Final Fantasy Creator ‘Excited’ About New Game

Key Takeaways

• Hironobu Sakaguchi is excited about the new mystery game he’s developing.
• The Final Fantasy creator recently stated that he was glad he reconsidered retiring, calling game development “more of a pleasure than a job now.”
• The developer has stated that he won’t be returning to work on future entries in the Final Fantasy series.

Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi is excited for fans to see his next big game project. Sakaguchi was already a fairly prolific game designer by the time he released the original Final Fantasy in 1987, spawning a massive JRPG franchise that has continued to generate new fans to this day. While working for Square Enix, he also had a hand in other beloved games, like Super Mario RPG, Xenogears, and Parasite Eve before leaving to fund his own studio called Mistwalker in 2004.

Under Mistwalker, Hironobu Sakaguchi worked with the late Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama on Blue Dragon, devised the story of Lost Odyssey for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console, and directed 2011’s The Last Story for the Nintendo Wii. By the time Mistwalker started work on the 2021 mobile RPG Fantasian, Sakaguchi suggested that he would soon retire from video game development, though he eventually changed his mind and announced that he was working on yet another new game in late 2023.

Sakaguchi recently brought up his next project during an interview with Famitsu (via VGC). While speaking about the upcoming Fantasian Neo Dimension, an updated re-release of the aforementioned Fantasian that will bring the RPG to consoles and PC later this year, Sakaguchi stated that he was glad he reconsidered retiring, explaining that that he is excited about the new game Mistwalker is currently developing. While he gave no further details about this mystery project, he did say that it is being developed by most of the same team from Fantasian.

Final Fantasy Creator Hironobu Sakaguchi Is Working on a New Game

The Final Fantasy creator went on to describe how “fun” game development is, calling it “more of a pleasure than a job now.” He also said that he is about to become a grandfather and that he wishes to channel the excitement he feels into his next gaming project. As mentioned before, this project is still a mystery as of this writing, but Mistwalker recently filed a patent for the potential title Fantasian: Dark Edge, suggesting that the developer’s new game could be a sequel to the studio’s hit RPG.

Sakaguchi has stated in the past that he has no intention of returning to Final Fantasy, though he has kept up with the series and shared his opinions on recent entries like Final Fantasy 16. As such, his next project could be something new entirely, possibly even branching out from the JRPG framework that he helped revolutionize with the Final Fantasy series. One thing is certain though: Hironobu Sakaguchi is hailed as a legend in the gaming industry, and any new title he works on will likely be met with excitement from his legions of fans.