Final Fantasy’s Hironobu Sakaguchi Has No Interest in Returning to the Series He Created [IGN]

Two weeks ago, Square Enix made waves when it announced it would be teaming up again with Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi for the Nintendo Switch release of his latest RPG, Fantasian: Neo Dimension. Despite the video game reunion being 30 years in the making, Sakaguchi tempered fans’ expectations by saying the team-up would not spell his return to Final Fantasy or any other video games from his past.

In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Sakaguchi said that he has no interest in returning to Final Fantasy or any other games he contributed to. The 61-year-old’s reasoning is simply that he has “switched to a consumer rather than a creator” — essentially, he’d rather just enjoy the games as a player then be privy to the behind-the-scenes details.

“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,” Sakaguchi told Bloomberg.

Sakaguchi also expressed disinterest in bringing other games he worked on, such as Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey, to modern consoles. An exception to Sakaguchi’s aversion to revisiting old games, however, is Terra Battle, a strategy game that was released in 2014 on iOS and Android devices but was delisted. According to the Bloomberg story, he would like to revive that title.

Sakaguchi began his career at Square Enix (then called Square) in 1983. During his 30-year tenure, Sakaguchi took inspiration from formative RPGs like Wizardry and Dragon Quest to make the first Final Fantasy. The game, as Bloomberg notes, saved the company from bankruptcy and went on to become a juggernaut in the video game industry, selling more than 185 million copies across the series. Sakaguchi would also go on to produce other pivotal RPGs like Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger. He officially parted ways from Square Enix in 2003 with Final Fantasy X-2 as his final contribution to the series he created.

Since leaving Square, Sakaguchi started a new video game company called Mistwalker with fellow Final Fantasy collaborators. Key among them is the series’ famed composer, Nobuo Uematsu. Fantasian Neo Dimension — which was previously an Apple Arcade exclusive — will launch on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam this winter.

Thumbnail credit: Jun Sato/WireImage

Isaiah Colbert is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow them on Twitter @ShinEyeZehUhh.