Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi can't stay away, says he's taking back his retirement plans because making games "may be more of a pleasure than a job"

Final Fantasy series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi says he reversed course on his retirement plans because he simply loves making games that much.

In a machine-translated Famitsu interview, Sakaguchi confirmed he’s still working with the same team behind the 2021 mobile RPG Fantasian, which is finally getting a console and PC release this winter, on a brand new project, although he had no new updates to provide.

“I made Fantasian thinking it might really be a retirement piece, but yes, I am withdrawing it,” Sakaguchi said. “We are starting to make progress on a new work … which means we are working on a new one.”

This isn’t a new announcement, by the way. We first learned back in December 2022 that Sakaguchi was working on a “dark fantasy” game after he made comments suggesting Fantasian could be his final project. In November 2023, he again affirmed he was working on a new “dark fantasy” game, and at the top of this year he revealed he’d finished a plot outline despite being kept thoroughly busy playing Final Fantasy 14.

Now, for the first time, he’s given one definitive reason he decided against leaving game development, and it’s really simple: “One thing I can say is that game production is fun. It may be more of a pleasure than a job.”

He continued: “It may be that I am getting older, but I really feel that friends are really nice. I am excited to be able to develop games with everyone again. On a personal note, I am expecting a grandchild soon. I hope to incorporate what I feel at that time into the new game.”

The idea of Sakaguchi drawing from his experience as a new grandparent is exciting – much, if not all, of his best work was directly shaped by powerful experiences and emotions. Welcoming a new family member would certainly fit that bill. One way or the other, I’d imagine many JRPG fans are happy to hear we haven’t seen the last of Sakaguchi. He only recently reconnected with Square Enix after decades away, which he described as “like returning to your home in the countryside, this old home that your parents always had.”

Find out which Final Fantasy game made our list of the best JRPGs ever made.

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