Naoki Yoshida, the lead behind Final Fantasy 14, was deeply moved and even brought to tears by a heartfelt compliment from the series’ original creator. During the Final Fantasy 14 Fan Festival in London this past weekend, Yoshida, often known as Yoshi-P among fans, participated in various on-stage events alongside the original Final Fantasy creator, Hironobu Sakaguchi.
As the festival concluded, Yoshida expressed his gratitude to Sakaguchi for his influence on the series. In response, Sakaguchi shook Yoshida’s hand and expressed his appreciation by saying, “I’m going to thank you back, for making Final Fantasy even better moving forward.” This touching moment visibly moved Yoshida, causing him to briefly turn away from the audience to wipe his eyes. He then regained his composure and added humorously, “I never expected that Sakaguchi-san would be making me cry.”
The emotional exchange was captured on camera by a Twitter user named Mother Claw, who shared the heartwarming moment online.
Originally released in 2010 to a negative reception, Final Fantasy 14 faced a challenging period and was eventually shut down in 2012. It made a triumphant return a year later as “Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn,” with Yoshida taking on key roles as director, producer, and co-designer. Yoshida is widely credited with orchestrating a remarkable turnaround for the MMO, transforming it into a long-lasting and successful title that thrives more than a decade later.
Yoshida’s success with Final Fantasy 14 even led to an offer to lead the development of Final Fantasy 16 from then Square Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda. However, due to his ongoing commitments to Final Fantasy 14, Yoshida chose a producer role for Final Fantasy 16.
Hironobu Sakaguchi, the original creator of Final Fantasy, has most recently worked on “Fantasian,” an RPG exclusive to Apple Arcade. An indication from a Steam database listing in August suggests the possibility of the game being made available on PC.