It’s not every day you hear a Japanese developer spill out behind-the-scenes drama from the studio’s kitchen. In a recent episode of the NOBIYO to Issho Ni podcast, famed Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu reflected on Square Enix’s early days. Speaking with voice actress Rie Tozuka, his comments offer a rare glimpse at a turbulent era in Square’s history. Right before its merger with multimedia company Enix in 2003, to be precise.
When Square was still headquartered in Hiyoshi, Kanagawa Prefecture, he said that the studio felt more like a ‘student club’ than a formal company. Nevertheless, everything was running like a well-oiled machine, thanks to Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi. Sakaguchi seemed to have a certain quality — a charisma — that made him a natural ‘leader’ during its formative years.
“Even though it didn’t have a real corporate structure back then, everyone still listened to what he said,” recalled Uematsu. “That kind of thing happens, right? He just has that kind of ‘quality’ from back then to this day.”
“He could be harsh and strict, but people followed him anyway,” he added.
However, when Sakaguchi left Square in the early 2000s, a void in the leadership quickly emerged. The studio had enjoyed massive global success with Final Fantasy 7, Tactics, and other blockbuster releases on the PlayStation. But it all began to crumble after the Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within theatrical movie became a box office bomb.
Square’s internal movie studio was shuttered, Enix postponed its merger, and the company took an enormous financial hit. Sakaguchi fell into depression and, along with two other executives, resigned from active duty in 2001. He officially left the company two years later. Uematsu didn’t hold back any words about the aftermath of the event.
“After he quit, Square became a mess,” Uematsu admitted. “Once Sakaguchi-san’s gone, the whole organization falls apart. ‘Ahh, I shouldn’t stay here,’ I really thought that.”
He went on to describe how the company seemed to lose its direction without Sakaguchi at the helm. “The person we were all following suddenly vanished and everything was shaken,” he said.
Despite the uncertainty of that era, Uematsu did give credit to Square Enix for eventually ‘bouncing back.’ The same goes with Sakaguchi, who formed Mistwalker a year later after a pep talk from Dragon Ball‘s Akira Toriyama and Slam Dunk‘s Kazuhiko Inoue.
Still, the company might be facing another storm. Recent reports revealed disappointing sales for its two flagship games: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Final Fantasy 16. Perhaps the hole left by Sakaguchi was never truly filled again. If you know Japanese and have a Japanese IP address, listen to NOBIYO to Issho Ni Episode 8 from the 15-minute mark for the details.
