http://www.computerandvideogames.com/336378/features/sakaguchis-last-story/?page=1

It wouldn't be unnecessarily hyperbolic to describe Hironobu Sakaguchi as the godfather of the Japanese RPG. After all, he created Final Fantasy and oversaw its ascent as one of the biggest of all videogame franchises.

With 25 years' experience of making RPGs under his belt, he now runs a developer called Mistwalker - having made the break from Final Fantasy and its parent company Square in 2001. We caught up with him on a rare visit to the UK, the morning before he demonstrated his latest epic RPG, The The Last Story, to an audience at Bafta, before fielding questions from the audience.

Breaking the gameplay mould

"The battle system is probably the most important aspect of the game. We had an experimental phase of about a year, in which we had so many ideas - and the best ones have been incorporated in the final game. For example, the protagonist uses a move called Gathering.

"This attracts the enemies' attention towards the protagonist. So, the concept is that on a chaotic battlefield, by using this move, the player can bring order to the battlefield. Or, conversely, can cause chaos on the enemy side. So that brings strategic elements.

"Also, when your party's Mage fires a magic attack, it leaves a magic circle. When the protagonist diffuses this with his move called Gale, this causes a secondary effect. So, for example, if the mage attack is an Ice attack, it leaves an ice circle, and when the protagonist diffuses that, it creates an effect called Slip, where the enemies slip over. We experimented with different ideas and, in the end, I believe we've been able to create a new type of battle system."

Sakaguchi is also keen to point out that The The Last Story's graphics and music are key elements: "We should give credit to [Kimihiko] Fujisaka-san, who was in charge of the character design, as well as the design of the whole environment. Of course in my games, I always place much emphasis on the graphics, so I did ask Fujisaka-san to put a lot of effort into that area."

Music-wise, he turned to a stalwart collaborator, Nobuo Uematsu - who has crafted the music for pretty much all of Sakaguchi's games, and boasts an equally lofty reputation in the games industry. Sakaguchi jokingly refers to how the pair have been likened to a married couple, and reveals that for once, their collaboration didn't go as smoothly as it might have on the The Last Story:

"There was no contact from Uematsu for about a month - I was worried that, if we were like a married couple, there was a danger of getting divorced. But after a month, he sent over three new pieces of music, which were used in the game. So there was that episode, but we overcame the danger of a divorce."

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2012/02/20/sakaguchi-complains-about-final-fantasy.aspx

Sakaguchi Complains About Final Fantasy

Hironobu Sakaguchi may have stepped away from the Final Fantasy franchise to start up his own Mistwalker studio, but that doesn't mean he still doesn't have some thoughts about the franchise he created.

In an interview with CVG, Sakaguchi said that when the alcohol is flowing, his tongue is loosened when it comes to his baby. "I still go out drinking with Yoshinori Kitase, the current producer of Final Fantasy, once in a while, and on those occasions he does tell me that it's all fine. Sometimes, I personally complain a little bit about certain things about the franchise."

Unfortunately, Sakaguchi didn't divulge exactly what things he's not happy with, but he did give Kitase his overall vote of confidence. "I believe that if it's him in charge, he will continue to create good games for the franchise."

Sakaguchi isn't the only one who's got complaints. For Joe's opinion of Final Fantasy XIII-2 in particular (shown), take a look at his review.

For the full interview with Sakaguchi, check it out over at CVG.

What are your complaints with the series

As much respect as I have for Sakaguchi. He's the one who left Square. Yeah, he had a box office failure, but it's not like they told him to leave. After all he saved the company from the brink of ruin once. He lost his ability to give his input on the series when he gave it up, and walked away.

I can understand his complaints in regards to being asked about the franchise in almost every interview though.

I went to a Q&A session with Sakaguchi on Thursday at the BAFTA, probably the same one mentioned in the OP, and at least a third of the questions asked were about his time at Square, in particular Final Fantasy. A lot of the others were about what advice he would give to game design students. I remember the Uematsu question, apparently the original FF was the only time he has rejected his music. Personally, I'm surprised no-one asked his view on The Last Story not having a confirmed NA localisation.

As he seems to want to keep FF in his past, it probably wasn't for the best that we all brought our copies of FF games for him to sign.

I think Mistwalker is a pretty cool guy, Eh kills franchises and doesn't afraid of anything.
he's An hero.

I see what your saying, but its not like he openly complains he does it to a good friend while drinking and doesnt seem to tell anyone else he deserves that much. 

well said

So excited for the last story, surprisingly enough it is the unorthodox combat which is attracting me to it.

I'm excited, because of him not using a traditional battlesystem. And if I remember the last 2 games he fully directed was FF4 which introduced ATB (I think) and FFV which introduced job systems. So yay!

The articles kind of misleading, because  it doesn't say what he complains about. I mean, I have complaints about every FF and it's my favorite franchise. 

All the artical said  was he supports Kitase, and gets more critical when he drinks. And he says this about Kitase which wasn't included at the top. From the article.

"But when I left Square, I left the franchise in Kitase's hands, and he promised me he would protect and progress the Final Fantasy brand. He has been my right-hand man since round about the middle of Final Fantasy III, and therefore I have a lot of trust in him. I believe that if it's him in charge, he will continue to create good games for the franchise." 

Sakaguchi's final word was as long as the current producer of the series remained in his position good games will keep coming out, so I don't see what all the fuss is over him having his complaints.

I can't wait for the Last Story to come out in America!

i know you were talking about the title article for the link, but my thread title should also reflect the context of the article, vs the title of the article it self found at the link.