...Turn-based combat has now gone out of the Final Fantasy series mainline for the first time.

Thoughts on what this says about RPGs in general?

It would seem that the days of treating it like pen and paper gaming are kind of thought of as 'old hat' at this point. I feel a strong sense of sleepiness when considering replaying the ones that have it. I'm getting old, and menu based combat just plain ... I dunno, I've seen a lot of Fight commands and mid-battle equipment shuffling. I've used a lot of Items and summoned all the Summons and what have you...

...Where does traditional turn-based RGPing go from here? FF doesn't care for it today, and it'll be till the next mainline entry (if any!) till we see whether it goes back to it or not. Each new team just does its own thing, it's true, but perhaps it will swing back slowly, or perhaps quickly?

I mean, they've done the "refs to other FFs as a tribute and look back at FF"...what about a game dedicated to the gameplay styles of those older games, as a sort of "inside joke" throughout the game? I'm thinking of maybe something that has the CTB system of Final Fantasy Tactics, and just plain doesn't try to do any kind of gameplay element in an RPG that hasn't been done before. The focus on such a game would then, by default, fall on presentation and story first and foremost; who cares what I do to kill the monsters? I came here to find out things about a story and be like "awwww sheistenburgers, what happens next," and such....

I lost my train of thought. Where are RPGs these days? Turn-based is out; what's in?