Wark Digest #216 - Checking In With Yoshi-P

Jul 18, 2025

Welcome back to the Wark Digest, your weekly newsletter of new developments and historical insights from the Final Fantasy universe. I’m Chris, aka Hoogathy, and this week Yoshi-P steps back into the spotlight to catch us up on developments from all across the franchise, as well as some of his personal inspirations.

This week’s newsletter is 2060 words, a 9-minute read.

Checking In With Yoshi-P

The closest thing Final Fantasy has to a face right now is Naoki “Yoshi-P” Yoshida, and he has once again been making the rounds with a series of interviews about the series and Final Fantasy XIV, primarily around his recent appearance at Anime Expo 2025. Let’s check in with the man himself, who had a lot to (carefully) say:

What they’re saying:

In his panel at Anime Expo itself, Yoshida explicitly avoided talking about games in favour of… well, anime, manga, and media that influenced him, such as Castle In The Sky
When asked (again) by AnimeNewsNetwork if Square Enix is going multiplatform , he pointed to Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles and said: “It is safe to assume that we will strive for multi-platform release moving forward”
The other elephant in the room, as we discussed recently, is the success of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which is often being held up against recent Final Fantasy offerings; when asked about the future of turn-based Final Fantasy, he said:
- “With this question of turn-based versus action, it tends to isolate the gameplay to just the battle system. That doesn't take into account what kind of game the creators want to deliver to players. For example, based on a certain graphical quality we want to present to our players, or the narrative we want to deliver to our players, it relates to how we set up the game's systems around it. This includes the battle system, game design, and gameplay feel. It's not a clear-cut answer, whether it will become all turn-based, or if it's going to become more action-based”
- “[I'm] not necessarily going to be on Final Fantasy XVII, so we also don't want to obstruct or limit our future director or whomever will be producing the games like XVII or even XVIII. We don't want to put them on a rail.”
In regards to the future for FFXIV following Dawntrail, Yoshida was simultaneously elusive yet illuminating:
- “Right now we're in expansion 7.0 Dawntrail, but we already have a general idea of plans up to 10.0. We're working towards a framework that we have built for ourselves. That being said, we also have our story from the original 1.0 FFXIV through our previous Endwalker expansion, 6.0, and that's not going away. That's still going to be there.“
His biggest takeaway from producing Final Fantasy XVI was experience on “how to produce a high-end video game“
- “There were a lot of learning points through that, and I feel like we gleaned a lot of know-how through the process. I want to challenge myself or apply to future works on how we can swiftly produce something of high quality and minimize the development period without lowering the quality.“
As for other IPs, Yoshi-P has no real franchise left on his wishlist for future endeavours—”It might be because of my work style. If the company requires me to work on a certain title or franchise, I will give it my all”
- Although he would like “to explore another online game that's not FFXIV“
In an interview with Famitsu after the event, he did mention that The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom recently impressed him, in terms of its design and the way they utilized resources
- Using existing assets from previous Zelda games freed time and resources which they could invest in “the fun of the game,” while also keeping production costs down
- “With the understanding that sales may not grow as explosively as a mainline game, they are challenging themselves to figure out how to make it more fun“
- He assumes this approach was born from melding the “knowledge of veterans” (regarding production costs) and “the sensibilities of young people”
As he’s previously related, Super Mario Bros. made him interested in making games in the first place—but “I think the reason I wanted to express stories in games was because I read The Lord of the Rings when I was in the first year of junior high school, and was heavily influenced by Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy”
- The twists of Dragon Quest III, the cinematics of Final Fantasy, and the clashing ideals of Tactics Ogre (plus a healthy dose of that childhood love for Castle In The Sky) combined to inspire his view of storytelling in games
Lastly, Yoshida reiterated many points about FFT’s upcoming remaster:
- At the time of the interview, development was almost complete, with only the master for the Steam version remaining—and he expected that would be complete by the time he returned to Japan, so the game is as good as gold
- He’s “just doing behind-the-scenes work” while the original dev team has reassembled
- “We want to deliver the original FFT, which shocked us. We launched this with the desire to make it the definitive version that people can play for the next 20 or 30 years. For that reason, we have stuck to the policy of not changing anything in the ‘classic’ version. We won't increase the number of units, even if we think it's good. Of course, we understand that there are voices saying, ‘You can change that part,’ but if we do change it, there will be voices saying, ‘This is not original’”
- “So, this time, we thought it was important to make it the definitive version with the balance and everything else intact, so that it can be played on any hardware. By doing so, we will be able to deliver the masterpiece that is FFT to anyone at any time”
- For the enhanced version, “we had to make some changes to the UI and the very complex character relationship chart. Since war stories have conspiracies running behind the scenes, we made use of our experience in producing FFXVI to make it easier to understand for different generations“
- “In classic, we have deliberately left in balance-breaking tactics such as ‘Arithmetic Holy’ from the original version, and situations where victory is guaranteed if Sir Cidolphus is present, but in high difficulty mode, these alone will not work, and the balance is tough. We hope you enjoy the old-fashioned instant reset (laughs)”

What we thought:

“We will strive for multi-platform release” is a good choice of words; there will still be the odd initial exclusive (like part 3 of Final Fantasy VII Remake, which was likely contracted many years ago) but where able, things like FFT can drop on more than one platform… as they’ve been saying for months now
The turn-based situation is more “clear-cut” than Yoshida suggests: it will come down, primarily, to the creator’s view for the project (with, of course, some input from the company)
- Even though I love turn-based games and have been defending their validity for years, I also don’t want developers to make everything turn-based or everything active—do what’s best for the vision, or it will feel inauthentic
- We don’t need to commit FFXVII (or especially FFXVIII) to one thing in reaction to one other successful game; in fact, one reason why Expedition 33 did so well is because Sandfall went against the market trends and chased the team’s collective heart—the passion behind E33 is the real takeaway
In regards to FFXIV, Yoshida’s response was particularly vague… yet also hints that, behind the scenes, they’ve developed a clearly picture of the next “arc”
- At the Dawntrail preview last May, he said the expansion was a narrative reset for the narrative and the dev team alike—akin to A Realm Reborn, where they were just telling the story of the moment, and that went on to become the foundation of the sweeping “Hydaelyn and Zodiark” saga
- Perhaps it’s just his choice of words, but I get the impression he has a more confident vision of the game’s journey up through 10.0 (three full expansions from now)… and with the main Dawntrail ending in patch 7.3 this summer, this particular curtain may begin pulling back soon
His impressions of Echoes of Wisdom align with his biggest takeaway from FFXVI—optimizing game development while improving the product itself is something the entire industry should be thinking about right now
- Luckily, unlike many other creators or studios out there, I think we can trust Yoshida to be exploring this from the right direction, not just throwing AI at it like a certain, very profitable studio
With any creator whose work we follow as closely as Yoshi-P (or the likes of Sakaguchi and Kitase), it’s always interesting to hear what inspired their younger selves to embark on these journeys
- As someone who was personally inspired by reading The Hobbit and LOTR around the same age, and had his mind blown by the cinematic turn of FF on the PS1, I relate to his formative inspirations hard
- The influence of Tactics Ogre is, in retrospect, all over a lot of the things he’s worked on—if you haven’t checked it out, this makes the Tactics Ogre Reborn remaster all the more worthwhile, the next time you’re looking for something to play
And lastly, he reiterated some of the main points about The Ivalice Chronicles that Matsuno already made—but you can tell that, even if some of the changes are disappointing, their intentions are good and they’re genuinely excited to bring the game to a new generation (and not just because they want the game to sell)
- FFXVI’s Active Lore System (or at least the philosophy behind it) is absolutely perfect for the world of Ivalice
- The hard mode may help fill the void for savvy veterans who lament the omissions from War of the Lions
- From this perspective, the dual-mode approach is wise—the recreated original experience is there for anyone who wants to see the roots without digging out a PS1, while the remastered experience should be more palatable for newcomers and the average modern gamer
All told, he was carefully skirting around topics that might provoke more drama, if he were to go any deeper into them (like the WotL additions or the blowback on Dawntrail)… and that may be wise, with how some voices out there are keen to jump on any slip-up

What’s next? Yoshi-P admits he doesn’t really think in terms of “where will I be in 10 years,” but compared to much older creators who are still working, like Hideaki Anno, Hayao Miyazaki, and Ridley Scott, “I am still very green. I still have a lot more to go. I will continue to work as I can't think of retirement or leaving the games industry.”

Around the Union

While Tidus is universally considered the protagonist or hero of Final Fantasy X, it’s not just his story—and Yuna is more than just another party member or his love interest. This week we take a deep dive in “Understanding the Brilliance of Yuna” and peel back the many layers of the summoner’s onion.

You can also catch the replay of Darryl’s latest live AMA, held last Sunday!

And as for our community topic, instead of a poll we want to know: given how many parts of the world are cooking under a brutal sun lately, have you been playing any Final Fantasy games this summer? Replaying, or exploring a new game for the first time? (And if not, what are you playing instead, or what’s the last FF you finished?) Let us know in the comments!

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