Quote Originally Posted by Lord Golbez View Post
Well if it was that much easier in the 90s and early 2000s, maybe they should go back to making them 90s style. I know it won't happen, but that would really be my preference over excessively long development times. If FFXV was a fluke, thatbwould be great. However, I'm not encouraged by the lack of so much as an acknowledgement that FFXVI is being developed over 2 years after the release of FFXV. Hopefully, Square has just learned to be more cautious about revealing games too early.
Square Enix did release a 90s-style JRPG recently. It's called Octopath Traveler, and it reviewed + sold pretty well apparently.

The issue Square Enix has now is that they're the de facto big budget Japanese RPG experience on the market. There's no one else in the entire JRPG industry that has produced better visuals or a higher level of graphical performance than they have with Final Fantasy. So the challenge for them is to maintain this reputation -- which is becoming increasingly difficult due to the rising costs and prolonged cycles of game development -- while also still reinventing the series with each new mainline installment.

Part of me wonders if Final Fantasy should become more like The Legend of Zelda. We've seen Nintendo experiment with different art styles for pretty much every game, none of which are graphically demanding. And with each new entry in the series we see a reinvention of gameplay mechanics while core elements of the series are still retained to some degree. Maybe if Final Fantasy XVI is a massive shakeup of the series in the same way Breath of the Wild was, Square Enix can recapture some of that magic from earlier days.