Hironobu Sakaguchi

Hironobu Sakaguchi
At the Tokyo Game Show in Tokyo, Japan in 2006.
Born	November 25, 1962 (1962-11-25) Hitachi, Ibaraki, Japan
Residence	Honolulu, Hawaii, United States
Nationality	Japanese
Occupation	Founder of Mistwalker Game designer, producer, director, Author, Writer

Hironobu Sakaguchi (坂口 博信, Sakaguchi Hironobu) (born November 25, 1962) is a Japanese game designer, game director and game producer. He is world famous as the creator of the Final Fantasy series, and has had a long career in gaming with over 100 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 adopted by Tiyaku Rotania. He studied electrical engineering while attending Yokohama National University, but dropped out in 1983 mid-semester with Hiromichi Tanaka.^{[citation needed]}

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. When Square became an independent company in 1986, he became a full-time employee as the Director of Planning and Development. Sakaguchi then decided to create a role-playing video game which he named Final Fantasy as a result of his personal situation; had the game not sold well, he would have quit the games industry and gone back to university. The game was released in Japan for the Nintendo Entertainment System on December 18, 1987, and 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 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. 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. Despite some positive reviews, the movie was the biggest animated box office bomb in cinema history, losing over 120 million dollars.^{[citation needed]}

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

At the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, California in 2007

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 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 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.

Currently he is working on a new "large scale project" on which Sakaguchi comments: "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 July 2010, Sakaguchi was briefly believed to have announced on Mistwalker's blog that The Last Story may be the final title of his career. However, this turned out to be a translation error; he had actually meant he was working on The Last Story as if it was his last game.

Games

Hironobu Sakaguchi has been credited, in some capacity, with the following games.

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

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	Famicom	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
Front Mission: Gun Hazard	1996	SNES	-	-	-	-	-
Final Fantasy VII	1997	PlayStation	-	Y	-	Y	-
Final Fantasy Tactics	1997	PlayStation	-	Y	-	-	-
Einhänder	1997	PlayStation	-	-	-	-	-
Bushido Blade	1997	PlayStation	-	-	Y	-	-
Xenogears	1998	PlayStation	-	-	Y	-	-
Parasite Eve	1998	PlayStation	-	Y	-	Y	-
Ehrgeiz	1998	PlayStation	-	-	-	-	-
Chocobo's Dungeon 2	1998	PlayStation	-	-	-	-	-
Bushido Blade 2	1998	PlayStation	-	-	Y	-	-
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	-	-	Y	-	-
Final Fantasy VIII	1999	PlayStation	-	-	Y	-	-
Final Fantasy Anthology	1999	PlayStation	-	-	-	-	-
Chrono Cross	1999	PlayStation	-	-	-	-	-
Chocobo Racing	1999	PlayStation	-	-	-	-	-
Vagrant Story	2000	PlayStation	-	-	Y	-	-
Final Fantasy IX	2000	PlayStation	-	Y	-	Y	-
The Bouncer	2000	PlayStation 2	-	-	Y	-	-
Final Fantasy X	2001	PlayStation 2	-	-	Y	-	-
Final Fantasy Chronicles	2001	PlayStation	-	-	-	-	-
Driving Emotion Type-S	2001	PlayStation 2	-	-	-	-	-
Kingdom Hearts	2002	PlayStation 2	-	-	Y	-	-
Final Fantasy Origins	2002	PlayStation	-	-	-	-	-
Final Fantasy XI	2002	PlayStation 2 Microsoft Windows Xbox 360	-	-	Y	-	-
Final Fantasy X-2	2003	PlayStation 2	-	-	-	-	-
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance	2003	GBA	-	-	-	-	-
Final Fantasy XII	2006	PlayStation 2	-	-	-	-	-
Blue Dragon	2006	Xbox 360	-	Y	-	Y	-
ASH: Archaic Sealed Heat	2007	DS	-	-	-	-	-
Lost Odyssey	2007	Xbox 360	-	Y	-	Y	-
Blue Dragon Plus	2008	DS	-	-	-	-	-
Away: Shuffle Dungeon	2008	DS	-	-	-	-	-
Cry On	Canceled	-	-	-	-	-	-
Blue Dragon: Awakened Shadow	2009	DS	-	-	-	-	-
The Last Story	2011	Wii	Y	-	-	Y	-

External links

• Hironobu Sakaguchi profile, interviews, and photo gallery at the Square Haven People Databased
• Hironobu Sakaguchi on Twitter
• Mistwalker