Mistwalker CEO and Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi recently sat down with Bloomberg to discuss his upcoming game, Fantasian Neo Dimension, and take a walk down memory lane while playing it.
Sakaguchi looked back, chronicling his successes and failures at Square and providing context for his departure from the company in 2001:
“Personally, I wanted to be more creative – roll up my sleeves, make more games.”
That realization led him to found Mistwalker in 2004 and reach out to some of his contacts from his time at Square, including Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu and Chrono Trigger artist Akira Toriyama. Together, the trio worked on Blue Dragon, and Uematsu would go on to stick with Sakaguchi for Odyssey Lost and The Last Story – a Wii exclusive that found itself caught up in Operation Rainfall.
During the interview, Sakaguchi talked about the first two, Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey – making it clear that he has no intention of bringing a pair of Xbox 360 RPGs to modern consoles. However, when it comes to Mistwalker’s now-defunct mobile game, Terra Battle, he has shown interest in giving it new life somewhere down the line.
Despite parting ways long ago, Sakaguchi kept his faith in Square, repeating throughout the interview how Final Fantasy XIV captured his attention and earned his respect. And in helping him with his latest game, Square Enix has returned the favor by closing the distance that previously existed between them. After a decade, Hironobu Sakaguchi and Square Enix will finally team up again to bring Fantasian Neo Dimension to PC and consoles, including the Nintendo Switch, this winter.
“Meanwhile, the legendary designer is working on another project. While Sakaguchi once thought Fantasian might be his last game, he now says he’s finalizing the story for a new title with Mistwalker. The company recently filed a trademark for “Fantasian Dark Edge,” suggesting a sequel is in the works, though it declined to go into detail. “We’ll say it’s something new, for now,” he said.
