The unique Ultimate Fantasy VII proved {that a} turn-based role-playing recreation might be one of many best-selling video games round. Nearly 30 years later, the normal JRPG has struggled amid competitors from different rising genres, together with its real-time action-oriented counterparts. With the Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy, Sq. Enix has discovered a cheerful steadiness between fashionable sensibilities and the varieties of issues long-time followers count on. Requested if its fight system might be a blueprint for Ultimate Fantasy transferring ahead, Final Fantasy VII Revelation director Naoki Hamaguchi stated it’ll be as much as every venture to decide on what’s finest, however he seems like he completed what he got down to do: present that this fashion of recreation will be “greater” and “broader” than it was prior to now.
“What I actually needed to point out the world with the Ultimate Fantasy VII remake sequence was the potential of Ultimate Fantasy—what it may be. I don’t see this as a unfavourable in any respect, but it surely was being acknowledged as a JRPG, which is a really particular class,” he instructed Kotaku during an interview at Gamescom 2026. “The enjoyable and enchantment of these video games is within the linear storytelling, the characters, and the battle programs. Flip-based mechanics are closely tied to that, and that’s nice in its personal proper.”
He continued:
However I needed to point out that Ultimate Fantasy can transcend that to be a world, aggressive motion RPG, open-world-style recreation. These are the massive issues within the gaming world in the intervening time and I need to present that Ultimate Fantasy can compete in the identical ring as all the opposite large international IP—and that we are able to even enhance on [them].
Evolving by means of Remake, Rebirth, and Revelation—involving the gameplay, the programs, and the way we strategy that fashion of recreation—is the flag I needed to plant for the longer term. It may be broader, it may be greater, and we will be that too. I’m glad we’ve reached the purpose I needed to realize.
Final Fantasy XVI utilized a extra arcade-y real-time fight system with shades of Satan Could Cry. Whereas glorious in its personal proper, it was one in all many departures from the franchise’s conventional gameplay sensibilities and construction that rubbed some fans the wrong way. The latest success of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which had conventional turn-based fight with some parry and dodge prompts sprinkled on high, has made some gamers pine for Ultimate Fantasy to return to its old-school roots. Hamaguchi clarified that at the same time as he’s tried to increase the expectations round what a Ultimate Fantasy recreation will be with the Remake trilogy, he’s not in opposition to the “traditional-style JRPG.”
“I don’t need individuals to misconceive me—I’m not criticizing JRPGs in any respect,” he stated. “They’re nice…What I need to present is that Ultimate Fantasy doesn’t should be a traditional-style JRPG. We created the baseline displaying we are able to have a unique fashion of gameplay, however we all know we are able to do the normal stuff too. It’s as much as every particular person venture to decide on what’s finest. Ultimate Fantasy just isn’t a JRPG as a result of it may possibly solely be a JRPG; it’s as a result of that’s the higher selection for that recreation. That’s the place I need to be.”