what you think about, if the Hinoboru Sakagushi back up to Square-Enix?

[zzalbertzz]

You think if Hinoboru Sakagushi back to work in the Square-Enix, the quality of the Final Fantasys process change?
I know that it is almost impossible, but we imagine!
Sorry for my bad English!

[Dream Machine]

Not really, Kitase has always been my favorite team leader at Square-Enix, so long as he and his team are still making stuff, I'm content. I wouldn't mind Wada taking an extended vacation though.

[sobchack]

you guys probably have like baseball-type cards with pictures of game developers and their merits, right? :)

[Dream Machine]

:lol: Not at all, I know Nomura and Kitase, because they head the teams that work on the games I buy. There's like 8 or more teams at Square-Enix, no idea who head the other ones.

[Moklin]

He is the father of Final Fantasy but the most of Final Fantasy games like 6,7,8 and 10 werent directed by him. I think he didnt make a single thing for FF10. So he really comes back to SE, Final Fantasy wouldnt be better or wrost.

[Dream Machine]

Well, it would change if he headed the team that was making the latest installment in the Final Fantasy series. It'd return to pre-VI kind of style. I liked Final Fantasy from VI onwards, so obviously I'm not too hot for that. I did like IX though.

[Hynad]

What are you talking about. Sakaguchi was involved in all the FF games prior to FFXI. And none of the post FF VI games had the same styles.

[Dream Machine]

What are you talking about. Sakaguchi was involved in all the FF games prior to FFXI. And none of the post FF VI games had the same styles.

Thats why I liked all of the post VI games. I was never a huge fan of the very classical fantasy of the earlier games.

He was involved, but Kitase was responsible for heading VII, VIII and X. Like I said, I did like IX though and that was Sakaguchi's doing.

[Hynad]

He was the producer for all those games. If you want me to be more clear, he had final say on EVERYTHING.

[Aurelia]

More amnesiac characters?

[chaosblade77]

you guys probably have like baseball-type cards with pictures of game developers and their merits, right? :)
Satoru Iwata. I managed to get one of the most valuable cards in the set. I still need a damn Miyamoto, and Sakurai since I traded mine off and I'll have the NCL set complete.

[StrangeCat]

hmm I don't know I mean what's past is past. Cry On is (if that's what he calls it) is supposed to be the new major RPG from his company. He said he going to make people cry.

If he did FFXIII it would be a personal story I am sure. Thank God Yoshitaka Amano will be working with him in the future. If you look at his last huge Success Lost Odyssey it was a more personal story for the characters and more emotional experience, he really likes to do more emotional driven stories.
Hey who knows as Sakagushi put it (I will break him) *breaking Square Enix*

[Wandering Hands]

hmm I don't know I mean what's past is past. Cry On is (if that's what he calls it) is supposed to be the new major RPG from his company. He said he going to make people cry.

Last I heard, Cry-On had been shelved indefinitely. Things aren't going well for the man if his game gets put on hold for what could potentially be forever.

[StrangeCat]

Last I heard, Cry-On had been shelved indefinitely. Things aren't going well for the man if his game gets put on hold for what could potentially be forever.

ahhh....Microsoft to the rescue?

[zzalbertzz]

More amnesiac characters?

:D I like that!

[Sanji]

I don't even know who he is, but I like newer FF more than the old ones (and by old I mean before VII. VI is the only exeption), so I don't really care.

[Hynad]

Most people of your age tend to say things like that.

The post FF VII generation.

[chaosblade77]

ahhh....Microsoft to the rescue?
I think it's out of their hands. As far as I know it was due to development, not so much financial issues.

"This isn't turning out the way we intended for it to, I don't think it's going to work."

Canned.

[Sabin]

^Microsoft most probably canned it. They were the ones with the money.

After Square Enix started making games for XBox360 Microsoft shat at Mistwalker.

[Hynad]

I wonder where you'd take that garbage from. What source do you have to support your claim?

[Moklin]

Why sakagushi left Square-Enix in the first place? He didnt like the name Enix on it?

[Sabin]

I wonder where you'd take that garbage from. What source do you have to support your claim?


We had Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon released on Xbox360. Mistwalker was supposed to be the answer to their JRPG struggle.

Then they got:
Phantasy Star Universe
Eternal Sonata
Tales of Vesperia
The Last Remnant
Star Ocean: The Last Hope
Final Fantasy XIII
Infinite Undiscovery
Operation Darkness
Enchanted Arms

and WRPG:
Fallout 3
Fable 2
Mass Effect
Mass Effect 2
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
Sacred 2: Fallen Angel
Alpha Protocol
Two Worlds
Dragon Age: Origins
The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf
Divinity 2 - Ego Draconis
Magna Carta: Crimsom Stigma

I would say that Microsoft is no longer in need of Mistwalker. And what has hapeened after LO and BD? We have seen them make two Blue Dragon games for Nintendo DS. And Microsoft is the company that financed LO and BD, and they were the ones financing Cry On.

Hey, I'd love to see a Lost Odyssey 2 announcement at E3, but I have a feeling we won't see it.

[StrangeCat]

Last I heard, Cry-On had been shelved indefinitely. Things aren't going well for the man if his game gets put on hold for what could potentially be forever.

that had nothing to do with Mistwalker studios

[Hynad]

Who knows...

[Joseph Handibode]

He sucks. His garbage games can keep trashing the Xbox who cares. He is the one that destroy Square and had them merge with Eqix. He is horrible. I wouldn't want him back to make his baby games. He can keep his terrible movie, "Spirits Within". He dared to put Final Fantasy to the name. Advent Children wasn't that good of a movie but it was close to a Final Fantasy and based on game.

[1nOnly]

^talking about fanboy talk. its not like SE has done something groundbraking since he left. LO was a fine game, nice and polished (not like TLR) ... i think that the reason he really hasnt made something that can distinguish itself from the rest of jrpg's is because of the publishers, publishers dont like to bet when putting money into a game. i dont have any facts to any of this but MS seems to a company that likes to play it safe (and dirty) if you look at their resent games you wont find anything particular special about them, i'm myself a 360 owner but games like LBP makes wonder if i made a good choise by buying that box. thats the thing that i like about sony, you always see good results when they support a title. i will never understand why Halo became a such big succes but what the hell....

[Demon_of_light]

He sucks. His garbage games can keep trashing the Xbox who cares. He is the one that destroy Square and had them merge with Eqix. He is horrible. I wouldn't want him back to make his baby games. He can keep his terrible movie, "Spirits Within". He dared to put Final Fantasy to the name. Advent Children wasn't that good of a movie but it was close to a Final Fantasy and based on game.

Why does everyone bash Spirits Within it was a good movie, no final fantasy had anything to do with each other at that point so why the hell should the movie have been different? Why was Spirits Within bad, what made it a bad movie in your opinion?

[1nOnly]

IMO the ONLY reason why FFVIIAC was such a hit was just because of FFVII, Spirits Within as a movie was better than AC.. AC felt more like a stunt to just make money out of a famous product, it was a good action movie but for people who actually didnt play FFVII i cant imagine it being nothing more but an impressive action packed movie. even though i'm saying this I did like AC better (just because i like action movies more)

[Astraia]

Why was Spirits Within bad, what made it a bad movie in your opinion?

WHUT? :wtf:



anyway, i think there wouldn't be much of a change if he ever came back. it just so happened that the spirits within didn't do well because it lacked the 'fantasy' factor, immediately making people think that sakaguchi sucks. final fantasy will remain 'the same' with or without him, even if the story would suck or whatever..

[Hynad]

If he sucks that much, then why are 2 of his creations regarded as the pinnacle of the series? And why is he regarded as a visionary by most of his peers?

I'm referring to Final Fantasy VII and X.


People will throw at me that he didn't direct and all that shit. The truth being that he still was the executive producer, and as such, had final say on everything that involved those games. :P

Spirit Within bombed... Big fucking deal! That's the only project of his that failed.

[1nOnly]

WHUT? :wtf:



anyway, i think there wouldn't be much of a change if he ever came back. it just so happened that the spirits within didn't do well because it lacked the 'fantasy' factor, immediately making people think that sakaguchi sucks. final fantasy will remain 'the same' with or without him, even if the story would suck or whatever..

lol, why is it so that after he left we got FFXII that counts as one of the worst FF games(by fans), a game that didnt feel much like an ff game? yeah it got good reviews but most fans didnt feel like they got what they anticipated for.
anyways it seems like sakuguchi dont have any interest in making games for the ps3 and he's right about SE putting to much focus on FF/DQ

[Ascending Adonis]

lol, why is it so that after he left we got FFXII that counts as one of the worst FF games(by fans), a game that didnt feel much like an ff game? yeah it got good reviews but most fans didnt feel like they got what they anticipated for.

That's because fans are generally a poor barometer of quality. Final Fantasy XII was easily one of the best games in the series, and it could have been even better!

Matsuno would have never left midway through the project if Sakaguchi had still been there in the same capacity; he would have been given the artistic license to make the game as he wanted, and it very likely would have been Square best game (and probably would have released on time).

Sakaguchi IS a visionary, especially when it comes to gauging trends in the industry. He was originally critical of Square for stubbornly resisting the western market, and now they've (sloppily) followed suit. Go to his website an read the little snippets of storyline he's written & you'll see what I mean. The man is very creative, and it was his original ideas (Crystals, lifestream) that still define the series to this day.

Personally I think the series was at its best with him as its helmsman, if not exactly its creative lead. The man knows quality. He probably had too much power towards the end of his career, and certainly misplaced ambition (although TSW is actually a pretty good movie; I remember seeing it in theaters), but that is what it is.

Its unfortunate that Square saw need to shunt aside someone who had been so right for so long. He had too much power, but if you ask me Tetsuya Nomura has too much power, so really the situation hasn't changed. Maybe if Versus bombs Nomura will be relegated to designing corporate Christmas cards ::daydreams::

EDIT: Also, Sakaguchi hasn't been the creative lead, designer or director of a game since FFV. All things considered, Lost Odyssey is a tremendous accomplishment and displays exactly why the man should have been retained at Square. He's likely going through something of a crash course atm, experimenting with the genre and looking at all the trends that have transpired since his departure. Sakaguchi was really a great loss for the company, whatever the circumstances.

But not as great a loss as MATSUNO!! God Square piss be off sometimes.

[Sabin]

lol, why is it so that after he left we got FFXII that counts as one of the worst FF games(by fans), a game that didnt feel much like an ff game? yeah it got good reviews but most fans didnt feel like they got what they anticipated for.
anyways it seems like sakuguchi dont have any interest in making games for the ps3 and he's right about SE putting to much focus on FF/DQ

:lol: gtfo. If Final Fantasy XII was called something else and developed by another studio it would have been praised as one of the best RPGs ever. I can't understand how gambits have never been used in other games. Look at the Tales series and Star Ocean series. You control only one character like in FFXII. The only problem in Tales and Star Ocean is that your allies feels like retarded idiots that don't do what you want them to. In FFXIi you got the choice to micromanage your team and make them act the way you wanted. They got rid of random battles and let you move around in battles. buffs were actually useful in this game, so were status effects.

The game was hurt when Matsuno left and they took in the guy from the Chrystal Chronicles series. You could easily guess that the story would not stay the way matsuno wanted it to be. In the end there wasn't enough story, but the game play was great.

[Hynad]

Matsuno would have never left midway through the project if Sakaguchi had still been there in the same capacity; he would have been given the artistic license to make the game as he wanted, and it very likely would have been Square best game (and probably would have released on time).

Errr... Matsuno left the project because of health problems, dude.
Sakaguchi had nothing to do with t.

[Ascending Adonis]

Naw...that's still a very controversial point that isn't exactly clear. I think the reason that Matsuno suffered physically (if at all) was from the pressure of executive meddling.

Square employees still refuse to comment on the whole ordeal, and I don't think Matsuno would have left the entire company simply over health concerns. One of 1up's editors even asked Kawazu, who assumed production of the project, and he didn't even want to breach the subject.

I think he either had some sort of nervous breakdown over the constant pressure from higher-ups, or he left disgusted that his project had been hijacked. The press release stating that he left due to health concerns was likely used to save face by the company (big companies have a tendency to do things like this).

If Sakaguchi had been there in an executive role he wouldn't have been working under such adverse conditons; if Matsuno had stayed FFXII would have been a far better game. It's still awesome though, but Matsuno vision was very obviously compromised. I mean, Basch was intended as the main character.

[Hynad]

No offense, but that's some big unsupported "IFs" though.

So I don't buy into that.


But I agree that the game, no matter how great I think it already is, would have been a far better product if Matsuno had stayed for the whole run.

[Ascending Adonis]

Yeah this is definitely just my opinion, but I'm certainly not the only one who thinks this may be the case. It's not anything anyone can know for sure without getting Matsuno himself to spill the beans, which isn't likely.

I still think its dubious that he left the company for health reasons, whatever his reason for stepping down from the FFXII project. Maybe the company had changed significantly following Sakaguchi's departure, and it became an unfavorable environment to work in. Him & Sakaguchi were close friends.

Who knows. Its a damn shame he's no longer with them though.

He is making an RPG for the Wii though so that's something to look forward to.