The story of Final Fantasy XIV is a very interesting one if you’ve been following it since its original release in 2010. After an initially icy reception, XIV was pulled from the brink of oblivion by its 2012 remaster A Realm Reborn, headed by Square Enix visionary Yoshi-P. It’s been a great 13 years for the MMORPG, but time waits for no man and no game, and for the first time in a while Final Fantasy XIV is wavering and it looks like Yoshi-P is moving on, being removed from Square Enix’s board of directors.
Final Fantasy XIV is not the only project Yoshi-P has participated in developing, he was the mind behind Final Fantasy 16, a game which had its appeal but by and large was found a bit disappointing by fans both old and new alike. It’s also notable that the latest Final Fantasy XIV update, Dawntrail, was not exactly received well by XIV’s seasoned fanbase. Many people will point to these setbacks as well as Yoshi-P’s removal from the board of directors as a sign that the company has lost faith in him, but there are comments from XIV’s fanbase on Reddit that claim this more lateral move than anything, not to mention Yoshi-P himself has been trying to get taken off the board of directors for as long as he’s been in the position, so this is no doubt something he’s actually asked for.
Whether or not this changes the direction of Final Fantasy XIV or Yoshi-P’s future projects with Square Enix is up in the air, it’s better to see how things play out from here. As stated, Dawntrail wasn’t exactly liked by most of Final Fantasy XIV’s playerbase, so something has to change there but this isn’t exactly a sign of the end times.