Hot off of a big weekend in which the Final Fantasy XIV director announced big news on the MMO’s upcoming Dawntrail expansion, Naoki Yoshida, or Yoshi-P, appeared on the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) Game Maker’s Notebook Podcast with PlayStation’s Shuhei Yoshida to talk about all things Final Fantasy XVI, including his tireless work during the game’s early development, working through the pandemic, and their conviction to move away from open-world. But a topic that became especially engrossing was Yoshi-P’s take on the impact younger generations had on not only their approach to Final Fantasy XVI, but on Final Fantasy in general. Even as a creative workhorse and pillar of leadership at Square Enix, throughout the interview, Yoshi-P projected both a willingness and eagerness to see what a younger generation could do with the Final Fantasy series.
When asked about potentially playing a role in the creation of Final Fantasy XVII, Yoshi-P was as forward as he could be.
“I’ll just say that nothing’s been decided yet.That said, if I had to say anything about that…I’ve had the chance to work on two of these, XIV and XVI, so maybe it’s time for someone new, you know. Instead of having the same old guys handle the next one, I think in some ways it would be good to look to the future and bring in a younger generation, with more youthful sensibilities, to make a new Final Fantasy with challenges that suit today’s world.”
Yoshi-P has committed to supporting Final Fantasy XIV for another 10 years, but there is a sense that stepping aside creatively for the good of the craft is something he won’t fight against. He’s not shy about admitting to being one of the “old guys” he references, and he acknowledges the limitations that come with that. This is apparent when asked about Final Fantasy XVI’sshift into action-oriented gameplay and the decisions they had to make to better reflect realities and values that younger people could connect with.
“...You have guys in their fifties like us deciding what’s meant for a younger audience, but we might already be out of touch about that! That’s why, ultimately, I wanted to use this new Final Fantasy to depict that the world that has some hope in it…I wanted to portray things like true love, familial bonds, real friendship, a self-sacrificing spirit, and the sense that even though two nations might have different values, in the end, when a great threat rears its head, their people can unite together against it…The first thing we sort of decided early on was to make the age restriction higher, so that we could depict these kinds of things without shying away from them.”
And Yoshi-P doesn’t believe the generational shift away from turn-based gameplay to action is a flash in the pan, either. If anything, he wants future developers, younger or not, to double down on this approach and evolve it to realize its full potential.
“Recently, XVI and the VII Remake series have both adopted action gameplay, but Square Enix originally had a poor reputation when it came to making action games…I’d like to see Square Enix use this gained experience to continue challenging ourselves in the action genre, to make what we haven’t made yet, with even greater storytelling, emotion, and impact.”
But that’s not to say Yoshi-P is ready to hand over the reins to younger developers completely. He believes there are still new frontiers for him to explore, and he’s eager to leverage all the experience he’s gained to create something new once Final Fantasy XVI and its upcoming DLC are complete.
“There are a lot of people who love XVI, and they’ve been telling us they want more of it to play, so we are developing DLC right now. But for us–Creative Business Unti III–we really want to further develop XIV, and perhaps put these experience we had cultivated while making XIV to use on a different game, too.”
For more, you can check out the full interview on YouTube.