The Future of Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy has always been an evolving franchise, fuelled by evolving technologies, evolving narrative, and evolving hairstyles. But it also relies heavily on nostalgia, designed to evoke feelings from bygone days.
Square enix face the daunting challenge of balancing its past and its future. With each new entry in the series, there are expectations for it to live up to each previous entry, but with everybody and their mother having their own idea of what Final Fantasy should be. As Tabata says, “Everyone has Final Fantasy disease.”
Over the years we’ve seen many remakes and re-releases of previous entries in the series, making them accessible on newer technologies, and for a new generation. This, of course, is going to continue.
Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age is due out this July for PlayStation 4—based on the International Zodiac Job System version of the original game, which was only released in Japan. For anyone who only played the original Final Fantasy XII, The Zodiac Age will bring plenty of new content. Not only that, it also addresses a few criticisms of the International Zodiac Job System version, making Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age the definitive version of Final Fantasy XII.
The Final Fantasy VII Remake is also due out sometime within the next three years, Unlike the Final Fantasy XII remaster, this is a full remake of Final Fantasy VII and could differ from the original in many ways. Not just in the presentation of the story and game mechanics, but also in the way the game is released. It is being split into multiple games, although they haven’t stated how many or a timeframe for the release of each part.
Meanwhile, other remakes could be on the horizon, too. While some fans look ahead to Final Fantasy VIII and IX as entries that deserve remakes, back in 2015, Tetsuya Nomura commented on the fact that Final Fantasy V and VI have been overlooked. We’ve also heard that many in Square Enix would love to work on VI. In a recent interview, Zodiac Age director Takashi Katano stated that the next full remake could be largely determined by the response from fans: "We really have to hear their voices on that, if they want to see a remake or a remaster of a certain game then that's more likely to be the one we go for."
"I've personally been working at Square Enix for 20 years now and I've got a lot of memories from that time. I think the way that we look at it is not the game that [we] would like to remake it's really down to what the players, the fans, want to see."