When Hironobu Sakaguchi and a small group of developers released the first Final Fantasy game more than 35 years ago, they unintentionally ignited a legacy that has continued to this day, spanning several entries and spin-offs. Even though he gave up to follow his own path in 2003, he is still regarded as the creator of the Final Fantasy series. It’s been twenty years since he left Square Enix and was involved in the games, so seeing him get nostalgic and get all invested in Final Fantasy XIV has been a huge surprise and joy.
He initially began playing the MMO out of courtesy in 2021 before speaking with Naoki Yoshida about the series he was working on, but he soon became completely engrossed. and spending 12 hours a day playing.
Sakaguchi told us during a panel at the recent FFXIV Fan Festival, “It pretty much is 50% of my day.” “If I consider the amount of time I didn’t sleep, I played for eighty percent of the day. I believe I would increase it to 100% if you eliminated the time I spent eating.
Even the most ardent fans of FFXIV would find it astounding that he completed the content of all three expansions and the base game in less than two months after starting at the end of September 2021. He would tweet about his gaming adventures while playing, frequently taking pleasure in the nostalgic allusions to past games.
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The development team would frequently monitor his advancement on Twitter to gauge his potential. Director and producer of Final Fantasy XIV Naoki Yoshida stated, “More than anything, I’m really happy,” in a press Q&A at Fanfest. We were eagerly awaiting the release of Sakaguchi’s next project, given his hectic schedule. Naturally, XIV’s purpose is to act as the franchise’s theme park. We realize that what we’ve been doing for the past ten years truly resonates with us and is a real motivator for us when we hear the franchise’s founding creator play it and notice every detail.
Although his progress frequently caused the team anxiety, they had no cause for concern. “Oh yeah, man, it’s the exact opposite—I’m unable to go.” My life has become a part of Final Fantasy XIV! Sakaguchi disclosed during the panel.
He’s gotten so fixated on the game that he even created SakaGUCCI, an in-game clothing line: “I took my name as a play on words to craft items with my name on them to hand out because, as a creator, I really enjoyed getting my hands dirty with crafting.” He has even considered the economics of the game, coming up with a solution for possible resellers of his products. “Having them glamour them on the spot or go into content with them would prevent people from putting it on marketboards and protect the integrity of the game, which is something I didn’t want to do—I didn’t want to disturb the world of XIV.” Doing this is a great way to meet new people, so I’m really enjoying that.
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Yoshida and Sakaguchi participated in a panel discussion and in-game demonstrations while fighting through multiple boss battles in front of thousands of fans during Fanfest. Sakaguchi even found time for a little melancholy, chasing Yoshida down and hitting him with tankbuster maneuvers while petting a partially nude snowman’s underside. He’s now taking on Ultimate content, which consists of the game’s most difficult battles, because it’s reached that stage. “Truth be told, I had not anticipated that he would secretly tackle Ultimate content,” Yoshida said, expressing his surprise.
You would think that working together at some point in the future would be inevitable given how close the two have become due to Sakaguchi’s love for Final Fantasy XIV, but Sakaguchi has other ideas. His response to the question of whether he had ever thought about creating a scenario for the game was unequivocal: “Absolutely not! I wouldn’t be able to just appreciate it as a fan if I worked on it behind the scenes. Thus, sorry, but no.
“Obviously, working together would be fantastic, and I appreciate your response, but perhaps I could introduce you to some seasonal material first?” In reply, Yoshida made a tentative suggestion.
“Certainly not.” Sakaguchi was a rock star. Regretfully, it appears Sakaguchi is too obsessed with the game to ever think about making any changes to it.
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Throughout the past two years, watching him perform has been pure joy. Being able to revisit something you once created and were accountable for and be able to enjoy it as a player instead of a creator feels like such a unique experience.
After Yoshida thanked Sakaguchi for starting the series, Sakaguchi echoed those feelings at the very end of the FanFestival, saying, “I’m going to thank you back for making Final Fantasy even better moving forward.”