Do we like them?Do we like Hironobu Sakaguchi?
Our score: 7 out of 10. No harmful words or acts turned up and there's a kind gesture on record, but our reading was thin and he copped flak over an AI video.
Sakaguchi is the bloke who made Final Fantasy. He co-founded Square in 1983, created the series that became its flagship, and later directed the film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. He left Square in the early 2000s and set up his own studio, Mistwalker, which made RPGs like Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey.
The latest stoush is a small one. In May 2026 he reposted a fan's AI-generated concept video of Final Fantasy VI as a fully 3D game, with the words “What is this?! It's amazing!”. SaGa creator Akitoshi Kawazu replied “No, Sakaguchi-san, please stop at the first line.”
He didn't back down, reportedly saying he had reacted to the potential of the tech and posting his own AI art to make the point. Coverage notes there's no sign he's using AI in his actual game projects, so this is about his social media, and it lands as a creative-industry argument rather than harm to people. Plenty of artists will still find it a bit much.
On the harm check, we found nothing: no words against LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or the planet, no conspiracy talk, and no pattern of working with people who push that stuff. We'll be straight about the limits though. Our page reads were cut short, so this rests on search results rather than a deep dive into every interview.
On the good-person side, no lawsuits or accusations against him turned up. After the 2011 Japanese earthquake he put out a song for the victims, and he didn't ask for donations in return. He was also announced as the recipient of the Game Developers Choice lifetime achievement award in 2015.
Put together, he's a creator who's spent decades making stories people love, with one cranky online argument about AI on the ledger. We couldn't find a huge amount of him using his platform for others, which keeps him short of the top marks. Easy yes, but not a gushing one.