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Earlier in the week, when Mistwalker chief and The Last Story designer, Hironobu Sakaguchi, blogged about his development team’s latest proceedings in Japanese, he almost made it sound like the title could be his swan song.
“Me and my team poured 120% of our energy into this title,” Sakaguchi wrote. A line later, he continued: “I am completely pouring everything into this one, there is a strong feeling this may be my last work.” At least, that’s what the Japanese wording made it sound like.
Sakaguchi-san’s “official” English translation of the same post, now up on the English Mistwalker site, however, makes the wording a little clearer in English. The bit about the 120% of energy was translated as follows:
“The energy poured into this project by the development team and I are 120%. I’m hoping you can understand that, however on the other hand, I feel worried and nervous like sending my child on a trip alone. Emotionally it feels like this is my last work, while pouring everything I have gotten into this project. Never regret, but now “I’m enjoying”; furthermore, aiming towards completion. The sense of “This is it” relaxes my shoulders, its pleasant feeling to conduct an orchestra by the sense of my intuition.”
Key word: “emotionally”. It would appear Sakaguchi’s comments about The Last Story being his last game were merely a figure of speech. Rather, he’s treated the game as if it were his last, in terms of the amount of effort he has put into it, and is relieved that an end is finally in sight. Phew!
Update: Slight alteration to the headline after giving it much consideration.
