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Akihiko Yoshida (FFT, TO, Vagrant Story, FFXII) confirms that he has left Square Enix
- Thread starter duckroll
- Start date
KyanMehwulfe
Member
Please please rejoin Matsuno somewhere anywhere I'll pay anything
Hours Left
Member
The writing was on the wall for a while.
As long as they still contract him for future Bravely and Ogre games, I think it's probably for the best. Now we can see some other companies utilize his stuff.
Though as obvious by the art for Bravely Second, he's already working with SE again.
As long as they still contract him for future Bravely and Ogre games, I think it's probably for the best. Now we can see some other companies utilize his stuff.
Though as obvious by the art for Bravely Second, he's already working with SE again.
Basileus777
Member
Does the platform really matter so much for an artist? One who worked plenty on less capable devices than modern smartphones?
Will they even make more Ogre games?
ProfessorMoran
Member
Kageshinzo
Member
Yoshida should go hook up with Sakaguchi and get him back to making proper console games instead of taking pictures of sunsets and posting them on Facebook. 
TheFLYINGManga_Ka
Member
Square Enix: Make ios games!
Yoshida: See ya.
Yoshida: See ya.
Well, I imagine the amount of effort that goes into the games and recreating said art is more relevant than the hardware.
Ideally they'd just give Ogre to Matsuno and be done with it, but you never see that happen with Japanese companies and he'd need his own studio again for that to even matter anyway.
Nomura leaves. Then we truly witness the internet lose its collective shit.
fredrancour
Member
Rumors say Nomura is going to leave to found an indie belts-and-zippers manufacturing firm, with a side business of hair-gel manufacturing.
I'm curious too... there's no one that has a better art style as amazing as Akihiko Yoshida, in my opinion. Nomura is still a talented one there and he's pretty good but absolutely no comparison between him and Akihiko Yoshida.
Once Nomura leaves... I'm out.
There's a future Ogre game!?
At this point, working for Square means you're pretty much consigned to cell phone games for all eternity. You should be glad that a talented developer escaped that fate. Hopefully the indie movement will become big in Japan soon. The country desperately needs it.
Hours Left
Member
I'm putting it out into the universe, Oprah style.
Mauricio_Magus
Banned
That's so sad, his art is amazing, I hope Square keeps contracting him for Bravely Default at least.
tiggerkiddo
Member
That guy was the man, I hope he can work on something worthwhile.
foxuzamaki
Doesn't read OPs, especially not his own
Guess bravely second might be the last game he fully works on with SE
Lee Chaolan
Member
A sad day indeed for Ivalice.
Yeah, Nintendo doesn't seem to have favorable conditions for their systems, but I wonder if Sony does for theirs? Would be interesting if the PS4 takes off in that regard, especially if we get companies that will localize that stuff like CarpeFulgar.
... Man, I really do think I'll be reminiscing when SE made non-mobile games by the end of this next generation. :/
Well, it does sound like he'd still work with them probably on a contractual basis, so admittedly I can see it being a situation where it's effectively the same as before, just that he shows up in non-SE games again.
Hours Left
Member
If he left in November, I would guess that his work on Bravely Second is already on a contractual basis.
It does indicate that the split was on good terms.
Glass Rebel
Member
Huge loss for Square-Enix. He's the best artist they've had, arguably the best in the industry. For fans of his work this could be better though.
Was Sakimoto ever employed by Sqeenix? I imagine they contracted him (or Basiscape) for the few games he scored for Matsuno.
Also, you forgot Masaharu Iwata, who scored half of TO/OB scores and Hayato Matsuo (few tracks for OB, loads for OB64)
TheFLYINGManga_Ka
Member
LoL! And a mobile phone business, since he always puts in mobile phones in his games.
I doubt Nomura would leave...he still has at least ten years to finish KH3 and FFXV!
How about Kitase? What is he going to so without Lightning!?
Necromanti
Member
It seems that a lot of former Square-Enix staff end up on working on mobile games or just fade away into the ether. And it's not like their prospects were any more positive when they were still at the company, anyway. Mistwalker's output has been kind of meager as well. This is depressing.
Basileus777
Member
I don't think it's the platform conditions that are the biggest barrier, but the way that the doujin scene works in Japan.
Oh yeah, I definitely figure a cultural shift in that scene would need to happen first and foremost, but it doesn't help when someone like Nintendo's way more restrictive in Japan than in America or Europe.
Im fine with this if it means his art spreads to other genres and developers as well as keeping with S-E RPG when needed.
EDIT: A game with Yoshida, Uematsu, and Sakaguchi would be pretty nice nowadays.
What else has Amano done recently aside from FF title art and concept pieces every so often?
EDIT: A game with Yoshida, Uematsu, and Sakaguchi would be pretty nice nowadays.
What else has Amano done recently aside from FF title art and concept pieces every so often?
Guess what platform he'll most likely end up on next
fredrancour
Member
He will be fired halfway through the development of his next project when upper management discovers that he has replaced every single character in said game with Lightning in a different outfit.
Dark_castle
Junior Member
This sucks.
Hate to see talented designers leaving one after another.
If Hiroyuki Ito and Hiroshi Minagawa are the next ones to leave, this company will be stripped of nearly all the good apples.
Hate to see talented designers leaving one after another.
If Hiroyuki Ito and Hiroshi Minagawa are the next ones to leave, this company will be stripped of nearly all the good apples.
Cert.in.Death
Member
Never got the credit he deserved.
On to greener pastures. There are games to be made...
On to greener pastures. There are games to be made...
kuroneko0509
Member
Sigh Square Enix....