As part of the Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festival in London, Naoki Yoshida played the MMORPG live in the stream. However, he did not face the fights alone, but with his great idol Hironobu Sakaguchi. He trolls the director and producer in traditional MMORPG style.
Where did Yoshida and Sakaguchi play? The live stream with Final Fantasy XIV producer and director Naoki Yoshida and the inventor of the Final Fantasy game series Hironobu Sakaguchi took place as part of the Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festival. The stream was recorded on the stage at Excel London on the second day of the event and can be watched on YouTube.
Both developers took part in several panels at Fan Fest. Sakaguchi said that he sometimes spent up to 80% of his time in the MMORPG. Yoshida also asked Sakaguchi if he wanted to help develop the game.
What content did the two of them tackle? The first battle the two developers faced was the standard Prophecy – Golbez test from patch 6.4. In it, an eight-man group fights the Final Fantasy XIV version of the villain Golbez from Final Fantasy IV.
The second combat content was Abyssos – Fifth Circle from the current eight-man raid series Pandaemonium. They concluded with the level 50 fight Revenge in the Ruins.
For all fights, Yoshida and Sakaguchi put together groups using the party finder. So your six buddies were a group of players. While Naoki Yoshida fielded his favorite class, Black Mage, an attacker, Hironobu Sakaguchi competed as a Paladin, a defender, i.e. a tank.
How did Sakaguchi troll Yoshida? Most of the trolling happened in the first fight against Golbez. As the main tank, Hironobu Sakaguchi was the target of a heavy tank buster. However, when it started, he ran unerringly towards Naoki Yoshida and tried to catch him in the meteorite damage – successfully:
Sakaguchi catches Yoshida’s Lalafell with a tank buster.
A little later in the same fight he tries a second time, but cannot find Naoki Yoshida. Unfortunately, due to a debuff, Sakaguchi doesn’t survive even the tank buster.
However, the Final Fantasy creator was not the only victim: Healer Alva Alvitr jumped over the edge of the arena and dragged Naoki Yoshida’s character with the “Rescue” ability with him to his death:
What is a Tank Buster?
The so-called tank busters are very strong attacks against tanks. Tank in Final Fantasy XIV are the classes Paladin, Dark Knight, Warrior and the Gunblade. Tank busters automatically target the player character with the highest “enmity level”; i.e. the character that the boss is currently targeting. In most cases these are the tanks. A tank buster causes very high damage as well as strong debuffs. A non-tank usually cannot withstand this, which is why tanks take on these attacks alone or with the off-tank, depending on the fight.
What is the Rescue skill?
Rescue is a healer ability that unlocks at level 48. It allows you to drag another character within 30 feet of you. This means that other players can be saved from an area effect with a quick reaction. Or they can be drawn into one.
What were the reactions to the griefing? In the stream, Hironobu Sakaguchi is visibly happy about his first meteorite kill and only a little disappointed that he didn’t do it twice. Naoki Yoshida, on the other hand, appears slightly panicked at first, but then sinks into his chair, giggling.
The translators supporting the team also can’t help but laugh. Commentator Toshio Murouchi, Global Community Producer for Final Fantasy XIV, leans far back in his chair. Apparently he wants to see the screen behind them to get a better view of what’s happening. He laughs: You’re knocked out!
The audience in the hall reacts with loud laughter and applause. After all, it doesn’t happen every day that the great idol and role model of a director and producer griefs them in their own game in the best MMORPG art.
Elsewhere, Hironobu Sakaguchi made Naoki Yoshida not laugh, but cry:
Final Fantasy XIV boss cries on fan festival stage as Final Fantasy creator praises him