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Final Fantasy Creator's Next Game Could Have a Lot in Common With FF6

By Carley Garcia

Published Jan 28, 2025

Utterly obsessed with gaming, anime, and manga for the past 25 years, Carley attended Florida State University, graduating with a degree in Japanese in 2012. A professional Japanese/English translator for over a decade, she has worked largely in the pop culture sphere. In May 2020, she joined the team at OTAQUEST, specializing in lesser-known aspects of Japanese pop culture, rambling about retro games, forgotten anime series, and Tokyo’s indie musicians in her first official paid gig as a staff writer. She has continued to share her love for gaming by contributing hundreds of articles to sites such as Siliconera, PC Gamer, and VGKAMI.

Carley spends her free time gaming with her husband, scoping out breweries and wineries, playing with her cat Momo, and writing self-indulgent fanfiction. She prefers lore-heavy RPGs and walking sims and has only played Dragon Age: Inquisition 14 times. Her favorite Final Fantasy game is all of them.

Summary

Hironobu Sakaguchi has started work on his next game, calling it a successor to Final Fantasy 6.
The creator of the Final Fantasy franchise previously said that he would retire after the release of Fantasian: Neo Dimension.
Sakaguchi has not announced any further details about this mystery game.

In a new interview, Final Fantasy series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi confirmed that he is working on a spiritual successor to the widely acclaimed 1994 RPG Final Fantasy 6. Despite initially teasing his retirement following his last game's release, Sakaguchi is now eager to bring the best parts of Final Fantasy 6 back to life for a new audience.

Joining Square in 1983, Sakaguchi's early years at the company were somewhat tumultuous, with the creator stating that his initial idea for Final Fantasy wasn't fully supported by other members of staff. The game designer's dedication to the title was so powerful that he promised to leave Square if Final Fantasy failed, pledging to go back to university and find another career path. Thankfully, the game was a huge success, kickstarting one of the most well-known franchises in gaming history. While Sakaguchi began teasing his retirement as far back as 2021, the creator is still hard at work, with his next title promising to deliver something many fans have wanted for decades.

final fantasy 14 endwalker paladin hironobu sakaguchi

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Talking to The Verge, Sakaguchi confirmed that work on his next game has started, with the mystery title slated to be somewhat of a spiritual successor to Final Fantasy 6. While Fantasian: Neo Dimension was originally slated to be the creator's last title, Sakaguchi noted that the team behind the game was so fun to work with that he wasn't ready to leave just yet, gathering the same group together to create his next work. "It's generally going to follow a similar style to my previous works, and it'll be something that can be a successor to Final Fantasy 6 in a good way - our goal is to create something old but new at the same time," Sakaguchi said. "It'll be part two of my farewell note." While not a full Final Fantasy 6 remake, many fans are excited to see what this currently unnamed title will bring.

Hironobu Sakaguchi Working on Spiritual Successor to Final Fantasy 6

Many fans of the long-running franchise consider Final Fantasy 6 to be one of the best, with the title said by many to have revolutionized the role-playing game genre. Released for the SNES in 1994, the game was the first in the franchise to be directed by someone other than Sakaguchi, with Yoshinori Kitase and Hiroyuki Ito taking the helm. Final Fantasy 6 proved to be groundbreaking due to its darker and more mature themes when compared to past entries, and its large cast of characters and overarching story still strikes a chord with audiences today.

Whether Sakaguchi will truly retire after releasing his next game remains to be seen. While the creator has noted that he won't be returning to the Final Fantasy series, he has been an outspoken fan of Final Fantasy 14 over the past few years. Humorously, Sakaguchi's Free Company in Final Fantasy 14 is a reference to Square Enix, with the developer serving as "Vice President."

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OpenCritic Reviews: Top Critic Avg: 86 /100 Critics Rec: 91%

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Released: October 11, 1994
ESRB: T For Teen Due To Fantasy Violence, Partial Nudity
Developer(s): Square Enix, Square
Publisher(s): Square Enix, Square
Engine: Unity
Franchise: Final Fantasy

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The War of the Magi caused magic to disappear from the world. A thousand years later, humanity relies on machines - until they find a young woman with mysterious powers. The magicite system allows players to customize which abilities, magic spells, and summons the party members learn. All the playable characters have their own stories, goals, and destinies. Journey through their interwoven fates in this sweeping melodrama.

The pinnacle of the FF series at the time of its release, FFVI remains critically acclaimed and beloved to this day.

Platform(s): SNES, Android, iOS, Nintendo Game Boy Advance, PC, PS1, PS4, Switch
Genre(s): RPG
How Long To Beat: 35 Hours
OpenCritic Rating: Mighty

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