Final Fantasy has spent decades refusing to sit still, which is probably the most Final Fantasy thing it could do. Each numbered entry arrives with its own world, cast, systems, visual identity, and sometimes an entirely new answer to the question of what an RPG battle should feel like. Still, the series has long carried the powerful cultural shorthand of the traditional Japanese role-playing game: party members, command menus, measured battles, big emotional stories, and a journey that moves forward with deliberate structure.
Naoki Hamaguchi, director of Final Fantasy VII Revelation, says the recent remake trilogy has been intended to widen that perception rather than reject it. Speaking during Gamescom 2026, Hamaguchi described the progression from Final Fantasy VII Remake through Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and now Revelation as an effort to establish how broad the series can be. In his view, Final Fantasy can stand alongside the major global action RPG franchises and use larger, more open-world-style structures while retaining the personality that made it matter in the first place.
The key distinction is important: Hamaguchi is not arguing that traditional JRPGs are obsolete, lesser, or somehow unworthy of the Final Fantasy name. He instead sees the genre label as one option among several, with each project choosing the format that best suits its own goals. A game being turn-based, he suggested, should be a creative decision rather than a boundary the franchise is incapable of crossing.
A trilogy built around expansion
The original Final Fantasy VII remains a landmark example of how far a turn-based role-playing game could reach. Its commercial success and lasting influence helped establish a template for cinematic console RPGs, pairing a memorable ensemble with a world-spanning story and battle mechanics built around planning, abilities, equipment, summons, and the Materia system.
Nearly 30 years later, the conditions around blockbuster games look very different. Action-oriented combat has become a major expectation in many high-budget RPGs, and large exploration spaces have become a frequent part of how publishers frame scope. The Final Fantasy VII remake project has navigated that shift by combining real-time movement and attacks with command selection, tactical pauses, party control, character-building systems, and spectacular boss encounters.
That hybrid approach is not simply a coat of action-game paint over an older RPG. It has become a defining design identity for the trilogy. Players can engage directly with a character’s moment-to-moment attacks, but the ability system asks them to consider resources, positioning, pressure states, stagger opportunities, party composition, healing, buffs, and limits. The result is faster than the 1997 original while still making room for decisions associated with command-driven RPGs.
Hamaguchi’s comments frame that evolution as a statement of possibility. The ambition was to show that Final Fantasy could operate at the scale and pace associated with modern global action RPGs and open-world-style games, potentially even improving on ideas that define that crowded field. He says he is satisfied that the team has achieved the goal it set for the trilogy’s development path.
More than a genre label, not less than one
It is easy for discussions around Final Fantasy combat to become an argument in which one side must lose. Turn-based fans can feel that the series is abandoning systems they value: careful command choices, party strategy, a less reflex-intensive pace, and the specific pleasure of watching a plan unfold. Meanwhile, supporters of newer approaches may see direct action as a better fit for cinematic fights and more immediate character control.
Related coverage includes Final Fantasy VII Revelation Director Says the Series Can Be More Than a Traditional JRPG.
Hamaguchi’s position offers a less binary way to view the matter. Traditional-style JRPG design remains something Final Fantasy knows how to do. Linear storytelling, character-focused narratives, and battle systems with turn-based roots all remain meaningful strengths. But a Final Fantasy game does not have to take that form merely because previous games did, or because the franchise is commonly categorized as a JRPG.
That is also a useful reminder that the term “JRPG” has always described a wide range of games rather than a single immutable rulebook. Even within Final Fantasy alone, the rhythm has changed repeatedly. The franchise has used classic turn-based commands, the Active Time Battle system, job-driven progression, gambit-based automation, online multiplayer structures, real-time combat, and combinations of several of those concepts. The continuity has often been found in imagination, drama, music, visual spectacle, systems depth, and a willingness to reinvent rather than in one battle interface.
For the remake trilogy, that willingness has meant embracing larger environments and more action-led encounters without abandoning the recognizable pieces that invite RPG-style planning. Rebirth, in particular, expanded the adventure beyond the tighter urban focus of Remake. With Revelation continuing the trilogy, Hamaguchi sees the overall journey as proof that Final Fantasy can be both familiar and aggressively contemporary.
The Final Fantasy XVI comparison
The debate is especially active because Final Fantasy XVI took a different route. Its combat leaned harder into arcade-like real-time action, with influences reminiscent of Devil May Cry. That direction gave encounters a different tempo and put more emphasis on immediate execution, combos, evasions, and flashy Eikon abilities.
For some players, that was an exciting evolution. For others, it represented one departure too many from the party-based and menu-oriented traditions they associate with Final Fantasy. The response illustrates why no single combat blueprint is likely to end these conversations permanently. A series this old has generations of fans, and “classic Final Fantasy” can mean very different things depending on where a player entered the franchise.
Hamaguchi is not presenting the Final Fantasy VII remake formula as a mandatory template for every future entry, either. His point is closer to a creative principle: individual projects should determine what kind of game serves their particular concept. A new Final Fantasy could make a strong case for turn-based battles if that approach is right for its setting, story, progression, and intended feel. Another could justify real-time action, hybrid systems, online design, or a new structure entirely.
That flexibility is arguably the series’ most durable asset. Final Fantasy has never been a franchise that protects its identity by endlessly recreating one previous game. Its history is full of experiments that landed differently with different audiences. The question is less whether every installment meets the same expectation and more whether it commits to its own vision with enough confidence and care.
Why Expedition 33 has renewed the conversation
The recent success of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has given the traditional-combat discussion fresh momentum. Its battle system uses turn-based foundations while incorporating reactive prompts such as parries and dodges. That mixture has encouraged some players to ask whether Final Fantasy should return more directly to old-school combat structures.
There is no contradiction in that enthusiasm and Hamaguchi’s broader message. A successful turn-based game demonstrates that audiences still respond to turn-based design when it is made with conviction and given its own contemporary twists. It does not automatically establish that every major RPG must use the exact same approach. By the same token, a successful action RPG does not prove command-based systems should be retired.
What Expedition 33 helps make clear is that turn-based combat is not a relic waiting to be replaced. It remains a living design language, one that can support pacing, tension, visual flair, accessibility, tactical play, and bold new mechanics. Hamaguchi’s comments leave room for Final Fantasy to return to that language whenever a specific project calls for it.
The broader RPG landscape is healthier when it offers multiple tempos and structures. Players who want meticulous party management should have games that satisfy that appetite. Players seeking direct action and large exploratory spaces should have strong options as well. Titles such as The Blood of Dawnwalker reflect how much interest there is in demanding action-RPG experiences, while the renewed appetite for turn-based adventures shows that slower tactical design remains far from finished.
What Revelation’s director is actually claiming
Hamaguchi’s statement is best read as a defense of range. The Final Fantasy VII remake trilogy was designed to prove that Final Fantasy can be bigger in scale and broader in appeal than a narrow genre definition might imply. In doing so, it has not erased the importance of traditional JRPG craftsmanship. It has simply argued that the franchise should be free to choose another form when that form is the stronger fit.
That is a notably measured position for a debate that often turns into a referendum on the series’ identity. The legacy of Final Fantasy is not diminished by a turn-based installment, an action-focused installment, or a hybrid. The greater risk would be treating any of those choices as automatic rather than asking what each individual game needs.
For now, Hamaguchi believes the remake trilogy has planted its flag: Final Fantasy can compete in the world of large-scale action RPGs and open-world-style design. Just as importantly, his remarks leave the door open for future Final Fantasy projects to make an entirely different choice—and to make it proudly.
