Naoki Yoshida

Submission 8,355

About

Naoki Yoshida (吉田直樹, Yoshida Naoki, Yoshi-P) is the director and producer of the highly popular MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV ^[1] after being put in charge by Square Enix to save the game and the company from the disastrous 1.0 launch. He is now currently the producer of the announced sixteenth installment of the Final Fantasy franchise, Final Fantasy XVI.^[16]

History

Yoshida was born on May 1st, 1973. Yoshida joined Square Enix in 2004 to work on the Dragon Quest franchise, directing the Dragon Quest Monster Battle series in 2007, then later became planner chief of MMORPG Dragon Quest X in 2012 that's currently only in Japan, and division executive of Dragon Quest Builders in 2016.

During the rough 1.0 launch of MMORPG game Final Fantasy XIV in 2010 and 2011, Yoshida was given leadership as director and producer of Final Fantasy XIV to revamp everything on the game by scratch to make greater improvements from the original. He shut down the servers on November 11, 2012 after the timer went off to play a conclusion cinematic cutscene, to repair Final Fantasy XIV with newer crew members hired by Square Enix. A Kotaku article by Richard Eisenbeis was submitted on November 26th, 2012,^[4] to interview with Naoki Yoshida and to find out what went wrong with Final Fantasy XIV's failed launch.

On August 27, 2013, Yoshida relaunch Final Fantasy XIV under a new subtitle A Realm Reborn.^[2] With the help of Naoki Yoshida turning the game around, Final Fantasy XIV has received overwhelmingly high praise along with praising Naoki Yoshida for his hard work.

Early Career

Yoshida's career in the gaming industry began at the Hudson Soft company in 1993. He worked as a scenario writer for the Far East of Eden series, and a game designer for the Bomberman series. Yoshida later left Hudson Soft to work with other small gaming studios.

Reputation

Naoki Yoshida received high praise from the fans and the Square Enix company itself for turning Final Fantasy XIV around to be one of the award nominating MMORPGs^[5] available. His reputation and praises also found their way online, including on 4chan's /v/ for daily Final Fantasy XIV threads. Yoshida is also in good terms with employees and staff members from Blizzard Entertainment and World of Warcraft^[13]^[14] , hoping that someday he'll get his dream collaboration^[10]^[11] with World of Warcraft.

Please Look Forward To It

Please Look Forward To It is a catchphrase by Yoshida used when updating fans on projects. The phrase has been used in several image macros about Yoshida.

Hype Train

Hype Train is a collaboration image of Naoki Yoshida as a bullet train made by FFXIV fans from Reddit and 4chan to look forward to the latest expansion announcements, FFXIV Fan Festivals, and the release dates.