From an interview with 4Gamer, translated by Siliconera
I dont think this is at all shocking since he said in the past that he was working on something new and Mistwalker has a project with Silicon in the works, but still
EDIT: Yeah, this is the one comment I was referring when he said he had a new project
Sakaguchi didn’t have much to say during his year-end talk session with 4Gamer, but he did say “I plan to announce a new title in 2017. Stay tuned!”
I dont think this is at all shocking since he said in the past that he was working on something new and Mistwalker has a project with Silicon in the works, but still
EDIT: Yeah, this is the one comment I was referring when he said he had a new project
Sakaguchi said he's working on a console game and said that he would probably reveal it in a year. This was in January.
https://www.vg247.com/2016/01/27/new-mistwalker-game-consoles-hironobu-sakaguchi/
Actually that was a misreporting:
Hi there. So as stated I'm the guy who was at the talk/Q&A. Just to clarify a few things:
- The art is courtesy of Fujisaka. Part of the reason Sakaguchi wants the game's art to have that sort of sketch 3D look is because of how much of a fan he is of Fujisaka's artwork.
- He didn't state definitively if it was going to be console or mobile. However, an answer to a question seemed to indicate that it was very much a possibility. Unfortunately, I personally don't have a recording of the question (or any). Given that the game will have a 3D art style, that does at least push it a bit more towards the console side (at least in my eyes). Thankfully, my school did record the talk. Hopefully that will be uploaded somewhere soon. In which case, I'll make sure to post a link.
- Beyond that, there was very little actual discussion of the game in question. More than anything it was a question and answer session.
I shot a video of him discussing the artwork (as well as some artwork for some upcoming Terra Battle stuff). In that video you can see an early prototype of what they're trying to go for in the game's look. It's uploading as we speak. It's about 9 minutes long, and the stuff specifically relevant to the new game are in the back half of the video. I'll post a link to that once it finishes uploading.