Final Fantasy creator would prefer to keep enjoying Final Fantasy 14 as a player than work on the series again
"It started off as a courtesy. Now I almost live in Final Fantasy 14."
Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi says he's reluctant to work on a Final Fantasy game again as he's having too much fun playing Final Fantasy 14.
At last month's Nintendo Direct, it was revealed that - after a period of Apple exclusivity - Sakaguchi's latest game, Fantasian, was finally coming to Switch under the banner of his former employer, Square Enix.
It marks the first time Sakaguchi has worked for his former studio in over 20 years.
"I felt if I kept too close of a relationship, then it might actually affect how Square Enix treats Final Fantasy," Sakaguchi told Bloomberg, reflecting on why he had intentionally kept a distance from Square Enix and the games he'd created for over two decades.
But as the franchise neared its 30th anniversary, Sakaguchi was asked to participate in panels and interviews, and "that's when [Sakaguchi and Square Enix] started to meet up" and "grew closer".
When he was asked to attend a Final Fantasy 14 event back in 2021, Sakaguchi "loaded up the game" to see what it was like.
"It started off as a courtesy," he said. "Now I almost live in Final Fantasy 14."
Sakaguchi has sometimes been caught playing instead of attending work meetings. "On a rare occasion - I want to stress 'rare occasion' - sometimes one of the Mistwalker team members will hop on Final Fantasy 14, and I'll see a message saying, 'Hey, the meeting's started'," he said.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, this means Sakaguchi has also spent some quality time with Final Fantasy 14 producer and director, Naoki Yoshida. But given the time away from the franchise, Sakaguchi's keen to maintain a professional distance from the series he created because he's essentially now "switched to a consumer rather than a creator".
"If I take on the Final Fantasy brand again, I don't know if I'll be able to genuinely enjoy Final Fantasy 14 as much," he said.
Talking of which: Final Fantasy 14 director and producer Naoki "Yoshi P" Yoshida recently offered his "sincere apologies" for "issues" identified in the early access build of its highly-anticipated expansion, Dawntrail.
In a blog post published shortly after the expansion went live for early access players last weekend, Yoshida thanked players for playing and assured them that the team was "investigating" the causes of the most pressing issues, including transition freezes on Xbox, and broken animations across all platforms.