Final Fantasy XIV director XVI producer Naoki "Yoshi-P" Yoshida has revealed his favorite Final Fantasy game, and it's not at all what you'd expect. Final Fantasy is, as a whole, an odd series - it doesn't have the narrative cohesion of more closely interconnected RPG series. Instead, what carries over from game to game includes things like its battle systems, customization methods, iconic monsters, story themes, musical motifs, and other minor details.

Still, each entry is inevitably influenced by the last. The lingering voices of Final Fantasy 11, 12, and 13 are especially visible throughout FF14, but there's a little of every series entry in it if you know where to look. However, to look at the current state of Final Fantasy 14 and the series at large today, Yoshi-P's choice of his favorite Final Fantasy game is more than a little surprising.

Yoshi P's Favorite Final Fantasy Is FF1

Why FF14's Director Likes The Classics

According to a 2023 interview with IGN, Yoshi-P once named the original Final Fantasy as his favorite in the series. He's quoted as saying:

"I’ve been a player since the NES days, so for me the original Final Fantasy was a huge deal. Partly because of [Yoshitaka] Amano’s illustrations, I was mesmerized by the game's strong sense of fantasy."

FF1 does indeed have a strong sense of fantasy, mainly because it still includes Yoshitaka Amano's evocative character designs and Nobuo Uematsu's music, which are both big parts of what defines the series' aesthetic and tone. Still, it's an odd choice because Final Fantasy has come so far since then - although the first title introduced many elements that would recur in later games, it also lacks a lot of what makes the series so iconic.

Without defined characters and with a relatively generic fantasy story, it's typically ed as one of the weaker entries in the series. Though it's not at all bad as an RPG, it's not great as a Final Fantasy game. But in its own way, FF1 actually does make a lot of sense for Yoshida.

Why Yoshi-P Likes FF1 So Much (& Why It's Surprising)

Plus, Yoshida's Other Favorites

In his interview, Yoshida goes on to describe how FF1 drew him in: "The game’s cinematic approach to storytelling and presentation was very inspiring. It’s still a huge milestone that indicates what the series strives to be." Although FF1 is very different from Final Fantasy as we know it today, it still contained a kernel of the same ambition that the series has maintained throughout its 30-plus-year run. With very limited hardware at their disposal, FF1's developers attempted to create an experience as epic in scope as a big-budget movie. It's easy to see how that would've left an impression in its day.

And honestly, FF1 and FF14 have at least one thing in common: you make your own journey in both games. Where later titles in the series typically have preset characters whom you follow through a defined scenario, both FF1 and FF14 require you to design your own Warrior of Light. Of course, that's a standard feature for MMOs, so it's unlikely Yoshida was directly inspired by FF1's character creation process here - but still, it's a connection he's almost surely aware of.

Although Yoshi-P has apparently declared FF1 his unrivaled favorite, he's also expressed fondness for other classic 2D games in the series. In particular, he's a fan of Final Fantasy 3, whose Active Time Battle influenced much of what came after it in the series. He also cited its job system as a major influence - incredible amount of content included in FF7, saying, "You can feel the incredible power of Square’s developers at the time, eager to put every interesting idea they had in there."

Final Fantasy developers: they're just like us - they also have strong opinions when it comes to the best games in the series. Still, it's nice to know that the future of Final Fantasy is in the hands of people who really care about it, who have seen it develop throughout the years and understand its potential. Final Fantasy 14 might not have too much in common with the series' first entry, but they come from the same place of ion and ambition.

Source: IGN