Hironobu Sakaguchi encyclopedia topics

Biography

Early years

Sakaguchi was born in Hitachi, Ibaraki, Japan. He is a graduate student of Mito Senior High School. He went on to study electrical engineering while attending Yokohama National University, but dropped out of the university along with Hiromichi Tanaka mid-course in 1983.

Square

On leaving the university, Sakaguchi became a part-time employee of Square, a newly formed branch of Denyūsha Electric Company founded by Masafumi Miyamoto. When Square became an independent company, he became a full-time employee as the Director of Planning and Development. The company's first games were very unsuccessful. Sakaguchi then decided to create his final work in the game industry with the rest of Square's money, and appropriately named it Final Fantasy. The game was released in Japan for the Famicom (also known internationally as the Nintendo Entertainment System) on December 18, 1987. The game was successful across Japan. Final Fantasy developed into a successful franchise under Sakaguchi's watchful eye, which spans from stand alone stories to spin-offs to direct sequels. In 1991, following the release of Final Fantasy IV for the Super Famicom (also known internationally as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System), he was honoured with the position of Executive Vice President. His mostly hands-on involvement became a bit more lax following Final Fantasy VI, which was released on April 2, 1994 (for which he was the game producer, before that, he was the game director of all the Final Fantasy games up until Final Fantasy V)for the Super Famicom and one year later, in 1995, he became President at Square USA, Inc. His final role as game producer was for Final Fantasy IX. In an interview at the time he described it as his favourite Final Fantasy. He later went on to serve more as an executive producer of the series, as well as many of Square's other games, including Vagrant Story, Parasite Eve and Kingdom Hearts.

Hironobu Sakaguchi became the third person inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame on April 5, 2000. His Hall of Fame status was given to him because of the tremendous amount of video games he has sold and created.

Time as film director

A long time proponent of bringing together the story-telling vehicle of film and the interactive elements of games, Sakaguchi took the leap from games to film when he made his debut as film director in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, an animated motion picture based on his world-famous Final Fantasy series. However, the movie was the second-biggest animated box office bomb in cinema history, losing over $120 million dollars.

Resignation from Square

Sakaguchi voluntarily stepped down from his post as an executive vice president at Square. This event also reduced Square's financial capital. Square later merged with its rival, the Enix Corporation, which led to the creation of Square Enix in 2003. Sakaguchi founded Mistwalker with the financial backing of Microsoft Game Studios.

Mistwalker

In 2001, Sakaguchi founded Mistwalker, which began operation in 2004. In February 2005, it was announced that Mistwalker would be working with Microsoft Game Studios to create two RPGs for the Xbox 360. Still, the company remains independent from console exclusivity. Sakaguchi released the works Blue Dragon in 2006, and Lost Odyssey in 2007.

Currently, Sakaguchi is developing Cry On and ASH: Archaic Sealed Heat.

Games

Hironobu Sakaguchi has been credited, in some capacity, with the following games.

Title	Year released	Console name	Director	Producer	Executive producer	Original concept	Supervisor
Rad Racer	1987	NES	-	-	-		-
Final Fantasy	1987	NES		-	-		-
Final Fantasy II	1988	NES		-	-		-
Final Fantasy III	1990	NES		-	-	-	-
Final Fantasy IV	1991	SNES		-	-		-
Final Fantasy V	1992	SNES		-	-		-
Final Fantasy VI	1994	SNES	-		-		-
Seiken Densetsu 3	1995	SNES	-	-	-	-	-
Chrono Trigger	1995	SNES	-	-	-	-
Tobal No. 1	1996	PS1	-	-	-	-	-
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars	1996	SNES	-	-	-	-
Bahamut Lagoon	1996	SNES	-	-	-	-	-
Final Fantasy VII	1997	PS1		-	-		-
Final Fantasy Tactics	1997	PS1	-		-	-	-
Einhänder	1997	PS1	-	-	-	-	-
Bushido Blade	1997	PS1	-	-	-	-	-
Xenogears	1998	PS1	-	-	-	-	-
Parasite Eve	1998	PS1	-		-		-
Ehrgeiz	1998	PS1	-	-	-	-	-
Chocobo's Dungeon 2	1998	PS1	-	-	-	-	-
Bushido Blade 2	1998	PS1	-	-	-	-	-
Brave Fencer Musashi	1998	PS1	-	-		-	-
Saga Frontier 2	1999	PS1	-	-	-	-	-
Parasite Eve II	1999	PS1	-	-		-	-
Legend of Mana	1999	PS1	-	-	-	-	-
Front Mission 3	1999	PS1	-	-	-	-	-
Final Fantasy VIII	1999	PS1	-	-		-	-

References

External links

Hironobu Sakaguchi profile, interviews, and photo gallery at the Square Haven People Database
Hironobu Sakaguchi profile at MobyGames

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Last updated on Tuesday June 24, 2008 at 14:20:55 PDT (GMT -0700)
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