So, say Square gives you, a random person on the internet, the important duty of directing, producing, and writing Final Fantasy XVI. How do you go about such a important and massive project?

[ShadeStrider]

As you know, Final Fantasy has a host of different universes, different stories, and different characters. Each story takes place in its own universe with its own characters (Unless you want to count the "FFVII is FFX in the future on another planet", but even then, Cloud's story really has nothing to do with Tidus or Yuna).

 

Me, I want turn based combat back. I mean, I'd make it Conditional Turn based, like in Final Fantasy X. I'd also bring back Materia, because I'm a fanboy of VII, and I have a number of ways I could weave this into the narrative. I know, not everyone likes turn based combat, but still... I like turn based combat, and its been a thing for most Final Fantasy titles.

 

Speaking of the Narrative... I know that you don't necessarily need a good story to have a good game, but... that was one of my major disappointments with Final Fantasy XV and (more notably) Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. The stories in those two games kinda suck, not gonna lie. So, for this game, I'd put more emphasis on storytelling. May be harder than it looks, but I know some things. At least actually reading books, watching movies, and playing story based games helped me more than English class in high school. 

 

And, that's all I have. For now.

 

So, discuss. Share your Ideas. You can almost do anything. Final Fantasy went from chosen heroes, to boy bands, to sportsmen, to Environmental Terrorists, to a Industrial Revolution-esque period, to a knight banished from his kingdom... Its a very diverse franchise. Just make sure you throw the Ultima Spell, the Ultima Weapon, some random guy named Cid, Chocobos... make sure you get a good amount of series staples. Even if you think its a stupid Idea, share it anyway.

 

 

 

[Alaris]

mmmmm

 

I haven't played FF X-2, XI, XIII-3, XIV or XV, so I can't judge them. I never quite liked the combat system, though... in I to III and X, there was too much time to think, so at the end, the battles were rather easy if the enemy was not too OP. The turn-based combats but with time between turns, like from IV to IX, was quite stressful to me, but it was a good solution to make things more 'dynamical' while controlling several characters at a time. I definitely don't like the gambit system of XII, and I like the combat mode of XIII and XIII-2 even less. From what I've seen, for me the combat system of XV should be the best one, but maybe they just didn't exploit it correctly (as I said, I haven't played the game, but people don't seem too happy with it...). I'd like a Kingdom Hearts-like combat combined with stealth missions like Assassin's Creed or Uncharted.

 

Then, story... for me, the best ones were VIII, VII, X, IX and VI. The worst, I, II, XII and XV. Imo, the most important thing are plot-twists, but the kind of plot-twists that you don't see coming the first time you play the game but are extremely evident when you replay it (it's true that in VIII there wasn't a great plot-twist, but I liked it for other reasons). I'd say something like the plot-twists in the 2nd and 3rd Professor Layton games, but less far-fetched. Or something like Baten Kaitos... a great plot-twist in an altogether forgettable story.

 

So... what would I like in a new game? I think hitherto no FF has represented exactly a dystopian world with all the population being monitorised... so it'd be cool maybe having that and protagonists on each faction, being able to decide how you want to tackle the conflict: either you collaborate or one of the factions tries to destroy the other from the inside. That would be reeeally cool to see. So for example, you control both factions, so if you make the decision to obliterate the other, then when you control them you must face a super-OP boss that wipes the floor with you. And of course, this way you'd think you have control over the development of the plot, but then a plot-twist would make you see that you didn't have that much power over the situation and you're just a pawn in a bigger plan...

 

Idk, it's just an idea. I'd definitely pay for a game like this.

[PokeFailure]

It would be the biggest disaster you could imagine, Final Fantasy 16 would take 16 years to get finished and I would be fired 4 years into making it because it took them 4 years too late to realize their mistake. 

 

But if this ever happened I'll just hire Sakurai and say he can have access to any of the Square Enix characters in smash if he+Nomura would be the "executive producers" on this with them doing 99.99% of the heavy lifting. 

 

Actually you know what, NEW PREMISE. Halfway into development the entire project is a mess and I'm about to be fired because oh god why are Cloud's skin textures actual cloud textures. Suddenly, a new idea comes into my head "Super Sma-" never-mind taken.... "Boxing" because it'a squar-....yeah no.  Phoenix Square off, because that's the best I can do at naming a fighting game. 

 

You hated the fire emblem characters in smash? Well get ready for 75+ Swordman with wild ass anime hair that keeps the game from being 60+fps because I insisted on hair physics. 

 

Coming in like 2034 because 16 years of development and oh god how did we spend 400 million on this....oh right yeah that Giraffe concept art vacation.

[Godot]

Make it a live service game with a loot based progression system.  It will include purchases that are cosmetic only.  The game will also be streamlined to help gain a stronger main audience that will be welcoming to both newcomers and our longtime fans.

[chuckles]

I want to see a somewhat linear game with gameplay like that of FFXV. I don't know about you guys, but I felt that gameplay was mostly pretty solid. It was just a little too chaotic sometimes, but the physics and mechanics at play were pretty spectacular often. Chasing bird bosses into the sky, dodging huge attacks back and forth...the game could be pretty epic. The main issues were with the crappy story and repetitive quest structure. Also, throw in something akin to FFX's sphere grid or FFXII's license board. I always really appreciated those. 

I think the main worries are just repeating past mistakes, like having it be TOO linear and full of tutorials like FFXIII, or having overly repetitive gameplay like FFXIV. 

Notably, my favorite game series is probably Disgaea, so any amount of complexity and content just shoveled into the game is okay by me. FFXV was huge but seemed....disjointed most of the time. It tried to be an open world game but hindered you constantly for trying to play it that way, yet the world was not built to be played very linearly either, and the most linear sections were sort of a chore. Beyond that, adding loads of weapons and activities couldn't hurt in my opinion.

For the story, I'd try to do something leaning more toward classic fantasy than the pseudo-futuristic fantasy that they've been doing since.....FFVI? Probably that one, yeah. Wow. Anyway, throw out the extreme focus on magitech and make it a really deep fantasy story with <10 important characters and a lot of travel involved. I am a little tired of the evil empire showing up with the best lasers and robots money can buy. I'd rather see a lich ride into battle on a kelpie with an army of basilisks. That's more interesting to me. I also really dig kelpies, okay?

[Maelstrom]

The combat system wasn't too bad in 15, but it was definitely lacking in depth and choice. I'd probably go with a KH style (BBS/3DS) battle system over the dissidia/duodecim system, I think, but either would be fine with me.

 

Since 15 was the bois on a roadtrip, maybe the next game should feature a bunch of chicks as badass as Tifa, Aranea, and Iris. Plus, the nerds love waifus. Probably with a lot of music rhythm side/mini games featuring the usual FF hits, plus all the new ones from more recent years. Think Theatrhythm Curtain Call. I don't know that I would want to go with a new version of the singing diva stuff from X2 though. 

 

Or maybe a I would go with the OG dissidia system (NT is trash) in order to provide some fun PvP stuff, but with more characters that haven't appeared as playable characters in dissidia yet, like Auron, Snow, Gilgamesh, etc.

 

Overarching storyline? Hmm, I'd have to give more thought to it.