Final Fantasy moving away from turn-based because it's "outdated" is peak Square silliness. Have they ever heard of chess, card games, board games, DnD, Civilization, Persona, Dragon Quest, XCOM, Pokemon, Darkest Dungeon? If anything, DMC-style character action games are far more niche.

Have you already played Chained Echoes? It's another masterpiece in the world of 2D turn-based RPGs.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClrZiz_IMmY

I agree, I’m glad games like this (and baldur’s gate!) are enjoying so much success and attention right now. It’s better for everyone if we have a variety of polished experiences in different genres.

That being said I don’t often find myself enjoying turn based games lol. Even going back to the super nintendo, I massively preferred Secret of Mana (with it’s real time combat system) to Final Fantasy. There’s just something extremely satisfying to me about a well done action-oriented RPG, where you feel like your skills are improving alongside your character’s.

“Well done” is not to be overlooked, of course. I was quite disappointed with final fantasy 16, as it truly did just feel like mashing buttons

I thought this was already understood after the success of octopath traveler... but here we are.

I never really liked turn-based RPGs until I became an adult with a full time job because they’re perfect for when I’m burnt and wanna play video games but I’m also too burnt to play most games.

I imagine there’s a lot of millennials/early gen-Z that feel the same way. A whole market that is just starting to be tapped

Yeah it's far more relaxing to play a jrpg with good music, nice looking environments when I can actually listen to the music and look at the world instead of focusing on the enemies tells and dodgeroll at the exact perfect moment. Nothing wrong with perfect dodgerolls. But I don't want them in all my games.

Really? I love real time strategy games but feel like most of the new strategy games I see are turn based.

Sure, let's just say Final Fantasy was the only popular JRPG around 1997 and we can forget about Pokemon, Earthbound/Mother, Super Mario RPG, Zelda, Dragon Quest...

I don't know about them never being this mainstream this century.

Golden Sun sold over a million globally in the early 2000s, and the Fire Emblem series had their best selling games in the millions in the 2010s.

Granted, these are rookie numbers compared to the juggernaut that is Final Fantasy, but still respectable.

I love this sentiment, and it can be true, but it also creates this idea that 'heart' alone has a high bearing on whether or not a product of any kind (book, film, statue, game) will be successful in its market ambitions.

It doesn't always correlate. I would argue if often doesn't correlate. Any indie film or game fest is chock full of projects with a ton of heart. Few of them graduate to success in the market place.

I'm not saying heart is a bad thing. It's a damn great thing. But strong business fundamentals are a good thing too. And sometimes, you also just need that extra bit of luck or uncontrollable virality too. To find success, you stack the deck with as many good plays as you can, and heart is one of them.

Success is not a recipe, and if it was, everybody would be doing it...

I realized pretty early on as a developer that my projects motivated because I wanted the thing I was making were far better than projects motivated because I wanted a project to work on.

A lot of the large companies are now run by business majors who are primarily there to make money rather than make video games.

Though you do need the skills and dedication in addition to the vision, because I've also got a bunch of projects that started as something I was very interested in but then stalled because I didn't have the skills or focus to stick with it.

It takes a lot of inspiration from Super Mario RPG, especially in the battle system. Using a lot of the abilities just feels so satisfying.

I've been watching some streams of it and Chrono Trigger was absolutely what came to mind for me. The art is gorgeous and the music is awesome too. Game's got good vibes for sure.

How long did it take you?

I just finished it yesterday. Verdict? Super fun, gameplay is great, looks beautiful, has a retro vibe. The story... is okay.

22 hours in. Still really fun. Don't expect anything groundbreaking in terms of story though.

Honestly? It's enjoyable. Some of its predictable, some of the dialogue is brilliant, and sometimes the combat is a slog (or just not balanced well - especially early on when you don't have a lot of options). I do wish it had branching dialogue options but that's just me. Oh and the art is top notch.

2 hours in. It is quite good. I have no regrets buying it.

1hr and some change in. I'm loving it so far

8 hours in, it's pretty good. I think it's one of those games that just came out at the right time.

If you like the genre, it is very good. I’d go as far as saying it’s really special. For me, it’s very comforting and just plain good vibes. Fantastic pixelart and tasteful, sensible improvements on the format.