Final Fantasy 16 producer Naoki Yoshida reveals his dislike for the term "JRPG" when speaking during a recent interview. Despite the JRPG term having more positive connotations in the current gaming landscape, the Final Fantasy producer believes the term comes with many negatives.
Naoki Yoshida is the producer of both Final Fantasy 14 and Final Fantasy 16 at Square Enix. Final Fantasy 14 continues to be a strong performer for Square Enix nearly a decade after its relaunch as Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn, and the game would go on to release critically acclaimed expansions. The most recent expansion, Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker, ended a story arc that began with A Realm Reborn in 2013 while planting seeds for the game's next major story arc. Yoshida's latest project, Final Fantasy 16, is his first serving as producer of a mainline single-player entry in the series.
Gaming YouTuber SkillUp recently hosted an interview with Yoshida, who revealed his discomfort with the JRPG term when talking about prior works and the upcoming Final Fantasy 16 title. Localization director and translator Koji Fox explains that Yoshida and the development team are focused on creating RPGs and do not think of the JRPG term in the process. Yoshida elaborates on his sentiment toward the usage of the JRPG term by users and western media, stating the term felt discriminatory when some Japanese developers first heard of it roughly 15 years ago. The Final Fantasy 16 producer believes the term may still trigger bad feelings for Japanese developers that experienced ridicule for creating RPGs many years ago.
Yoshida acknowledges that the JRPG term is now being used more positively toward Japanese developers by fans and media from the west. JRPGs are among some of the most highly rated games on Metacritic by reviewers and fans alike. However, the producer reiterates that it was once used with negative connotations that caused discomfort for some Japanese developers. These negative connotations include Japanese games being "anime-like" and "very JRPG" for certain tropes that were prevalent in the genre.
Final Fantasy 16 is an ambitious endeavor by Square Enix and should rival the biggest games of 2023 without being negatively labeled. Yoshida believes Japanese developers creating RPGs don't want their games to be labeled outside the rest of the industry since they strive to create the best games possible as well.
Yoshida's opinion on the JRPG term sparked some debates among fans about its meaning in the past and current connotations. Fortunately, much of the current sentiment around the JRPG term appears to be positive and encouraging toward Japanese developers instead of being malicious.
Final Fantasy 16 launches June 22 for PlayStation 5.
Source: Push Square
