The name Ryota Suzuki may be familiar to those who played the heck out of Capcom’s Dragon’s Dogma. Turns out he switched camps to the house that made Final Fantasy. 

Square Enix is currently recruiting for folks to help battle director Suzuki out with their upcoming action game. The recent recruitment PR page update states that they’re looking for developers with skills and experience in AAA titles as well as “action scene and battle part design” bits. Seeing as Suzuki was a designer for Devil May Cry 5 and game design lead for Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen, it seems natural to have him lead Square Enix’s next action title.

Here’s another tidbit: with the increase in hardware capabilities over new generations, Square Enix realizes that their RPGs will need action elements and real-time combat. Thanks to FFXV and FFVII Remake, they need to hire experienced people to develop these kinds of systems in-house.

You can read up more on Square Enix and Ryota Suzuki’s thoughts on his role here. Bottom line: we saw this coming quite a while back. Turn-based combat is a relic of the past; it’s time to move forward with real-time combat in RPGs or at least a system that has action-like qualities.