FFXIV fan named an actual asteroid after Naoki Yoshida

Written by. Ryuki Ishii based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2022-04-12 15:33 JST)

Final Fantasy XIV producer and director Naoki Yoshida is now the name of an asteroid. A Reddit user named Rukongai stated, “I had the chance to name a minor planet/asteroid so I picked Yoshi P.”

Yoshida is without a doubt the face of FFXIV, and in the past even had his clothes identified after appearing in a broadcast, which led to one of the items being sold out on online stores (related article, in Japanese). His face even became one of the pre-set character templates for Nioh 2, even though the title is totally unrelated to FFXIV. And now there’s an asteroid named after the beloved developer.

Rukongai named the asteroid “Yoshidanaoki” back in January but the new batch of approved names for minor planets (including Yoshidanaoki) was announced by WGSBN on April 11. Rukongai added that they “felt this was appropriate for the themes in Endwalker.” The latest expansion brings the players’ journey into space and includes a lot of Sci-Fi elements, so naming an asteroid after the creator seems befitting indeed.
[Update 2022/04/13 1:00 JST] fixed a misinterpretation in the paragraph above

Yoshidanaoki’s orbit (via a Reddit post by Rukongai)

According to the Minor Planet Center, Yoshidanaoki was first spotted on September 25, 2006, which is about a year and a half after the developer Naoki Yoshida joined Square Enix. Back then, he was still working on the Dragon Quest: Monster Battle Road series. The original FFXIV had not been released yet.

It takes a long time for a celestial object to be officially identified as newly found. In Yoshidanaoki’s case, over 15 years. Yoshidanaoki was observed at the state of Arizona’s Mount Lemmon and Steward Observatory. For those who want to observe the developer Naoki Yoshida instead, go ahead and check the previous Final Fantasy XIV Letter from the Producer livestreams.

As a side note, there’s a comment in Rukongai’s Reddit thread that depicts a fictional tale about Yoshidanaoki crashing into the earth. Similarly, many FFXIV fans on social media are saying that an asteroid with a name like that worries them. It’s quite understandable since celestial objects in FFXIV have a tendency to crash into a planet, like the original FFXIV’s Dalamud. Interestingly, Naoki Yoshida’s main job in FFXIV is Black Mage, capable of using the Black Magic Meteor.

FFXIV’s patch 6.1, “Newfound Adventure,” is set to release on April 12.