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Hironobu Sakaguchi, best known as the director of the original run of Final Fantasy games, is bringing his most recent JRPG out of Apple jail with an upgraded port called Fantasian Neo Dimension later this year. Sakaguchi is reuniting with Square Enix for the project, and in a message to fans, he says it's a great blessing to have the opportunity.
"Fantasian Neo Dimension has had its grand reveal, marking its comeback at Square Enix," Sakaguchi says in the message posted to the official Fantasian Twitter account. "The strength of a digital title is that it can continue existing without deteriorating, and I wanted Fantasian to be an especially long-standing title. I developed Fantasian thinking that it could become my final work before retiring, so it has a special place in my heart. Having the opportunity to rebuild it at Square Enix this way and making it widely known is truly a blessing."
On his personal account, Sakaguchi also posted a photo of himself hanging out with the beloved producer of Final Fantasy 14 and 16, Naoki 'Yoshi-P' Yoshida. He notes that they're working together on Fantasian Neo Dimension while discussing FF14. (The impending launch of Final Fantasy 14 Dawntrail surely means they have a lot to talk about.)
Whether Fantasian actually turns out to be Sakaguchi's final game remains to be seen. He noted earlier this year that he was writing a new game, but was playing too much FF14 to give a concrete update on it. Given the vagaries of Japanese translation, it's possible that this new game was, in fact, the upgraded version of Fantasian, but I guess time will tell how committed Sakaguchi actually is to retirement.
Sakaguchi has had plenty of influence over the best JRPGs ever made.
