While Naoki Yoshida is the producer and director of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, he didn’t start his career with the series. In fact, Yoshida came from the Dragon Quest team and moved over to Final Fantasy when the game needed a reboot. How did Yoshida feel about joining the ranks of Sakaguchi, Kitase, and Nomura?
"That feeling that this Final Fantasy feels like this creator, that Final Fantasy feels like that creator, it’s pretty much up to the players," Yoshida said while speaking to Siliconera. "For example, Final Fantasy VII… a lot of creators in Square Enix who can say ‘I made Final Fantasy VII!’ But from the fan’s perspective, they go, ‘That’s Tetsuya Nomura’s Final Fantasy.’ And so, it depends really on who is looking at it."
Since taking on the role as Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn’s director, Yoshida incorporated many elements from previous Final Fantasy titles such as using the idea of Materia from Final Fantasy VII as a base for the game’s weapon upgrade system and adding Magitek Armor from Final Fantasy VI.
"With Final Fantasy XIV, one of the things that we’ve tried to do is bring in a lot of aspects from a lot of different Final Fantasies. It’s what we feel is a Final Fantasy. We think to ourselves Final Fantasy has this in it, and that in it. So we’re gathering from the whole series," Yoshida explained.
"Whether that’s turned into something players will declare has the feel of Yoshida feel on it, we won’t know until I make [another] Final Fantasy! Right now there’s only one. Maybe when I make two, people will go ‘Oh, that’s a Yoshida Final Fantasy. Because we joined this project, halfway through, when there was already a foundation, this is not something I created 100%. But then, having fans coming up to me and say, ‘We want you to make another Final Fantasy, from the ground up’, makes me very happy," said Yoshida.
We will have more Final Fantasy XIV coverage soon and for readers that managed to login and play Final Fantasy XIV, what do you think a "Yoshida Final Fantasy" is?
