Naoki Yoshida wants you to keep your ‘inappropriate’ FF16 mods on PC to yourself, please

Square Enix is gearing up to launch FF16 on PC, and producer Naoki Yoshida has a request for you

GLHF/Square Enix

Square Enix is gearing up to launch FF16 on PC, and producer Naoki Yoshida has a request for you: Don’t make any naughty FF16 mods.

Yoshida made the comments to PC Gamer, after PCG’s Mollie Taylor asked director Hiroshi Takai if he was keen on seeing any specific mods players might make. It was a seemingly innocuous question, but Yoshida stepped in and steered the conversation away from it.

• Read more: Final Fantasy 16: The Rising Tide review

"If we said 'It'd be great if someone made xyz,' it might come across as a request, so I'll avoid mentioning any specifics here!" Yoshida said. "The only thing I will say is that we definitely don't want to say anything offensive or inappropriate, so please don't make or install anything like that."

That’s probably a big ask, especially given that scene early in the game between Cid and Clive in the jail cell and the fact that Cid and Clive exist to begin with. 

Yoshida has gone on record before to say that he’s “disappointed” with FFXIV mods in general, not just the vast range of very definitely inappropriate mods people come up with for their Eorzean adventures. It sounds like he’s only against whatever dirty little ideas people might have in their heads for FF16, though, since he didn’t discourage modding in general. 

An anti-mod stance, or one that’s cautious of mods, isn’t something unique to Square Enix, though. Capcom said in 2023 that they technically consider any mod cheating – even if it’s just giving Leon or Claire a new, non-spicy outfit in Resident Evil 2 remake – since modding involves tampering with game files. Capcom's stance is that it could, in theory, involve extra work for the developers if mods introduced malicious code, though that seems like a player-side issue and not one for the devs to handle.

• Read more: Square Enix promises FF7 Remake Part 3 won’t ‘betray fans of the original’

Whatever the case, it’s not a ban on mods, nor will you get punished for modding it as you do with the likes of Elden Ring. Just maybe don’t go sharing them everywhere.

Final Fantasy 16's PC port releases on September 17, 2024.