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Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined convinces Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi to do the unthinkable and drop FF14, at least for now: "Somehow I eventually cracked"

News
By George Young published 18 February 2026

If he's keeping up his 12-hour-a-day FF14 habit, then he must be forgoing sleep

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(Image credit: Square Enix)
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Hironobu Sakaguchi, the legendary JRPG director behind all of your favorite games in the genre like Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, and Vagrant Story, says he has dived into the latest Dragon Quest entry, explaining that his username 'Auuo' started as his in-game name in the first game of the series.

Posting to Twitter, Sakaguchi shares a screenshot of his Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined character, claiming that he "cracked" less than two weeks after the remake's release. As translated by GamesRadar+, he writes, "Somehow I eventually cracked lol. Coincidentally, the in-game name that I always use, 'Auuo,' was made for Dragon Quest 1."

なんだかんだで、やりこんでしまうわたしwドラクエ1で偶然できた常時使用なゲームネーム「あううお」#FF14 #スクウェア開発室 #sakaGUCCI pic.twitter.com/HwrPZf31fpFebruary 17, 2026

'JRPG veteran plays new JRPG' might not seem like a headline, but you need to understand the deep, dark corners of Sakaguchi's Final Fantasy 14 obsession. He has previously revealed that he plays the MMO so much he is scolded by colleagues, and they've even had to resort to DMing him in-game when he misses a meeting.

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  • Aishe's passion for being a martial arist is burning brightly in Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined as the camera zooms in for a close-up mid battle In Clair Obscur's wake, Dragon Quest 7 finally has its chance to shine

He posts about his adventures almost daily, which isn't surprising given that he calls it "the game that I've played the most in my life" suggesting he often spends 12-hour days in the fantasy world. The fact that Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined has the power to drag Sakaguchi away from his beloved suggests that it's something quite spectacular.

I don't think his Final Fantasy 14 hiatus will last for long, but we hope he enjoys some time off his endless grind.

Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined "isn't meant to supplement or improve upon" previous versions of the classic JRPG, but simply to "represent" the game "for today"

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George Young
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Freelance writer, full-time PlayStation Vita enthusiast, and speaker of some languages. I break up my days by watching people I don't know play Pokemon pretty fast.

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