APZonerunner
Member
I think part of the reason for Sakaguchi's recent failures is he's not surrounded by the right people. A lot of his greatest successes - FF6-12 in particular - are about him imparting the right people with the right ideas to create great games. I can name major names he put into place on every major FF, but I can't name a single person other than Uematsu from the Mistwalker games; I think that says a lot.
It was Sakaguchi who...
I think Sakaguchi hasn't been a particularly good game designer since the SNES era (I did love Lost Odyssey and felt Blue Dragon had incredible ideas, mind) but what he was good at in the PS1/PS2 era was taking people and putting the right people in the right places to make things happen, giving them just enough vague ideas to get them on their way.
He also did a lot of dumb shit, though - TSW stands out as one. Another that stands out is that Ito wanted FF9's battle system to be the fastest ever, but Sakaguchi had him slow it down because performance wasn't great but also because he felt, as a tribute to past FF, it should be slower as a nod to the non-ATB games. Bad decision! FF's history is littered with Sakaguchi decisions like this - But the concept of FF9's world, FF7's world - these things Sakaguchi did early, vaguely, are great.
tldr; Do I think Sakaguchi could help modern FF? Sure. Do I think he alone is the solution? Fuuuck no.
It was Sakaguchi who...
- Headhunted Matsuno and then gave him Minaba and Ito against all reason - putting the people who were arguably his two strongest staff on the untested spin-off, Tactics, leaving FF7 (theoretically) underpowered, but that let people who are now very major to FF step up and also resulted in the creation of Tactics.
- Moved Ito/Kitase to Chrono Trigger immediately after FF6 rather than starting on FF7 right away
- Gave Nomura his biggest break in FF7
- Pulled Ito off FF8 and put him on FF9.
- Put Kawazu in charge of FFCC - even if that series hasn't been massively successful, he's definitely the best fit for a Nintendo platform.
- Suggested an MMO and put Tanaka in charge,
- Put Matsuno and Ito back together for FF12
I think Sakaguchi hasn't been a particularly good game designer since the SNES era (I did love Lost Odyssey and felt Blue Dragon had incredible ideas, mind) but what he was good at in the PS1/PS2 era was taking people and putting the right people in the right places to make things happen, giving them just enough vague ideas to get them on their way.
He also did a lot of dumb shit, though - TSW stands out as one. Another that stands out is that Ito wanted FF9's battle system to be the fastest ever, but Sakaguchi had him slow it down because performance wasn't great but also because he felt, as a tribute to past FF, it should be slower as a nod to the non-ATB games. Bad decision! FF's history is littered with Sakaguchi decisions like this - But the concept of FF9's world, FF7's world - these things Sakaguchi did early, vaguely, are great.
tldr; Do I think Sakaguchi could help modern FF? Sure. Do I think he alone is the solution? Fuuuck no.