The Final Fantasy creator said his Final Fantasy 14 habit had gotten so bad “on rare occasions” that some of his employees would go on the MMO to send him private messages about missed meetings

Hironobu Sakaguchi’s love for the critically acclaimed MMO Final Fantasy 14 continues to be endlessly endearing, even if it seems like other developers at his current studio might feel differently on occasion.

Sakaguchi told Bloomberg that he was playing the MMO’s new expansion, Dawntrail, just minutes before the interview. This isn’t the first time Final Fantasy 14 and work have been closely related, as some of Mistwalker’s developers know all too well.

“On rare occasions – I want to emphasize the term ‘rare occasion’ – one of the Mistwalker team members will log into Final Fantasy 14 and I’ll see a message saying, ‘Hey, the meeting has started,’” Sakaguchi explains.

This isn’t the first time Sakaguchi has spoken out about the criticism he received for playing Final Fantasy 14. The industry veteran has previously said that he sometimes plays the MMO for up to 12 hours a day – whether it’s running a fashion brand or simply posing with fans in a costume he had director and producer Naoki “Yoshi-P” Yoshida add to it. If you’re wondering how he manages to manage that and a full day of work, it seems that’s not the case, as Sakaguchi says that the developers have chastised him for playing too much – I just don’t think the criticism has taken place in-game.

Elsewhere in the interview, Sakaguchi discusses his first collaboration with Square Enix in over 20 years to free JRPG gem Fantasian from the Apple Arcade prison. It all started over dinner with Yoshi-P. Despite the reunion and love of Final Fantasy 14, don’t expect Sakaguchi to helm another Final Fantasy game anytime soon, as he’s “shifted from being a consumer to a creator.”

“If I take over the Final Fantasy brand, I don’t know if I’ll really be able to enjoy Final Fantasy 14 as much,” he says.

Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail is getting comparisons to Stormblood after a “mixed” start on Steam, as players hope the MMO’s new post-launch content can also bring it home.