Final Fantasy boss Kitase explains why he didn’t quit when his mentor Sakaguchi left Square

Final Fantasy brand manager Yoshinori Kitase has explained why he didn’t decide to leave Square Enix when his mentor and Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi did.

Kitase joined the main Final Fantasy series with Final Fantasy 5, where he served as field planner, event planner and scenario writer. He then went on to direct Final Fantasy 6, 7 and 8 while Sakaguchi produced.

Sakaguchi then left Square Enix (then just ‘Square’) in 2001, and has said in previous interviews that he feels like he passed the torch on to Kitase when he did.

Now, in an interview on Simon Parkin’s My Perfect Console podcast, Kitase explains the two main reasons he chose not to leave Square Enix at the same time as his mentor.

“Around that time, around the year 2000, that was when we were planning many Final Fantasy mainline titles ahead: 10, 11, 12 and so on,” he says . “These were all currently being planned and in discussion.

“And with Sakaguchi-san being this mentor, someone I had worked alongside and grown with from within the company, of course it was a very sombre time for me to experience his leaving.”

Kitase explains that although Sakaguchi seemingly felt ready to leave Square Enix having left a great legacy behind him, Kitase was still trying to leave his own mark.

“While Sakaguchi-san, I believe, was this creator who had established this history for himself, and had worked on these various projects throughout his legacy and time here, I was still feeling as though I was still forming my vision, and still working towards that, so that was one of the reasons I felt like staying,” he says.

His second reason, he explains, is that he wanted to continue to be a part of the Final Fantasy series so that Sakaguchi would have an easier connection point should he ever decide to return.

This reasoning ended up proving true with 2016 mobile game Mobius Final Fantasy, which featured a crossover event featuring characters from Terra Battle, a game created by Sakaguchi’s new studio Mistwalker.

“I felt that I truly wanted Sakaguchi-san to have this point of connection with the Final Fantasy series despite his departure, so that was another consideration,” Kitase says.

“Of course, once he went independent there wasn’t a connection back to Final Fantasy until 2016 with Mobius Final Fantasy, which was the smartphone game. That was the first time since Sakaguchi-san had left that he was able to promote and be connected to the Final Fantasy franchise again, with Terra Battle.

Further reading

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Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi says he’s started work on a new project

Sakaguchi's last game, Fantasian, may be coming to PC

“Nowadays he can be seen again with promos for the Pixel Remaster, or through the Fan Fest, and he continues to retain his connection there, but that was also a consideration for me.”

Sakaguchi’s last game was Fantasian, an Apple Arcade exclusive RPG he wrote and produced.

An apparent Steam database entry for Fantasian was spotted back in August 2023, suggesting that the game’s Apple Arcade exclusivity may be coming to an end and a PC port may be coming. As yet, however, nothing has been officially announced.