「ファイナルファンタジー」の生みの親、坂口博信氏が振り返った“クリエーター人生”

On September 29, a talk session was held in Orto Plus, entitled "Aikawa -juku (40)" to think about the future of entertainment.Columnist Fumio Kurokawa is the president of the entertainment, and is a positive meeting to think about the future.

This time, a variety of topics were talked about, entitled "Hironobu Sakaguchi's Creative of Life", inviting game creators Hironobu Sakaguchi.Mr. Sakaguchi joined the later Square -sha in a part -time job.It is also known for working on "Final Fantasy" at the time of his enrollment.He is currently working on a smartphone game "Terra Battle" (Terrabattle) as a representative of Mist Walker.

"Called Goblin Sakaguchi" "I couldn't meet Miho Nakayama"-Memories of the dawn of Square

At the beginning, Sakaguchi talked about his school days.He said in high school he spent almost all the money that he could spend on his own, including pocket money, to manga and movies.At that time, he recalled that he often read a fantasy novel in Hayakawa Bunko in the book.

After that, I went to Yokohama National University.He was interested in PCs in college and made his own compatible machine that operates Apple II software.While studying programming, he said he was enthusiastic about RPGs such as "Wizardry" and "Ultima."He was also enthusiastic about using grid paper, using the motion of the disk drive header, and analyzing the trucks with protection.

He invited Hiromichi Tanaka, a classmate of Sakaguchi, who later served as a producer of Final Fantasy XI, and joined Denbatoma.The first title involved in the development of the game was based on the theme of the "bird human contest", which is well -known for television programs, but was discovered that the copyright of the program was not reduced during the production.Development will fail.

For this reason, Mr. Sakaguchi himself gathered and developed members in 1984, the PC game released in 1984.Sakaguchi was in charge of the scenario.Looking back on those days, we hired three newcomers from the art university in charge of graphics, but in addition to the fact that they were mainly oil paintings, the gaming graphics were not yet common.He said he had a hard time.

By the way, because of the severe guidance, a newcomer staff showed an episode that the nickname "Goblin Sakaguchi" was given.He also said that one of the rookie staff at that time and Mr. Shino Uematsu, a composer who worked part -time at a rental record shop, was an acquaintance.Uematsu joined Square in response to this.He will work on the music of the Final Fantasy Series.

Looking back on those days, I spilled as a "small dissatisfaction" of "Miho Nakayama's Tokimeki High School" released by Nintendo as a software for family computer disk systems.It was an adventure game tied up with Miho Nakayama, who was active as an idol at the time, and Square and Sakaguchi were also involved in the development.As an event at that time, "The people in the upper (management) met Mr. Nakayama, but I couldn't meet myself on the side of the development site.When I said, laughter occurred from inside the hall.

Dragon Quest is a "professional group".I wanted to get closer

Looking back on the development of Final Fantasy, Sakaguchi initially claimed that "RPG cannot be made with NES."At the time, the cartridge for NES at the time had no data saving methods such as battery bucking up, and it was thought that it was difficult to play for a long time like RPG.At that time, he was shocked by the "Dragon Quest" released by Enix at the time as a royal road RPG that can be played in a password format "Futakatsu no Jumon".Later, he gathered his total power to create a "Final Fantasy" and became a series title that represents Square.

From the NES era to the present, Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest are being developed as a leading RPG series in Japan.Sometimes it was a rivalry, but for Sakaguchi, Dragon Quest is a title designed by Yuji Horii and Akira Toriyama, who had already been active, and said, "It seems to be on the clouds in a professional group.It was a good thing. "It was a longing for Sakaguchi, who was in his early twenties at the time, and was a dazzling person.On the other hand, he said that he wanted to get closer to him and his dislike, and took various actions.

At that time, Dragon Quest was widely featured in Weekly Shonen Jump.He said that he had an enthusiastic approach to Kazuhiko Torishima and the editorial department, known as the famous editor, to take the final fantasy.Nevertheless, in addition to receiving harsh words from Mr. Torishima, when the latest rom rose from the time of "IV", I went to the editorial department first, but at that time, "Dorakue" is interesting."Hey, he recalls that he felt quite frustrated.

However, it was recognized by Mr. Torishima from around "V", and in "VI", it was widely featured in the magazine.The title "Chrono Trigger" was created by Mr. Sakaguchi, Horii, and Toriyama.It is said that Mr. Torishima thought that game creators also needed a star, and the launch of "V Jump" was actively promoted to the media.