Final Fantasy XIV Producer Naoki Yoshida – or Yoshi-P as fans lovingly call him – was recently asked in an interview what’s next for him on the horizon, and whether or not he would ever leave FFXIV to work on Final Fantasy 16. His response was enlightening, saying that he loves FFXIV and isn’t ready to leave it, but gladly would do so “if Square Enix or fans asked” him to.
When pressed further during his video interview with Final Fantasy Union, he revealed some of his ideas on what exactly Final Fantasy 16 would look like to him. He noted that he would want to make Final Fantasy 16 into a “high fantasy” setting, similar to Final Fantasy XIV’s first expansion Heavensward.
Conversely, Yoshi-P made it clear that his next game has just as much possibility of being a Dragon Quest game, instead of Final Fantasy 16. This is due to his equal work on that series, including games like Dragon Quest Builders and that series’ MMO Dragon Quest X that has yet to release in the West.
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Yoshi-P finished out the interview by noting that working on Final Fantasy 16 would be an “ideal situation” for him and that he would give his “100%” in developing the next major FF game in the series. It is worth noting that he is only the second producer for Final Fantasy XIV, while its predecessor FFXI has had a total of six different producers come and go during its lifetime.
Because of this, it is entirely within the realm of possibility that he would be assigned to work on Final Fantasy 16 due to Final Fantasy XIV’s massive success even with a monthly subscription fee. FFXIV started out as a disaster back in 2010 when it first released to the point that it needed an entire reworking from the ground up.
This required Yoshi-P to step in and pick up the pieces – which he did – turning FFXIV into one of the biggest comebacks in video game history. It would be interesting to see what he would take from that and apply to Final Fantasy 16.
