Final Fantasy 16 isn't even out yet, and director Naoki Yoshida is already willing to discuss where Final Fantasy 17 is going.
Yoshida tells us that Final Fantasy 16 is going for action combat in large part to ensure there wouldn't be a clash between turn-based battles and the highly detailed graphics.
"I fully understand the appeal and the potential that there is for turn-based or command-based games. I still think that Square Enix will have the opportunity to create something like that... I personally would say that, if you're going to create something like that, maybe have the graphics fit that system better by maybe going towards a more pixel-graphic type of direction.
"But does that mean that, okay, Final Fantasy 17 pixel graphics is confirmed? I don't know about that. [laugher] Because once you've taken the graphics this far with FF16, if you decided to go back to pixel graphics with that, then people are gonna be like, 'Hey, what are you doing here? Why are you going back to pixel graphics?'"
While Yoshida's certainly joking about a pixel-art FF17, it's more likely than it might once have been. Earlier this year, word got around that Square Enix boss Yosuke Matsuda wants more games in the HD-2D style that's powered Octopath Traveler, Triangle Strategy, and the upcoming Live A Live remake. Fitting that style around a brand-new, numbered entry in the Final Fantasy series could be a harder sell, though.
More seriously, Yoshida notes that "this isn't about right or wrong, it comes down to preference. And then you know, we like to look at it as that's why each of the Final Fantasy games is something different. This time we're gonna go in this direction, but the next time you're gonna have a different team, you're going to have a different direction, you're gonna have a different world, you're going to have a different battle system."
A near-complete reboot for each numbered Final Fantasy has been the way of the series since the first sequel, and as Yoshida notes, that means "you're getting different things for a lot of different players. Because like I said before, there are a lot of different players, and not everybody agrees on what should be in a Final Fantasy. So you can't put everything together, you just have to keep creating different things until you cover everything."
While you probably won't hear much more about Final Fantasy 17 for a while - Square Enix probably doesn't even know what the game will look like just yet - you can check out our full Final Fantasy 16 interview with Naoki Yoshida for more on the next entry in the series.
See our Final Fantasy 16 guide for a breakdown of everything we know so far.
