The Final Fantasy 14 fandom quickly became enamoured by a chunky new boss that came alongside a patch 7.5 dungeon: Chort, a big boy who loves to roll around and wear a permanently hungry grin on his face. The critically-acclaimed MMORPG's director, Naoki 'Yoshi-P' Yoshida, doesn't quite get the hype, though.
"Honestly speaking, I just don't know why this is such a thing," Yoshi-P quips during a Final Fantasy 14 Fan Fest panel in Berlin, attended by GamesRadar+. He might not be a huge fan of the rotund icon, but he couldn't exactly ignore the topic in a room full of fans who were asking about Chort.
"I am really glad to hear that Chort is so well received," Yoshi-P adds, per a translator. "But honestly speaking, I just couldn't really understand what is the appeal [or] point of Chort. Of course, we do understand that he's very popular, and there have been many memes. But really, I just couldn't understand, like, just why?"
Yoshi-P's not totally against seeing the good in Chort - he is human, after all, and I'm sure his heart hasn't been totally frozen over. "I mean, this is some huge hunky guy, and then suddenly, well, he's standing there and then he rolls," he continues, inching closer to a eureka moment. "So from that perspective, I can kind of understand." Hook, line, sinker.
Whether he gets the online hype or not, Yoshi-P did tell fans to continue coming together online and talking about the things they enjoy about the game. If nothing else, the devs love to see it: "When these kinds of things happen and the player community picks up on it on social media, and they combine various things, they create their own memes... it's really great for us to see as well because we are involved in creating this entertainment.
"So, if people in the community also find some unexpected sets or point of appeal in any content that we produce moving forward, do make your voices heard because the development team is looking at all of the responses on social media, and we very much do enjoy looking at them, and we do have smirks on our faces when things like this happen."
Long live Chort, then, even if his chances of becoming a minion just became less likely. We'll never forget you, big man.
Elsewhere at Fan Fest, Square Enix revealed that the Bastion is Final Fantasy 14's first new job coming with the Evercold expansion. The game's also getting a very exciting crossover raid series with the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy.
