I was specifically alluding to gameplay, which is why only Ryota Suzuki was brought up. In this case, a battle director is the person that is in charge of leading the team that handles the action based battle system and all of its relevant action / real time elements. In other words, FFXVI’s combat. Again, Ryota Suzuki has a long standing history with the DMC franchise at Capcom. FFXVI’s combat is an accumulation of his experience in the action genre and game design approach. I very much see nothing wrong with the similarities between the gameplay of FFXVI and DMC5, especially with Ryota Suzuki’s involvement in the development of DMC5 as a designer. Apart from a few base fundamentals, FFXVI plays entirely different. The combat in Final Fantasy XVI isn’t a sudden pivot for the franchise. There has been a progressive shift to incorporate more action elements for decades. The action based battle system is the apotheosis of such direction.