Persona Director Katsura Hashino Shares His Thoughts On Turn-Based Gameplay

gameranx.com:

Katsura Hashino shared his thoughts on turn based gameplay in video games in a new interview with Japanese outlet Denfamicogamer.

Hashino is director of Atlus’ Persona series, having taken a direct hand in the development of Persona 3, Persona 4, and Persona 5. Those are three of the most popular and successful Japanese RPGs in the past two decades, With Persona 5’s Joker joining the case of Super Smash Bros Ultimate, there is no question that he is one of the most important Japanese developers today.

Hashino’s thoughts about turn-based gameplay are of particular interest in context of the Japanese game industry. Square Enix made the decision to drop the long established Active Time Battle system in Final Fantasy and turn Final Fantasy XVI into a full action RPG.

In a recent panel, Final Fantasy XVI director Naoki Yoshida defended the move as Square Enix’s developers challenging themselves to try something new. As Hashino explains, though, there is a lot that goes in to making Persona’s turn based gameplay appealing to modern audiences.

This is how Hashino puts it:

“In the history of RPGs until now, there have been many examples of games that have used turn-based battles that were eventually replaced by active action scenes to give the player an improved sense of immersion. However, I personally believe that turn-based battles will not become an archaic system if they can be implemented in a way that fits as “part of a cutscene’s composition.”

Show the scenes that need to be, and don’t show the scenes that don’t need to be… In short, if we think of the cut-and-paste method used in anime and manga scenes as a method that can be brought into game battles, I believe that turn-based battles in RPGs will continue to evolve in