it's just a series evolve as the time pass, and modernization of combat is a part of it.
It's ok to enjoy action combat, I also enjoy it on other games such as Dark Souls and Dragon's Dogma.
At the same time, it would be a fallacy to state that it's an "evolution" of combat.
Would Chess "evolve" if it became "real time"? It's an entirely different type of game.
Not better, not worse -- different.
It's clear they changed to profit more, not because of that being the "natural progression of things".
Yeah I read that a couple of years ago. That's why I said I'm not too optimistic about it.
I still have hope Yuji Horii will try to keep the series intact, but we'll see.
Would you consider the witcher to be an action game? Or what about say... Vagrant Story?
RPG combat usually emphasizes character skill rather than player skill.
The more a game emphasizes player skill, the more action-oriented it becomes (i.e. Action-RPG)
The Witcher is more action-oriented.
Vagrant Story allows free movement but the game "pauses" every time an action is performed. The action doesn't happen in "real time" like in The Witcher, so the strategy part is more emphasized than pure reflex. FF12 kinda resembles it regarding the free movement, but with a more traditional ATB system. I would be fine if a new FF used the FF12 combat system.
The problem is making FF reflex-based, with dodging and all that. That's just silly.