Younger creators could lead Final Fantasy 17, producer suggests

Final Fantasy 16 producer Naoki Yoshida has suggested that the next game in the series could be helmed by a younger generation of creators.

Speaking to Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida in an Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences interview, Yoshida was asked if he would be directing Final Fantasy 17.

“I’m on the board of directors now so I really need to watch what I say here,” he replied. “For the moment, I’ll just say that nothing’s been decided yet.

“That said, if I had to say anything about that… I’ve had the chance to work on two of these games, XIV and XVI, so maybe it’s time for someone new, you know.

“Instead of having the same old guys handle the next game, I think in some ways it would be good to look to the future and bring in a younger generation with more youthful sensibilities, to make a new Final Fantasy with challenges that suit today’s world.”

Yoshida was then asked what advice he would give a younger director working on Final Fantasy 17.

“Well, basically, and this is the same for the father of the series, Sakaguchi, and for Kitase, who’s currently brand manager for the FF series… Final Fantasy is about challenging what’s been done before,” he said.

“And while I’m certainly not looking to pick a fight with the older games, we all make Final Fantasy games thinking, “mine will be the most fun!”

“So my advice is to just dive in and first put down on paper what you believe would be the most enjoyable Final Fantasy, before thinking too hard about it.

“Then from there, you can decide things like, ‘since XVI was real-time action, my Final Fantasy is going to have both real-time combat and turn-based battles!’ Or you could go to the other extreme and return to the series’ fully turn-based, pixel art roots.

“But you just have to sit down and think about what you’re going to spend years of your life one, what experience you want your players to have, and what is it you want the fans to be playing.”

Square Enix recently released Final Fantasy 16’s first story DLC and revealed a second expansion that’s coming to the PS5 game this year.