{"id":49402,"date":"2025-06-26T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T15:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=49402"},"modified":"2025-06-25T12:36:44","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T03:36:44","slug":"square-collapsed-after-he-left-final-fantasy-composer-on-how-hironobu-sakaguchis-innate-leadership-skills-held-the-company-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/square-collapsed-after-he-left-final-fantasy-composer-on-how-hironobu-sakaguchis-innate-leadership-skills-held-the-company-together\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cSquare collapsed after he left.\u201d Final Fantasy composer on how Hironobu Sakaguchi\u2019s innate leadership skills held the company together"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Final Fantasy series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi recently appeared as a guest on <strong>NOBIYO To Isshoni<\/strong> (<em>Together with NOBIYO<\/em>), 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\u2019s departure from Square affected him and the rest of the company, stating that \u201cSquare collapsed after Sakaguchi left.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/%E5%9D%82%E5%8F%A3%E5%8D%9A%E4%BF%A1?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#\u5742\u53e3\u535a\u4fe1<\/a> \u00d7 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/%E6%A4%8D%E6%9D%BE%E4%BC%B8%E5%A4%AB?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#\u690d\u677e\u4f38\u592b<\/a><br>\u30ec\u30b8\u30a7\u30f3\u30c9\u304a\u4e8c\u4eba\u306e\u53ce\u9332\u6642\u306e\u8a18\u5ff5\u5199\u771f\u3067\u3059\ud83d\udcf8<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NOBIYO%E3%81%A8%E4%B8%80%E7%B7%92%E3%81%AB?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#NOBIYO\u3068\u4e00\u7dd2\u306b<\/a> \u304a\u697d\u3057\u307f\u306b\uff01 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/HwAJiTL9K1\">pic.twitter.com\/HwAJiTL9K1<\/a><\/p>&mdash; \u3010\u516c\u5f0f\u3011RKC\u30e9\u30b8\u30aa (@RKC_radio) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RKC_radio\/status\/1930807513542471850?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 6, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cTo put it simply \u2013 he is the big boss. Always has been and always will be.\u201d 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. \u201cBut Sakaguchi was able to manage the work even in that kind of environment. We didn\u2019t even have a proper corporate organization, yet everybody listened to him. It\u2019s a kind of quality you just have to be born with.\u201d In other words, Uematsu describes him as \u201ca leader\u201d \u2013 somebody who, despite sometimes being strict and bossy, has the ability to attract the people around him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20250625-494020001.jpg\" alt=\"Final Fantasy gameplay.\" class=\"wp-image-49404\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20250625-494020001.jpg 960w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20250625-494020001-380x214.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20250625-494020001-768x432.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMaybe Sakaguchi isn\u2019t aware of this, but the situation at Square was awful after he quit,\u201d Uematsu continues. \u201cHe left and the organization suddenly collapsed. I thought to myself \u2013<em> Oh no, I should get away from here<\/em>.\u201d The final years of Square were very turbulent, with many key members leaving the company just before its merger with Enix \u2013 it was a state in which the staff didn\u2019t 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\u2019d faced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Square had faced many setbacks in the 2000s, with significant financial losses due to the delay of Final Fantasy X and the <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/final-fantasy-film-that-almost-ruined-square-enix-financially-to-be-re-screened-as-a-turning-point-in-japanese-cg-animation-at-film-festival\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">box-office failure of their movie <em>The Spirits Within<\/em><\/a>, 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 <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Fantasian_EN\/status\/1846128890856800462\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">considers his final project<\/a> as a video game composer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Final Fantasy composer opens up about how FF original creator Sakaguchi&#8217;s department from Square affected him and the development team. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":49405,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[36,17],"class_list":["post-49402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-final-fantasy","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - 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