Final Fantasy 14's producer and director, Naoki Yoshida (known within the MMO's community as Yoshi-P), was moved to tears after receiving some wholesome words from the founding father of the series.
Hironobu Sakaguchi - the series' original director and general JRPG icon - made an appearance this weekend at Final Fantasy 14 Fan Fest in London. He shared the stage with Yoshi-P and even hilariously trolled him in his own game. But the most memorable moment between the two series stewards was wholesome enough to crack an Adamantoise's hardened shell.
"I'm going to thank you back for making Final Fantasy even better moving forward," Sakaguchi tells Yoshi-P in the Twitter video below after the FF14 producer had thanked him for making the series in the first place. The kind words from Final Fantasy's father mixed with the cheers from a roaring live audience were enough to stir Yoshi-P on stage. Though he managed to compose himself enough to respond: "I never expected that Sakaguchi-san would be making me cry."
When Hironobu Sakaguchi thanked Yoshi P. My heart 🥹 what an epic way of ending an incredible weekend. Thank you so much @FF_XIV_EN for an amazing FanFest 💙💙 #ffxiv #FFXIVFanFest pic.twitter.com/bp0rAWPRA1October 23, 2023
Commenters were just as bawled over by the interaction, too. "Man, I'm gonna have to take a lunch break so I'm not crying in my office," writes ProfNoctis, "this is so wholesome."
Twitterer SijPerilous comments: "You know you did it right when your senpai thanks you for keeping the torch burning bright."
Sakaguchi was the director for the series' five first mainline outings before he moved to producing and writing on future games. He then left Square Enix in 2003 to open an independent studio and work on other beloved JRPGs, such as Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey. On the other hand, Yoshi-P has also been at the company for decades, but he's recently been in the limelight thanks to the MMO's success and his producing role on Final Fantasy 16, making the above moment even more special.
That wasn't the only treat to come out of the Fan Fest, though. Before the moment, Sakaguchi weighed in on what makes a Final Fantasy game, and why FF16 is the perfect example.
Elsewhere, the event shed light on the all-new Viper class which is coming to the MMO in the much-anticipated Dawntrail expansion. The upcoming crossover with Final Fantasy 16 was also detailed, alongside a raid announcement inspired by the series' first foray into massively multiplayer waters.
Sakaguchi also chatted about his love for the MMO, which he "absolutely" will never work on.
