What Lessons Should FINAL FANTASY 17 Take From Final Fantasy 16?

I would say that regardless of setting/aesthetics/themes Square, going forward, should not shy away from and embrace stories that are mature. A mature story with blood/nudity/swears ect ect doesn't have to be dark and gritty. There's a whole subgenre that depicts cute and bubbly characters with a bright color palette but those characters get put through absolute brutal and graphic hell. I would love to see, just like we did with FF16, more Final Fantasy games reflect the age of it's own franchise. Not ever FF game has to be but it would greatly be appreciated if there were more games with mature stories in this franchise

What i want final fantasy 17 should be semi open world, gameplay can be turn based or action based rpg but have playable party members each have character arcs, good long story, fun and rewarding side quest, still stay fantasy setting

I miss the classic turn based, hidden items and bosses around the world made want for more expiration... These new ones just have something about them that's hard for a classic FF lover like myself to grasp ...

some of the Eikon fights were challenging cause half the time the animations are so bright i would lose sight of where my camera was pointing and it was a bit disorienting. but i really enjoyed the game! i did all side quests along with the story, including the hunts and i still think there wasnt enough side quests. Many were fetch quests and they definitely connected to the main storyline which i appreciated... i just wish there was more to do, and more ways to build relationships with the other main characters you interact with at the Hideaway. i do think the amount of time it took before you got a chocobo mount was way too long... i was so over running everywhere, even with the teleport points lol. I also didnt really craft much at all... the crafting system and how it affects your build should be more fleshed out though i think. I wasnt incentivized to have to craft much on my own haha.

Final Fantasy's problem is Identity. After FF10 , the game has changed in drastic directions. It has gone further away from what makes FF game a FF game. Like it or not, the original combat systems were part of it. FF16 isnt a final fantasy game, its a devil may cry game with extremely light RPG mechanics. What square needs to do is appeal to its hardcore fanbase, not to make something milquetoast that broadly appeals to no one. Look at the Persona series, it has stayed extremely true to its gameplay mechanics and fanbase, and it has continued to grow. People have bought their games multiple times on multiple different systems because they love them so much. Final Fantasy doesnt need to appeal to a new audience, it needs to come back home to its true audience.

Job system! They can do any innovation they want to do, just bring back the job system.

Most side quests are good. Some are great. The structure and presentation are quite dated though. There are some pacing issues too. Reduce the amount of side quests by half and focus on making new structure and better presentation would be the way to go imo.

I am enjoying the story. But good lord everything seems to move so incredibly slow at times. Not everything you do needs to have a cut scene attached. Its not immersive if you are clicking the skip button as fast as you can. I fight myself to not do it on main story quests but there are times when I want to. Badly. The FF14 influence is strong.

It depends on what the devs are capable of and which aspect of audience they want to cater to. Also its important that devs choose the direction in the first place and insist on it. 16's battle director joined SE in 2020, its probable that devs didnt satisfy their battle system until SUZUKI came to help. That means they spent so much time to rebuild the battle system (or improve it) in the next 3 years and polished it, makes them have to choose to deemphasize the RPG and exploration elements. Its lucky that SE gets all kinds of devs needed for 17, it will be more complete.

My biggest complaint is the lack of magic. I miss the explosive magic of ffxv

Bring back airships that are controllable,bring back secret summons and secret limit breaks, have enemies of different levels spread throughout the environment like xenoblade. A level 90 t rex that you must avoid til later adds a sense of danger and excitement. Have mini games that offer nice rewards like a secret magic spell or a stronger weapon.

I would have liked to have the party members make more of an impact in combat. And maybe elemental weaknesses.

I understand that the maker wanted a action style like god of war and devil may cry, but we have those… I would like for other games to want to mimic FF instead of the other way around

Cutscenes and fetch quests are lil boring at times

I kinda like how FF7 Remake did their battle system. Maybe put that to use in the next main FF game

Don’t put any of the boring /bland quests in any future projects.

Final Fantasy 17 should take place in space. I think that would be cool.

Combat of this game was 🔥 lit. With legends from ryota suzuki, kh team and heard some platinum nier developers were also on the team. One of the best action rpg combat was invented.

The person that did the combat was from Devil May Cry right? So idk if they can keep this up or not, unless he's working with Square Enix for good.

I'm not invalidating your take on the side quests because the side quests' mechanics themselves haven't been special as of now in my playthrough (just witnessed a certain flyer rampage) but these side quests are probably the most meaningful of the series in terms of story enrichment. And as for your rpg functions, I'm just curious what you mean by this because the rpg elements given felt very on par in FF terms outside of naming your character (which stopped at 12 anyway)