Tactics Ogre: Reborn developer makes “Mustached Sakaguchi Spinal Cord Sword”

Written by. Nick Mosier based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2022-08-05 16:27 JST)

Yasumi Matsuno, producer of the original Tactics Ogre and developer involved with the upcoming Tactics Ogre: Reborn, posted a tweet saying he was going to recreate the “Tanaka Spinal Cord Sword” using Snapdragon. He then tweeted a screenshot of a character named “Mustached Sakaguchi Spinal Cord Sword.”

作ってみた |'ㅂ')#タクティクスオウガリボーン #スナップドラゴン https://t.co/BcyFZb0gDB pic.twitter.com/evmN8ZLgSM
— 松野泰己🐈‍⬛ (@YasumiMatsuno) August 5, 2022

Just what is a Mustached Sakaguchi Spinal Cord Sword” or a “Spinal Cord Sword” anyway? It originally came from Tatsuki Fujimoto’s popular manga Chainsaw Man and appears in the manga’s 98th chapter as the “Tanaka Spinal Cord Sword.” A high school girl who has made a pact with the War Devil pulls out her teacher Tanaka’s spinal column and uses it as a sword. The scene became a hot topic for its onomatopoeia and vivid splatter movie-like gore.

Tactics Ogre: Reborn has a spell called Snapdragon. Using this spell causes the caster to turn into a sword and become an item that can be equipped. The higher the stats of the caster, the higher the stats of the sword.

While one is forcefully removing someone’s spinal cord and the other uses magic to turn someone into a sword, they both share the fact that they turn a human into a sword. Matsuno is also a Chainsaw Man fan which is probably why he wanted to try recreating the Tanaka Spinal Cord Sword in Tactics Ogre: Reborn.

But instead of Tanaka, the teacher from Chainsaw Man, it was Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi getting his spine removed. Sakaguchi took to Twitter himself to have a laugh at the idea.

Matsuno and Sakaguchi play Final Fantasy XIV together and can often be seen interacting on Twitter. However, it sounds like towards the end of last year, Matsuno started to get extremely busy with final adjustments and debugging for Tactics Ogre: Reborn and hasn’t had much time to play Final Fantasy XIV.

The name of the character holding the Sakaguchi Spinal Cord Sword is “Ginwan Jyara.” This appears to be a nickname for Final Fantasy XIV director and producer Naoki Yoshida. “Jyara Jyara” is an onomatopoeia in Japanese for jingling and clinking sounds and is likely used here in reference to the accessories he’s known to wear.

According to Matsuno, the upcoming game will also be bringing back “elements” which were discarded in the PSP remake. It sounds like it’s shaping up to be a more refined, easier to play, and meaty tactical RPG. Tactics Ogre: Reborn is scheduled to release on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC (Steam) on November 11.