Yoshi-P on Final Fantasy 17: 'Nothing's been decided yet'

Now that FFXVI has been released and that new FFXIV content like Dawntrail is on the way, it sounds like Yoshi-P may not return to help direct Final Fantasy XVII.

Unlike its misleading name, the Final Fantasy franchise shows no signs of stopping. Nor should it: the series has sold over 140 million copies, proving to be a cash crop for developer Square Enix. But there's just one question: Where does Final Fantasy go from here? FFXV fused modern tech with magic, FFXVI brought us back to grim medieval fantasy. Where will Final Fantasy XVII take us?

In a recent interview with Sony Interactive Entertainment's Shuhei Yoshida for the Game Maker's Notebook, Square Enix's Naoki "Yoshi-P" Yoshida gives us clues on what's next for the series.

Yoshi-P was careful to say that nothing has been decided, but if he got to choose, he'd put the fate of the next mainline numbered Final Fantasy game in the hands of Square Enix's youth.

Check below for a run-down of what Yoshi-P said during the interview concerning Final Fantasy 17:

Shuhei Yoshida (Sony): So I guess you won't be directly FFXVII, then?

Yoshi-P:

"I'm on the board of directors now so I really need to watch what I say here! For the moment, I'll just say that nothing's been decided yet. That said, if I had to say anything about that, I've had the chance to work on two of these now, XIV and XVI, so maybe it's time for someone new, you know?

"Instead of having the same old guys handle the next one, I think in some ways it would be good to bring in a younger generation, with more youthful sensibilities, to make a Final Fantasy that meets the challenges of today's world."

Shuhei Yoshida (Sony): Okay, I get that. So let's say a younger director gets entrusted with FFXVII. If they were to come to you for advice, what would you say?

Yoshi-P:

"Well, basically, and this is the same for the father of the series (Hironobu) Sakaguchi, and for (Yoshinori) Kitase, who's currently the brand manager for FF: The series is about challenging what's been done before.

"And while I'm certainly not looking to pick a fight with the older games, we all make FF games thinking "Mine will be the most fun!"

"So my advice is to just dive in and first put down on paper what you believe would be the most enjoyable FF, before thinking too hard about it.

"Then from there you can decide things like 'since XVI was real-time action, my FF is going to have both real-time action and turn-based battles!' Or, you could go to the other extreme and return it to its fully turn-based, pixel art roots.

"But you just have to sit down and think about what you're going to spend years of your life on, what kind of experience you want the fans to experience. Lay it all out on the table."