At the Fan Festival for Final Fantasy XIV in London, there was a wonderful scene with the boss of the MMORPG, Naoki Yoshida, and the legendary developer of the series “Final Fantasy”, the 60-year-old Hironobu Sakaguchi.
This is the situation:
- Final Fantasy is one of the most successful game franchises in the world: The first part was released in 1987 for the NES.
- The creator of the series is the now 60-year-old Hironobu Sakaguchi. He directed the development of the first five games of Final Fantasy and continued to be involved with the series up until Final Fantasy X-2 in 2003, most recently as Executive Producer.
- At the Fan Festival for the MMORPG in London, Sakaguchi participated in a panel, alongside the head of the MMORPG, Naoki Yoshida. The Final Fantasy legends answered questions from the audience on stage.
By the way, we were also there for you at the Fan Fest:
The creator of Final Fantasy has been in the MMORPG fever since 2021
Here was the question: It is widely known how much Sakaguchi loves the MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV. Since 2021, he has spent 12 hours a day on FF 14. He shared his experiences and assessments of the game at that time on Twitter.
At the panel, Sakaguchi was asked by fans from the audience if he would be interested in working a bit on the MMORPG, as other veterans of the game series had done, like Yasumi Matsuno, who worked on the raids for Shadowbringers.
This was the creator’s response: When asked about the advances to work on the MMORPG, the father of the series spontaneously and quickly replied:
Absolutely not! If I make that part of my work, I will know what happens behind the scenes, and I will no longer be able to enjoy the content when I create it myself. So no offense, but no!
This was the reaction from the hall: Even during the translation, laughter came from the audience. The hall applauded enthusiastically and laughed at the response of the 60-year-old.
The head of the MMORPG, Naoki Yoshida, did not want to give up so easily. He added that he would find it fantastic to work with Sakaguchi, but he would not push him. Spurred on by a reaction from the audience, Yoshida suggested that perhaps the original father could be lured into development by designing small content pieces: a bit of seasonal content.
“Of course not,” came the renewed refusal – this time even in English, much to the delight of the audience.
From 8:12 hours, the segment begins with a viewer question:
How is this being discussed? On Reddit, there is a lot of understanding for the 60-year-old. They also know there that when you make a hobby your profession, it becomes increasingly difficult to enjoy it: “When you are too close to development, it ruins the magic.”
Gabe Newell had already said that his favorite game from Valve is Portal 2. He hardly worked on it and was only a little involved as a consultant.
More about Final Fantasy XIV:
Final Fantasy XIV presents its first new class – Reminds many in sword fighting of Darth Maul
