Square 'suddenly collapsed' after Final Fantasy creator left, Nobuo Uematsu says

Hironobu Sakaguchi was the glue holding Square together, but all of that changed when he left way back in 2003.

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Legendary Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu recently gave Western gamers a lesson in RPG history. In a new episode of his podcast show, NOBIYO To Isshoni, the famed master of symphonies recalls what it was like at Square when Hironobu Sakaguchi departed.

"Maybe Sakaguchi isn't aware of this, but the situation at Square was awful after he quit. He left and the organization suddenly collapsed. I thought to myself 'Oh no, I should get away from here,'" Uematsu said, as translated by Automaton Media.

Back then, Square was a separate company from Enix. Sakaguchi is recognized as the creator of the Final Fantasy series, and was seen as a kind of creative superstar in the games industry (he still is). Sakaguchi's image only grew as Square released hit games, but in 2001, his luck turned.

That year, Square released a CGI movie adaptation based on their best-selling series. It failed miserably. Square took heavy financial losses on the Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within film and Sakaguchi ultimately resigned two years later, seemingly taking responsibility for the failure.

His departure was an end of an era for Square. With no charismatic leader at the helm, developers and other team members also left the company. Eventually Square merged with Enix in 2003 to form the company that we know today.

Sakaguchi formed his own studio in 2004 called Mistwalker Games, where he has been ever since. He also recently worked with Square Enix again, although not in his former capacity.