Hironobu Sakaguchi

Hironobu Sakaguchi was born on November 14, 1962 in Japan. He is one of the great producers and directors of video games, recognized worldwide by games such as Lost Odyssey (2007) or Final Fantasy VII (1997). He is a Japanese video game designer, director, producer, writer and film director. He is best known as the creator of the Final Fantasy series, which conceived the original concept for the first title of the film also known as Final Fantasy and also directed several subsequent entries into the franchise. He has a long career in video games with more than 100 million units sold worldwide. He once worked in Square Enix, but eventually left it and founded a studio called Mistwalker in 2004.

• Born: 25/11/1962
• Nationality: Japanese
• Profession: Videogame designer and developer

Who is Hironobu Sakaguchi?

Hironobu Sakaguchi is a renowned Japanese producer, director and writer who created important video games that have sold more than 100 million units around the world.

Biography of Hironobu Sakaguchi

Sakaguchi was born in Hitachi City, Ibaraki, Japan. He devoted part of his life to studying electrical engineering while attending Yokohama National University but retired in 1983 mid-semester with Hiromichi Tanaka. After leaving university, Hironobu Sakaguchi became a part-time employee of the company called Square, which was a newly formed branch of Denyūsha Electric Company founded by Masafumi Miyamoto. When Square became an independent company in 1986, it became a full-time employee as Director of Planning and Development. After working on several Nintendo Entertainment System games that didn’t become big hits, Sakaguchi began to question whether he had chosen the right career and whether he was qualified to play as a game writer. He then launched the concept of a role-playing video game called Final Fantasy and assembled a small team to do this project.

The game was released in Japan on December 18, 1987 and was successful throughout Japan. Under the supervision of Sakaguchi, Final Fantasy became an expansive franchise. In 1991, following the release of Final Fantasy IV for Super Nintendo, he won the position of Executive Vice President. The last Final Fantasy game he directed was Final Fantasy V, becoming the producer of future franchise deliveries. In 1995, he acquired the position as president of the North American division of Square. Sometime later he began working more as executive producer of the series, as well as many of Square’s other games, such as Vagrant Story, Parasite Eve and Kingdom Hearts.

Style

Sakaguchi focuses mainly on the drama that circulates around his games. In many of his games, players take control of a group of adventurers.

Acknowledgements

In May 2000, Sakaguchi received the Hall of Fame Award from the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences. He was also recognized at the Game Developers Conference for his great contribution to the gaming industry. He was also awarded the Legend Prize at the Gamelab in 2012 in Barcelona, an award that is given by the organization of the 5th edition of the National Video Game Industry Awards. His videogame series called Final Fantasy also obtained an important recognition as the best game and he, as one of the people who has given more contributions to the industry.

Hironobu Sakaguchi video games

Some of its most relevant games are the following:

• Terra Battle 2
• Terra Battle
• Party Wave
• The Last Story
• Away: Shuffle Dungeon
• Lost Odyssey
• Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
• Final Fantasy Origins
• Driving Emotion Type-S
• Final Fantasy Chronicles
• Final Fantasy X
• The Bouncer
• Final Fantasy IX
• Final Fantasy VI
• Final Fantasy V
• Final Fantasy IV
• Final Fantasy III
• Final Fantasy II
• Final Fantasy

Hironobu Sakaguchi’s Movies

Hironobu Sakaguchi’s film is titled Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, which, subtitled into Spanish, means Final Fantasy: The Inner Force: The Spirit in Us. This is a science fiction film that premiered in 2001 and was the first attempt to create photorealistic animated humans using computers. It was also one of the biggest box-office failures in history, with more than $120 million in losses, leading to the bankruptcy of Square Pictures and the merger of Squaresoft and Enix.

Hironobu Sakaguchi’s phrases

His most recognized phrases include the following:

• Responding to your opinion about competing with Final Fantasy. I’m looking forward to breaking it into pieces. Crush it under my own foot.
• I don’t think action games are my thing, I prefer to create stories.
• The most important thing is to create a story that involves the player, who, when switching off the console, keeps thinking about the game.