Akihiko Yoshida still doing artwork for FF14?

[Beetle]

http://www.finalfantasy.net/xiv/akih...s-square-enix/



Character designer Akihiko Yoshida will be leaving Square Enix. Yoshida, most known for his character design on Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy XII, Final Fantasy XIV, Bravely Default, and more — leaves the series with a long standing legacy of memorable faces fans have been enthralled with for years. While Yoshida will be contributing to Bravely Second, a sequel for Bravely Default for the Nintendo 3DS, it is unclear whether he will continue work on Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn in a freelance capacity.

Dev responds below:

Greetings,

Many of you have already been commenting on the news as well as sharing the details from various sources about Akihiko Yoshida leaving Square Enix.

Don't worry, however! Even though he will be leaving Square Enix, he will still continue to work on FFXIV as usual, and you can expect the same great illustrations in the future.

If you're the type to shout out "pics or it didn't happen!" well... pics! Here's everyone checking out a new illustration by him. I wonder what it will be!



Akihiko Yoshida also sketched a picture with a message to everyone.

"Thank you for your continued support <3"

Need to figure out how to acquire that sketch...

Just an FYI: it's still on my desk and I'm still wondering where to put

[Arriverderci]

I hope we get Nomura. [Wishful thinking lol.]
Not a huge fan of this guy though the chibi's are cute.

[Zantetsuken]

Terrible news.

Akihiko Yoshida was the best artist SE has ever had and one who perfectly captured what FF style is. I wonder what happened...


Let's just hope that Nomura doesn't end up doing designs for this game..

His designs have gotten rather tired for my tastes.

[Beetle]

Terrible news.

Akihiko Yoshida was the best artist SE has ever had and one who perfectly captured what FF style is. I wonder what happened...

Probably wanted more money. SE been putting him to work alot lately from all the ffxiv artwork, flying fairy game and sequel game. Just seeing alot of artwork from from SE bring out lately since release of 2.0.

[Gilthas]

Its very possible that he simply started getting better work offers from other companies and decided the best for his future was to go freelance.

Hopefully he'll continue to do work for SE since he's a great artist and I like the work he's done.

[Zantetsuken]

Probably wanted more money. SE been putting him to work alot lately from all the ffxiv artwork, flying fairy game and sequel game. Just seeing alot of artwork from from SE bring out lately since release of 2.0.

If it's money, he should be paid more. If I ran a game company and had someone of his talent working there, I'd make sure that he had everything he needed to stay.

[Akira_Tenshi]

A very worrying blow to FF and Square Enix.

[Espon]

That's no good. One of my favourite artists for the series.

I hope he's not replaced by someone like Nomura. I never really liked the character designs he came up with in the games he worked on.

[yukikaze_yanagi]

this is old from awhile.

[Ashgarth]

I hope we get Nomura.