Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Director – Why Action Hybrids Are Inevitable for RPGs

It is no secret that massive JRPGs have pivoted heavily toward action combat in recent years. Now, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth director Naoki Hamaguchi is spelling out exactly why the industry is being forced to adapt. Speaking to Game Informer, he points out that action games have become more mainstream, causing traditional RPGs to increasingly be viewed as legacy genres.

The solution for developers seems to lie in hybrid systems. Hamaguchi notes that younger players expect instant feedback the second they input a command. That is why titles like Sandfall Interactive’s Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which mixes classic turn based menus with real time parries and combo inputs, are a natural result of the current landscape. It gives players both the strategic depth they want and the immediate responsiveness they crave.

Still, Hamaguchi is not completely writing off the turn based foundation. Taking the time to evaluate a situation, strategize, and build on your decisions is, according to the director, deeply universal and closely tied to human thought itself.

At the same time, there is a massive shift happening on the UI and UX front to cut out the downtime in the genre. Atlus has been leading the charge here; Persona 5 saved a lot of combat flow purely through slick, responsive menu design that made fights feel alive. Meanwhile, Metaphor: ReFantazio lets you instantly kill weak enemies in the overworld to skip tedious, superfluous encounters. However, Metaphor lead battle planner Kenichi Goto noted that an early version of this mechanic actually went too far and broke the game by completely obscuring its turn based focus.

The gacha juggernaut Honkai: Star Rail has also cracked the code by letting players fire off ultimate abilities during the enemy turn, adding crucial reactivity to the combat. The trend across the industry is clear: combat systems need to pop visually and save time wherever possible. Whether these specific design changes were formulated as a direct response to the massive influx of action game fans is not officially confirmed across the board, but it certainly does not feel like a coincidence.