Yoshi-P Deflects Question on NPC Romance in FFXIV by Telling Players He’s Sending One Fan Fav to Space

Gaming

July 15, 2024

Michael Hassall

Naoki “Yoshi-P” Yoshida has dodged answering whether players would be able to romance NPCs in Final Fantasy XIV by implying fan favorite Estinien would be too busy on other planets to date them. The question was posed during an FFXIV event at Japan Expo in Paris, France.

Yoshi-P, the director and lead producer of FFXIV, was asked if players would “ever be able to be more than friends with the NPCs.” In response, Yoshida was slightly evasive:

“So, I do get asked this question every now and then. But you see, we have to abide by the story, right? For example, what if Estinien, hypothetically, suddenly ends up on a completely different planet? You never know what might happen to them!”

This comment and seeming threat to send FFXIV NPCs to space if people tried to romance them, was countered with the question asker responding that “I’d be okay with a long distance relationship though!”

NPC romance in FFXIV? Not if Yoshi-P sends them to space… Image Credit: Square Enix

Yoshi-P did add a crumb of hope in response:

“I’m very happy there are NPCs where players have a strong affinity with, so perhaps we can consider making something where you can get even closer to the NPCs, please look forward to it!”

Fans of FFXIV have long grown attached to non-playable characters (NPCs), and at this point, will have spent almost a decade with many of the characters. What’s more, there’s often hints of NPCs having stronger feelings towards you, although these are limited.

The line between character expression and story is a tightrope walk, and although FFXIV has offered some choices, such as a chance in Endwalker to choose which NPC to talk to during a late-night moment of doubt, this kind of scene was missing in Dawntrail.

This will become increasingly difficult if Yoshi-P goes ahead with his plans to send NPCs to other planets. But at least it might be part of the upcoming large field operation content hinted by the game director in at the same event.