Category: JRPG

Mistwalker (Game Studio) - How they helped the XBox 360

31/3/2016

Guest Blog By Kevin @Agent_Prince

Mistwalker Game Studio - How they helped the Xbox 360

Hironobu Sakaguchi, the world famous ‘father’ of Final Fantasy, could well be considered the Miyamoto of JRPG games. Since the unfortunate box-office bomb that was Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (which Sakaguchi directed), Sakaguchi left his presidential position at Square (which ultimately became Square Enix), and founded his own company, Mistwalker in 2004. Since that time, Mistwalker have developed a range of titles for different platforms, and a further title looks to be on its way, although only concept art has surfaced thus far. Sakaguchi also enlisted the immense musical talents of Nobou Uematsu, who also left Square in 2004.

Mistwalker initially signed up with Microsoft to produce Xbox 360 exclusive titles, of which there are two: Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey. Blue Dragon in particular helped boost sales of the Xbox 360 in Japan, at the time of its release (2006).

Microsoft sold 35,343 Xbox 360s – an increase of nearly 90 per cent over the previous week’s figure of just over 4000 consoles. It’s likely that the rise was linked to the release of Blue Dragon, which was developed by Mistwalker, the studio led by Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi

– Ellie Gibson, Blue Dragon release boosts Xbox 360 sales in Japan, GamesIndustry.biz

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Have we witnessed the decline of the JRPG?

8/5/2015

4 Comments

Guest blog by Luis Gonzalez

When gamers heard the words Final Fantasy in the late 90s/early 2000's, most associated it with large scale, grand and epic video games. Games that immersed the player in a large world and a story full of intrigue, adventure and wonder. They contained characters we loved and some we hated. Areas and scenes we'll never forget, battles that had us at the edges of our seats and music to wrap it all into one almost perfect package. And it wasn't just Final Fantasy that allowed us to feel this way. There were dozens of games being developed at that time who, while not reaching the levels of success as Squaresoft did with Final Fantasy, still managed to keep things fresh in a genre many people hold dear to their gaming hearts: the Japanese Role Playing Game.

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