As time marches forward, Final Fantasy marches with it. The past few years have seen the series embrace modernity, capitalising on current trends -Final Fantasy 15is an action RPG with an open world, Stranger of Paradise went off the deep end into a sea of randomised loot and Souls-Like combat, andFinal Fantasy 7 Remakeserved up a meta multiversal version of the classic’s original story. It’s not surprising, then, thatFinal Fantasy 16has flashy combat that features dodges and dashes, Bayonetta-style Witch Time,Kingdom Hearts-esque shotlocks, and frenetic combos that seem to lack impact. It’s a mishmash of popular mechanics from the past five years, so it’ll probably be fun - Square Enix has hopefully learned from the lows of FF15 and the highs of FF7R.
I’d still prefer it if the game had turn-based combat. Final Fantasy 16 looks to be a return not only to form for the series, but to its roots. It’s the first mainline single-player game in 17 years to embrace the fantasy end of the sci-fi/fantasy spectrum, and they’ve suffered a certain lack of depth since then. FF16 looks to recapture the magic, and part of that old-school magic was found in deep, complex combat systems that allowed you to take your time and strategise.
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There’s something supremely satisfying about exploiting FF5’s job system to break the difficulty in half, micromanaging Espers in FF6 to maximise stat gains, and planning out your actions seven turns in advance in FF10. These systems reward you for taking the time to learn their ins and outs and employ more methodical strategies - in an action-based alternative, you’re rewarded for rote pattern memorisation and a twitchy trigger finger on the dodge button. It’s not as satisfying.
Action-based combat simply doesn’t lend itself to methodical gameplay. Complexity is traded for speed because the entire system is built around your reflexes. It’s engaging, but I miss the good old days of thinking about each turn minutely as the thumping battle music blares, and being able to appreciate character and monster models down to the finest details. There’s little time to take in the finer touches when you’re focused on avoiding every incoming attack and hyper-focusing on any potential openings.
The biggest sin is the lack of control over your teammates. This has been something plaguing Final Fantasy since FF13, and while there are decent implementations of AI party members, not once have I seen their inclusion as a positive. More often than not, this turns your party members into ineffective combatants who cannot fight as efficiently as whoever’s holding the controller. There’s a good chance that FF16 is the one that cracks the code and makes AI partners worth a damn, but there’s not one person on this planet who would say, ‘Oh gosh, no, I don’t want to control the dog’, or ‘No, reviving Prompto three times in a single battle isn’t annoying at all, whatever gave you that impression?’. Just let me control them, please; they’re useless without me.
It’s not as if the RPG player base has left turn-based games behind. Bravely Default is still going strong, Octopath Traveler has taken a seat at the table, Dragon Quest and Pokemon are as popular as ever, Yakuza even flipped the tables and switched from real-time action to turn-based, and Chained Echoes was one of 2022’s breakout indie hits.
While it would seem nonsensical for a trailblazer series like FF to adopt a system that many consider archaic, FF16 still feels like a missed opportunity to set a new standard for turn-based RPGs, especially considering that it is returning to its roots with its aesthetics and setting. My favourite experiences within the RPG genre over the past few years have all been with turn-based games, and it’s frustrating to see my favourite series stray further from the light when there’s so much potential for a return to form.
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