At the end of September, Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of theFinal Fantasyseries, began his adventures inFinal Fantasy 14. On Halloween, just over a month later, Sakaguchi has blazed a path through the main scenario ofFinal Fantasy 14and its three expansion packs, catching up just in time forEndwalker’srelease in a few weeks.
Sakaguchi, who worked for Square before it became Square Enix, was one of the main figures behind everyFinal Fantasygame until he left the company in 2003, from the 1987 original all the way throughFinal Fantasy 10-2, including spinoff titles likeFinal Fantasy Tactics. Longtime fans ofFinal Fantasywere thrilled to see the father of the franchise dive into Square Enix’s MMORPG, especially becauseFinal Fantasy 14is known for giving homage to pastFinal Fantasygames.
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Final Fantasy 14has been out for over eight years now, and with three full expansions of content, there are over a hundred hours of storytelling within the game. That said, the main scenario of theFinalFantasy 14up toEndwalkerwould take closer to 120 hours to complete, with over 700 quests between the beginning ofA Realm Rebornand the end ofShadowbringers. This means in order to complete all ofFinal Fantasy 14in the 35 days it took him, Sakaguchi played an average of 3.5 hours a day.
Throughout his journey over the last month, Sakaguchi has kept his followers appraised on Twitter, sharing screenshots and reactions to the narrative. Players were surprised to find he had beaten all ofA Realm Reborn–the largest chunk of content inFinal Fantasy 14–in about two weeks. Then, in breakneck speed,Sakaguchi blazed throughHeavensward, the game’s first expansion, in two days, and theStormbloodandShadowbringersexpansions in about one week each. The impressive pace Sakaguchi kept is proof the 58-year-old game designer knows how to play games as well as he can make them.
Earlier this year,Sakaguchi stated he was considering retirement after the release ofFantasian, a mobile game developed by his studio Mistwalker released this summer. However, after beatingFinal Fantasy 14, Sakaguchi expressed interest in chatting with Naoki Yoshida, the MMORPG’s director and producer, about narrative design of his multiverse, as he was impressed by the game’s handling of the balance of good and evil and their nonbinary natures.Final Fantasyfans dove head-first into speculation, with high hopes that Sakaguchi might be brought on toFinal Fantasy 14in the future for a collaboration or advisory role for a special quest series before his retirement.
Speculation aside, Sakaguchi has no plans to stop hisFinal Fantasy 14journey. He has already begun scouring Hydaelyn and beyond for the stories and sidequests to devour, keeping his fans apprised of his journey every step of the way.WithEndwalkerright around the corner, Warriors of Light everywhere will take heart knowing the father ofFinal Fantasyfights with them.
Final Fantasy 14is available now on PC, PS4, and PS5.Endwalkerlaunches on November 23.
MORE:The Entire Story of Final Fantasy 14 Up to Endwalker Explained
