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Career Square (1983–2003) ĭuring his time at Square, he was first involved in an unlicensed adaptation of television game show Torin-ingen, then later became part of the team for The Death Trap.
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At this point, Sakaguchi still dreamed of becoming a professional musician, but felt that working for a company like Square would provide him with needed programming experience in the meantime. The interview was quite informal, and Sakaguchi was hired. Sakaguchi applied as Square was a new company and not as exacting as other larger companies such as Namco and Konami. They found work with Square, a newly-formed subsidiary of electric power conglomerate Den-Yu-Sha, formed by Masafumi Miyamoto to tap into the emerging video game market. In 1983 towards the end of their third university year, Sakaguchi and Tanaka were both looking for part-time work in the electronics sector.
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Realizing that he needed funds to buy software for his computer, he began to seek a part-time job to earn the necessary income. Since he could not afford one, he instead purchased a knockoff in the Akihabara district, which, although cheaper than an actual Apple II, was still expensive. Sakaguchi's programming studies led him to desire an Apple II of his own. Through Tanaka, Sakaguchi got access to an Apple II computer on which he played and fell in love with Wizardry, frequently skipping classes to play it. He was a computer science major at Yokohama National University, becoming friends with fellow student Hiromichi Tanaka. Having little to no interest in gaming at the time, his aim was to become a musician. He enjoyed playing piano in elementary school, and during high school played the folk guitar and formed an amateur band with some friends and classmates, almost getting himself expelled by selling homemade concert tickets.
Notable elements of his youth were finding rock samples in a local quarry and gathering a collection of polished stones from an interested geologist, and reading through his mother's large library. His parents were from Kyushu, and he would visit there frequently with his family in his childhood. Hironobu Sakaguchi was born on November 25, 1962, in Hitachi, a city in Ibaraki Prefecture. He has received several industry honours acknowledging his contribution to and influence on video games. He is also credited with direct or indirect influence on multiple Square Enix projects including Kingdom Hearts. Several of his projects after Final Fantasy III, including Final Fantasy VII and The Spirits Within, were influenced by his thoughts on what happened after death following the loss of his mother in an accident at that time. He continued his game career through Mistwalker, first co-developing projects through external partners and then smaller in-studio mobile projects.īorn in Hitachi, Ibaraki Prefecture, he now lives in Honolulu, Hawaii where one of Mistwalker's offices is based. Following the financial failure of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, his debut as a film director, Sakaguchi withdrew from Square's management and eventually resigned in 2003. He led development on several titles before helping to create the original Final Fantasy, which proved highly successful and cemented his status within the company. Originally intending to become a musician, he briefly studied electronics and programming, joining Square as part-time employee, then later a full-time employee when Square became an independent company in 1986.
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At Mistwalker, he is known for creating the Blue Dragon and Terra Battle series among several standalone titles, moving away from home consoles and creating titles for mobile platforms. He is known as the creator of the Final Fantasy franchise, in addition to other titles during his time at Square. Originally working for Square (later Square Enix) from 1983 to 2003, he departed the company and founded independent studio Mistwalker in 2004. Hironobu Sakaguchi ( 坂口 博信, Sakaguchi Hironobu, born November 25, 1962) is a Japanese game designer, director, producer and writer.