A widespread sentiment within the gaming community is that shareholders are the ultimate evil, having forced the worst practices in video games such as microtransactions and pushing for trends like live service games without having never picked a controller up in their lives. However, Square Enix’s 46th Annual Shareholders Meeting proved that some of them do, in fact, play video games, as one shareholder took advantage of this corporate meeting to praise The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales, the first HD-2D action RPG now available on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and Nintendo Switch 2.
"Please pass along to the development team that my children and I are thoroughly enjoying The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales, which was released last week," the unnamed shareholder among the 251 present said during the meeting rather unexpectedly.
Launching the game was “a challenge,” the Square Enix representative said in reply, especially in “an environment where creating new IPs is seen as difficult,” giving direct credit to Creative Studio Head Tomoya Asano for leading the project.
Anyone who played and completed The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales can easily agree with the unnamed Square Enix shareholder. While the game doesn't attempt to innovate the formula of its main inspirations such as the classic The Legend of Zelda games or the first entries in the Mana series, and its story may not seem that engaging, everything comes together very nicely in the final act to unlock the True Ending, making the entire experience as wholesome as it gets.
The Future of the Final Fantasy Series
While the shareholder's approval for The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is definitely the highlight of Square Enix’s 46th Shareholders' Meeting, the publisher did make some interesting comments on the future of the Final Fantasy series regarding future remakes, and Nintendo Switch 2 ports of older games.
"In recent years, Final Fantasy seems to have shifted toward high-quality graphics and action-oriented gameplay tailored to the global market. For future remakes, is there a possibility of developing a style that updates and refines the graphics while retaining traditional combat systems, rather than undertaking full remakes in an open-world format like Final Fantasy VII", a shareholder asked.
In its reply, the publisher affirmed its commitment to “strike the right balance between our approach and the expectations of players who loved the original works.” While some games may require certain mechanics, the publisher will continue to assess what resonates with the market for both original titles and new remakes, so it definitely sounds like the return to turn-based combat with Final Fantasy Resonance may not be a one-off experiment, but part of a larger strategy.
Besides commenting on the mixed approach for future entries in the series, the publisher also suggested that Final Fantasy XV could make its way to the Nintendo Switch 2.
“While there are certain hardware constraints when it comes to faithfully replicating the exact experience of FINAL FANTASY XV, we can say that it is not entirely impossible,” the publisher representative said during the meeting.
Although unspecified, it is likely that the hardware constraints aren't strictly related to the Nintendo Switch 2 specs, but the difficulties of porting a game powered by the Luminous Engine, given that director Hajime Tabata is no longer at Square Enix, and the development team responsible for the game has been disbanded.
With two Final Fantasy games launching in the near future, the aforementioned Final Fantasy Resonance and Final Fantasy VII Revelation, fans of the series don't have much reason to look beyond these two games at the moment. Still, it will be very interesting to see if and how these two games will shape the future of the series.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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