The last fantasy of Hironobo Sakaguti. History of the creator Final Fantasy

No real developer will tell you that making games is just. So Hironobu Sakaguti, one of the most famous gamemeracies in the world, did not count. And from his hard share, he was so tired so that he even thought to quit everything and find himself a “normal”, well -paid job that was in a greater held held held in Japan of those years. He decided to leave loudly, "slamming the door", and for this he created his last, as he thought, project – Final Fantasy. Only now the game turned out to be so successful that it became, in fact, only the beginning of his real career.

Start

Sakaguti was born in 1962 and from childhood loved to tell stories. True, he did not decide to become a developer right away – he spent most of the youth of Sakaguti, dreaming of becoming a musician. Hironobu wrote simple compositions and even performed songs of his own essay, but, alas, did not achieve more: the strict father was categorically against his hobby.

Hironobo Sakaguti.

After some time, like another well-known Japanese developer Hideo Kojima, Hironobu was carried away by cinema and literature: "Star Wars" , creativity of Hayao Miyazaki, "Terminator" James Cameron and Scientific and Fantastic novels. And while studying at the university, the time has come for slot machines and computer games like Wizardry, had a huge influence on the young Hironob. And giving a dream: to make projects that, according to emotional and artistic influence on the viewer, are ahead of cinema.

Fortunately, study at the Faculty of Technology of the University of Iokogama was fruit: Sakaguti learned to program and began to write his first simple games. And when a computer appeared on the market Nes , Hironobu saw in the game industry a chance to break out of poverty. Unlike many skeptics of that time, he sincerely believed that the future behind computer technology.

Therefore, having abandoned the university, he became a studio employee at twenty -one years old Square – Then still a small unit of a large company Denyuusha (Independent Square will become a little later, in 1986). There he received a high -profile position of "Director for Planning and Development", although he was at first engaged in one programming.

And again he.

But it cannot be said that this completely suited the young developer. According to Sakaguti himself, that time was amazing for him: he learned many things, tried to create and was full of optimism.

But there were enough difficulties.

Firstly, the difficult financial situation of Hironobu affected. Then Square I fitted in a small rented apartment, but it was a luxury for Sakaguti: unlike his own home, there were air conditioning and even a normal bath. So the Japanese developer often literally dwells and spent the night at work.

Secondly, I almost did not receive the pleasure of the work of Hironoba at first: it was necessary to do only those projects that had commercial potential. Therefore, at first the visual novel came out of the hands of Sakaguti The Death Trap – The first game for which he wrote the script. She did not use the players or the critics with success, but she helped Hironol realize his strengths: he decided to tell stories.

The Death Trap

Following a vertical scroll-player appeared King’s Knight , twisted around the salvation of the princess. This project is notable for the fact that it was with it that the long cooperation of Sakaguti and composer Nobuo Wematsu began. Then there was a racing game Rad Racer (in Japan it was called Highway Star ) where it was necessary to avoid obstacles. AND The 3-D Battles of Worldrunner – a hybrid of a shooter and a platformer, which largely copied the popular in those days Space Harrier. At some point, the Japanese had a chance to work even on one of the first dates-of the date- NAKAYAMA MIHOO No Tokimeki High School.

And although the work of the Sakaguti team was sold relatively well and were technologically advanced, it did not save Square from bankruptcy. And most importantly, not one of these games was able to give Hironob satisfaction: all of them were just copies of other successful projects.

In the end, he decided that his next creation would be the last, and asked for permission to fulfill his old dream – to develop RPG. And although he began to copy again (this time he inspired him Dragon Quest), he did it wisely.

Funny fact: initially the first part of Final Fantasy was called Fighting Fantasy, but then Hironobo decided to change the name and emphasize that the project will be its last.

In his “final fantasy”, as the Sakaguti project called, he and the team came up with much more interesting than competitors, peace and history, more seriously approached the schedule. And Nobuo Wematsu wrote the music excellent by the standards of those times. It so happened that on December 18, 1987, Hironobu Sakaguti, his team and Square released a real hit and the first chapter of one of the longest series in history – Final Fantasy.

It was then that the plot appeared, twisted around the extinguished magic crystals (then, however, they were “balls”), and a whole batch of heroes who were to be controlled, and the basis of gameplay. In particular, a combat system with several characters and enemies on the screen (Sakaguti says that the team was inspired by American football). And it was the first part that played an important role in the popularization of JRPG. For those years, it was a kind of breakthrough: players could travel around the world, fight, develop their characters, setting them almost everything in a row, and also participate in a truly interesting story about the salvation of the world.

So Sakaguti had to postpone his resignation and release another six parts of Final Fantasy over the next ten years.

Creative conveyor

Another cheerful detail: the cult for fans of the finals of the Prelude Melody was written in five minutes.

Nowadays, the company would certainly be accused of “parasitization on the brand” or an attempt to create a “soulless conveyor”, but these definitions almost did not belong to the then Final Fantasy: all parts were well accepted and relatively successful.

At the same time, almost every new game made at least small, but a step forward, and some completely changed the genre. For example, sequel, Reigned in 1988, pleased with a more worked out plot and role system, and also introduced the concept of sled chokobo soda chickens important for fans. Fourth Part moved to SNES, significantly pulled the picture, deepened the plot and characters' stories, while significantly increasing their number, and most importantly – transferred the combat system to a new level.

It was there that the so -called Active Time Battle first appeared, she added elements of battles in real time to step -by -step battles and, in general, became much closer to what we see today. A Final Fantasy VI And at all, in the years, I was remembered as a real standard of the genre, which polished all the mechanics of the series, and at the same time transferred the universe into a more gloomy setting "after the industrial revolution".

Many classic parts of the series managed to appear with updated graphics on a number of modern platforms, so that you can catch up.

All “finals” were sold at that time by million circulations. At the same time, separate worlds and stories remained with the own feature of each of the games. Yes, Chokobo and magic crystals were transferred from the project to the project, but in general, every “fantasy” was a unique Kinghills Casino work that could be enjoyed without any knowledge of background. And the most important thing – the magical atmosphere of a real adventure and fairy tale – invariably remained in place. At least until the development team of the developers left Sakaguti himself.

Great legacy

At the same time, Final Fantasy alone was not limited to. Over the years of work, he managed to attach a hand to more than four dozens of games in different roles, but we will only tell about the pearls of his portfolio. For example, in 1995, Hironobu managed to participate in the creation Chrono Trigger – Another legendary JRPG, which many still consider the best in the genre.

She talked about a group of characters who traveled in time and found themselves in many different settings. The story turned out to be truly magical: with a bunch of adventures and living heroes who loved players. There was a place and nonlinearity.

Almost everything is praised in Chrono Trigger: a balanced, almost perfect gameplay for Jrpg, magical music from Yasunori Mitsudi and Nobuo Wamatsu, a story, including the creator of manga Dragon Ball Akira Toriyama. The visual component was engaged in talented people like Tetsui Nomura, and controlled the process, among other things, Hironobo Sakaguti himself and even the creator of the Dragon Quest series Eugi Khori. In general, a real dream team worked on the project.

And she did not fail.

Chrono Trigger is still a cult status.

In 1998, another cult game was released- Xenogears, for which Sakaguti became an executive producer. The action was unfolded on an exoplanet, and the plot was full of fur robots, conspiracies and philosophical reasoning.

A year later, the turn came Chrono Cross – The ideological heiress of Chrono Trigger, but already in 3D and with a very new story. The Sequel did not discredit the original and brought the creators a success both financially and in terms of players and press reviews.

And already in the 2000th another masterpiece came out, to which he had a hand to Hironoba,- Vagrant Story. It was a gloomy, but insanely atmospheric story in the genre of dark fantasy, with medieval "special agents", supernatural forces and powerful intrigue. Vagrant Story was remembered not only by a dashingly twisted plot and cinematography (in terms of presentation of history, many compared the game with Metal Gear Solid), but also unusual for JRPG gameplay.

The action was unfolded in narrow confusing streets and dungeons, where battles were interspersed with elements of puzzles and platformers. There was no whole detachment with the hero either, and the battle went in real time. For each blow, it was possible to choose a separate part of the enemy’s body, and the most important thing was to take into account the enemy’s vulnerability, use the abilities in time and compose ligaments from attacks.

Vagrant Story visual style is very unusual.

Another important project, stated Sakaguti, was published in 2002: Kingdom Hearts. According to the plot of the game, a living boy suddenly found himself in the same world with characters Disney : Donald Daku, Mickey Mouse and the rest of the cartoon company. This combination unexpectedly brought a tremendous success: the game became one of the best sold for PlayStation 2 in general.

By the end of the nineties of the poor student, Hironobu himself turned into a real legend. In 1991, he was raised as vice president Square , And in 1995-to the president of the American unit of the company. Over the years, he brought a lot of talents to the industry: from artists like Tetsui, nomura to designers who had a hand in Xenogears, Vagrant Story, Chrono Trigger, ** Xenoblade Chronicles ** and, of course, Final Fantasy.

Leaving at the peak

However, the greatest success of Hironoba Sakaguti is still considered Final Fantasy VII – The project that I introduced to the JRPG genre the whole generation of players outside Japan. The game was released in 1997, but not without problems: the first versions of the scripts went to the table because of their gloomy (however, then they became the basis for the Xenogears plot), and some team members went to other projects at the most crucial moment.

Final Fantasy VII

Even the script for the authorship of Sakaguti himself, who wanted to transfer the action to the New York 1999 and play a detective story, was rejected eventually. Difficulties added to the first PlayStation. And the budget at that time was record – 60 million dollars, not counting the cost of advertising.

But all this paid off in full. Now at the seventh part of the gamer-novice will not look without tears, but then one starting video was delighted players. And the soundtrack, written by the same Wematsu, many consider almost the main work of his whole life.

With the seventh part, the series passed into a gloomy scientific and fantastic world, where the main characters fought with an evil corporation (although without fantasy elements, of course, there were no). The study of the plot and characters remained on top, and now the legendary scene of death Iris Gainsboro greatly shocked players who were accustomed to good fabulous stories. The gloomy atmosphere was influenced by the personal tragedy of Sakaguti: he decided to tell a more adult story about losses after the death of his mother.

The return of the ninth part to the cartoon style approved not everyone was approved.

It was not possible to repeat the success of the seventh part of the “final book”, although the quality bar rarely sagged below “excellent”. The eighth chapter stepped towards modern science fiction and also achieved considerable success, and the ninth was completely amazing.

In some interviews, it is her Sakaguti who calls his most beloved (although at times this title applies to both the first and tenth parts), because there was, perhaps, the “most-most” in the series. And the feeling of a fairy tale, and return to fantasy roots. And all this with modern at that time (albeit a little cartoony), music from Noboo Wematsu and, of course, worked out by history and characters.

Finally, the tenth in 2001 became the first completely three -dimensional release of the series and still looks good, especially in a reprint. For the first time in Final Fantasy, the dialogs were completely voiced, which also became a step forward.

Final Fantasy X

But the most, as it happened, the story was impressive in which the striker of the blitzball (fictional sport) suddenly drawn into the affairs of the salvation of the world. And along the way, he experienced both a lot of adventure and one of the best love stories in the gaming industry. The circulation of "dozens" has become a record for the series: in a couple of years the game diverged in a circulation of almost seven million copies.

A little later, Hironobu had a hand in a pair of branches, and to the online of the eleventh part of the “finals”, but we will not remember them anymore. Moreover, the last years of his work in Square Passed unpleasant.

The latest stories

The reason for this was the desire of Sakaguti to fulfill another dream and become the director of the animated film Final Fantasy: The Spirits with. It seems to have been fulfilled: from the quality of the CG-picture, the then spectators took a breath, and critics took a good picture. It was a simple, but not the worst story tied to the confrontation of the mysterious alien ghosts.

Final Fantasy: The Spirits with

But fans of the experiment of Hironoba were not approved: it was too poorly correlated with the game series. No deep plot, no characters, no proprietary atmosphere. The mass audience was not interested in the mass audience, which is why it failed at the box office: with a budget of $ 137 million, it was possible to raise a little more than eighty. Later this failure became one of the reasons prompted Square to the merger with Enix.

The attempt to play the filmmaker cost Hironoba dearly: he left his position in a “voluntary-compulsory manner” and as if he had gone to exile. He settled in his house in Hawaii, watched a movie for a long time, read and only in 2004 returned to the industry with his own company- Mistwalker.

It was in its composition that, perhaps, the last, albeit not the most noticeable stage in the career of the great Japanese, passed. With the support Microsoft Hironobu Sakaguti and his team created several games, including two most remembered: Lost Odyssey And The Last Story (translated as "last story", evaluate the irony).

Lost Odyssey tells about the hero that he lived for more than a thousand years, but lost his memory and restores lost memories with pain. He is forced to suffer in a rapidly changing world where the "magical industrial revolution" occurs. Even the stingy description shows that the plot implies a lot of emotional moments.

Actually, for them and for the combat system, the game received relatively high marks. Although many did not appreciate the experiments of Sakaguti: someone was not impressed by the plot written in collaboration with the writer Kiyoshi Sigamatsu, someone-battles. The game, however, still turned out to be better than the thirteenth Final Fantasy, made already without the participation.

The last major game of the master was The Last Story – Exclusive for Nintendo WII and the last current story from Hironobu. And even if she did not reach the heights of the best chapters of Final Fantasy, but she was remembered as a truly bright point (not with a comma?) in the scenario career of the master. As always, with a beautiful history and simple, but not without depth of gameplay. And most importantly, with a recognizable magical atmosphere, for years there have been a distinguishing game of Sakaguti from other projects.

Now Hironobo Sakaguti continues to work on games, although in another area: his company is actively developing mobile Terra Battle 2 And Terra Wars. He has already achieved his cherished goal, everything that he wanted to prove. And no matter what future projects come out Mistwalker , The glory of Sakaguti will be ahead of him for many years: there will be enough stories for this that he has already said.

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