There aren’t many series in video gaming with a history like Final Fantasy. Consider some of its contemporaries in the early days of role-playing video games. Ultima hasn’t been relevant for decades. Wizardry is being licensed out to assorted developers; the brand hasn’t meant anything in particular for a long time. A few of its Japanese competitors are still thriving, like Dragon Quest and Megami Tensei, but there are just as many that have fallen out of favour such as Glory of Heracles and Far East of Eden. But it’s not just a matter of longevity. In its close to 40 years of existence, Final Fantasy has amassed cumulative sales of 195 million across its entries, second only to Nintendo’s ubiquitous Pokémon in the role-playing genre. The series consists of somewhere between sixteen and twenty-four mainline titles (it’s complicated) along with a plethora of spin-offs. With the vast number of rereleases and obscure mobile titles, it’s hard to say exactly how many games there have been, but virtually every estimate puts it at over 100. In the present unstable game development industry, however, the last few games have underperformed expectations, despite positive reviews. One must wonder in which direction the future of Final Fantasy lies. Frankly, I’m not well equipped to answer that question from a business perspective. But, by considering the past and present of Final Fantasy, I can at least ponder where I think it should go.

Part I: The Prelude

You’ve probably heard the story that Final Fantasy earned its title because Squaresoft was at risk of bankruptcy, and this fantasy role-playing game would have been their last game had it not been so popular. Well, that isn’t true. What is true is that while Squaresoft had released plenty of successful games, young designer Hironobu Sakaguchi was having less luck. He decided that if his next game wasn’t a success, he would go back to university to complete his computer science degree. It was a success, however, launching what would become a massive franchise. So that’s where the title came from. Just kidding, that’s not it either. He actually chose the title because he wanted an alliterative title that conveyed what the game was about and Fighting Fantasy had already been taken. It’s really not that deep.

Final Fantasy was birthed out of the fledgling console RPG market. Role-playing video games either adapted from or inspired by tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons were taking the PC gaming world by storm. When these games like Ultima and Wizardry made it to Japan, they became quite popular, eventually leading to the release of Dragon Quest from Enix. Unlike its forebears, Dragon Quest was developed for Nintendo’s Famicom, known to us westerners as the NES. Its popularity proved the viability of RPGs on consoles, previously though unlikely due to several failed attempts and the nature of the genre, but Dragon Quest set the template that future games would follow, including Hironobu Sakaguchi’s Final Fantasy.

Part II: The Beginning

Sakaguchi worked with a team that seems utterly quaint by today’s standards, but it was enough to make a hit. As director, Sakaguchi’s role encompassed much of the writing and game design, but he was joined by others, including designers Hiromichi Tanaka, Akitoshi Kawazu, and Koichi Ishii. Programming was largely handled by Nasir Gebelli, the only non-Japanese member of the team. Kazuko Shibuya was responsible for much of the game’s pixel art, itself derived from concept art by the already well-established Yoshitaka Amano, known for illustrating novels like Vampire Hunter D and The Heroic Legend of Arslan. Rounding things off was Square’s resident composer Nobuo Uematsu. All of this was done under the leadership of producer and Square founder Masafumi Miyamoto. While others would contribute, it was this core team that was responsible for the first three games in the series, all of which were developed for the Famicom (only the first would be released outside of Japan) and shared similar mechanics and presentation, albeit with some notable changes each time.

1991’s Final Fantasy IV brought the series to the Super Famicom, and with it came a major innovation: The Active Time Battle system, designed by former debugger Hiroyuki Ito. This real-time/turn-based hybrid system would define combat in Final Fantasy for the rest of the decade. Some notable new members of the team included designer Yoshinori Kitase and artists Hideo Minaba, Tetsuya Takahashi, and Tetsuya Nomura. At the same time, some of the developers of the classic games like Kawazu, Ishii, and Tanaka moved on to other games at Square such as the Mana and SaGa series. A new generation was slowly taking shape.

Part III: The Second Age

Following Final Fantasy V, Hironobu Sakaguchi stepped away from the director’s chair, being promoted to series producer. Game designers Kitase and Ito became the two co-directors of Final Fantasy VI, itself considered a high-water mark for the series, the genre, and gaming as a whole. Yoshitaka Amano was also slowly drifting away from his old responsibilities, with many of the other artists taking on larger roles, including Tetsuya Nomura and Kazuko Shibuya contributing character designs. With Final Fantasy VII, the first game in the series released for PlayStation, Amano finally left the core creative team, only contributing promotional illustrations and the game’s logo. Tetsuya Nomura was now the main character designer, with Yusuke Naora taking over as art director. Sakaguchi had a credit for providing the original story of Final Fantasy VII, but by all accounts, the finished product had very little resemblance to his vision, which would be replicated more closely in Parasite Eve. The writing was instead performed by a crew including Tetsuya Nomura, Kazushige Nojima, and Yoshinori Kitase. Such a total shift in staff could spell disaster, but Final Fantasy VII became the best-selling game in the series while also being one of the most beloved to this day. Its radical departure from conventional high fantasy to a futuristic science fantasy setting could have been alienating, but it turned out to be a huge success.

The team quickly got to work on Final Fantasy VIII. Sakaguchi’s role was even further diminished at this point, with his promotion to executive producer making him more important to the company but less important to the actual game development. Sakaguchi would have one last crack at the series with Final Fantasy IX, which saw him once again acting as producer and writer. Hiroyuki Ito acted as game director, while the rest of the team was assembled largely from veterans of past Final Fantasy games, staff from the aforementioned Parasite Eve, and some new hires. Prominent individuals like Tetsuya Nomura and Kazushige Nojima had no involvement. Final Fantasy IX was deliberately made to hearken back to the high fantasy origins of the classic games, but it also represented a future in which Final Fantasy games wouldn’t necessarily all be made by the same team.

Part IV: Departure

In a somewhat shocking turn of events, Hironobu Sakaguchi decided he would leave Square. This occurred partway into the development of Final Fantasy X, the next game from Kitase, Nomura, Nojima, and the rest. In Sakaguchi’s absence, Kitase became the new series producer, with Motomu Toriyama, Takayoshi Nakazato, and Toshirou Tsuchida stepping up as co-directors. Notably, the one stalwart rock of the series began to waver at this time. Composer Nobuo Uematsu contributed to the soundtrack of Final Fantasy X, but for the first time, he was joined by other composers, those being Junya Nakano and Masashi Hamauzu. This was hardly Final Fantasy X’s only point of departure. The Active Time Battle system that had carried the series from IV all the way to IX was jettisoned in favour of the new Conditional Turn-Based system. Final Fantasy X also abandoned the large overworlds that were typical of the genre, instead being a series of linear locations that the player could only return to in the late game. Character progression was also radically different from genre convention, replacing traditional level ups with the more granular Sphere Grid. It was a bold step forward that marked a new era for the series.

Before Sakaguchi left, he also proposed a Final Fantasy online game, which would be realized under the title Final Fantasy XI. This foray into online gaming was Japan’s first MMO, and it saw Koichi Ishii and Hiromichi Tanaka return to the series. The development team was primarily made up of staff who had worked on games like Chrono Cross and Parasite Eve, a perhaps concerning indicator that Final Fantasy was taking up a lot of resources at Square. It wasn’t long after that Square’s merger with Enix was completed, shaking up company management.

Yet Final Fantasy persisted, albeit more spread out than before. The next game in the series, Final Fantasy XII, would be developed by veterans of games like Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story, along with some series regulars, most notably Hiroyuki Ito. XII was something of the total inverse of X, featuring real-time combat, large environments, and seamless transitions in and out of battle. It also had a very troubled development, with director Yasumi Matsuno stepping away from the project due to poor health.

Final Fantasy XIII was the next game from the team mostly responsible for VII, VIII, and X, led by director Motomu Toriyama, but it was notoriously in development for a very long time. In many ways, it resembled Final Fantasy X, being very linear for most of its duration while also featuring inventive progression and a hybrid turn-based/real-time battle system reminiscent of ATB, but with elements of action games introduced. It would prove to be a deeply divisive game, however, with many declaring it the worst game in the series, although a similarly sizable crowd defends it to this day.

Final Fantasy XIV was another MMO, this time with a disastrous launch that caused many of the XIII haters to rescind their “worst Final Fantasy ever” comments. It had a miraculous relaunch spearheaded by Naoki Yoshida, however, that elevated it to one of the most popular MMOs in the world. Many veterans of Final Fantasy XII contributed to the game, and after numerous expansions, it’s been held up as a top quality entry in the series despite being exclusively online multiplayer.

Final Fantasy XV suffered from an even more arduous production than XIII, ultimately being the debut game of a new team known as Luminous Productions that would be dissolved after making only one other game, the ill-fated Forspoken. XV started development as a spin-off of XIII under the leadership of Tetsuya Nomura, but numerous delays resulted in Nomura stepping away and the project being restarted as a standalone game under Hajime Tabata, who was involved in several handheld Final Fantasy games including Crisis Core and Type-0. Some of Nomura’s character designs remained, but most of the characters in the finished product were designed by Roberto Ferrari. Seemingly in response to the polarized reaction to XIII, XV featured a large, seamless open world and real-time, action-oriented battles. It was also Square-Enix’s first attempt at releasing substantial downloadable content for a Final Fantasy, with several expansion episodes including a multiplayer released post-launch, along with frequent patches to address issues and add new features. Ultimately, with Tabata’s departure from the company, a planned second wave of expansions was cancelled.

The team responsible for the relaunched Final Fantasy XIV would also get their shot at a single-player game with Final Fantasy XVI. In an attempt to appeal to new fans, RPG complexities were reduced to emphasize a fast-paced action battle system, led by former Capcom employee Ryota Suzuki, known for his work on Devil May Cry. While the battle system was praised, there was doubt as to whether the game could even be called an RPG anymore, with its progression and customization minimized to near irrelevance and party members relegated to little more than window dressing.

Meanwhile, the veterans who had seen Final Fantasy through several console generations embarked on an elaborate remake/meta sequel to Final Fantasy VII, to be released in several full-length installments. The first entry had a great resemblance to X and XIII, consisting of numerous linear environments with occasional digressions for sidequests. The battle system attempted to bridge the gap between old and new, featuring real-time action but with powerful abilities selected via menus that pause the flow of combat. Like in XVI, this was led by a Capcom veteran, Teruki Endo, who had most prominently been a designer for the Monster Hunter series. The second installment introduced large, open environments and a plethora of side content while still preserving detailed, linear areas for the most story-relevant parts of the game, all while embellishing the battle system despite keeping the foundation intact.

Thus, it became difficult to identify exactly what Final Fantasy is in the present. One is reminded of the Ship of Theseus, except if parts of the original ship were used to assemble several new ships. Are they all one Final Fantasy, are there multiple Final Fantasies, or is there no Final Fantasy anymore?

Part V: The Beyond

Up to this point, I’ve been trying to keep a neutral tone in laying out the history of Final Fantasy. Now is the point where I get to speak my mind about the state of the series. Realistically speaking, the next two games are most likely to be the finale to the Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy and Final Fantasy XVII. The developers of Remake and Rebirth (Creative Business Unit I) will be developing the third entry and the developers of XIV and XVI (Creative Business Unit III) could very well be developing XVII. After this, I imagine CBU1 will return to new numbered entries. Let’s operate under this assumption from here on.

In a lot of ways, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth was the best case scenario for a modern Final Fantasy. Lots of people believed that the emphasis on visual fidelity and cinematic production values would make it impossible to have non-linear exploration in a highly detailed world filled with side content (see the linear design of X and XIII), or that action gameplay could not coexist with elaborate RPG mechanics (see the struggle to reconcile the two in XV and XVI). Rebirth proved that all of this could be balanced. The execution wasn’t perfect, mind you. While the side content is broadly good, some side quests feel phoned in. There are lots of minigames but the placement of them means there are extended sequences that are poorly paced with the story and battles feeling like digressions from the minigames rather than vice versa. The open-world design is too reliant on blatantly indicated objectives. Visual fidelity took a hit compared to Remake’s PlayStation 5 port, with many environments being lacking in detail or featuring poor texturing and lighting. Nonetheless, it represents perhaps the ideal template for the future. Consider how the Active Time Battle system was used for six games in a row. The battle system in Remake and Rebirth is so good that it would be a shame to throw it aside. The structure of alternating open environments with linear setpieces is reminiscent of the transitions to and from the overworld in games of old, but with greater continuity and verisimilitude. When playing Rebirth, it was hard to ignore the feeling that this is what Final Fantasy should be.

Final Fantasy VII Remake was directed by Tetsuya Nomura, with Motomu Toriyama serving as co-director of scenario design and Naoki Hamaguchi serving as co-director of programming and game design. This triad persisted in Rebirth, although Hamaguchi became the director, with Toriyama serving as co-director and Nomura acting as creative director. The implication is that Hamaguchi is the future of the series. He’s certainly proved capable. I imagine that once the Remake project is completed, he’ll be the one directing CBU1’s next mainline game. Similarly, Roberto Ferrari will likely be taking over character design from Tetsuya Nomura. He was already the character designer for Remake and Rebirth, but where so many of the characters are based on Nomura’s old designs, it’s hard to see the full breadth of his expression. With the dissolution of Luminous Productions, hopefully some of their staff will end up working on future Final Fantasy games. The open-world design in XV is broadly better than in VII Rebirth, having far less signposting to tell the player where points of interest are, rather letting the player explore and feel immersed in the game’s world. Between the existing game design and technology and the talented staff who have already shown their capability, there’s a lot of promise for the future. In a sense, remaking a classic game served as an opportunity for both the old and new guards to understand what Final Fantasy is all about. At the current rate, it will be quite a while before we see this materialize, but there’s reason to be hopeful.

CBU3 is another story. Final Fantasy XIV is going strong, but Final Fantasy XVI is a different story. It’s a game that feels at once indebted to the past while also desperate to leave that behind. It hits all of the surface-level beats of Final Fantasy imagery, ironically making it feel less authentic as a consequence. Rather than being Final Fantasy, it more closely resembles an attempt to be Final Fantasy. The game design embraces action combat, yet it never rises above moderate difficulty for fear of alienating new players, as though it can’t commit to the idea. The RPG side of things has been woefully simplified. There’s little room to customize the player character, not even a distinction between physical and magical damage. You could design a good game like this—Hironobu Sakaguchi’s own Fantasian is a recent example—but that game at least has status effects and elemental affinities, both of which are entirely absent from XVI. Party members are entirely computer-controlled, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, except that they hardly make any impression on the game, save for Clive’s trusty hound Torgal, who can be called upon to extend combos in a manner reminiscent of Atreus in the rebooted God of War games. Side quests rarely reach beyond generic fetch and kill quests, and exploring the game’s environments too often boils down to finding interesting-looking locations that will only be elaborated upon later when you find the relevant side quest. Equipment is a linear progression from one sword to another that looks different and does more damage. As an action game, there’s a very solid foundation, yet there isn’t enough variety to sustain a game of this length. Perhaps the best of XVI could be fused with the best of Rebirth to put the action systems into a better RPG, but I don’t know if that’s the best course of action.

One idea that has been proposed is that Final Fantasy should alternate between turn-based and action-based games. I can see the value in this. For one, the success of games like Persona 5 and Baldur’s Gate III shows that there is still an audience for turn-based RPGs, perhaps more than there was before. For another, there hasn’t been a properly turn-based mainline Final Fantasy in a long time. There’s a lot of unexplored potential that a large-scale game could take advantage of. It may seem odd considering the action was the highlight of Final Fantasy XVI, but CBU3 should probably be the studio to do this. Where XVI showed a failure to balance action and RPG, the path forward would be to choose one or the other. Frankly, I don’t want a mainline Final Fantasy that’s just an action game. As much as I like action games, that’s the wrong direction for the series. The correct path then would be to prioritize the RPG side. Final Fantasy XIV has shown CBU3 can handle RPG design. While MMOs are quite different from single-player RPGs, I have confidence they could figure out the difference. As for the staff who were brought on specifically for their action game acumen, notably Ryota Suzuki, their talents might be better applied on the CBU1 side of things, working to embellish an action RPG system that’s already good rather than building one from scratch.

That is my proposal for the direction of Final Fantasy. We’re entering a new era whether we like it or not, so it’s best to anticipate the changes before they come. I’m just a guy on the outside but this is the future I imagine. You may disagree, but when was the last time two Final Fantasy fans agreed on anything?