/vr/ - Retro Games

He was a hack and his work after leaving Squaresoft showcases it

>>5840161
>>5840174
You are both retarded. The excessive praise he gets is embarrassing but the irrational hate he gets is even more bizarre. How fucked in the head do you have to be to obsess about his life?

>>5840174
Nah, I think he made good games but lack of budget and opportunity took their toll. Last Story was great, so was Terra Battle, Terra Battle 2 was looking to be great but funding was cut and it may have been the deathblow for him and the company. He made great games and was one of the leaders of a great time in gaming. One of his biggest contributions was mentoring Nomura, who pretty much saved the company afterwards with a new big series in KH and smaller hits that kept up Square Enix's dwindling brand value like TWEWY. His philosophy on games made a huge influence, but ultimately although he saved the company and made many great things possible, he also led to its death and life is harsh. I can only think of what would have happened if instead of trying to hire foreigners and cater to a 'mainstream' audience they just made Advent Children at the time, which would have done much, much better and very influential with a big release.

>>5840161
give ,e the rundown
who is he what sid he do and whyd he get canned

>>5840308
Sakaguchi, he made Final Fantasy. He was the heart and soul that gave characters depth and the stories grandiose without going over the top. Square dumped him after the movie bombed. He went on to make Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey and The Last Story before switching fully to cell phone games.

OP is overblowing the whole thing but for reference he last had input on FFX, though somewhat limited. 1-9 he had major significant work on.

>>5840330
He went out strong with FF9 and didn't stick around to see the series go to shit, solid play from him. Blue Dragon was mediocre but had fantastic music, definitely the worst of the post-Square games, but Lost Odyssey is up there with the best JRPGs IMO. Those short stories are so damn good. I think he left Square at the best possible moment. Don't feel bad for a man who dodges a bullet.

FF post Sakaguchi and Matsuno and Uematsu and Sakimoto has been nothing but trash.
Whether you like Sakaguchi or not, he commanded a lot of respect and a lot of the greatness that made Squaresoft what it was went with him. Nobody wants to work for Gackt and Enix.

The fact that they canned him over the movie irks the fuck out of me. It sucks that it failed, but it wasn't THE WORST MOVIE EVER!!!111 like so many people seem to think it was, and the man had made Square so much money and put them on the fucking map--fuck Square.

>>5840187
This

>>5840330
>1-9 he had major significant work on.
Christ, I always felt like FFX and onward had a different feel to them and I could never understand why until now. I know he's not the only factor but really makes me wonder just what happened to Square.

>>5840161

He was a good but not great dev. His games were FF 1-5. They were fairly same-y high fantasy setting games. I only think 4 stands out among fans. After that he was promoted to Producer, where he shined. But it's FF6-7 that really exploded the series' popularity. That included changes in setting and story telling.

Anon, Square always sucked.

t. Falcom

>>5840606
If Sakaguchi stayed on board I am sure that FF13 and 15 would not be the God awful 2/3 automated combat.

>>5840476
Okay, you're making a qualitive judgement on his work, which is understandable, but the reason he was fired was because the movie almost bankrupted the company, it was an insanely bad idea.

>>5840918
I don't blame him as much as whoever wrote him a blank check for something he and the entire rest of the company had never done before.

Yu Suzuki had far greater contributions to the advancement of video games and got treated worse.

>>5840970
>incoming epic game store shitstorm incoming
yep time to take my leave.

>>5840976
You type with the redundancy of a child.

>>5840625
>t. Falcom

They actually seemed a lot more creative and innovating and did a better blend of anime and D&D style high fantasy better. Square didn't really hit their stride until the PS era.

>Blue Dragon
Cute, but painfully easy/simple. Wanted to finish it, but it just doesn't challenge any part of you including your mind after a while.

>Lost Odyssey
Good game, though also easy to break in mid-late game.

Surrounding himself with "World Class Talent" is an idea that sounds good, but to be honest the styles of these different artists/composers/scenario writers/etc didn't always mesh that well. It's like making a smoothie and just adding 15 random things you think taste good on their own and thinking it'll work.

And he only made 3 major titles before just kind of fading away. He either made some enemies somehow, or Mistwalker is horribly mismanaged and has no money or financial connections.

>>5841030
FF VIII sucks and IX is only decent. VI and VII are the reason the series is highly regarded like it or not

Going to have to check out his post-Square titles. Thanks bros.

>>5840476
The movie's pretty good. A lot better than almost every video game movie anyway.

>>5840613

Nasir did all the actual programming of the combat system. He was the only real programmer Square had, the rest werw fucking around in high level scripting languages. The reason Seiken 3 is such a buggy piece of shit is because Nasir who did all the programming for Mana left afterwards, and they didnt know how his code worked so they made a shoddy broken mess of the sequel. Nasir had to fax them code solutions sometimes at requests to fix their buggy broken mess for them.

So much for the 'genius' of Square.

>>5840187
>expressing your opinion about something is obssessive behavior
Stop using 4chan for a month so your brain can heal, get well soon.

>>5840476
>the man had made Square so much money and put them on the fucking map
But he left Square on his own accord after doing so anon, what are you talking about?

>>5840476
>>5840161
>>5840305
1. Quit posting like a hyperbolic sentimental faggot. This isn't reddit.
2. He didn't get canned. Japanese businesses rarely fire people. They just give a window seat for you twiddle your thumbs until you quit out of embarrassment/boredom.
3. Spirits Within bankrupted Square's movie department, and it was their only movie. It lost so much money that Enix put off their merger with Square until FFX and KH proved to be hits.
>>5841354
See point #2
>>5840970
>>5840976
Was even worse than Sakaguchi at managing money for big projects. At least Sakaguchi games could recoup their cost.
>incoming epic game store shitstorm incoming
Yes, said shitshorm showed that Sega was right

>>5840174
Lost Odyssey was god damn fantastic.

>>5840161
I am convinced Sakaguchi was carrying that company in terms of writing. After he left, we got shit stories like FFX-2 and KH2 and onwards.

>>5840161
cringe

>>5840161
Greatest video game producer of the 90s.

>>5840467
They should get Ito out of the janitors closet.

>>5840613
Nasir's programming was a fucking mess whether he was there or not. SoM will attest to that, faggot.

>>5840625
There would be no legend of heroes series without square's work (albeit xenogears was probably the biggest influence, most jrpgs trace a lot back to FF). The foundation they laid all while continuously pushing the envelope cannot be understated enough.

Which one came first, DQ or FF?

>>5841814
Fuck Xenogears and fuck Takahashi.

>>5841827
At the very least, the devs working on the kiseki games were pretty intellectually honest in their evaluation of xenogears. It takes a lot of the things it does well but hardly any of what it did poorly. The biggest one being that the 'depth' of the games is found within character-to-character interactions and side content whereas xenogears is full on text dumps and convolution after the arc with fei and elly more or less concludes.

>>5841838
Again, fuck it for being so full of it self that it choked on itself. Was there potential? Yes, but in the end it shit the bed.

>>5841417
This, but only like 17 people played it. Damn shame.

>>5840161
>Einstein
>physics
>Tesla
>electromagnetism

A fraud?

>>5841321
I saw it in theaters and we all left VERY pissed off about how bad it was. As a suburban kid I went to movies every other weekend and never sat through anything so bad in my life, even when choosing random movies I didn't know anything about. It was really bizarre and bad at the time

>>5842114
>tesla
>fraud
Despite op overly praising Sakaguchi. Your just much of a tard

>>5842152
>he totally did to make that death ray

>>5841341
I'm talking about anons like this guy: >>5841325 obsessed with industry figures and drama from 20-30 years ago and who invent colorful narratives with those characters.

>>5841947
Would have done better if it wasn't an Xbox 360 exclusive.

>>5842521
But it was. Because Sony refused to fund it and prefered funding western trash.

>>5842476
>and he totally did not revolutionize the way we use electricity, giving rise to hobbies such as video games

>>5842703
>he did one thing
>so he can't have done another thing
>zoomer logic

>>5842696
Could have at least had a PC port.

>>5842932
How could he be a fraud while also actually doing the thing people are saying was fradulant? That makes little sense, unless you're saying he was a fraud in other ways that the poster wasn't addressing in his comment.

Some real boomer logic.

>>5840161
He definitely is the greatest game producer of all time.

>>5840467
At least we still have Kawazu. Romancing SaGa 3 and SaGa Scarlet Graces coming soon. Of all the people at Square, I wonder why he's still around. He's always made the weirdest stuff. Why didn't they can him, of all people?

>>5842932
>did the thing he sought to do (revolutionize electricity)
>still a fraud
Pick one (1).

It's funny how brainwashed Sakaguchi apologists always bitch and moan about Nomura/Gackt bullshit when Sakaguchi himself was the man that empowered that sort of thinking and put Nomura in a position of power, let alone lead the company to his death, put FF in first place at the cost of everything else and also shamelessly monetized the brand by renaming other IPs, rebranding other IPs by buying the teams, pull le ebin FF cameos in other IPs and whatever else, let alone kill another company (despite being propped to hell by fucking M$ of all things) with his utter incompetence and egomania.
It's also funny how he's somehow the "father" of FF to those deranged minds when he barely did anything of actual value and the series' team disbanded after the first two games, after which he did nothing but copying DQ or rehashing the first two games with a few tweaks and gimmicks to oblivion, and eventually went full moviegame starting with FF6.
But sure, do tell me how a man of such supposed talent somehow killed two companies and can't even get by with mobile games nowadays.
>>5841814
>There would be no legend of heroes series without square's work (albeit xenogears was probably the biggest influence, most jrpgs trace a lot back to FF)
Eiyuu Densetsu started in 1989 you fucking idiot, it was nothing like FF and Xenogears influenced fucking nothing about it.

>>5840467
>Matsuno
Bigger hack than Nomura

No one gives a fuck about his pretentious political intrigue that’s not the least bit intriguing

>>5843456
>the thing people are saying was fradulant?
What exactly is that thing sport?

>>5843684
>he only sought to do one thing
Just because the only thing you've ever sought to do is underage shitpost doesn't mean other people haven't tried to do more than one thing.

Sure is summer in here

>>5843530
They did for a while after Unlimited Saga, but he nutted up and shutted himself up obediently so after ten years they allow him to have his own little mobile game unit.

>>5843740
But those are all reasons why Sakaguchi is based.
Unironically though why are the anti-Sakaguchi posters on this board the ones that seem most filled with rage. Like holy shit I can smell the onion-scented perspiration coming out of their posts.

>>5841341
See anon? Here he is, just a bit late: >>5843740
A fucking nutcase.

>>5843530
>Of all the people at Square, I wonder why he's still around.
Because unlike a certain has-been he likes to make games instead of putting his name on other people's work and call it a day when he gets the money.
>Why didn't they can him, of all people?
Because japs rarely fire people and he's the japanese equivalent of Richard Garriot, firing him would be a massive blow to Square's image as a company when people refer to him as a god among RPG designers.

>>5843740
should've specified the trails/kiseki series in particular as being xg inspired, sorry. still, ff and dq were pretty influential to pretty much every rpg in the 90s

>>5843971
>Sure is summer in here
The irony being that you are the cancer that is killing the board, while at the same time calling people who are 31 underage.

>>5844042
>why are the anti-Sakaguchi posters on this board the ones that seem most filled with rage.
Are they, really?
A better question would be why /vr/ still persists in venerating somebody who has been exposed as a hack time and again and pretend other people are mad about Square's Inafune rapid descent into irrelevance, the copious amount of /v/ tier buzzwords sure don't help either.

>>5844528
When will will you faggots lean that a 31 year old millennial has a mental age of 13?

>>5844789
You seem like you have the mental age of a newborn.

>>5844863
kek, or at the very least, this retard ironically has the mental age of an edgy teenager who smokes mall weed and hangs out at the arcade while listening to Marilyn Manson.

>>5844640
>Are they, really?
you're proving it conclusively

>>5844863
You realize you're basically saying you're so retarded you don't know what a newborn is, right?

>>5845073
Yes.

>>5845030
Seems to me the only one mad in here is you, bub.
People who dislike Sakaguchi never really make threads about him because they don't care (surprisingly).
Still, whenever you people do hear any sort of criticism in these borderline idol threads you all get defensive and pretend people have a personal vendetta against the man for some reason, and what boggles the mind is that only Sakaguchi gets this first class treatment here, not even Romero has such a powerful and dedicated internet defense force on /vr/.

Kitase was better

>>5840643
>If Sakaguchi stayed on board I am sure that FF13 and 15 would not be the God awful 2/3 automated combat.

How? Sakaguchi's games never were good in the combat's area.
I think the problem isn't that he is a good talent or not, is that his fans try to make him be the mind behind every FF game between 1 and 9, when this is a lie.

I prefer Atlus and Falcoon games than anything than he did after he left Square, and the companies too, because Microsoft doesn't want to be near to him, tho.

Feel people love to link him leaving to the decline of Final Fantasy but personally the series never had much stable enjoyment for me. Some games were very well done while others were pretty bad. Guess my only real thought is he really shouldn't be given director role regarding that movie. So Square putting him in a position where leaving might be the best for him (Japan business is weird in how they treat people they wish they could fire but don't) was pretty dickish on their part.

>>5845118
>implying OP isn't obvious bait

>>5847576
> So Square putting him in a position where leaving might be the best for him (Japan business is weird in how they treat people they wish they could fire but don't)
Actually sounds alright, they give the person in question time to search for another proper job instead of twitter lynch mob actively sabotaging somebody's chances of ever working in the field again like you do in America.

>>5840161
>This man is to video games as Einstein is to physics, or Tesla is to electromagnetism.
Inaccurate. Sakaguchi is to JARPIGS as Einstein is to physics and Tesla is to electromagnetism. Video games as a whole would likely be Carmack.

>>5847610
...wat?

Typical in America business just fires people without any warning taking away any benefit they might have all on the same day.

>>5840161
wrong pic, ops.

It is really sad. As far as I'm concerned, square's IPs keep making money. Nothing of that would have happened without him coming up with the FF franchise. And I think it is quite stupid to look down on him because that failure of a movie.

>>5847610
The lynch mob mentality you're talking about only applies in media jobs, clearly you've either never worked a day in your life or are some sort of celebrity, I know which one I'd put money on.

>>5845118
>only one mad in here is you
You weren't even replying to the same guy, me lol

>>5849014
>The lynch mob mentality you're talking about only applies in media jobs
no it doesn't
see James Damore
that's just the most recent one I know of, I stopped following SJW lynch mobs it's too infuriating and I have my own responsibilities

>>5849168
>emailed coworkers about the stupid "men are from mars women are from venus" bullshit
>shocked he got fired
It's not 1950's you know

>>5840161
>greatest tragedy
No, this is the greatest tragedy

>>5849183
Some people are gullible enough to believe the SJW narrative, yes.

>>5841417
PC/Switch/whatever port when

>>5840161
Assuming you're talking about when he fucked up with that movie and lost Square a zillion dollars - He continued to produce games long after that you fucking idiot.
Microsoft gave him shitloads and he funded a new studio and they put out several cool titles.
Then he made a fantastic game for the wii as well. Are you living under a rock?
>>5840330
>1-9 he had major significant work on.
Nope. 1-5 he did.
6, 7 8 and 10 were made by Yoshinori Kitase (they're the best in the series too).
9 Was made by Hiroyuki Ito and it shows as it's one of the weakest in the series.

You guys need to learn who's actually making these games you claim to love because you all seem to have no fucking idea.

>>5846958
>is that his fans try to make him be the mind behind every FF game between 1 and 9, when this is a lie.
Shhh, don't disrupt the narrative.

>>5849782
Prove that he wasnt the mind behind ff1-9. If you cant prove it, you have to suicide.

>>5849778
4 and 5 are the best

>>5840161
He made a couple of rpg maker games. Loved them all when I was a tasteless child, but he isn't Einstein nor Tesla. He didn't go on to do better things. Stop sucking JP cock when you know nothing of their culture of working the youth to death and stealing all of the credit.

>>5840330
What phone games did he make?

>Is in charge of a video company that makes cutscenes and movies that rival the technology and storytelling of giants in Hollywood
>Decides to make a movie to see how it works out
>Movie gets mysteriously delayed
>Game and animation division suffers under Squaresofts name
>Movie flops
>Yochi Wada comes in
>Studio begins to make Kingdom Hearts games, the company is in disarray, staff politics gets worse, talent leaves and Final Fantasy brand gets damaged beyond repair
>Square sucks up to Disney even further, begins to publish Western games and makes Marvel games on top of it all
>Sakaguchi himself is no longer welcome even though he was a staple to the whole team
>Even though he helped set up the company and was a vital asset for quality standards and hiring talent
>The likes of Miyamoto are revered instead


Yeah, a very ((unfortunate)) situation alright.

>>5840330
>Square dumped him after the movie bombed.
he nearly bankrupted the company with said shitty movie, and they still let him stick around for a few more years after that. this idea that he was mistreated is ridiculous.

>>5849183
>say women at Google get treated better than men
>women cry foul, additionally sue Google for equal pay n sheet
>investigation results in statement that women are indeed treated and paid better than men

>>5851497
>sue them again
>don't be evil.

>>5849229
>pokemon colosseum
>custom robo
>"greatest tragedy"
The fuck kind of hipster sensibility is this

>>5842949
Thank Microsoft and their weird stint where they developed DirectX and made a console with literal PC hardware as well as using a customized version of Windows, but suddenly deciding that PC wasn't the market they should invest it. It wasn't until very recently when Microsoft started caring about Windows as a game platform, they were absolutely sure that PC gaming would fall into a niche and consoles would reign supreme. They were only half right, consoles are the dominant game platform, but their console isn't.

>>5850235
>Square [...] makes Marvel games on top of it all

Isn't just this upcoming Avengers game the only Marvel property Square has had input with? That being said, the game being called "Square Enix's Avengers" is misleading, I was hoping it was developed by Square themselves to see what sort of batshit re-imaginings they'd come up with, like picrel, Nomura's Batman. Instead it's another western developed game with by-the-numbers direction and appeal.

>>5850171
t.westcuck.

>>5854670
Feel because it's tied with the movies so they have way more restraint on what they allowed. Than say the new Marvel Alliance game which is just a blend of everything and so is allowed to be more weird in what they can do.

>>5843742
Alpha and Omega yikes.

>>5850337
Sakaguchi fans are literal cultists.

>>5840161
Greatest videogame producer ever. Guy just had an eye for talent.

I'm genuinely ignorant on what his actual role was in FF games and to what extent a "director" has as far as RPGs go.

He wasn't one of the combat designers, job designers, the writers, the artists, or the composers which are all arguably the only things that are notable with FF to begin with. Did he just sit back and let the big boys do all the real work while signing off?

>>5855673
Sakaguchi haters apparently can't even count years.

>>5855592
Ultimate Alliance 3 is a weird game. The first two games (and the legends series that predated them) were multiplatform Diablo likes, but this one is a switch exclusive musou? Did Nintendo cough up a hefty sum of money for it to be exclusive? It's about as odd as making CoD from an fps released on all platforms to a mahjong game released only on the Zeebo.

>>5841341
it's gonna take longer than a month, i'm afraid.

>>5850337
>let him stick around
Japanese businesses almost never fire someone, they just promote/demote them to a pointless, obscure position until they leave themselves.

>>5840476
They didn't can him just because the movie was bad, they canned him because it was a huge gamble and they lost money making it. Enix was reluctant to merge with them while they were losing money and they even had to borrow money from Sony.

>>5855884
>Did he just sit back and let the big boys do all the real work while signing off?
Pretty much, yeah.

the gooch has to be the most overrated of all video game developers.

>>5841429
I’d believe it.
Ignoring the FF/TO war stories (which are interesting-ish but different) the only on-par FF story are parts of the MMO. (and if you ignore sidequests only really the latest expansion)

>>5849183
>emailed coworkers
No? He put it on a internal company board encouraging exactly that kind of shit (because googlers are a bunch of retards who want to open up the company to lawsuits), except it wasn’t part of the regular leftist circlejerk and got him in trouble nearly a year after when some SJW leaked it to witchhunter media outlets.

>>5856507
>Sakaguchi
>Developer
He's just a suit, always has been.

>>5856540
That is a strange way to spell director.

>>5855886
he nearly bankrupted square with his shitty movie in 2001, but didn't leave the company until 2004. between the movie and his departure, he was still an executive producer for a bunch of games. but please do explain how square treated him badly.

>>5855907
Moving from Activision to Koei really seem to mess some things up. I wouldn't say it's as big of a change the comparison but it is something weird since Diablo like loot games has always been the fun part of Alliance so to move that to more of a brawler (and not a good one at that) is a strange one.

>>5840187
Based enlightened centrist

That stache though

>>5856702
>i take cock in all my boiholes

>>5857324
Stop projecting

>>5857420
>no u
slick burn kiddo

He is the Einstein of jrpgs, not vidya as a whole.

>>5856630
Directors aren't necessarily suits, Sakaguchi definitely was though, and not even a particularly smart one given how he crashed and burned not once but twice, Kitase alone shames him and he's not a particularly smart suit either, although he's thrice the director and actual developer.