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Final Fantasy 14 diehard Hironobu Sakaguchi is now tearing around the MMO in the outfit he specifically requested game director Naoki Yoshida put into the game.
Maybe you know of the Kappa, the Japanese imp-like folklore creatures, or maybe you don't. They adore cucumbers, swimming in lakes, and generally being a nuisance to anyone and everyone. In particular, though, they're used as a fairy tale warning to stop children from swimming in lakes.
If you didn't already know, the Final Fantasy series has featured Kappa in the past. The impish creature appears near the beginning of Final Fantasy 6 when Cyan and Sabin recruit Gau, and a Kappa pops in momentarily to explain how Gau's Rage skill works and acts as a tutorial. You'll also turn into one if put under the Imp debuff.
Hironobu Sakaguchi, really, really likes a Kappa. The Final Fantasy series creator, who has been told off in recent years by his colleagues for playing too much Final Fantasy 14, first requested a Kappa outfit by added to the MMO back in 2022. The following year in 2023, Naoki Yoshida showed off concept art for a Kappa-like suit in Final Fantasy 14, and Sakaguchi's reaction to it on Twitter was that he shed tears at the sight.
Somewhat inexplicably, the entire adventure took yet another twist, when Sakaguchi appeared onstage during Final Fantasy 14's live show in Tokyo in a Kappa suit. The Kappa strolled proudly on stage, hugged Yoshida, and then removed its headpiece to reveal that it was none other than the Final Fantasy creator himself in disguise.
Recently, the famed Kappa outfit debuted in Final Fantasy 14 after much work from Square Enix, and the results are just marvelous. As you can see in the tweets below, Sakaguchi has been running riot in the MMO in the Kappa outfit, causing chaos wherever he goes and no doubt drawing in a crowd of players looking to join him in the act.
そしてカッパは集まるカッパニマのカッパダニアは生まれるのか…頑固なヨウジンボウ・ブヒダニアからの来客もｗ#FF14 #スクウェア開発室 #sakaGUCCI pic.twitter.com/1kIpMh2R46June 1, 2024
でかいのが現れたｗ#FF14 #スクウェア開発室 #sakaGUCCI pic.twitter.com/mfCD7x4ldKJune 1, 2024
From the look of Sakaguchi's second tweet above, it seems like once players see Sakaguchi striding along confidently in his Kappa outfit, they then join in and change into the ridiculous garb themselves. Speaking to Defaminicogamer, Sakaguchi says players "couldn't believe their ears" when he spoke up and they realized it was the creator of Final Fantasy in the costume.
I hope Sakaguchi plays through the entire MMO's next expansion in the outfit when Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail enters early access later this month on June 28.
