Hironobu Sakaguchi

 (born November 25, 1962) is a Japanese video game designer, director, producer, writer, and film director. He is best known as creator of the "Final Fantasy" series, having conceived the original concept for the first title "Final Fantasy" and also having directed several later entries in the franchise, and has had a long career in gaming with over 100 million units of video games sold worldwide. He left Square Enix and founded the studio Mistwalker in 2004.
Biography.
Early years.
Sakaguchi was born in Hitachi, Ibaraki, Japan. Originally planning to become a professional musician, he played in various bands and booked local concert venues during his secondary education, selling tickets to the concerts himself. Sakaguchi studied electrical engineering while attending Yokohama National University, but dropped out in 1983 mid-semester with Hiromichi Tanaka.
Square.
While at university, Sakaguchi's programming studies led him to desire the new Apple II computer which had recently been released. Since he could not afford one, he instead purchased a knockoff in the Akihabara district, which, although cheaper than an actual Apple II, was still expensive. Realizing that he needed funds to buy software for his computer, he began to seek a part-time job to earn the necessary income. This search then led to Sakaguchi becoming a part-time employee of Square, a newly formed branch of Denyūsha Electric Company founded by Masafumi Miyamoto. At this point, Sakaguchi still dreamed of becoming a professional musician, but felt that working for a company like Square would provide him with needed programming experience in the meantime.
When Square became an independent company in 1986, Sakaguchi became a full-time employee as the Director of Planning and Development. After working on several Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) games that failed to become major hits, Sakaguchi began questioning if he had chosen the right career path and if he was qualified to be a game writer. He then pitched the concept for a role-playing video game called "Fighting Fantasy", and assembled a small team to realize this project of his. Among others, Sakaguchi's thoughts about quitting the game industry and going back to university – had the game not sold well – were a reason for the title being changed to "Final Fantasy". The game was released in Japan for the NES on December 18, 1987, and was successful across Japan. Under Sakaguchi's supervision, "Final Fantasy" developed into an expansive franchise, spanning from stand alone stories to spin-offs to direct sequels. In 1991, following the release of "Final Fantasy IV" for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, he was honored with the position of Executive Vice President. The last Final Fantasy game he directed was "Final Fantasy V", becoming the producer for future installments of the franchise. In 1995, he became president of Square's North American division. His final role as game producer was for "Final Fantasy IX". In an interview at the time he described it as his favorite Final Fantasy. He later went on to serve more as an executive producer of the series, as well as many of Square's other games, including "Vagrant Story", "Parasite Eve" and "Kingdom Hearts". The "Kingdom Hearts" series would later go on to feature a character named Master Eraqus, who was designed to physically resemble Sakaguchi and match with Disney's Yen Sid. In May 2000, Sakaguchi received the Hall of Fame Award of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.
Time as film director.
A long time proponent of bringing together the story-telling vehicle of film and the interactive elements of games, Sakaguchi took the leap from games to film when he made his debut as film director in "", an animated motion picture based on his world-famous "Final Fantasy" series. Despite some positive reviews, the film was a box office bomb, losing approximately 94 million dollars.
Resignation from Square.
Sakaguchi voluntarily stepped down from his post as an executive vice president at Square. This event also reduced Square's financial capital. Square later merged with its rival, the Enix Corporation, which led to the creation of Square Enix in 2003. In 2004, Sakaguchi founded Mistwalker with the financial backing of Microsoft Game Studios.
Mistwalker.
Sakaguchi founded Mistwalker, which began operation in 2004. In February 2005, it was announced that Mistwalker would be working with Microsoft Game Studios to create two role-playing video games for the Xbox 360. Still, the company remains independent from console exclusivity. Sakaguchi released the works "Blue Dragon" in 2006, and "Lost Odyssey" in 2007 on the Xbox 360, and "" on the Nintendo DS. He was developing an action-RPG, titled "Cry On", until the project was canceled in December 2008.
Later he began working on a new "large scale project" on which Sakaguchi commented: "I'm betting a lot on this project." This game was announced in January 2010 to be "The Last Story", a co-production with Nintendo for the Wii. It was revealed in an interview on Nintendo's website that Sakaguchi is the director of "The Last Story", which marks his first time as director of a game since "Final Fantasy V".
In 2016, he announced the formation of a new video game development company located in Tokyo. The proposed name of the studio is "Dawnwalker".
On 27 March 2019, Sakaguchi announced "Fantasian", a Japanese role-playing game, exclusively for Apple Arcade. The game will be released in two parts. The first part was released on 2 April 2021. Sakaguchi has stated that he was inspired by playing "Final Fantasy VI" with some old colleagues, saying "It really reminded me how much I love this classic RPG game genre," and even from the Final Fantasy days, we've carried on this spirit of innovation and pushing the boundaries in terms of the status quo." The game's graphics are distinctive for their extensive use of more than 150 handcrafted miniature dioramas which were 3D scanned in order to create the game's environments. The gameplay also features the 'Dimengeon' mechanic, "which allows players to send previously encountered enemies into a separate dimensional dungeon to streamline combat and maximize uninterrupted exploration of the beautiful locations." "Fantasian"'s soundtrack was composed entirely by Nobou Uematsu, best known for his work on the "Final Fantasy" series' soundtracks, while some of the game's in-game dioramas were created by "Dragon Ball" series creator Akira Toriyama. Speaking about future projects, Sakaguchi stated: "My next step is probably to kind of take a step away, maybe rest a little bit, and kind of see where we are. I'm not saying that it is it, but if this were my retirement project, I think that that would still leave me feeling pretty whole. I felt I didn't really leave much on the table with Fantasian and not that it is but, yeah, that's kind of my sentiment right now."
Games.
Hironobu Sakaguchi has been credited, in some capacity, with the following games.