Hironobu Sakaguchi Making a Comeback
 

The Magic Box had this little blurb:
I don't want to pass judgment, but he is the man that almost destroyed Square and the Final Fantasy franchise.

Dale

Re: Hironobu Sakaguchi Making a Comeback
 

I don't think Sakaguchi has technically been involved development-wise and creative-wise on an FF since FFV? (Someone can confirm this?)

The director of FF6-8, 10 and 10-2 was Kitase, with FF9 directed by Itou and FF12 by Matsuno (FF11 - I don't know who's the director). Sakaguchi has always been credited as "executive producer" - exactly what does that position entail, creatively?

Since he's taking Amano, of old-school FF fame, will he take Uematsu as well? Seeing as the new composer is now Sakimoto (who's always tied with Matsuno), this could be a possibilty.

Another major development studio for SquareEnix? This can go either way...

Re: Hironobu Sakaguchi Making a Comeback
 

What "executive producer" generally means, at least in the film industry, is that he's the guy fronting the money for the project. What does it mean creatively? Well, I suppose if he doesn't like what they're doing with his money, he won't give them anymore.

P.S. I simply adore Yoshitaki Amano. I have a couple of his art books, but one of my favorite pieces is his collaborative effort with Neil Gaiman (one of my fave authors). Oh, and I loved Vampire Hunter D (of course).

Re: Hironobu Sakaguchi Making a Comeback
 

From your description, Hypatia93, Sakaguchi has not really "made" an FF game successful. It is basically the efforts of Kitase, Uematsu, Nomura and all of production studio 1 that have claimed western fans. Sakaguchi's involvement in a new game won't mean much unless it has the name Final Fantasy on the cover.

p.s I'm not much a fan of Amano's FF designs as I am to his other masterpieces. When it comes to pop-cultured designs, Nomura does it better. Artisticaly and game wise, I'd favour the new (FFXII) Yoshida, who did the beautiful Vagrant Story designs.
... and the hand of D in Vampire Hunter D annoys me... but other than that, it was designed well, which I can't say the same for the script ...

Re: Hironobu Sakaguchi Making a Comeback
 

Actually, I didn't realize Amano did the early FF stuff until recently. (I'm a rather new console gamer.) So for me, it's his other, more "upscale" stuff that I like.

I purchased a bootleg copy of D at the San Diego ComicCon /way/ back when, and my copy doesn't even have English translations. So.. I don't know just how bad the D script really is. I guess that's a good thing, eh? *lol*

But I do love the designs of Vagrant Story, and I can hardly wait for FFXII (even though I've not finished X and still have X-2 waiting around for "someday").

Re: Hironobu Sakaguchi Making a Comeback
 

I thought I remember reading in the credits of FF7 that the story was based on another story that was actually written by Sakagushi or something like that (so I'm guessing he had some sort of minimal input in the story of it?). I could be wrong though.