He hasn't directed a game in 18 years??? That's a first for me...

you think hes been in a slump?

Final Fantasy: Spirits Within (though I loved it, failure)
Fired (unfairly, yes. Because he's the main reason (not the only reason as his team of developers were a big part of it) Square soft was succesful.  Though If I remember he almost bankrupted Squaresoft and Sony had to save their ass. But this is capitalism so it's not uncommon in this kind of situation
Blue Dragon (Failure)
Lost Odyssey: (Getting out of the slump I think, But not some grand comeback)

I get the impression that the man is more than just modest: he's borderline self-defacing at time.  If true, it could explain his lack of self-confidence, although people with little self-faith don't tend to start their own studios...

I never fear owning a game.

Idk blue dragon broke even sales wise and i thought it was an alright game. and lost odyssey was awesome. the spirit within thing yea bad. Though i dont think he almost bankrupted them.

It did lose over 120 million dollars, though I forget if it did nearly bankrupt them (and keep in mind that the Enix merger was in talks back in 2000 though it might have been earlier than that). He also resigned from Square, though it was obvious that he was shuffled to a figurehead position (you don't just fire the second most influential game designer ever)

yea it lost alot of money but im pretty sure that they were just dissapointed in losing alot of money. square back then i believe should have still been worth more than that by alot.

If I'm remembering correctly, that loss proved catastrophic, to the point where they had to sell 20% of themselves to Sony.  It was also bad enough to spook Enix away from merging with them until three years later.