Hironobu Sakaguchi

Hironobu Sakaguchi
At the Japan Expo in Paris, France (2007)
Born	November 25, 1962 (1962-11-25) (age 46) Hitachi, Ibaraki, Japan
Nationality	Japanese
Occupation	Founder of Mistwalker Game designer, producer and director

Hironobu Sakaguchi (坂口 博信, Sakaguchi Hironobu^?) (born November 25, 1962) is a Japanese game designer, game director and game producer. He is famous around the world as the creator of the Final Fantasy series, and he has had a long career in gaming with over 80 million units of video games sold worldwide. He left Square Enix and founded a studio called Mistwalker in 2004.

Biography

Early years

Sakaguchi was born in Hitachi, Ibaraki, Japan. He is a graduate student of Mito Senior High School. He went on to study electrical engineering while attending Yokohama National University, but dropped out of the university along with Hiromichi Tanaka mid-course in 1983.

Square

On leaving the university, Sakaguchi became a part-time employee of Square, a newly formed branch of Denyūsha Electric Company founded by Masafumi Miyamoto.^[1] When Square became an independent company, he became a full-time employee as the Director of Planning and Development. The company's first games were very unsuccessful. Sakaguchi then decided to create his final work in the game industry with the rest of Square's money, and appropriately named it Final Fantasy, which he claimed—given Square's uncertain future at the time—was an ironic gesture. The game was released in Japan for the Famicom (also known internationally as the Nintendo Entertainment System) on December 18, 1987. The game was successful across Japan. Under Sakaguchi's watchful eye, Final Fantasy developed into a successful franchise, spanning from stand alone stories to spin-offs to direct sequels. In 1991, following the release of Final Fantasy IV for the Super Famicom (also known internationally as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System), he was honoured with the position of Executive Vice President.^{[citation needed]} 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 at Square USA, Inc. His final role as game producer was for Final Fantasy IX. In an interview at the time he described it as his favourite Final Fantasy.^{[citation needed]} 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.

Hironobu Sakaguchi became the third person inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame on April 5, 2000. His Hall of Fame status was given to him because of the tremendous number of video games he has sold and created.

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 Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, an animated motion picture based on his world-famous Final Fantasy series. However, despite some positive reviews, the movie was the second-biggest animated box office bomb in cinema history, losing over 120 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. Sakaguchi founded Mistwalker with the financial backing of Microsoft Game Studios.

Mistwalker

Sakaguchi giving a presentation on Blue Dragon at the Tokyo Game Show 2006. convention.

In 2001, 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 RPGs 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 ASH: Archaic Sealed Heat on the Nintendo DS. He was developing an action-RPG, titled Cry On, until the project was canceled in December 2008.^[2]

Currently he is working on a new "large scale project" on which Sakaguchi comments: "I’m betting a lot on this project." ^[3] No more information is available at this time.

Games

Hironobu Sakaguchi has been credited, in some capacity, with the following games.^[4]

Title	Year released	Console name	Director	Producer	Executive producer	Original concept	Supervisor
Rad Racer	1987	NES	-	-	-	Y	-
Final Fantasy	1987	NES	Y	-	-	Y	-
Final Fantasy II	1988	NES	Y	-	-	Y	-
Final Fantasy III	1990	NES	Y	-	-	-	-
Final Fantasy IV	1991	SNES	Y	-	-	Y	-
Final Fantasy V	1992	SNES	Y	-	-	Y	-
Final Fantasy VI	1994	SNES	-	Y	-	Y	-
Seiken Densetsu 3	1995	SNES	-	-	-	-	-
Chrono Trigger	1995	SNES	-	-	-	-	Y
Tobal No. 1	1996	PlayStation	-	-	-	-	-
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars	1996	SNES	-	-	-	-	Y
Bahamut Lagoon	1996	SNES	-	-	-	-	Y
Final Fantasy VII	1997	PlayStation	-	Y	-	Y	-
Final Fantasy Tactics	1997	PlayStation	-	Y	-	-	-
Einhänder	1997	PlayStation	-	-	-	-	-
Bushido Blade	1997	PlayStation	-	-	-	-	-
Xenogears	1998	PlayStation	-	-	Y	-	-
Parasite Eve	1998	PlayStation	-	Y	-	Y	-
Ehrgeiz	1998	PlayStation	-	-	-	-	-
Chocobo's Dungeon 2	1998	PlayStation	-	-	-	-	-
Bushido Blade 2	1998	PlayStation	-	-	-	-	-
Brave Fencer Musashi	1998	PlayStation	-	-	Y	-	-
Saga Frontier 2	1999	PlayStation	-	-	-	-	-
Parasite Eve II	1999	PlayStation	-	-	Y	-	-
Legend of Mana	1999	PlayStation	-	-	-	-	-
Front Mission 3	1999	PlayStation	-	-	-	-	-
Final Fantasy VIII	1999	PlayStation	-	-	Y	-	-
Final Fantasy IX	2000	PlayStation	-	Y	-	Y	-
Final Fantasy X	2001	PlayStation 2	-	-	Y	-	-

• Final Fantasy Anthology (1999)
• Chrono Cross (1999)
• Chocobo Racing (1999)
• Vagrant Story (2000)
• Final Fantasy IX (2000)
• The Bouncer (2000)
• Final Fantasy X (2001)
• Final Fantasy Chronicles (2001)
• Driving Emotion Type-S (2001)
• Kingdom Hearts (2002)
• Final Fantasy Origins (2002)
• Final Fantasy XI (2002)
• Final Fantasy X-2 (2003)
• Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (2003)
• Final Fantasy III (Nintendo DS) (2006)
• Blue Dragon (2006)
• Lost Odyssey (2007)
• ASH: Archaic Sealed Heat (2007)
• Away Shuffle Dungeon (2008)
• Cry On (Canceled)
• Blue Dragon Plus (2009)
• Blue Dragon: Ikai no Kyojū (2009)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Hironobu Sakaguchi

• Hironobu Sakaguchi profile, interviews, and photo gallery at the Square Haven People Database
• Hironobu Sakaguchi profile at MobyGames