QuickNavigation - FF Odyssey Editorials Squaresoft Legends (Part II) - Hironobu Sakaguchi (Last updated on 11/25/2008)

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Part II - Hironobu Sakaguchi

By: wsim

Biography

Name: Hironobu Sakaguchi (坂口博信)
Birthdate: November 25th, 1962
Birthplace: Ibaraki prefecture, Japan
Occupation: President of Mistwalker, Inc.
                  (As at August 9th, 2006)

Information

     Hironobu Sakaguchi helped co-found a small gaming company called Square along with Masafumi Miyamoto in 1983. In the beginning, their early games were not very popular and largely ignored. Using the remainder of Square’s finances, Sakaguchi put in all of the company’s efforts in the title known as Final Fantasy. This was to be his final work for Square and was expected to be the company’s last game. The game proved to be a surprise hit and Sakaguchi decided to continue making more games for the company as a result. Gradually, more Final Fantasy games came out for the SNES and other consoles. The franchise eventually became one of the biggest in the video gaming world. Sakaguchi served as the main producer for the franchise and become President of Square in the 1990’s. Later on, Sakaguchi decided to try out the film business. Forming the movie studio Square pictures, he became director of the CG film: “Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within” which was released in 2001. It was one of the biggest box office bombs in movie history with losses roughly around $120 million. The movie was an expensive production to film, including all of the computer animation effects involved. The huge losses resulted in the bankruptcy of Square pictures and Sakaguchi lost his post as executive of Square as a consequence. Shortly afterwards, Sakaguchi resigned from the company and founded another game company by the name of Mistwalker, with the financial help of Microsoft. Recently, Mistwalker has been developing several games for the Xbox 360. The most anticipated and upcoming title is “Blue Dragon”, which is an RPG for the Xbox 360.

Gameography (Source: Wikipedia, Moby Games)

ASH: Archaic Sealed Heat (Future Project)
Cry On (Future Project)
Lost Odyssey (Future Project)
Blue Dragon (2006)
Kingdom Hearts II (December 22, 2005)
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (February 14, 2003)
Final Fantasy X-2 (March 13, 2003)
Final Fantasy Origins (October 31, 2002)
Kingdom Hearts (March 28, 2002)
Driving Emotion Type-S (2001)
Final Fantasy Chronicles (June 29, 2001)
Final Fantasy X (July 19, 2001)
The Bouncer (December 23, 2000)
Final Fantasy IX (July 7, 2000)
Vagrant Story (February 10, 2000)
Chocobo Racing (March 19, 1999)
Chrono Cross (November 18, 1999)
Final Fantasy Anthology (September 30, 1999)
Final Fantasy VIII (February 11, 1999)
Front Mission 3 (September 2, 1999)
Parasite Eve II (March 29, 1998)
Saga Frontier 2 (April 1, 1999)
Brave Fencer Musashi (July 16, 1998)
Bushido Blade 2 (March 19, 1998)
Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon 2 (December 23, 1998)
Ehrgeiz (1998)
Parasite Eve (March 29, 1998)
Xenogears (February 11, 1998)
Bushido Blade (March 14, 1997)
Einhänder (November 20, 1997)
Final Fantasy Tactics (June 20, 1997)
Final Fantasy VII (January 31, 1997)
Bahamut Lagoon (February 9, 1996)
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (March 9, 1996)
Tobal No.1 (August 2, 1996)
Chrono Trigger (March 11, 1995)
Seiken Densetsu 3 (September 30, 1995)
Final Fantasy VI (April 2, 1994)
Final Fantasy V (December 6, 1992)
Final Fantasy IV (April 19, 1991)
Final Fantasy III (April 27, 1990)
Final Fantasy II (December 17, 1988)
Final Fantasy (December 18, 1987)
Rad Racer (August 7, 1987)

Videography
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (September 14, 2005)
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (July 11, 2001)