Final Fantasy creator's next project is a surfing iPhone game

By Tom Phillips Published 17 February, 2012

Sakaguchi "really tired" of talking about Final Fantasy.

Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi will abandon home consoles for his next project, an iPhone game centred on his hobby of surfing.

The legendary developer told Eurogamer at a BAFTA event in London last night he now had three iOS projects in the works, but remained tight-lipped on the details.

The trio of titles will be "small projects" and "platform" games, following his work on expansive Wii role-player The Last Story.

"The first one is a surfing game," Sakaguchi added.

"He's not joking," his translator confirmed.

Sakaguchi mentioned how he often dreamt up ideas for games "while taking a shower or waiting for a wave while surfing".

But why develop on iOS? Sakaguchi claimed it was because he was "an Apple fan" and remarked how the smartphone market was "increasing rapidly". Whether traditional console gaming would ever be overtaken by mobile devices "remains to be seen", however.

"Images outputted by PCs or consoles will always be of higher quality," Sakaguchi reasoned, "so they will never disappear off the face of the Earth."

The developer was speaking at an event to mark the UK launch of The Last Story, the latest game from his Mistwalker studio, which also created Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey.

Before that, Sakaguchi masterminded the Final Fantasy series from its creation until his departure from Square around the time of Final Fantasy X.

Sakaguchi admitted he has now grown tired of people asking him about the Final Fantasy series. "I had six interviews this morning and afternoon and there were so many questions about Final Fantasy," he said. "I am really tired of it!"

The Last Story.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Phillips

Tom joined Eurogamer in 2010 and has quickly made his mark writing news and columns and coming up with puntastic straplines. Questionable beard. @TomPhillips151 on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Phillips archive page.

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Comments (12) Latest comment 3 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • JoeGBallad #1 3 months ago

    The last story looks so good. I'm dying to play it, but I've got so many games right now (and so little money) I'm going to have to hold off for a while :(

    Man, the wii is brilliant

  • sethsez #2 3 months ago

    On one hand, I'm totally sympathetic to a guy who remains creative not wanting to talk about his biggest past success forever. On the other, he named his most recent game "The Last Story" so it kind of seems like he was asking for it.

  • Alestes #3 3 months ago

    This is depressing. There are so few big epic console JRPGs nowdays, as more and more JRPG developers gone to the handhelds. And now iOS, sigh.

    I do look forward to The Last Story though, already have it pre-ordered.
    Edited by Alestes at 17/02/12 @ 09:56

  • arcam #4 3 months ago

    Another one bites the dust.

  • ilmaestro #5 3 months ago

    If he follows in Treyarch's footsteps, maybe they'll let him make Modern Warfare 4!

  • Nevflinn #6 3 months ago

    Were this any other news site, I'm afraid that the tagline would have been the headline.

    Thanks, Eurogamer. I'm looking forward to hearing how his surfing game does.

  • Rogueywon #7 3 months ago

    Lost Odyssey is one of the very, very few games to have lived up to my expectations of what Japanese RPGs could be like on current generation hardware. I'm sure its commercial viability was limited by the fact that it was exclusive to a console with next to no Japanese presence, but I'm still sad that Mistwalker decided to retreat to the comfort-zone of Wii and mobile development, rather than building on what they did with Lost Odyssey (and to a lesser extent Blue Dragon).

  • mushroomyakuza #8 3 months ago

    Sakaguchi admitted he has now grown tired of people asking him about the Final Fantasy series. "I had six interviews this morning and afternoon and there were so many questions about Final Fantasy," he said. "I am really tired of it!"
    Because he's doubtless horrified at what it's become. He left at exactly the right time.

  • RawShark #9 3 months ago

    Don't worry Sakaguchi-san, we're all tired of Final Fantasy too.

  • juliankennedy23 #10 3 months ago

    A surfing game starring some dude who looks like Meg Ryan... I am there.

  • Cataferal #11 3 months ago

    So long as he's passionate about these iOS projects, and isn't being driven by a commercial ethos, then I really don't mind.

    That said, I do hope he returns to the console scene soon - but maybe that's revealing of the kind of gamer I am.
    Edited by Cataferal at 18/02/12 @ 02:30

  • Voice_of_Enigma #12 3 months ago

    @Rogueywon Lost Odyssey was an amazing game! SoI many amzazing things that I still remember and talk about with friends today! Do you remember when Jansen.....spoiler.......at the end of the game..... when that happened? I didn't know if I liked Jansen or not through halfway, until the writing MADE me love him. It moved me to tears when Ming was talking to him near the very end. THAT is art. Thank you, Sakaguchi-san. For that, and so many other similar moments of Lost Odyssey. I hope you are going to surprise us someday with Lost Odyssey 2 for the next generation. I speak for all of us.....If ya'll will let me! :)