Turbaserede kampe er næsten synonyme med Final Fantasy-serien, selvom det såkaldte Active Time Battle-system engang i mellem forsøgte at introducere lidt mere dynamik i kampene. Det seneste kapitel, Final Fantasy XV, gik dog over til kampe i realtid, og det bliver også tilfældet for det kommende Final Fantasy XVI.
I et interview med Famitsu (oversat af VGC) forklarer spillets producer Naoki Yoshida, hvorfor man tilsyneladende endegyldigt har lagt turbaserede kampe på hylden. Ifølge Yoshida skyldes det først og fremmest, at den yngre generation ikke er vokset op med tur- og menubaserede systemer i deres spil:
"For several console generations now, all character expressions can be done in real-time. Actions such as 'press the trigger and your character will shoot a gun' and 'press the button and your character will swing their sword' can now be easily expressed without going through a command system. It's now common for gamers younger than me to love such games. As a result, it seems that it does not make sense to go through a command prompt, such as 'Battle', to make a decision during a battle."
Kampene i realtid er derfor, ifølge Yoshida, først og fremmest et kommercielt valg:
"As I said, I believe I know the fun of command system RPGs, and I want to continue developing them, but I thought about the expected sales of Final Fantasy XVI and the impact that we have to deliver."