Mistwalker CEO Hironobu Sakaguchi is best known as the creator of the top Japanese RPG franchise Final Fantasy. More recently he's worked on Xbox 360 exclusives like Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon, and now he's in the middle of developing The Last Story, an exclusive RPG for the Wii. Perhaps the game's title was a not so subtle hint at Sakaguchi's ultimate plans. In a new blog post, as spotted by Andriasang, the veteran game maker hinted at his possible retirement.
"This is a title that myself and the development staff are putting 120% of our energy into," he wrote, adding that he's a bit nervous, similar to the feeling one gets when heir child heads off on a journey. "I'm fully pouring everything into this one title, and the feeling of it maybe being my last title is strong."
If Sakaguchi is indeed about to retire, it'll mark the end of a great career in games; he's been an inspiration to fellow Japanese developers and RPG makers around the globe. Now we're really curious to see how The Last Story plays out.
6 Comments
July 14, 2010
Haha. Yeah. Just like Final Fantasy was going to be his "final" game?
July 14, 2010
@Hoyt's right. Like Sakaguchi himself, the current Final Fantasy teams, and Hideo Kojima, you treat every game as if it's your last chance to leave a mark. It's a Japanese developing mantra that has brought us countless amazing games over the years.
July 15, 2010
It's hard to take any statement with complete seriousness that it'll be carried out, Sakaguchi 's closer to retirement from full time game creation than he was before. We'll see though.
July 15, 2010
Hey, all I can say is that I hope this means no more Final Fantasy games. I hate the series and it just takes up self space that could be used for better games.
July 15, 2010
uhh, I ment "shelf space"
July 15, 2010
@Ecalb--Sakaguchi san no longer works on the Final Fantasy games. So those will continue to be released for the next 5,000 years.