Yoshi-P, the director of the popular MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV, burst into tears following immense praise from the series’ creator Hironobu Sakaguchi.
The MMORPG is soon to make its Xbox debut after over a decade of life on PC and PlayStation. Initially a massive flop, Yoshi-P (real name Naoki Yoshida), has turned the game into one of the genre’s absolute best.
Via Push Square, Yoshi-P and Sakaguchi were both present at the 2023 Final Fantasy fan fest in London last weekend. At the event, Sakaguchi praised the Final Fantasy XIV director, resulting in the game developer breaking down into tears.
During the event, Yoshida thanked Sakaguchi for creating the ever-popular Final Fantasy series. In return, Sakaguchi said: “I’m going to thank you back, for making Final Fantasy even better moving forward.”
Following the creator’s comment, Yoshida hid his face, turned away from the crowd to wipe away tears and responded: “I never expected that Sakaguchi-san would be making me cry.”
Attendants at the 2023 Final Fantasy fan fest shared the interaction on Twitter, showing the beautiful moment between the two heralds of the iconic JRPG series. Check out the video below:
Naoki Yoshida now appears to be the lead for the future of Final Fantasy going forward, similar to Tetsuya Nomura’s role during the PS1/PS2 era. The FFXIV director recently released Final Fantasy XVI exclusively on PlayStation 5 to critical acclaim, and new expansions for FfXIV are also on the way.
On the other hand, Tetsuya Nomura’s tenure on the series is far from other. The iconic developer is currently working on the Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy alongside future instalments in the Disney x Final Fantasy series Kingdom Hearts.
FFVII Rebirth is scheduled to release on February 29th, 2024. The game will be followed up by a third entry some years in the future. Not much is known about the upcoming third game.