The original Final Fantasy VII proved that a turn-based role-playing game could be one of the best-selling games around. Almost 30 years later, the traditional JRPG has struggled amid competition from other rising genres, including its real-time action-oriented counterparts. With the Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy, Square Enix has found a happy balance between modern sensibilities and the types of things long-time fans expect. Asked if its combat system could be a blueprint for Final Fantasy moving forward, Final Fantasy VII Revelation director Naoki Hamaguchi said it’ll be up to each project to choose what’s best, but he feels like he accomplished what he set out to do: show that this style of game can be “bigger” and “broader” than it was in the past.
“What I really wanted to show the world with the Final Fantasy VII remake series was the potential of Final Fantasy—what it can be. I don’t see this as a negative at all, but it was being recognized as a JRPG, which is a very specific category,” he told Kotaku during an interview at Gamescom 2026. “The fun and appeal of those games is in the linear storytelling, the characters, and the battle systems. Turn-based mechanics are heavily tied to that, and that’s great in its own right.”
He continued:
But I wanted to show that Final Fantasy can go beyond that to be a global, competitive action RPG, open-world-style game. Those are the big things in the gaming world at the moment and I want to show that Final Fantasy can compete in the same ring as all the other big global IP—and that we can even improve on [them].
Evolving through Remake, Rebirth, and Revelation—involving the gameplay, the systems, and how we approach that style of game—is the flag I wanted to plant for the future. It can be broader, it can be bigger, and we can be that too. I’m satisfied we’ve reached the goal I wanted to achieve.
Final Fantasy XVI utilized a more arcade-y real-time combat system with shades of Devil May Cry. While excellent in its own right, it was one of many departures from the franchise’s traditional gameplay sensibilities and structure that rubbed some fans the wrong way. The recent success of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which had traditional turn-based combat with some parry and dodge prompts sprinkled on top, has made some players pine for Final Fantasy to go back to its old-school roots. Hamaguchi clarified that even as he’s tried to expand the expectations around what a Final Fantasy game can be with the Remake trilogy, he’s not against the “traditional-style JRPG.”
“I don’t want people to misunderstand me—I’m not criticizing JRPGs at all,” he said. “They’re great…What I want to show is that Final Fantasy doesn’t have to be a traditional-style JRPG. We created the baseline showing we can have a different style of gameplay, but we know we can do the traditional stuff too. It’s up to each individual project to choose what’s best. Final Fantasy is not a JRPG because it can only be a JRPG; it’s because that’s the better choice for that game. That’s where I want to be.”
