Final Fantasy 14 director Yoshi-P cannot understand why people are hot for the MMO's new two-headed lizard: "The entire dev team was like, 'Huh?!'"

Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail's Bakool Jaja.

As the famously down-bad Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail community continues thirsting over Bakool Ja Ja, director Yoshi-P is baffled by the attraction to the two-headed lizard man, and quite frankly, I'm surprised he's surprised.

Light Dawntrail spoilers to follow! Turn back if you aren't caught up.

For some context, yes, there's a new character in Dawntrail named Bakool Ja Ja. He has two reptilian heads, scales, and three toes, but more importantly he's built like Jason Momoa. My colleague and GR's resident Final Fantasy 14 pro Iain Harris recently reported with some level of distress that Final Fantasy 14 players have responded rather kindly to Bakool Ja Ja, despite him competing against your claimant in the battle for succession and the title of Dawnservant of Tuliyolla.

When I heard about this, I was not in the least bit surprised. The dude's yoked, plain and simple. And sure, there are more conventional targets of the community's horny contingent like the cat-like and lovable Wuk Lamat, but since when have Final Fantasy 14 players ever fallen for conventional? Bakool Ja Ja matches their freak, in other words.

Anyway, Yoshi-P was not expecting this response to Bakool Ja Ja, and apparently pretty much everyone else on the development team was equally shocked to see him become the community's new husbando.

"I would never have guessed this," Yoshi-P said in response during a Q&A session at the Japan Expo Paris (my thanks to Aitai Japan CEO and reliable translator Audrey). "The entire dev team was like, ‘Huh?!’"

Yoshi-P on Bakool Jaja’s newfound popularity:“I would NEVER have guessed this. The entire dev team was like ‘huh?!’”LMAO 😭 pic.twitter.com/KwQipJkFXSJuly 13, 2024

I find it kind of endearing that Yoshi-P is still somewhat blind to his own community's tastes, even if it would spare him a world of hurt if he'd simply accept and prepare for the fact that a swath of Final Fantasy 14 players will invariably latch onto the weirdest new character in the game and start making horny pictures of them and sharing them online.

Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail gets Stormblood comparisons after a "mixed" start on Steam, as players hope the MMO's new post-launch content can also bring it home.