I've said it in other threads, but I think the way forward for the series is for each team to iterate and improve on their specific design template and alternate releases. Give me a CBU3 Final Fantasy XVII, then a CBU1 XVIII 3-4 years later, and so on.fuuuck, starting this game up after a while not playing and it's giving me the feels. it's crazy how much of the fandom is fighting between XVI and Rebirth but I fuckin love how I can just start up one and it's so different from the other
They've got two very strong visions of what modern Final Fantasy could be. Building on both lets them get the benefits of iteration while also keeping some gameplay variety in the series.