Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi has admitted that he “cheated” on Nintendo when the series moved over to PlayStation.
During an interview (via), Final Fantasy creators Hironobu Sakaguchi and Naoki Yoshida were asked to share their experience when developing from mobile into consoles. In response, Sakaguchi stated that, Nakamura, the main programmer at Square Enix who also served as the director of the project, is a very talented engineer who solved a lot of issues pertaining to different types of interfaces with ease. According to Sakaguchi, there are a lot of areas he doesn’t necessarily have a very high resolution view of, but Nakamura was fighting everyday in terms of trying to make sure the experience was the best it possibly could be.
Sakaguchi also looked back at his career and highlighted how he got a huge part of his start from the NES and Nintendo. According to him, without the NES, none of his accomplishments would have been possible. But then, he also admitted that he “cheated” on Nintendo and took the Final Fantasy series to PlayStation. However, whether it was Nintendo or Sony, he said that both companies in addition to Final Fantasy VI kind of represent a lot of his origin story in terms of his career development.
The Final Fantasy creator then talked about Fantasian, and whether it could be the last game he works on as a creator. He discussed not only bringing the game to Apple arcade, but also bringing it over to both PlayStation and Nintendo platforms, thanks to Square Enix. As per him, it feels like a huge high school reunion. He expressed that it is a very touching moment for him that’s very thought-provoking. He also shared that he recently became a grandfather for the first time, so he feels a range of different emotions as well as nostalgia.
