Square Enix has acknowledged the success of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and the company remains committed to making turn-based role-playing games.
During a Square Enix shareholders meeting, Twitter/X user yuzz__, who is an investor in the company, expressed his desire for new Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy titles to be turn-based role-playing games, referencing the shift in direction in FF16 and the success of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 in 2025. He also mentioned that they would like new releases of Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy to alternate, as he believes in the shift from quantity to quality in the medium-term business plan.
As per the investor, under former President Wada, Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest titles were not released for a long time due to an obsession with quality. and under the prior President, Matsuda, too many low-quality games were released as a result of prioritizing quantity. He mentioned that prolonged development makes it difficult to attract fans, and if development costs become too heavy due to extended timelines, even new Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy titles may fail to generate profits. Therefore, he recommended a balanced approach towards quality and quantity. Above all, he stressed upon the need to have annual releases for flagship franchises like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy.
In response, Square Enix executives said that the next three years of the medium-term plan will focus on delivering high quality games to its player base. Beyond that, however, the company plans on delivering a larger quantity of titles, including mid-tier ones, and is already preparing for this. As such, the executives asked investors to look forward to announcements in this regard. Regarding turn-based role-playing games, Square Enix said that it is aware of the success of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and considers the sub-genre to be its origin and foundation. The executives expressed that the company values turn-based role-playing games and plans to continue delivering games of this nature in the future.
