>>9798546While the designs are iconic, it's mostly the gorgeous pixel art design, which doesn't translate great to merch.
You could, I guess, base it on Amano's art, but it's not quite as well known and outside of Terra, most people don't like super know the designs.
From VII onward, the characters have distinct 3d designs that can be translated faithfully or that can work as a base to make the characters recognizable in a more realistic, merch-friendly design. FFVI's design is the little pixel guys, so making them more realistic would mean bringing them further away from the familiar designs people know, which makes it harder to heavily merch the IP.
