A legend of Japanese RPGs wants to revisit his older video games.
Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of the Final Fantasy games for Square Enix, wants to make sequels for some of his more recent titles.
Sakaguchi gave a talk at the PAX Prime convention, titled "Hironobu Sakaguchi Reflection: Past, Present, Future of RPGs," speaking through a translator. Discussing the games he made at his company Mistwalker after he left Square, such as Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey and The Last Story, Sakaguchi was interested in revisiting those worlds.
"Just between some of us that worked on it, we would hope or we talk about it once in awhile that we'd like to," Sakaguchi said. "All those IPs, there isn't a continuation or a series. Nothing's confirmed, but again, it would be nice to be able to work on a continuation of my old creations."
It isn't out of the realm of possibilities. When he was asked during the panel if a new The Last Story game was possible, Sakaguchi answered, in English, "Ok, yeah, you talk to Nintendo." The moderator asked the audience who would want to see a sequel of The Last Story on Wii U, and the audience cheered. Sakaguchi responded, "And maybe PlayStation 4 too?"
Sakaguchi also discussed sequels to a Square game he worked on as a designer, the beloved time-travelling roleplaying game Chrono Trigger, released in 1995 for the Super Nintendo. "We wanted to continue it as a series," Sakaguchi said. "But -- and I think the statue of limitations has passed and expired so I think I'm okay saying this -- but we just didn't see eye-to-eye with management, and so I went and fought for it, and I officially lost the battle."
Square would eventually release a successor named Chrono Cross in 1999 for PlayStation 1. No other sequels have been released.
Final Fantasy is a venerable role-playing game series from Japan that began in 1987 for the original Nintendo console. Sakaguchi worked on the popular series, as game director or executive producer, from game to the next. His last Final Fantasy title was 2006's Final Fantasy XII for PlayStation 2.
In 2004, Sakaguchi left Square to form his own company, Mistwalker. There, he worked on RPGs Blue Dragon (2006) and Lost Odyssey (2007) for Xbox 360, as well as The Last Story (2011) for Nintendo Wii.
His next game is a mobile roleplaying game called Terra Battle, which launches for Android and iOS devices in September.
