personal roots, and now the query’s been posed to certainly one of Remaining Fantasy’s front-facing leads.
Naoki Yoshida, the director/producer of Remaining Fantasy 14 and producer of Remaining Fantasy 16, was requested in an interview with AnimeNewsNetwork whether or not mainline Remaining Fantasy video games might return to being turn-based, within the wake of Clair Obscur’s success.
“With this query of turn-based versus motion, it tends to isolate the gameplay to simply the battle system,” stated Yoshida. “That does not bear in mind what sort of sport the creators wish to ship to gamers. For instance, primarily based on a sure graphical high quality we wish to current to our gamers, or the narrative we wish to ship to our gamers, it pertains to how we arrange the sport’s techniques round it. This consists of the battle system, sport design, and gameplay really feel. It isn’t a clear-cut reply, whether or not it’ll grow to be all turn-based, or if it will grow to be extra action-based.
“[I’m] not essentially going to be on Remaining Fantasy 17, so we additionally do not wish to impede or restrict our future director or whomever will probably be producing the video games like 17 and even 18,” Yoshida continued. “We do not wish to put them on a rail.”
The reply, basically, remains to be up within the air. Remaining Fantasy modifications with every entry, in spite of everything; other than creating new tales and casts for every mainline numbered entry, every sport can vary from extremely iterative to full-on evolutions or change-ups. Trying on the gameplay shifts from, say, Remaining Fantasy 9 on by 12 and 13 emphasizes how the collection usually shakes issues up for every successive installment.
Greatest Mainline Remaining Fantasy Video games
Greatest Mainline Remaining Fantasy Video games
Yoshida has talked about this prior to now, inside the context of Remaining Fantasy 16 choosing a really action-oriented system. That entry tried to attraction to a special crowd, due to the “anticipated” gross sales and impression of a mainline Remaining Fantasy.
We have had these conversations earlier than, round the way forward for Remaining Fantasy, and can in all probability have them once more. In spite of everything, merely judging by the event timelines of the previous few mainline video games, it may be a bit till we begin listening to about Remaining Fantasy 17, a lot much less 18 or past.
In the meantime, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and its growth workforce at Sandfall Interactive have actually struck success by honing in on their objectives and passions, so possibly that’s the true goal to try in the direction of.
Eric is a contract author for IGN.