From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article should be translated (or additional material should be added) from material at ja:坂口博信. See also Wikipedia:Translation

Hironobu Sakaguchi (坂口 博信, Sakaguchi Hironobu^?) (born November 25, 1962) is a Japanese game designer, game director and game producer. He is famous around the world as the creator of the Final Fantasy series.

Contents 1 Early Years 2 Square Co., Ltd. 3 Gaming career 4 Time as Film Director 5 Resignation from Square 6 Awards 7 Mistwalker 8 Games credited 9 External links

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

This section does not cite its references or sources. Please help improve this article by introducing appropriate citations. (help, get involved!) This article has been tagged since February 2007.

On leaving the university, Sakaguchi co-founded Square Co., Ltd. (now known as Square Enix Co., Ltd.) with Masafumi Miyamoto in September of 1983, which was a newly formed branch of Denyūsha Electric Company at the time.^{[citation needed]}. Shortly following that, he became the Director of Planning and Development for that company. Their first games were very unsuccessful. Sakaguchi then decided to create his final work in the game industry with the rest of Square's money, hence naming 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 became an instant hit across Japan, and surprised even himself how well it did, and Sakaguchi came out of his retirement following the success. 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 Final Fantasy IV for te Super Famicom (also known internationally as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System), he was honored with the position of Executive Vice President^{[citation needed]}. 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^{[citation needed]}. 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.

Sakaguchi has had a long career in gaming with over 80 million units of video games sold worldwide.

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 and leading to the closure of Square Pictures.

Sakaguchi voluntarily stepped down from his post as an executive vice president at Square. This event also reduced Square's financial capital. Square then merged with their rival, the Enix Corporation, which led straight into the present day Square Enix in 2003. Sakaguchi then resigned his position at Square, and founded Mistwalker with the financial backing of Microsoft Game Studios.

In 2000, Sakaguchi became the third person inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame.

In 2001, he founded Mistwalker, which began operation three years later in 2004. In February 2005, it was announced that Mistwalker would be working with Microsoft Game Studios to produce two computer role-playing games for the Xbox 360. Still, his company remains independent to console exclusitivity. Apart from Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey, Sakaguchi is also producing ASH: Archaic Sealed Heat for Nintendo DS.

Hironobu Sakaguchi has been credited, in some capacity, with the following games. This list was taken from MobyGames.com.

• ASH: Archaic Sealed Heat
• Cry On
• Lost Odyssey (2007)
• Blue Dragon (2006)
• Final Fantasy XII (2006)
• Kingdom Hearts II (2005)
• Final Fantasy VII Advent Children (2004) (note: this is a computer generated movie)
• Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (2003)
• Final Fantasy X-2 (2003)
• Final Fantasy XI (2002)
• Final Fantasy Origins (2002)
• Kingdom Hearts (2002)
• Driving Emotion Type-S (2001)
• Final Fantasy Chronicles (2001)
• Final Fantasy X (2001)
• The Bouncer (2000)
• Final Fantasy IX (2000)
• Vagrant Story (2000)
• Chocobo Racing (1999)
• Chrono Cross (1999)
• Final Fantasy Anthology (1999)
• Final Fantasy VIII (1999)
• Front Mission 3 (1999)
• Parasite Eve II (1999)
• Saga Frontier 2 (1999)
• Brave Fencer Musashi (1998)
• Bushido Blade 2 (1998)
• Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon 2 (1998)
• Ehrgeiz (1998)
• Parasite Eve (1998)
• Xenogears (1998)
• Bushido Blade (1997)
• Einhänder (1997)
• Final Fantasy Tactics (1997)
• Final Fantasy VII (1997)
• Bahamut Lagoon (1996)
• Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (1996)
• Tobal No.1 (1996)
• Chrono Trigger (1995)
• Seiken Densetsu 3 (1995)
• Final Fantasy VI (1994)
• Final Fantasy V (1992)
• Final Fantasy IV (1991)
• Final Fantasy III (1990)
• Final Fantasy II (1988)
• Final Fantasy (1987)
• Rad Racer (1987)

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