Hironobu Sakaguchi - the Rise and Fall of Final Fantasy

In this episode we take a look at Hironobu Sakaguchi - his rise through the ranks at Squaresoft with his creation of Final Fantasy, his innovative approach to game design, leadership and storytelling, as well as his controversial directorship of Final Fantasy The Spirits Within, and the founding of Mistwalker studio.
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In this episode we'll cover the following topics:
The complete final fantasy story explained
Hironobu Sakaguchi career retrospective from Squaresoft to Square Enix and Mistwalker
Thank you for supporting Alleyway Jack
#hironobusakaguchi #finalfantasy #alleywayjack

[@AlleywayJack]

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[@Brian-bw9fh]

This is the greatest Final Fantasy channel of all time

[@AlleywayJack]

I am humbled by this bold take, thank you 🙏

[@evanglicanism]

The thumbnail is one of the best things I've ever seen

[@AlleywayJack]

Not gonna lie, I pictured the thumbnail first and built the discussion around it.

[@m4r_art]

seconded

[@Mangomesh]

I'm just excited that Fantasian is coming to consoles, I just hope for a physical release. Hironobu Sakaguchi wrote the book on JRPGs, I find his games very relaxing and therapeutic.

[@miki49]

Same! I love the diorama style RPGs, the PS1 pre-rendered backgrounds were the best!!

[@fattiger6957]

I didn't know that it was coming to consoles. That's very exciting! Has a release date been announced?

[@Mangomesh]

@@fattiger6957 Coming to all consoles apparently in Winter 2024, however I have not found anywhere to pre order it yet. I believe the physical release of the Anniversary edition of Final Fantasy 1 to 6 is also coming around the same time.

[@Mangomesh]

@fattiger6957 Coming to all consoles apparently in Winter 2024, however I have not found anywhere to pre order it yet.

[@AlleywayJack]

I'm also hyped for this. And as has been suggested here those diorama environments are absolutely fantastic.

[@jairekambui7738]

I appreciate Sakaguchi doesn’t want to helm a full length FF project again, and even though I’m not personally interested in Fantasian, I wish him well. He developed the genre into a worldwide phenomenon and inspired dozens of franchises.

[@fattiger6957]

I don't think he needed to helm a game. He fits well in a modern Miyamoto-like role. A respected elder who younger developers could go to for advice.

[@Mangomesh]

He does not want to be at the helm because of the woke stuff game companies are paid to add to current games

[@lpstweetytv5242]

I wish he would give it a shot, but the industry is different now. He probably doesn't want the hassle XD

[@supremeoverlorde2109]

Sakaguchi has quite the legacy. Quite a few things I wasn't even aware of here too. But I do definitely understand why he's beloved by many older Final Fantasy fans. While the series has constantly evolved over the years, the 90s brought most of the series' most iconic titles and I feel like that's when it was the closest to having a more clear-cut identity.

[@m4r_art]

exactly, after that its a downward arrow, sadly

[@krelbin]

Sakaguchi is a legend in the industry and at this point in his career he has nothing to prove. How many of the higher ups in the industry today would step down after a delivering a colossal failure? Very few. Now, I’m sure there were other factors involved, but he at least owned up to his failure. Honestly for me, Final Fantasy did die a little after he left. I don’t play MMOs, so I can’t really talk about for FF11 and FF14, but I never actually finished any of the final fantasy games released since his departure. FF16 was the first game since then that I completed. I would just get to a point in the other games where I got bored.

[@GracelessTarnished]

I have said this for 20 years, Hironobu Sakaguchi IS Final Fantasy. Its genuinely sad how there has not been a single game since the merger than i wojld consider even on par with the worst entries under his supervision. I thank this man for the masterpieces he helped create especially VI - X. We didnt know how good we had it.

[@opietaylorpiano]

All the good employees left long ago and formed their own companies such as Monolift Soft, these days Square Enix just outsource their IP lol. Just look at visions of mana so sad.

[@m4r_art]

Yes! It's a shadow of its former self. Sometimes I wonder if those english youtubers making FF fan videos are actual fans or employees. FF is so much more than chcocobos, moogles and crystals. They will never ever create characters like Zidane, Squall, Tidus or Locke. They are way too influenced by local culture while my man Sakaguchi was literally hiring Iranian programmers, creating quirky ragtag teams of character, using progressive metal music in the composition and doing very different things. The new Square-Enix is like a team of JPOP idols with no sense of how worldwide social dynamics exist They create awkward content and rehash old designs thinking that's enough. Sakaguchi is art, Square-Enix is AI art.

[@GracelessTarnished]

@m4r_art Exactly. The classics had so much emotion and heart and what makes it even more impressive was how they managed to achieve so much with so little. To this day there are moments in these classics that give me goosebumps. Final Fantasy VII is perfection and had so many such scenes. And yet when I played Remake and Rebirth, with all the fancy graphics and voice work, there was not a single such moment. That's just sad. They have all this technology but such little talent to utilize it properly.

[@m4r_art]

@@GracelessTarnished Amen bruh. You'll get attacked by mobs of people defending "new content". I get the same treatment if I don't appreciate BOTW and tell them Old Zelda was better, and that CRT TV's and analog can do a lot more than 4k and 60FPS. So it's a generational battle I guess with loud internet trolls coming of age. But they'll also grow out of it, eventually. By that time nobody will care except really old school fans like myself. So yeh, hopefully somehow the spirit of Sakaguchi can touch that company and awaken their comatose creativity, one day far away... 😄

[@astrahcat1212]

One of the few yt videos where I clicked saying to myself 'this is gonna be a treat'

[@AlleywayJack]

🙏

[@GlacierRain]

Spirits Within's failure sure did rob us of some beautiful possibilities.

[@m4r_art]

In terms of RPG videogames it's like the moment Jesus was put to the cross. Sakaguchi could have made everything different and better.

[@StewNWT]

FF has never been the same without him. It died when he left

[@fattiger6957]

Sakaguchi isn't perfect (Spirits Within is proof of that) but he was the creative steadying hand at Square. Kind of like Miyamoto is now at Nintendo, he was the experienced veteran other developers could go to for advice. It is not a coincidence that Square, and especially FF, started losing its way when he left the company. I'm certain if he hadn't left Square, things would be much different and much better. I wish he could come back to big budget console game development. Lost Odyssey proved that he could still put out bangers outside of Square.

[@AlleywayJack]

Agreed, a lot is made of singular 'auteur' personalities but I think there's a lot to be said for those mentor/guidance figures who can steer other creatives and look holistically at the whole of a project while others are in the weeds of design/scenarios/programming etc. Sakaguchi is one of the best examples of that.

[@l---------]

Sakaguchi's future time travelling self would do everything short of assassination to make sure that nomura and kingdom hearts never existed.

[@m4r_art]

Nomura is Kefka in disguise. Sakaguchi is the real deal 😂

[@maximos905]

The final fantasy movie wasnt even that bad of a stand alone movie. If they just named it something else other than "final fantasy" then it would have been a solid movie. The graphics were ahead of its time and the voice cast was top notch and with an original story

[@AlleywayJack]

I think that can be said for a lot of FF media. If you just changed the name and took away the subjective expectation of what 'final fantasy' is, a lot of the stuff people consider terrible would actually hold up ok.

[@faidou9954]

I still love Final Fantasy even without Hironobu Sakaguchi.

[@wtfsamusidk7574]

They should remake ff6❤

[@l---------]

Also, sakaguchi is the legend and kitase was ok and nomura is a disgrace

[@m4r_art]

The man who made JRPG, his influence is not respected enough. His ultimate alienation from his child company Squaresoft is the greatest sin for the future of RPG videogames. If he was there, the games we got in the last two decades would be so much better. Uematsu would ve composing. The Chrono series sequles and Xenogears 2 would be a thing. It would be masterpiece after masterpiece. We sadly live in Universe 2 if Multiverse theory is to be believed, where Sakaguchi didn't create the masterpieces, so we got the more mediocre games, unfortunately ... Gatcha games, internet games won and the future promises Ai generated moogles, chocobos and collectible blankets...😢

[@venomsnack]

Jealous of that thumb game 👍

[@wmen48]

Not only FF but this man hand made the culture of 90s square which was packed with banger products. And I would say that was because of him. It's like his game series sub series have sub series😮

[@kephalai]

hironobu "the guch" sakaguchi

[@Jordan3DS]

I dunno if I would say he ever rose again. Apparently he's just a XIV addict nowadays that never does any work, and Fantasian is super generic. Man's lost his touch and riding fully on legacy at this point. Kawazu is the real FF GOAT.

[@m4r_art]

bruh come on, he still did what he did in his prime. he is a granddad at this point. the shame is he did nothing between 2000 and 2020. square-enix corporate culture is to blame. they did not see the shigeru miyamoto they had!

[@Jordan3DS]

@@m4r_art That's true, FF I - VII and IX are all amazing. My problem is just that people still act like he's the king even nowadays, same with Uematsu. It feels like people are stuck in the past and desperately clinging to the people who used to make their favorite stuff, even if they make nothing of note nowadays, while completely ignoring all of the new brilliant JRPG creators and composers that have replaced them.

[@m4r_art]

@@Jordan3DS there is nothing bad in that, not all people want to continuously experiment, its like brand fidelity. I stick with Nintendo no matter what because I'm loyal to the initial success and the imagery they created, I lived that time the late 90s and early 2000s those were my magic years with videogames... same goes for how Space Jam imprinted Michael Jordan in my head as the good guy of basketball as a kid. I think it's not clinging to the past if you live something deeply. Dure memories can often be a limiting factor if you really wanna live with the times, my dad often tells me I should be less focused on it as it creates pain. But to me those memories built at a certain time are sacred so I really only wanna stick with them. it's not that I don't want to give new creatives a chance, it's just that as i age, the reality of my time is linked with that past, and not with the new creatives. regardless of them, we fade like our time is counted. Dont wanna sound overly pessimistic, but thats why those old creatives are sacred to me, because im temporally linked to the art they did back then and it gives me an impression of an identity, I might me mistaken, but people tend to project their ideas in introspect I guess?

[@gysahlfields7506]

Just to clarify something: Square Enix > Square > Squaresoft

[@miki49]

You got it straight backwards bruh. Lol.

[@gysahlfields7506]

@@miki49 Nope. A REALM REBORN until ENDWALKER is the Golden Age of FINAL FANTASY.

[@GlacierRain]

@@gysahlfields7506 not everyone plays MMO brother. It is nice that it has this wide success with its own die hard fans. Wish you guys well over by there.

[@gysahlfields7506]

@@GlacierRain "You"? What does "you" mean? I do not play MMOs. Ever. I hate them. I play FINAL FANTASY though. Because I am a FINAL FANTASY FAN. Not everyone plays whatever you deem a valid FINAL FANTASY Instalment either. Doesn't make it a non-valid Instalment. So, yeah, regardless of your personal assessment, XI and XIV are valid FINAL FANTASY Instalments, and almost assuredly better than your favourite too. And they absolutely count in all discussions. So, when you see them used in lists, or as proof of quality, do not attack the person using them just because you are only a FINAL FANTASY fan of selective Instalments with asterisks. Wish "you" guys well over on non FINAL FANTASY fan land too. PS: Not just "its own fans". It has THE biggest fan base of all Instalments, has SOLD the most, has the MOST Players historically, has made the MOST money, has the MOST awards, is the 2nd BEST critical reviewed one EVER (after IX, but IX has 1/5th of the reviews XIV has) and the BEST User reviewed one EVER, has the MOST merchandise sales out of all Instalments, has the MOST OST sales out of all Instalments, the ONLY one that can fill a huge venue 3 times every 2 years, and the absolute most popular one too.

[@hdhdhhehe6709]

No one agrees with you

[@blumiu2426]

He stepped down because he had little choice. Was it Uda? Ueda? Ota? Can't remember lol! The guy that took over after him, was his rival in a sense because he focused on financials while Sakaguchi was the creative. When Sakaguchi's movie failed, that gave Ueda all he needed to be favored to step up in the company and he immediately broke every ethos of Sakaguchi. It would have been a matter of leaving or being demoted.

[@AlleywayJack]

You maybe thinking of Yoichi Wada. He didn't take over Sakaguchi's VP role but became CEO replacing Hisashi Suzuki... pretty much the same story though, both Sakaguchi and Suzuki were game designers while Wada was a finance guy who pushed through the merger in '03 and changed the company ethos.

[@blumiu2426]

@@AlleywayJack Yes, Wada. Ueda is likely another developer. I can't remember what I read or watched some time ago, but I know when Sakaguchi was VP they seemed to butt heads because of their perspectives. When Spirits Within failed, Wada moved up. I think (but can't remember this detail well) Sakaguchi was being considered also for CEO, but I can't see Sakaguchi wanting that role. I'll have to look back into it. But Wada was indeed the start of the spiral or decline in quality and what was recognizable as Square.