Final Fantasy 14 is getting a kappa suit at the behest of series father Hironobu Sakaguchi, and while he's thrilled about the addition to one of the best MMORPGs around, he's still taken to Photoshop to make it just a little bit cuter.
FF14's most recent live letter broadcast was special in that it was broadcast from the Tokyo Game Show, but it still saw producer and director Naoki Yoshida reveal the usual outline of new features coming to the MMO, including loads of new gear. Plenty of it took the form of fancy armor you'll get from high-end raids, but there was one special exception: a giant mascot suit in the form of a kappa.
Kappas appear across a wide variety of Japanese media, including games. You can read Wikipedia if you want the full breakdown of the actual folklore, but in short, they're little imps that love cucumbers, have bowls of water on their heads, and may occasionally try to murder you. 'Kappa' is also a status effect in Final Fantasy 6 - translated as 'imp' in the English version - that turns you into the creature, making you pretty much useless in battle.
It seems that getting the kappa suit into FF14 was a special request from Hironobu Sakaguchi, who led development on much of the early series and oversaw the JRPGs for many years to come. According to one translation of the live letter presentation, Yoshida was a bit apprehensive about whether or not the costume would get Sakaguchi's approval: "Is this okay, Sakaguchi-san? Sorry we didn't ask you to confirm before we made it though."
Sakaguchi himself seems thrilled, at least judging by a Google translation of his tweet on the subject. "Awesome design… I've been crying since early morning, lol. Thank you to Yoshi-P and all the developers. I will treasure it for the rest of my life, lol."
But, well, it seems Sakaguchi has one request: what if it were a little cuter and chibi-style, as a Kappa appears in Final Fantasy 6? Nothing a little Photoshop can't fix, as Sakaguchi has ably demonstrated.
すいません、やらずにはいられませんでしたｗPhotoShopでつくる「ララ・カッパ想像図」ｗ#FF14 #スクウェア開発室 #sakaGUCCI pic.twitter.com/yxXafNG8q6September 24, 2023
This can all be solved very simply: just make sure that Lalafell can equip the kappa suit. Tiny, cute - everyone's happy.
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