To be fair World of Ff is as much a pokrmom competitor as was FF XIII-2, ie all they seem to share is the monster capturing mechanic.
Well, here's what Square Enix has to say about the game:
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/what-exactly-is-world-of-final-fantasy/1100-6428294/
Speaking with director Hiroki Chiba, is seems the game is aimed at the younger gaming audience and being developed as a way to bring children into the Final Fantasy franchise. According to Chiba, Final Fantasy XIII marked the moment the series decided to go for full photorealism with its characters and settings. This is alienating to kids, he said, who are more drawn to cutesy and more fantasy-looking art styles.
World of Final Fantasy is set in the land of Grimoire, where all the Final Fantasy characters live. The two main characters shown in the trailer--Rain and her little brother Lon (Square Enix would not confirm the spelling at this time)--are venturing into the world to battle against and befriend monsters. These creatures have been pulled from all previous Final Fantasy games, giving players a chance to do battle with cute chibi versions of Behemoths and even cuter chibi chocobos. Chiba noted that the monsters featured in The World of Final Fantasy will come from the entire series history, including spin-off titles like Final Fantasy Tactics and Crystal Chronicles.
"The playstyle is like Final Fantasy games before Final Fantasy X, so it's more geared towards an RPG style game," Chiba explained. "Players will be able to input commands or go for a more retro-esque Final Fantasy command system during battles. I want to keep that Final Fantasy feel of previous titles, so there will be random encounter battles but also story-based battles where you will have to fight them to progress the story."
After collecting your creatures, players will be able to stack them on top of one another in combat for more powerful attacks. "Towers" as Chiba called them can be two or three monsters high, and what monsters you use will determine the kind of attack and how effective it is. For example, if you stack three monsters with the Fire ability, putting them together will create a Firaga spell.
There's even more here in the form of a large interview:
http://venturebeat.com/2015/06/18/w...-the-door-for-newer-younger-players/view-all/
I'd like to take a moment to point out one of the screenshots looks like a collection of three elemental starting monsters you choose from:
I would be pretty hard pressed to view a cutesy, turn based Final Fantasy game that revolves around creature collection/creature battling and is aimed at young children to not be a Pokemon competitor.
Would they be better off launching it on 3DS where they have to actually compete against Pokemon?
The hunting genre fanbase moved to 3DS this gen yet God Eater found strong success on Vita. Toukiden and Freedom Wars have been both been successful as well. I'm not sure why Worlds of Final Fantasy can't do the same. And it was announced at E3 which makes me think Square is going to give it a big Western push making PS4 the logical home for it.
Again, if they're angling for a Western audience then PS4 is the smartest option.
Generally that's the idea. When EA wanted Battlefield to compete with Call of Duty, they didn't launch on the Wii, because the audience for Call of Duty was on PC/360/PS3.
Similarly when Level 5 wanted to take on Pokemon, they went on the 3DS, and actually managed to launch a series that sells on par with Pokemon itself.
Of course, if your aspirations are much lower than actually going for the crown, then trying to avoid competition can be an option. There are several indie developers who found it easier to be the big fish in the 3DS pond than the small fish in the Steam pond, but you're not going to be a huge seller that way.
There is an argument that says, if they're aiming at the Skylanders/Infinity audience instead, then they want to be on the home consoles those games do best on. However, given the platform choice here, and the gameplay construct (Skylanders/Infinity are action games, not turned based RPGs), it sounds a lot more like Pokemon, which even does well in the West on 3DS.