Final Fantasy Producer Doesn't Like the Term 'JRPG'

gamerant.com:

Final Fantasy 16 producer Naoki Yoshida reveals his dislike for the term «JRPG» when speaking during a recent interview. Despite the JRPG term having more positive connotations in the current gaming landscape, the Final Fantasy producer believes the term comes with many negatives.

Naoki Yoshida is the producer of bothFinal Fantasy 14 andFinal Fantasy 16 at Square Enix. Final Fantasy 14 continues to be a strong performer for Square Enix nearly a decade after its relaunch as Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn, and the game would go on to release critically acclaimed expansions. The most recent expansion, Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker, ended a story arc that began with A Realm Reborn in 2013 while planting seeds for the game's next major story arc. Yoshida's latest project, Final Fantasy 16, is his first serving as producer of a mainline single-player entry in the series.

Fans Will Have to Wait a Long Time for a Final Fantasy 16 PC Port

Gaming YouTuber SkillUp recently hosted an interview with Yoshida, who revealed his discomfort with the JRPG term when talking about prior works and the upcoming Final Fantasy 16 title. Localization director and translator Koji Fox explains that Yoshida and the development team are focused on creating RPGs and do not think of the JRPG term in the process. Yoshida elaborates on his sentiment toward the usage of the JRPG term by users and western media, stating the term felt discriminatory when some Japanese developers first heard of it roughly 15 years ago. The Final Fantasy 16 producer believes the term may still trigger bad feelings for Japanese developers that experienced ridicule for creating RPGs many years ago.

Yoshida acknowledges that the JRPG term is now being used more positively toward