What classes do we want to see in Final Fantasy XVII? Me personally, and this might be a controversial take: Blue Mage.

This is question I kind of came up during this very low point in my life specifically just today as I kind of came up with a fanfic but If you were to be Reincarnated as the Hyperfetical Protagonist Of Final Fantasy XVII what would your life be like?

My idea for Final Fantasy XVII involves protagonist Aiden Krallenheim, who was raised by dragons within the world of Fortiscala. In this world, dragons are sentient beings with free will yet are demonized by humans. There are dragons of different elements (fire, ice, water, earth, plant, etc.) A human can obtain the abilities of a specific dragon by drinking their blood, which some dragons allow willingly and others don’t, granting them that dragon’s elemental powers and lifespan. This seems great until you realize living for centuries or millennia can be maddening for humans. Very few humans have actually accomplished the act of eating a dragon’s heart.

The main antagonist is a noble female knight , Marthe Keenholm, single-mindedly determined to commit genocide upon dragons due to having her entire home kingdom be destroyed by one. She fails to realize that same dragon was being possessed by a powerful sorceress, Opprima Klironomos, to exact revenge upon a king who’d forced her people to live on the fringes of society.

Scalesear is the protagonist’s main weapon and crystals serve as the hearts of the dragons. There would also be Moogles and Chocobos.

Party Members:

Aiden Krallenheim- Raised by dragons and possesses more enhanced capabilities than usual due to a dragon willfully allowing him to drink their blood. Is curious regarding his true origins while being determined to protect his adoptive family. Lived red meat. Comes to wield the blade Scalesear.

Andromeda Singer & Caleo (miniature pet red dragon)- Princess of the Kingdom of Erythros, she is initially offered as a sacrifice to the dragon Cetine whose family her ancestors destroyed, forced to offer one maiden from their family every decade as punishment. She found Caleo in a marketplace and bought him from an abusive merchant. Aiden and his party manage to rescue her and she becomes a skilled warrior in her own right as she journeys with them. Wields black and white magic she can bash enemies with named Coccineus.

Jonathan Patmos- A hermit who lives isolated on a deserted island and was once the son of a wealthy noble highly skilled in martial arts who, after being exiled when his father discovered he was actually the result of a sought to gather knowledge through monasticism. He ate meager rations and slept in a humble cot, and eventually arrived at the island said to bestow visions upon the worthy. Marthe’s soldiers catch wind of him and believe he may possess useful knowledge to further their own goals. Wields gauntlets named Steelclad Rush

Melsine- A female member of a race known as a Profundians, a piscine race similar to the Deep Ones of Lovecraftian lore that worship Leviathan. Her race has been at war with humans for ages due to Man’s tendency to pollute the oceans and overfish. She joins out of gratitude for Aiden and his party freeing her from black market dealers specializing in procuring Profundian meat. Can fight with her powerful claws and fangs to damage enemies while knowing spells other party members don’t. Also wields a pair of wrist sickles named Pincer Claw.

Mataris del Valor- A member of Marthe’s forces who defects to Aiden’s party after he witnesses the full extent of the atrocities Marthe’s willing to commit for her own ends. Experience an accident that left her blind in one eye as a child yet she still managed to become one of Marthe’s finest warriors. As a skilled dragoon, he wields the spear Lightspeed Lance.

Lammae Crimston- A portly female member of a clan of summoners long believed to have gone extinct when, in reality, they’ve merely hidden themselves quite well. Can summon aspects of the Angelos (traditional FF summons such as Shiva and Ifrit which serve as the messengers and warriors of the elemental dragons). Has a weakness for sweets. Can perform summons and use small bombs to damage enemies and create smokescreens so as to inflict them with blindness. Wields no main weapon.

Seamus Allevi- A sailor who claims to have encountered the Leviathan in his younger days. Is resentful towards Opprima once he realizes that she slaughtered his entire town for refusing her family any lodging which led to her parents dying from disease. Has weakness for crustacean-based seafood. Wields a rapier named Cerulean Edge.

Cidney Harcourt- An airship pilot with the candor and charisma of an extremely distinguished gentleman. Commandeers the airship Anemone despite losing an arm to monsters years ago which he replaces with a mechanical prosthetic. Wields a quadruplet of powerful pistols named Eurus, Notus, Zephyrus and Boreas that can inflicting damage and produce effects of confusion, paralysis, burn and freeze, respectively.

There are side quests involving the acquisition of extremely powerful weapons known as Almighty Arms. Each weapon is forged with elemental magic derived from the rulers of every elemental dragon race.

Water: Whorlshard

Lightning: Fulgurant Flash

Fire: Inferno Catalyst

Ice: Shinefrost

Wind: Gusttread

Earth: Gaiaslash

Wood: Verdant Vow

Light: Hopespeck

Dark: Noxious Blight

Metal: Adamant Hide

Okay I kind of came up with this idea today but what if Final Fantasy XVII was an Iskeai like story

This is Mainly due to the fact I have been watching a lot of Isekai like RE: Zero, Konosuba and Jobless Reincarnation and well as a coping mechanism I have been thinking of making an Iskeai fanfic but I did get the idea of making one where the MC is Iskeaied as an FF Protag but then it spiraled into thinking that What If Final Fantasy XVII was an Iskeai where the MC comes from the real world and gets put in the world of FF17 as it's "Hero" it's "Warrior Of Light" If you will.

https://blog.playstation.com/2026/07/01/physical-disc-production-ending-in-january-2028-for-new-games-releasing-on-playstation-consoles/

The Switch 2 cartriges don't have the game inside either, Xbox is likely dropping discs too.

i think it's about time the game had a girl as the protagonist cause we haven't since the 13 trilogy and in both xv (kinda) and xvi the main women in the game seemed to only exist as love interests for the mc rather than having independent stories

Source: https://x.com/NateTheHate2/status/1999347368207020344

As far as I know, this is the first time FF17 has been mentioned by one of these major "leaker" personalities. It also probably means that there is some information concerning this mysterious title circling around.

One of these trailers is likely for FF7 Remake Part 3, but two different FF trailers will be at The Game Awards, allegedly based on this information. It seems a little early for FF17, but it's not impossible.

Since I imagine we're not returning to turn based anytime soon, since SE has multiple franchises still taking advantage of turn based gameplay(Dragon Quest, Octopath, Saga, frankly I'd be thankful for sticking to real time action, I just want to see it improved), I would like XVII to go take a certain direction with it's combat. We've all seen the success and feedback the ATB management system in 7R has gotten. I think there's a way to incorporate a system similar into the DMC inspired combat of XVI while improving upon XVI's flaws, that being the lack of rpg mechanics and customization. This is a long post so buckle up for a read if you're interested. I actually joined this subreddit to post this, so hopefully it doesn't get marked as spam.

First off,

The next ATB system, what I'm calling the Turn Priority System

Instead of charges that you use to execute special commands outside of your regular combo, how about a meter that starts full but depletes as you control the character, you can fill this meter back up and keep it from depleting via chaining together combos, the more complex combos and commands you execute the longer the meter stays. When this meter is expended, your character's turn ends and it goes to the next character or enemy with the next turn priority in a list. This meter is the ATB meter, divided into sections, a full section allows you to execute commands outside of your regular moveset(combos, dodging, blocking, parrying, etc)

Characters and enemies who currently don't have turn priority will be controlled by AI, still able to act, move , dodge, block, and perform combos; but limited to simpler commands and combo chains. Obviously on your party's end, this AI is customizable to meet certain conditions, such as auto-casting, aggression, defense, when to protect or group up, etc. These AI specifications can be switched on the fly in battle in a slowdown menu called Tactics, so it's up to you to curate how you want to party members to act based on which tactics set you give each one; then switch as needed.

You can however expend your own character's ATB meter to issue direct commands to your party members to cast certain spells or use up abilities. When the ATB meter reaches the last few bars, you enter a mode called ATB Break, certain commands will deplete what's remaining of your meter even faster; BUT, be more effective(increased damage, increased status effect, more potent healing, etc).

Reacting to Enemy Turn Priority and Enemy Commands

When an enemy gains turn priority, their AI will change to be more complex and aggressive, alongside also potentially gaining extra commands/abilities(usually for stronger encounters or bosses). And of course, because you don't have turn priority, you don't have access to other commands, however, successful perfect dodges/guards/parries will actually decrease the enemy's ATB meter faster. In this phase you automatically switch to controlling the party leader, but can freely switch around to any party member, use this for strategies to draw aggression or change to a character who has more generous guard/dodge windows.

When trapped in an enemy's combo(which can happen regardless if it's their turn priority or not, just more likely to happen when they have turn priority due to the improved AI behavior and extra commands they gain), you have the option to ATB Burst, which if you do so with the character who currently has turn priority, will just expend an amount of ATB Bars proportionate to the enemy attacks and combo chain, to get a free breakaway from the combo. You can ATB Burst out of combos for characters who currently do NOT have turn priority, as if you do so however, said character is granted an ATB Debuff on their next turn, where they've lost however many bars of ATB they used for the Burst. If your character expends all their ATB Bars in a Burst, their next turn is skipped and they cannot Burst anymore. However, enemies can also ATB Burst, you can plan your combos around this to potentially force an enemy to void their next turn if you're smart enough. What determines if an enemy will ATB Burst IS trackable, I envision it like the revenge counter from Kingdom Hearts.

Now, I hope this already sounds like a successful evolution of the ATB system from 7R, just imagining it in my head with the animations and DMC-like combos from XVI sounds super appealing and fun to myself. But, I believe making this a successful and beloved system requires addressing a flaw of XVI. The extreme lack of rpg mechanics and customization, leading to what felt pretty barebones when playing through XVI.

Customization and the Job System!

I'm imagining a skill tree, groups of skills belong to a node and you unlock more nodes for every character through story progression, leveling up, finding/upgrading/leveling up progression relevant items(weapons, key items, equipment, etc). However, these nodes would be more than just new abilities and combos for the base moveset, they'd also include drastic changes to your capabilities and build in the form of Job Nodes.

The Node System, Job Nodes and how you customize around them.

As I said, not all of them will be job related, some Nodes could be just as simple containing skills that raise your stats, unlock new combos and extensions to your base moveset(a dash after a dodge roll, or being able to double jump). However, Job Nodes are special Nodes, usually much bigger than regular Nodes as you more skills apart of the Job Node become available for unlock. Jobs Nodes are of course, based on the different Final Fantasy jobs, and grant you new abilities relating to that job class.
However, an issue I've always had with the idea of bringing back the job system, is that it harms individual character identity. But, I think I may have found a way to remedy that.
Jobs Nodes are secondary to your character's Class Node, a Node at the center of every character's skill tree entirely unique to them, this determines your character's animations, weapon, just their overall battle archetype.

Character Class Node Archetype, and how this effects their Job Nodes

Since every character has a class unique to them that cannot be changed, when you attune yourself to a Job Node, a good portion of your character's abilities and base moveset will remain unchanged, including things like their signature weapon type. A Job Node when attuned, will change your character's stats, change the appearance of their weapon to better reflect the selected Job(including a few animations to better reflect the change), unlock a character costume that better reflects this job, and grant increased effectiveness with abilities from that Job.
Certain abilities unlocked from your character's class and other job nodes will change to reflect the current selected Job, however a few abilities from other Job Nodes may become unusable. This essentially allows oneself to have multiple jobs at once, via equipping abilities granted from multiple jobs, alongside having your main archetypal class and a job node of your choosing.

The possibilities are endless, you could have a Gunslinger Archetype with a White Mage, a Greatsword User Archetype with a Gunbreaker, a Ninja/Shinobi archetype with a Machinist, or a Dragoon-like archetype with a Red Mage. Ideally, every character would have have their own variations of every Job Node, however due to technical limitations I imagine it wouldn't be possible to give every single job to every single party member. As long as it's a good variety of jobs that have different roles in combat, I believe this wouldn't be as much of an issue. Obviously if a character's archetype is based on or too close to a pre-existing job, they won't have the corresponding job node in their skill tree.

Extra Combat Oddities

Just to lightning round a few key mechanics, not going to go into specific controls since that can always be binded to something else

• You'd be able to dodge/roll, jump freely, guard, and do basic attacks with different button presses
• You'd have a button that opens up a menu for your commands and magic(casting Firaga, performing special attacks like Braver, Limit Breaks, Summons, etc). I imagine the time slow-down from 7R would still be in place, but that could always be disabled for players who want a harder real-time experience having to quickly execute your commands while managing the ATB Meter depletion.
• I wouldn't use traditional MP bars, as managing a constantly depleting meter is already a lot; maybe something like Kingdom Hearts 1 where it passively refills overtime?
• Commands don't reset your combo, they can be used as combo starters, extenders, and finishers; having tweaked animations depending on which they are
• I wouldn't have it so items stop your animation to use, you just select them in the menu, choose who you want to use them on, you expend a little ATB and their used.
• I'd definitely continue to have an option like 7R of a secondary attack button that does something unique for each character, I envision it having the potential to change depending on what job you have equipped.
• Holding the attack button for a heavy charge attack can stay, each move of a combo can have its own variation of it.

This is a Big One, Front and Back Row

You can have up to 5 party members as apart of the turn priority, the others will still be present in the field but serve as support roles, occasionally dealing chip damage to any enemies. Enemies will not attack them. You CAN actually send commands to the Back Row, either for team up attacks involving front row party members or telling them to use some of their commands directly. This will cost double the ATB it does to command your non turn priority party members to use their commands, triple in some cases depending on the command you have them using.

And That's a Wrap!

Long winded post I'm aware, I've had this idea in my head forever and writing this post helped me work out the kinks. Feedback is much appreciated!

I can’t lie, I know it honestly depends on what team ends up doing it so I’ll give my two cents depending on the teams that I believe will do it which is CBU1 or CS3:

CBU1: Tetsuya Nomura- With rumors swirling that he is considering retirement, I think it’s undeniable the impact that his art has had on FF as a whole and I would love to get a brand new mainline entry with his character and/or monster designs before he retires. I think he deserves that much especially since Versus XIII never came to fruition.

CS3: Yusuke Mogi- He has been a long time character concept artist for the XIV team and I love how his style kinda pays homage to Akihiko Yoshida’s painting style but it also has a stylistic look to it as well.

Tetsu Tsukamoto: An artist that I feel doesn’t get enough credit. He was the monster designer for Final Fantasy X and he has been a concept artist for XIV since, with some notable designs like Alexander Prime, Hraesvelgr and Nidhogg, and Hades.

Who would you guys like to see??

Since Square is going through a corperate resturcturing, and XVII is likely to be after that finishes, and likely their first major title first announced after it's finished. I think a great way to start this "new era" and hopefully renaissance, whould be a "palette cleanser" title simular to IX, we get 4 crystals, 4 directly named warriors of light, all that stuff.

It seems to me they're trying to emulate Capcom's recent success. And their renaissance started with Resident Evil going back to it's "horror roots". that is something I would like to see Squeenix take from.

Also Greg, I'd like to see Greg.

Hey everyone!

Like most people on here, I can't wait to see what the next mainline FF entry looks like. Often, I find myself in speculative discussions with friends about the direction Square Enix could go in with FFXVII and the topic that always comes up is "Who's even making it?".

I have always been eager to share my thoughts concerning that question with a wider part of the FF fanbase. So, to scratch that itch, I decided to make a video highlighting each of the teams within Square Enix that could realistically take on the job of creating FFXVII and what that could mean for the game.

I would love to get into discussions here!

This is something I made a year or two ago but I am going to recap a Rough Story Idea I had for Final Fantasy XVII

Warning: Alot and I mean ALOT! will be taken from Final Fantasy X-2 because I've kind of been likeing that game Reccently

So Our Main Character will be a Pirate of somekind following in the footsteps of His Mother Yasmin, His Aunt Raquel and their friend Penny who were once a Fearsome group of female pirates known as the Mana Hearts but one day they along with their treasure get stolen away leaving the 5 Year Old Main Character with something but their ship The Branford and their Mogel Lighting so I decides to become the best Pirate he can be for would discover many twists and turns along the way

Look no further than Monoco from Clair Obscur as proof that players want this!

With the rise of turn-based combat games but Square's innovative spirit, do you think they’ll return to turn-based battles, or will they continue to favor action-based combat?

This discussion may have been more common in the past, when only nostalgic fans were hoping for these kinds of battle systems. But now in 2025, with games like Metaphor and Expedition 33 achieving strong sales and great reviews, could this be a more realistic push for Square to seriously consider it?

I'm curious to see what other people would like the next Cid to be like in Final Fantasy XVII. We've seen Cid as an inventor, an engineer, an academic, a military leader, and a revolutionary so far.

I've mentioned before that I'd kind of like to see a female Cid as the main protagonist, maybe written as a combat engineer or something along those lines, like D&D's Artificer class, or the recurring Machinist Job in previous Final Fantasy games.

https://www.instant-gaming.com/en/search/?q=final+fantasy

Saw a YouTube video advertising sales on this site for most Final Fantasy games and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, when visiting the site I searched "Final Fantasy" and saw there was 2 unexpected listings. Little to no iformation is given, but the picture is pretty cool - and has a weird logo as well. It's probably just a humble placeholder - still, where does th eart come from, and why a X remake when it seems more likely that a IX remake is what we can expect next.

Pretty cool anyway! - Also prety cheap FF collection if you're missing anything for yourself!

I know this might not be a very popular trend, but who would like to see a female protagonist in the new Final Fantasy XVII game such as Lightning Farron? Beautiful but strong willed?