Square’s Final Fantasy series hasn’t had the best of times lately, but things could be looking up. Final Fantasy Type-0 for PSP sold quite well in Japan, Final Fantasy XIV is being retooled, and the company is hard at work on Final Fantasy XIII-2, the follow-up to the last home console iteration of the series. According to FFXIII-2 producer Toshinori Kitase, the studio is looking at the popularity of certain Western RPGs like Dragon Age and Skyrim as an outline for the future - meaning the fundamental ideas behind FF could be changing soon.
“In the global market we see many players moving away from games that used turn-based systems toward what you might term an action RPG,” Kitase told Edge. "That's a trend, and you ignore things like that at your peril."
"I think the nature of the franchise is to present something new each time," Kitase added. "FFXIII and FFXIII-2's battle systems have those elements of speed and action that are the key words for us, though that doesn't necessarily mean we're going to stick to the same route in our next game. That's something only time can tell."
Would Final Fantasy going action-RPG be too much for you? Or would you welcome the change?
