Hironobu Sakaguchi and his team are currently working on bringing the role-playing game “Fantasian” to consoles and PC. But what are the chances that Sakaguchi will work on another “Final Fantasy” project? The creator of the series explains.
In June, the developers of Mistwalker knownthat the mobile role-playing game “Fantasian” will find its way onto consoles and PC in winter 2024.
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The port is created under the name “Fantasian Neo Dimension”with Square Enix acting as the publisher of the project. Almost 20 years after leaving Square Enix, the creator of the “Final Fantasy” series is working with his former employer again.
This resulted in a by Bloomberg In an interview conducted, the question arose whether Sakaguchi could imagine returning to Square Enix to work on a new “Final Fantasy” title. The legendary game designer answered this question with a clear “no”.
From developer to player
A decision that Sakaguchi justified with the fact that he had in a way changed sides. While he was previously responsible for the classic “Final Fantasy” adventures, he is now one of the players and big fans of the online role-playing game “Final Fantasy 14”.
“Now I'm almost living in Final Fantasy 14,” said Sakaguchi, adding, “If I devote myself to the Final Fantasy brand again, I don't know if I'll be able to really enjoy Final Fantasy 14 as much.”
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At the moment he is particularly interested in the newly published Expansion “Dawntrail” As Sakaguchi admitted later in the interview, “Final Fantasy 14” sometimes even causes him to literally lose track of time.
It is said that a colleague had to log into “Final Fantasy 14” and inform Sakaguchi of an upcoming meeting via a private message.
Sakaguchi: “On rare occasions – I want to emphasize the word rare in this case – sometimes a member of the Mistwalker team will jump into Final Fantasy 14 and I'll see a message saying, 'Hey, the meeting has started.'”
Fantasian is being remastered for PC and consoles
Sakaguchi also says he has no interest in a return of “Blue Dragon” and “Lost Odyssey”. Instead, he and his team want to concentrate fully on the PC and console release of “Fantasian”. According to Sakaguchi, the role-playing game will receive various improvements on the new platforms.
These include support for 4K resolution, fully voiced dialogues, various quality-of-life optimizations, and a completely new level of difficulty.
As Sakaguchi noted, Mistwalker initially wanted to publish “Fantasian Neo Dimension” on its own. In the end, it was Naoki Yoshida, the producer and director of “Final Fantasy 14,” who brought up a possible publishing deal with Square Enix and thus arranged the corresponding negotiations.
“He's a very honest guy, very serious and has a lot of respect for the Final Fantasy series,” said Sakaguchi. “When I knew his character, my conscience was cleared and I thought I could trust him with this project.”
“Fantasian Neo Dimension” will be released for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Switch.
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