Final Fantasy 14 director and producer Naoki Yoshida (Yoshi-P) intends to work on the game “for at least a good while”, even as he works on other projects within Square Enix.
In an interview with Noisy Pixel at Pax West, Yoshida discussed what keeps him working on the MMORPG after 12 years, to which he described himself as “more of a businessman” than a creative person.
“People tend to say we’re creators or creative, but I am an employee at Square Enix and I receive money to make games,” he said, “and I think my primary purpose is to make games so that we are delivering it to gamers out there, fans, players that want to consume our product. I think that is fundamental or a minimum requirement that I have because I belong to this company.”
He continued that designers working in a company and feeling bored should remove themselves from a corporate environment, but he doesn’t “have that strong personal desire to go into my own creative things”.
“So when asked, do I ever get bored with Final Fantasy 14?” Yoshida concluded. “I don’t think so, because there are a lot of things that I have yet to actualise in 14, things that I want to do, things that I must do, things that require to be taken care of. And so I think for at least a good while, I should be ok.”
Yoshida added he wishes to do less “management or operational things”, joking he may be scolded for his response. “I already do a lot of game developing and I’ve sacrificed some sleep sometimes,” he said, “but perhaps if I were to have a choice, I would like to focus in on the game development design.”
Yoshida is best known for his work on Final Fantasy 14, but in recent years has been pulled into other projects. Yoshida heads up Square Enix’s Creative Business Unit 3, responsible for the MMORPG as well as Final Fantasy 16 and the forthcoming Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles. He was also co-producer on Fantasian: Neo Dimension.
In another interview at Pax West, Yoshida requested players stop sending developers demoralising abuse.
“I want to emphasise here, there is a person behind the games,” he said. “While I understand some harsh criticism might be necessary sometimes, there’s a person behind the games that you enjoy and if you have that harsh criticism, I think we would want to have it be constructive.
