In recent years, Square Enix has made a large, obvious shift towards producing action games. Its most notable global brand,Final Fantasy, has shifted strongly towards the action genre ever sinceFinal Fantasy 15came out in 2016.Final Fantasyhas long been a turn-based RPG franchise, but it also picked up a distinct real-time element on top of its turns via a system of timers inFinal Fantasy 4. This Active-Time Battle system went on to define the franchise for many years, but it seems like Square Enix is well-and-truly done with it for the foreseeable future.Final Fantasy 16is the latest reinvention in a franchise already full of them; this time pushingFFtowards a faster, more involved type of hack-and-slash gameplay.Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2is also expected to continue using the action combat of its predecessor.
However, those entries are no longer the only major Square Enix orFinal Fantasyaction games on the horizon.Forspokenis also coming down the pipeline, and it looks to bring more open world action in the vein ofFF15. However, a new challenger has thrown its hat into the ring. Rumors are going around and being corroborated about a new project calledFinal Fantasy Origin, anaction game related toFinal Fantasy 1in some way. Team Ninja is said to be leading development, picking up where it left off with the recentDissidia NTfighting game. If this rumor is true, it appears that, beyond a shadow of doubt, Square Enix has pivoted towards being a chiefly action game company.
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Square Enix' History With Action Games
Formerly, Square Enix was the premiere publisher for turn-based JRPGs.Final FantasyandDragon Quest, along with plenty ofother projects over the years likeChrono Trigger, have been leaders of the genre. Even today,Dragon Questis serving itself well by holding on to its classic gameplay. Back in the 90s and early 2000s, long RPGs were considered the AAA games of the era. Squeezing that much play time and grand storytelling into a single cartridge or set of discs was considered impressive, and having great music, graphics, and gameplay to boot was the cherry on top.
At some point, however, something changed in Square Enix. Its Japanese studios started working on more action games around the time of the PlayStation 2. Now that technology was good enough to show all the crazy things heroes and villains were doing, Square Enix seemed to want players to feel those actions as well. It was a company very focused on presentation, after all. To that end, it started experimenting with side games likeDirge of Cerberus,The Bouncer, andCrisis Core. Between those and the rapidly expandingKingdom Heartsseries, Square Enix had started to build up its experience with action games quite quickly.
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The Advent of Final Fantasy 15, 16, and 7 Remake
The public did not perceive Square’s desire, however, until it was announced that the action gameFinal Fantasy Versus 13had becomeFinal Fantasy 15. This shift shocked many, and set the stage for the big games to follow it. Next Square Enix confidently transformed its famous PS1 megahitFinal Fantasy 7into a cinematic action game, and set the formerFinal Fantasy 15staff loose onForspoken, a new action title. At this point, with the re-emergence ofKingdom Hearts 3, all of Square Enix Japan’s big AAA titles were action games.
And Square was far from done. Revealed within the past year, scant months afterFinal Fantasy 7 Remakereleased andForspokenwas announced asProject Athia,Final Fantasy 16isFF’s next installment. And, just likeFF15and7Rbefore it, this game is once again an action game. This time, it’s taking very deliberate cues from hack-and-slash figureheadDevil May Cry, right up to cribbing a combat designer a little while before the game was announced to make sure the combat was on track. Square seems very serious about breaking into the action game genre in a big way, and it is perfectly willing to experiment on its biggest property to get there.
Final Fantasy Origin and the Future of Square Enix Action
This has never been clearer than the likely-sounding rumor ofFinal Fantasy Origin.Apparently developed by a mixture of theDissidia NTteam at Tecmo and a fewNiohdevelopers, this ambitious-sounding title is looking to do something related, in structure or story, toFinal Fantasy 1. Apparently, this will includeSouls-like elements as well, but said elements and thegeneral difficulty will be decreased compared toNioh. It is very significant that Square Enix is entrusting what could amount to a remake ofFinal Fantasy 1to the star action game team of another company. Indeed, it’s quite bizarre that Square is even interested in this at all. It seems completely out of its wheelhouse — if it were not for all the comparable games the publisher is already putting out.
With this, it seems like Square Enix’s intent for the future is clear: it wants to make big-budget action games, and save turn-based gameplay for smaller affairs and games specifically targeting niche JRPG fans. This is a surprising move, but by this point, it should not be unexpected at all. This shift has been happening for a long time, especially asFinal Fantasymoved away from normal turn-based gameplay afterFF10. While it’s somewhat sad to seeFinal Fantasystray from its routes, a core element of the series has always been reinvention between entries. Turn-based gameplay,or anFF7R-esque simulacrumof it, can still creep back in over time. For now though, Square Enix hasDragon Quest,Bravely Default 2, and various other budget titles, mobile games, and re-releases to satiate those fans. For the rest, Square wants to verify that the pulse-pounding action promises in the old Active-Time Battle system to be felt by fans and newcomers around the world. By the look of things, Square Enix wants to make more action games.
Final Fantasy Originis rumored to be in development for PC and PS5.
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