“So when you finish, you’re empty – you’ve got no idea what to do next. It was putting our soul into the production – pouring all of your ideas into the game, even if they crop up during development not saving anything for the sequel. So the reason it became such a hit was thanks to Square’s management taking a chance – for which I’m really grateful.”įinally, when asked what Final Fantasy means to him, Sakaguchi – who left Square during the development of Final Fantasy XI – said: “Way back then, the spirit was that we weren’t making a product but a creation. But the costs were high, so as a company all they could think was ‘that’s a lot of money!’ despite having this great game. “So I argued within the company, and pleaded: ‘If we only make this many, there’s no chance of a sequel – please make it 400,000’. At that time, manufacturing the ROM took two to three months, so your initial shipment equalled the number of copies that you could potentially sell. “Initially, only 200,000 copies of the game were going to be shipped. I’d have had to repeat a year, so I wouldn’t have had any friends – it really was a ‘final’ situation.”Įvidently, at some point Sakaguchi gained confidence in his product, because the final challenge he faced wasn’t even in the development period – and it was only through his persistence that Final Fantasy was able to become the 400,000-selling hit that it was. “The name ‘Final Fantasy’ was a display of my feeling that if this didn’t sell, I was going to quit the games industry and go back to university. The series name, Final Fantasy, is often attributed to Square’s dependence on the product as its last throw of the dice – but the truth, says Sakaguchi, was that it was his personal last effort. The atmosphere left Sakaguchi doubting the potential of the game, thinking that the game wouldn’t sell thanks the shortage of staff and other factors. But Kouichi Ishii and Takamura took it the other way – me saying ‘It’s impossible with this team’ actually spurred them on.” “I probably hit the staff with that pretty harshly. That’s how I knew we really weren’t popular. “Hiromichi Tanaka was heading the other team in Square, and they had about 20 people. The development team was comprised of seven people – not a small number given the era – but Sakaguchi could tell that things weren’t quite right. However, development of the game didn’t go smoothly, even within Square.
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