Gamers mad at Final Fantasy comments

The producer of the next Final Fantasy game has made comments about the upcoming game that have angered some gamers.

Naoki Yoshida, the producer of the upcoming Final Fantasy 16, has made a number of comments about the game that have upset some fans.

Yoshida, commonly known by fans as Yoshi-P, gave multiple interviews alongside a slew of hands-on previews from the press, and spoke about the tone of the game compared to recent games in the series.

In an interview with Gematsu, Yoshida said that minigames like fishing probably won’t be making an appearance in the upcoming game.

“We have some very dark themes that the story revolves around. We have countries at war – we can’t really have some blitzball matches going on when people are killing each other,” Yoshida said, “And then when you have this hero who’s talking about and driven by revenge be like, ‘I’m gonna go out and fish!’ In that sense, there aren’t those types of light things that are going to detract from the story that we’re trying to tell”.

Two of the games referred to there are Final Fantasy 10, which features Blitzball as a playable minigame sport, and Final Fantasy 15, which has a fishing minigame that was eventually spun off into its own stand-alone VR game.

Minigames like the ones mentioned are generally well-liked among the community, and some gamers have interpreted Yoshida’s remarks as somewhat hostile towards previous games. One commenter below the review compared the sentiment to the approach used in the Yakuza series, which contrasts its heavy themes with silly moments and minigames.

“No minigames? This is like the opposite of the Yakuza development team,” the commenter said, “The team added minigames like karaoke or dancing because Kiryu came across as a boring character and wanted him to have some fun. If they don’t add anything to chill down from an already violent story, the plot will be a big melodrama”.

Another called Yoshida “arrogant”, saying that the game “looks good, but I don’t like some of his remarks”.

Users on popular gaming forum Resetera shared a similar sentiment, with many concerned that Final Fantasy 16 would be boring and overly grim.

“So there really is nothing to do outside of fighting. Thanks, Yoshida. Sigh,” one user said.

Another found Yoshida’s comments curious, given previous games in the series were quite dark.

Despite being a darker story, Final Fantasy 16 won’t be entirely devoid of silly aspects. Picture: Square Enix

“I’m sorry, but this is hilarious. [Final Fantasy 10] was pretty f***ing dark,” they said. Another agreed, saying that Yoshida’s examples were “weird to bring up”.

Yet another poster complained that the lack of fooling around and silly moments was unrealistic.

“I’m not going to say ‘interest reduced to 0’ but I do think this is a misguided thought process,” the poster said, “Any time there’s downtime, soldiers at war are constantly f***ing around, and war is mostly downtime. What else are they going to do, sit around brooding? You do anything to distract yourself from the horror”.

Despite the pushback against the comments, many are still excited for the upcoming game. Press previews for the game were released earlier in the week, and have been overwhelmingly positive.

Final Fantasy 16 is made exclusively for the PS5, taking advantage of the console’s hardware. Picture: Square Enix

Players who want to play the game on PC might have to wait a while, however, as it was recently revealed that Final Fantasy 16 won’t be on PC this year. The development team is reportedly working hard on the PS5 version, and doesn’t have the time to port the game to PC before the end of the year.

The new Final Fantasy game is coming sooner than many expected, launching on June 22, 2023.

Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.