Final Fantasy XVI showcases Square Enix’s skill at reinvention

In early June, Square Enix Vice President Naoki Yoshida traveled from Tokyo to Los Angeles to attend a fan festival, where a crowd of Final Fantasy He was given the rock star treatment by fans ahead of the June 22 release. final fantasy 16. When he took the stage in an oversized black button-down shirt and gray boots, holding a stuffed dog based on a character from the game, the crowd whooped and chanted his nickname, Yoshi-P. Then he and a handful of colleagues sat in a studio as hundreds of people lined up for autographs.

In recent years, Yoshida has risen from obscurity to become one of the most renowned game designers in the world. His boyish bangs and ornate jewelry give him a youthful vibe, but at 50 he’s a relatively gray-haired man in the industry. He started at Square Enix in 2005 as a game designer. dragon quest xand first rose to fame by saving final fantasy XIV. The company had released that installment in such bad shape that it was forced to take it offline for almost a year for an overhaul. Yoshida oversaw the development of a 2013 reboot, called Final Fantasy XIV: A Kingdom Rebornwhich earned critical acclaim and commercial success.