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Sakaguchi chose violence during on-stage battles in the MMO
Image credit:Square Enix
Image credit:Square Enix
Final Fantasy XIV’s latest Fan Festival took place in London over the weekend, running two days of panels with theMMO’s development team, its director Naoki ‘Yoshi-P’ Yoshida and legendary series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi. In-betweenannouncing a new job for expansion Dawntrail, revealing anecdotes from the early days ofFinal Fantasyand awholebunchof crossovers on the way, Yoshi-P and Sakaguchi found time to kick back with some very silly hijinks during the game’s boss battles.
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Sunday’s on-stage events opened with ‘A Stroll with Yoshi-P’, billed as a fun way for Yoshida and Sakaguchi - a noted XIV fan, who has apparently cleared several of its hardest Ultimate fights - to play some of XIV’s trials together while providing some insight into the creation of iconic Final Fantasy monsters and how they were adapted for XIV. That was the plan, anyway.
“I was gonna say Golbez, but now this has left me in a trauma,” Sakaguchi wisecracked in a response to being asked his favourite bosses from the series, as Yoshi-P asked, “Why the hell did I fall there?”
Image credit:Square Enix
A second fight against Proto-Carbuncle went a little smoother, despite Sakaguchi pleading for his fellow tank to provide cover against the reimaginedFinal Fantasy Vboss.
It didn’t last long, though. With the option to sync items to the minimum level of the duty turned on for a tougher challenge, Yoshida and Sakaguchi formed a new party to find Final Fantasy V’s Exdeath. Sakaguchi exclaimed as a muscled topless character - topped with a tonberry head - appeared behind him in the new group.
The legendary creator of one of the most beloved video game series of all time then proceeded to stand his short character under the towering figure’s spread legs… and repeatedly prod the character, named Chunchunmaru Gigachad, in the arse with the /poke emote.
Image credit:Square Enix
The Gilgamesh fight saw another party wipe, and Sakaguchi fall to the multiple slashes of the boss’ Sword Dance attack.
FINAL FANTASY XIV Fan Festival 2023 in London - Day 2Watch on YouTube
FINAL FANTASY XIV Fan Festival 2023 in London - Day 2
Sakaguchi and Yoshida also offered some insight on behalf of series composer Nobuo Uematsu and XIV’s sound director Masayoshi Soken, agreeing that some of the games’ most popular and memorable songs are the fastest to write - including Gilgamesh’s backing track Battle on the Big Bridge. Sakaguchi had revealed the day before that he hadinitially rejected all of Uematsu’s now-iconic songs for the first Final Fantasy.
Gilgamesh defeated, the developers brought their chaotic boss run to a close to cheers and laughter from the Fan Fest crowd.
“I was able to successfully Shirk my tankbuster, so I am very happy, thank you very much,” Sakaguchi said in his closing words, teasing Yoshida with his use of the tank ability that aggros enemy attacks towards a party member.
You can watch the full panel at around the hour mark of Fan Fest London’s Day 2 stream. It’s highly recommended if you enjoy watching two beloved devs mess around with each other and have a clear blast playing their own games.
