Naoki Yoshida, the head of Final Fantasy XIV, wore a cosplay of the new job “Gunbreaker” at the Fan Festival in Paris. This cosplay was created by a regular girl from the FFXIV community.
What happened? Director Yoshida is known not only for his work on FFXIV but also for his little quirks and peculiarities. For example, players firmly believe that the designs of the T-shirts he wears at Fan Festivals hold clues for future content.
Another peculiarity is that the producer has made it a tradition to wear cosplays at Fan Festivals. Yoshida has already taken on the roles of a Black Mage, Machinist, and Samurai. The Samurai costume was made by the famous Maul-Cosplay and Lenora Gewandungen.
This cosplay tradition was also continued this time at the Fan Fest in France. Yoshida appeared on stage in the outfit of the new job “Gunbreaker”.
What is special about the cosplay? This outfit was tailor-made specifically for Yoshida by a regular girl from Germany.
The cosplayer Chezah became well-known in the FFXIV community for her Red Mage outfit and has since created several new FFXIV cosplays, including the famous Zenos yae Galvus, one of the antagonists of FFXIV.
That she would be the one to receive the offer to create the next outfit for Yoshida was something Chezah never expected, especially after his last outfit was made by such a prominent cosplayer as Maul.
How did the work on the cosplay go? For the first time, Square Enix approached Chezah after Gamescom 2018 to ask if she would be interested in making a cosplay for them. The cosplayer had to sign a strict NDA (non-disclosure agreement) stating that she could not reveal anything about it before the official reveal of the job.
A concept artwork of the outfit from the game was used as a reference. Later, Square Enix Japan sent more assets to facilitate the work on the finer details.
The requirements were extremely high. “It should be better than perfect,” Chezah said in our conversation. The deadline for submission was strict and she had to regularly report her progress to Japan and implement the feedback.
“But they [Square Enix] also gave me a lot of freedom,” she said. “For example, there were no pictures of the armor on the back under the coat, and I could decide how to design that part. What absolutely could not happen was that parts suddenly fell off on stage. That would have been catastrophic.”
Which part was the most difficult? The most challenging part was the work on the coat. According to Chezah, Square Enix initially wanted “a kind of military coat made of harder fabric.” However, the lower part should be light enough to flutter a bit while walking, as seen in the Shadowbringers trailer.
Therefore, the cosplayer ultimately decided on lighter synthetic leather, which still had enough weight to not stick out.
What are the reactions? The feedback on the cosplay on Reddit was extremely positive. Players found it cool that Yoshida asked someone from the community to create his cosplay.
Chezah’s tweet about her making the outfit has now received over 3,700 likes and more than 1,500 retweets.
The cosplayer herself said she had a lot of fun working on it, despite the high expectations and the pressure to match the quality of Maul-Cosplay. “I know Yoshida’s measurements,” she said, laughing in the end.
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