Final Fantasy fans are mad about some of Yoshi-P’s opinions on older entries

Final Fantasy 16 too dark for minigames, says producer

Naoki Yoshida, also known as Yoshi-P, is a bit of a legend in the Final Fantasy community – after all, he’s the man who turned around the sinking ship that was Final Fantasy 14 and not only was able to save it, but make it into one of the best MMOs in history.

Naturally, expectations are high for Final Fantasy 16, for which Yoshida was tapped as producer. However, despite his iconic status among the community, Yoshida recently sparked some unrest in the middle of what was otherwise a triumphant Final Fantasy 16 preview round with some of his comments about older entries of the legendary JRPG series.

Asked by Gematsu whether Final Fantasy 16 would have any minigames like fishing or blitzball to lighten the rather serious tone of the game, Yoshida said:

“We have some very dark themes that the story revolves around. We have countries at war – we can’t really have some blitzball matches going on when people are killing each other. And then when you have this hero who’s talking about and driven by revenge be like, ‘I’m gonna go out and fish!’ In that sense, there aren’t those types of light things that are going to detract from the story that we’re trying to tell.”

While the story of Final Fantasy 16 will have lighter moments, there won't be any minigames / Square Enix

Those minigames are pretty popular among the community and some fans have seemingly interpreted Yoshida’s remark as being a bit harsh towards previous games. One reader left a comment below the interview, saying: “No minigames? This is like the opposite of the Yakuza development team. The team added minigames like karaoke or dancing because Kiryu came across as a boring character and wanted him [to] have some fun. If they don't add anything to chill down from an already violent story, the plot will be a big melodrama.” Another reader said that “Yoshi-P became kinda arrogant after FFXIV's great success. Game looks good but I don't like some of his remarks.”

There are similar sentiments to be found on popular gaming forum ResetEra, where many posters are pretty miffed about the absence of minigames. “So there really is nothing to do outside of fighting. Thanks, Yoshida. Sigh,” commented one user. Another found Yoshida’s comment funny, considering Final Fantasy 16 won’t be the first game in the series with dark themes: “I’m sorry but this is hilarious. FFX was pretty fucking dark.” That line of thought is picked up elsewhere, with one user saying they could well accept the team’s decision not to include minigames, but found Yoshida’s example “weird to bring up, lol.”

As one poster points out: “I'm not going to say ‘interest reduced to 0’ but I do think this is a misguided thought process. Any time there's downtime, soldiers at war are constantly fucking around, and war is mostly downtime. What else are they going to do, sit around brooding? You do anything to distract yourself from the horror.”

While Final Fantasy 16 is still highly anticipated and people have lauded the combat and animation quality, it certainly won’t be able to satisfy everybody – even Yoshi-P can’t do it all.

If you’re waiting on news around the Final Fantasy 16 PC port, you might have to wait for a long while.