Turned-based? Pixel art? Whatever Final Fantasy 17 is like, Naoki Yoshida thinks someone else should make it
And someone younger specifically.
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Don't expect Final Fantasy 14 and 16 producer Naoki Yoshida to return for 17, as he thinks a younger team should take over.
Yoshida, or Yoshi-P as he's affectionately called by fans, recently spoke with former Sony Interactive Entertainment president Shuhei Yoshida on the AIAS Game Maker's Notebook podcast about a range of topics, including whether the Final Fantasy 16 producer thought he might want to work on the next instalment, 17. The producer didn't exactly answer the question, noting that because he's "on the board of directors now," he thinks that "maybe it's time for someone new instead of having the same old guys handle the next one."
In a point I agree with quite a bit (due to not being a huge fan of 16), Yoshi-P said that he thinks "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." When asked by Yoshida if Yoshi-P had any advice for a hypothetical younger Final Fantasy 17 director, the producer noted that "Final Fantasy is about challenging what's been done before.
"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 [Final Fantasy] 16 was real-time action, my Final Fantasy is going to have both real-time action and turn-based battles. Or you could go the other extreme and return it to its fully turn-based, pixel art roots."
A return to turn-based Final Fantasy? With pixel art? I don't want to be there for the discourse on Twitter the day that happens, but Ifrit-speed to those invested in such a concept. Any which way, Final Fantasy 17 is definitely a while away, but at least the very good looking Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is out next month to keep us busy.