Final Fantasy series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi recently appeared as a guest on NOBIYO To Isshoni (Together with NOBIYO), a podcast led by composer Nobuo Uematsu, best known for his work on the music of Final Fantasy games. The two long-time collaborators met up to talk about their time together at Square, and Uematsu opened up about how Sakaguchi’s departure from Square affected him and the rest of the company, stating that “Square collapsed after Sakaguchi left.”
“To put it simply – he is the big boss. Always has been and always will be.” Uematsu remarks that, back when they were located in Hiyoshi, Square used to be more like a club of university students rather than an actual company. “But Sakaguchi was able to manage the work even in that kind of environment. We didn’t even have a proper corporate organization, yet everybody listened to him. It’s a kind of quality you just have to be born with.” In other words, Uematsu describes him as “a leader” – somebody who, despite sometimes being strict and bossy, has the ability to attract the people around him.
“Maybe Sakaguchi isn’t aware of this, but the situation at Square was awful after he quit,” Uematsu continues. “He left and the organization suddenly collapsed. I thought to myself – Oh no, I should get away from here.” The final years of Square were very turbulent, with many key members leaving the company just before its merger with Enix – it was a state in which the staff didn’t know who to follow nor what goals to work towards. However, Uematsu commends Square Enix on getting back on their feet after all the trouble they’d faced.
Square had faced many setbacks in the 2000s, with significant financial losses due to the delay of Final Fantasy X and the box-office failure of their movie The Spirits Within, causing Sakaguchi to resign from his position as a game designer in the company. Sakaguchi later went on to establish his own studio, and in 2004, Uematsu followed in his footsteps, leaving Square Enix to work as a freelance composer. Sakaguchi and Uematsu have since collaborated on numerous games, including the 2024 RPG Fantasian Neo Dimension, which Uematsu considers his final project as a video game composer.
