Hironobu Sakaguchi is the man credited as being the creator of Square Enix’s seminal series, Final Fantasy. Sakaguchi joined Square Enix before it was even called that, back when it was just Square in 1983.
He saw the series save SquareSoft from bankruptcy, and worked on multiple entries in the franchise and even worked on other seminal titles like Chrono Trigger.
And then he left in 2001 – and hasn’t worked on Final Fantasy since, or worked with Square Enix since. However in a new interview with Bloomberg, Sakaguchi details his thoughts around Final Fantasy as it is today, how it came to pass that Square Enix is publishing a game made by his own studio, Mistwalker, and clarifies for fans that he has no desire to return to his older works.
The interview states Sakaguchi has “no interest in revisiting Final Fantasy or any of his old franchises” before adding that he feels this way partly because he’s been on the outside of Square’s walls for so long now.
Another part of his wanting to avoid working on the series again is his love for Final Fantasy XIV, a game that has him so hooked, coworkers have had to sign into FFXIV to tell him a meeting he’s meant to be a part of has started.
“If I take on the Final Fantasy brand again, I don’t know if I’ll be able to genuinely enjoy Final Fantasy XIV as much,” said Sakaguchi. He also stressed that he’s only been late to a meeting because of FFXIV “on a rare occasion.”
His avoidance of old franchises doesn’t stop with Final Fantasy though. He also has no interest in returning to Lost Odyssey or Blue Dragon, and bringing those games to modern platforms.
The one game he would be interested in returning to and porting to modern platforms however is Terra Battle, a game released on mobile in 2014 that’s no longer playable.
Instead of looking back, Sakaguchi is looking towards the future, and Mistwalker’s coming release of Fantasian for consoles and PC under the new moniker, Fantasian Neo Dimension, which is set to arrive on PS5 and PS4 sometime in Winter 2024.
Beyond that the interview does hint at a Fantasian sequel, but Sakaguchi doesn’t confirm anything. Instead he leaves it at “We’ll say it’s something new, for now.”
Source – [Bloomberg]