Final Fantasy Creator forms new Game Studio

[The Kernel]

The man described as the "father of Final Fantasy," Hironobu Sakaguichi, has founded his own independent development company, which is working on a new console role-playing game and is considering next-generation development.

Called Mist Walker, the studio has apparently been running in some form since mid-2001, and Sakaguichi hopes to attract significant talent to work on its projects - naming famous artist and Final Fantasy character designer Yoshitaka Amano and hugely popular manga artist Takehiko Inoue as possible future collaborators in an interview with Famitsu Weekly.

Sakaguichi was series director on the Final Fantasy series from the outset and climbed high in the Squaresoft (now Square Enix) management structure before accepting a demotion after the company made major losses on movie project Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.

Although he continued to be credited as executive producer on Final Fantasy games including Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy XI, it's thought that his actual involvement was minimal - and on Final Fantasy X-2, he is not credited at all, the first Final Fantasy game not to include his name in the credit roll.

It's not clear whether Sakaguichi has left Square Enix to work at Mist Walker, or if Mist Walker is a spin-off of Square Enix - perhaps similar to Capcom's Clover Studio initiative. Further information about the studio should be forthcoming in the near future, when its Japanese website is launched.

This is important news to all us Japanese RPG fans since Sakaguichi is pretty much the father of the entire genre. No news on titles yet, but this is great news for all us Chrono fans since its well known that Sakaguichi's favorite pet project of all was the Chrono series and if anyone is going to continue it, its going to be him. Now that he's helming his own studio and Square doesn't seem too interested in the property anymore, a new Chrono game seems far more likely.

[Joe]

Yuji Horii has more of a claim to being "father of the genre" than Sakaguchi, though Sakaguchi's work, not Horii's, ultimately was probably more influential.

This is interesting news, though I am kind of saddened to see Sakaguchi go. Things have changed so much...

[sketerpot]

This is important news to all us Japanese RPG fans since Sakaguichi is pretty much the father of the entire genre. No news on titles yet, but this is great news for all us Chrono fans since its well known that Sakaguichi's favorite pet project of all was the Chrono series and if anyone is going to continue it, its going to be him. Now that he's helming his own studio and Square doesn't seem too interested in the property anymore, a new Chrono game seems far more likely.

While a new Chrono game would be nice, doesn't Square still own the rights to them? They might set the price too high for a little company like this.

[The Kernel]

While a new Chrono game would be nice, doesn't Square still own the rights to them? They might set the price too high for a little company like this.

That's actually a complex issue because we still don't know if this new studio is a spinoff of Square or not. The date of the founding suggests that it is, but it is quite possible that it's not.

If it is a spinoff then Square would likely welcome their new sub-studio publishing their first game on an established license. If it isn't, we are still dealing with a man that was a virtual God at the old Squaresoft and he could probably still secure the license (especially since the article suggests that this new studio is quite well funded). And remember that Chrono has historically been a game that was seen as a joint effort between studios, so this wouldn't be out of line from that perspective either.

[Joe]

And are you sure Sakaguchi really wants to do it? He had very little or nothing at all to do with Chrono Cross, IIRC.

[The Kernel]

And are you sure Sakaguchi really wants to do it? He had very little or nothing at all to do with Chrono Cross, IIRC.

You are mistaken, Sakaguchi was the only member of the "Dream Team" to work on Chrono Cross and he was the driving force behind it. I'm not sure with what he was specifically credited, but CC was under his direct control creatively.