Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of the Final Fantasy series, has begun playing Final Fantasy XIV.
Sakaguchi began his adventure on September 27th, and has been sharing parts of his playthrough via Twitter. Initially beginning with the free trial, screenshots of the Baby Behemoth Minion and the Helm of Light make it clear that he purchased the digital collector’s edition.
After deliberating over a data center, Sakaguchi entered Eozea as a Dunesfolk Lalafell. While a man of few words, he seemed happy with the character creator.
To help in his daring quests,the level 71 Yasumi Matsuno joined him. He was the writer and director of Final Fantasy Tactics, and scenario writer for Final Fantasy XIV‘s Stormblood and Shadowbringers expansions. Based on their weapons, it seems that Sakaguchi chose to be a Paladin, while Matsuno is a Summoner or Scholar (both using magical tomes).
It was not long before Sakaguchi was gaining levels and friends [1, 2], with Matsuno even helping him travel around the world on his two-seater Chocobo. Players cannot fly until beating the base game, so Matsuno’s flying mount “carpool” undoubtedly helped Sakaguchi avoid getting lost, or mobbed by powerful monsters.
After some brief drama attempting to buy the game across regions [1, 2], Sakaguchi finally became a full member of Final Fantasy XIV. Even on his own Sakaguchi works hard at his quests– despite temptation to ride the Chocobos- and speculates about where the story will go.
It seems Sakaguchi is all geared up for his discussion with Producer Naoki Yoshida at Tokyo Game Show 2021. While not shown on Square Enix‘ schedule for day 2, the 9:00 a.m. JST presentation on October 2nd (5:00 p.m. PDT) will feature a discussion on “The Appeal and Potential of RPG.” When Sakaguchi directed the first Final Fantasy game in 1987, it is unlikely he could imagine how far the series would go.
Sakaguchi left Square in 2004 when it merged to create Square Enix, and later founded Mistwalker. They would later produce Fantasian, an RPG using real-life dioramas for levels, and letting players “store” enemies to fight later all at once. Sakaguchi noted that Fantasian may become the last title he makes.
Final Fantasy XIV is now available for Windows PC, Mac (via the SE Store, and Steam), PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and still planned for Xbox One. The Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker expansion launches November 23rd. In case you missed it, you can find our Shadowbringers expansion review here (we can’t recommend it enough!)
