Final Fantasy creator Sakaguchi praises AI slop trailer for a FF6 remake, earns himself a light ribbing from battle designer on the first 2 games
If there's one thing that the rise in AI slop has 'given' us, aside from the existential dread and CEOs pushing the brave new future no matter how many studios need to be shut down to make it happen, it's the ability for any old Joe to come along and make a series of glossy clips that somewhat resemble a videogame.
As is the case with one user on X, who reposted a faux trailer for an imagined Final Fantasy 6 remake. Essentially wandering out loud if it'd be neat to give it the Final Fantasy 7 treatment, but using more water.
While this is a non-event in itself, you're reading this article because Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of the Final Fantasy franchise, has quote-tweeted it with the (machine-translated) praise: "What is this?! That's amazing!"
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The post itself (thanks, Eurogamer) has drawn a lot of mixed responses, including from one of Sakaguchi's colleagues, Akitoshi Kawazu, who was the battle designer for the first two Final Fantasy games and is also known for his work on Square's SaGa series:
"No, Sakaguchi-san, you should have stopped at the first line," Kawazu wrote, implying that Sakaguchi should've just stopped at going "what is this?" He goes on to add that "I do think FF6 is well-suited for a 3D remake."
It doesn't seem like there's any major beef between the two after the fact, mind. Kawazu seems nonplussed about the idea that he and Sakaguchi have some kind of beef over it, responding to one person suggesting he should elaborate by writing: "I don't intend to convey the correct information to a large, unspecified audience. People who haven't seen the original post won't even understand what I'm talking about."
In another post, he adds: "I'm not angry. Sakaguchi-san isn't my boss. When I was his subordinate, I used to criticize him, though."
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Sakaguchi, meanwhile, posted a response to the hubbub he kicked up: "Whoa!? What a wild reaction … [AI isn't] gonna work as-is, but it feels like there might be some intriguing stuff waiting down the line... that's the vibe.
"In the end, maybe it's just that I've barreled through 40 years of work and private life powered purely by 'exciting things'—that's the kinda guy I am, after all." Sakaguchi then posted an ai-generated alteration of some Lost Odyssey concept art.
While it does make my generally-skeptical heart a little grumpy and disappointed to see Sakaguchi, of all people, being taken in by AI-generated clips that have no real ability to become an actual videogame at this juncture—pouring untold computing power to make something that is already routinely achieved with actual people, as Sakaguchi well knows?
It's more tiring to flip through some of these replies. What feels like pretty innocuous banter between developers is predictably being turned into the masses braying for blood to be drawn on the colosseum sands.
In my estimation, the creator of the Final Fantasy series got a little taken by some AI-generated guff, as I have seen happen routinely with people over the age of 60, and his former colleague made a jab at him. That's all that seems to've happened here. At least the kids seem to be alright.
