We may be looking at the end of an era. Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi says the game he’s working on right now, The Last Story for the Nintendo Wii, “might be [his] last work.” Reason? Well, he’s not a young kid anymore. He’s 47, which isn’t old by any means, but it does take a lot out of you to keep making game after game, especially the RPGs he specializes in. Gotta put your tools down at some point.
Sakaguchi was pretty much the man at Square until the movie Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within bombed. (Was it really that bad of a movie? I saw it a few years ago and didn’t think it was as bad as I’d thought it would be.) Square spent quite a bit of money creating the movie, and with nigh zero return on its investment, well, Sakaguchi left the company. That’s “the story,” at least.
He later went on to found Mistwalker Studios, which created Blue Dragon for the Xbox 360 for Microsoft.
He also has an impressive mustache. Goes without saying, really.