'Final Fantasy XIV' Director Naoki Yoshida Explains Why He Believes 'Final Fantasy' Is Not Connecting With Younger Gamers
Final Fantasy XIV director Naoki Yoshida aka Yoshi-P recently shared his thoughts on why he believes Final Fantasy as a franchise is not connecting with younger gamers.
In a promotional video for the upcoming Dissidia Duellum Final Fantasy game, Yoshi-P discussed how Final Fantasy is not connecting with younger gamers.
He said, “I’m 53 now, and I’ve been playing since Final Fantasy I in real time. But for younger generations — people who grew up naturally accustomed to action-based combat and online competitive play — the recent entries in the series may have been harder to engage with.”
”Part of that is simply because I'm sorry to say... the release intervals for new titles have gotten longer, so some players haven't really had the chance to connect with the series the way older fans did,” he asserted.
Interestingly, some of the biggest complaints regarding the Final Fantasy franchise have been in the opposite direction. Many players have expressed their disappointment that the franchise has abandoned traditional JRPG gameplay for action combat and online competition.
However, one investor had previously shared Yoshida’s analysis that the long development cycles is hurting the franchise and suggested rotating Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy to correct this alleged problem. The investor shared in a post to X, “I had the opportunity to speak, so I expressed the opinion that I would like new releases of Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy to alternate. The reason is that I agree with the shift from quantity to quality in the medium-term business plan.”
He added, “I mentioned that prolonged development makes it difficult to attract fans, and if development costs become too heavy due to extended timelines, even new Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy titles may fail to generate profits. Therefore, a balance between quality and quantity is essential.
“Above all, I emphasized the need to release the flagship titles, Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, every year,” he shared. “Additionally, I expressed the desire for new Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy titles to be turn-based RPGs, explaining this by referencing the shift in direction from FF16 and the success of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which gained attention in 2025.”
As for Square Enix’s response, he relayed, “The response was that the next three years of the medium-term plan will focus on delivering truly interesting games to users. However, beyond that, they plan to deliver many titles, including mid-tier ones, and are preparing for this, so they asked us to wait for announcements.”
“Regarding command-based RPGs, they are aware of Expedition 33 and consider turn-based RPGs to be Square Enix’s origin and foundation. They value the turn-based RPG genre and plan to continue delivering games in this style in the future,” he concluded.
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Development cycles and gameplay mechanics aside: choosing to deviate from their usual average "Teen" rating for the Final Fantasy franchise in favour of a "Mature" rating/Game of Thrones-inspired plot for FFXVI is a potential deterrent to some younger gamers, as well.
They went down the wrong path, even apart from other more recent issues, you can see a clear trajectory that led them to the state that fails to satisfy newcomers and established fans.
Not that Final Fantasy hasn't always had identity issues, but...
Well, the burden of stewardship of a series is real and learning the wrong lessons from your successes depletes the soil of audience.
This new release is another condemnation of a lack of protective vision, a poor sense of what people desire.
It is not that Final Fantasy is an undesirable thing, frozen to a particular era's tastes.
It is simply no plant survives constantly having leaves plucked out and being replanted again and again in garish pots.