Final Fantasy XIV director and producer Naoki Yoshida has frequently come on stage at Fanfests wearing a different t-shirt to tease upcoming new jobs for the game’s expansions. Previous examples include a Spider-Man t-shirt, which was supposed to be based on the Sam Raimi films, offering slight nod at the new job being ‘Samurai’ in Stormblood. Yoshida-san also previously rocked a Batman t-shirt to represent the Dark Knight job.

Naturally, this has got fans speculating as to what t-shirt Yoshi-P, as he’s affectionately called by the community, will be turning up in at this year’s North American Fanfest 2026. So, let’s have a little bit of fun and join in the speculation!

I’m personally expecting some sort of physical range job for the expansion, and because of this I could either see some sort of pirate-based shirt or, if the job is based on a previous character like some of the most recent jobs, we may even get a Final Fantasy VII shirt. If it is a Final Fantasy VII shirt, this could be a reference to Vincent, which would make quite a unique job, as it could have actions that transform you into certain beasts. This would use some of the stuff they have worked on recently with Beastmaster.

I also asked several friends what they think could be the new t-shirt design for the upcoming fan fest, and this is what they said.

Chris, who is the leader of my raid group, mentioned that “my guess is he’s going to wear something that’s hinting at Indiana Jones, and Job will wield a whip.”

ItsBasiltime from Carbuncle Chronicles responded with the following:

So we know that Yoshida has worn shirts that represent some things but also refer to a director of something else. Like how Spider-Man was referring to director Sam Raimi for Stormblood’s Samurai. So let’s take this one: Superman. But not just any Superman T-shirt; this one is from the movie directed by James Gunn.

And you know what else the FFXIV devs like to do? Take ideas from sequels or later versions of games. For example, for this upcoming patch 7.5, the trial is Enuo. But where’s he from? Why from Final Fantasy V… Advance! The Game Boy Advance version of FFV featured Enuo as an optional superboss.

So we have a movie director and a game after the mainline number game. That leads to one answer: Gunner from Final Fantasy X-2! It’s a high chance our next DPS role will be a physical ranged option, and while we have Machinist, that’s just one gun! Gunner has two.

Meanwhile, Roegamaniac brought up going off what he wore at the last NA Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festival, the Teenage Hero Turtles shirt that had everyone convinced it was hinting at Swordmaster Yoshi-P. He does have a habit of going for deep cuts and obscure references, after all.

With how the story is developing and the void becoming relevant again, brother, I could see him leaning into something with space-cosmic or void imagery this time.

I wouldn’t be surprised if he showed up in something like Blood Incantation (band) or even Getter Robo (Japanese mecha anime); both are niche enough to fly under the radar at first but thematically line up with cosmic or void concepts. A shirt like that would absolutely throw people off… until the EU Fanfest!

He then speculated that Yoshi-P might change things up for once, and the T-shirt will just tell us what we are actually getting instead of having us guess.

Dr Delicious from the Moogle Go Round Radio community made this suggestion: “I’m down for Yoshi-P in an Alestorm shirt as a Corsair teaser. A Pirates Of The Caribbean shirt would be more likely, but Alestorm would be a cool deep cut.” He then goes on to also say “Justice for Bastok” – this is mainly due to the fact Bastok seems to not be involved with the FFXI alliance raids, as we got San D’oria and Windurst as locations, and all three were originally starting locations in FFXI.

Then finally Arashi from my raid team suggested that, “Honestly, I wouldn’t put it past Yoshi P to either wear something that messes with us fans or wear something absurdly normal. There’s no in-between when it comes to the shenanigans, and I know he embraces all manners alongside us.”

What do you think Naoki Yoshida will be wearing during the fanfest this year? Send me an email at [email protected]. Also don’t forget that the first announcements of the expansion will be on April 24, 2026, which if you are unable to attend the event itself you can watch live on Twitch or Youtube. You can see the schedule for the upcoming event here.

Thank you to Bastion PR for the article suggestion and for the image used in the article!