Why Is *Final Fantasy* Getting Harder and Harder to Get Into? Yoshida Has Spoken Bluntly.

I finally turned on my console on Saturday afternoon, originally planning to catch up on some old IPs. But after seeing what's going on with Final Fantasy, I really found it easy to relate.

For working people like us, there are two things games fear most: one is making players wait too long, and the other is setting the barrier too high. In a recent interview, Naoki Yoshida talked about how the core problem facing the Final Fantasy series right now is that development cycles keep getting longer and longer, making it hard for new players to build an emotional connection with an almost 40-year-old legacy IP.

What he said is actually very realistic. Think about it: younger players grew up with action systems and online competitive games—fast-paced, with immediate feedback. But with a blockbuster series like Final Fantasy, the gap between one installment and the next is just too long. It’s like following a TV show: you just start getting attached to the characters, and then the next season doesn’t come out until after you’ve changed jobs. It’s easy for that enthusiasm to fade.

Naoki Yoshida also pointed out the reason directly: "He believes that the excessively long development cycles of the series are the main reason younger players find it difficult to resonate with the games." This isn’t just a matter of nostalgia—it’s more like a matter of time cost. Veteran players are willing to wait because they have the filter of fond memories; new players don’t have that kind of patience.

That said, slow development isn’t the whole story. Yoshida also mentioned that the learning curve for new Final Fantasy titles is now relatively high. I think this is crucial. Players today have too many choices—just tap your phone and you can jump into a game instantly. Who still wants to spend a huge amount of time first learning the systems, catching up on the series background, and only then gradually getting into it?

So the fact that the official team is now turning its attention to mobile actually feels a lot like making up for a long-overdue introductory lesson. Yoshida hopes that the new mobile title Dissidia Duellum Final Fantasy, launching on March 24, can become the breakthrough that attracts younger players. To put it plainly, the idea is to first get people willing to approach the series, and only then talk about whether they’ll go on to play the mainline entries.

But whether this path will work, I think depends on two things. First, can the mobile version really lower the barrier to entry, rather than just moving to another platform and still driving people away? Second, it has to retain the identity of Final Fantasy; otherwise, it could easily turn into nothing more than “using the IP to attract new users,” creating a brief buzz before fading away.

From a value-for-money perspective, I can understand this strategy. Mobile really does fit fragmented time better, and it also aligns more closely with the habits of younger players. For someone like me who scrolls on my phone during the commute, I’d at least be willing to download it and take a look. But if it still ends up having overly long tutorials and overly convoluted systems, then it’s like ordering an expensive takeout on the weekend: the packaging looks nice, but it doesn’t actually fill you up.

How should I put it? This time, Yoshida has really laid bare the awkward position of Final Fantasy: it’s not that the IP lacks strength, but that between it and new players stands a time wall that keeps getting higher. For veteran players, it means waiting for updates; for younger players, they may not even feel like buying a ticket in the first place.

My suggestion is simple: if you don’t already have any foundation with Final Fantasy, then you might as well wait for real feedback after this mobile game launches before deciding whether to get into it. If it truly manages to be lightweight and easy to pick up, then that’s a much better deal than diving headfirst into a mainline blockbuster. After all, we play games not to make up for missed lessons, but to buy joy that’s worth it within our limited time.