Hello everyone!

It has been a number of weeks since I shared an update, so here I am! There are a few things I’d like to share about my podcast, my books, and zines, and then end it with an article of mine on the history of Final Fantasy XI. If y’all missed any of my 32 Bit Library books, they are all restocked on pixelsandpolygons.net right now. Anyway, here are highlights of the last few weeks:

Pixels and Polygons turned 1!

I have now passed 52 episodes and have officially been podcasting for over a year! To everyone who has checked out the show, thank you! If you haven’t had time to listen to it yet and are curious, here is the pitch:

To celebrate the anniversary, I had a giant episode with Aidan Moher and Luis Aguasvivas as my guests. The three of us “drafted” our favorite RPGs and discussed them and the genre.

You can listen to the show on most podcast platforms. If you do, let me know what you think. Send me a message on bsky or leave a review. I’d love to hear your thoughts about the show!

• Find it on RSS.com here: https://rss.com/podcasts/pixelspolygons/

• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pixels-and-polygons/id1736063825

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1scBiQBcm6u03qSjFkDvzD?si=k1OReY87SRSamyl6bPgiCw

Retro Game Zine continues!

Since January, I have been producing a monthly zine with a focus on a single retor game each issue. I JUST ended a Kickstarter for Issue 003 and 004 a few weeks ago, but to keep a monthly project going, you have to work monthly! Who knew? To help not having a running Kickstarter every couple of weeks, I have the current campaign running RIGHT NOW that ends Sunday for the next three issues. This way, I have enough time for production and shipping, plus waiting on funds to transfer and process before I even have to start thinking about plotting out a new Kickstarter campaign.

These three issues have some great collaborators and focus on some fun games. Issue 005 covers Breath of Fire IV with contributions from Aidan Moher. Issue 006 focuses on Blue Stinger with a contribution from Jet Brian Radio. Finally, Issue 007 covers Final Fantasy Mystic Quest with a few contributors: Synthatron Prime, Buttzilla, and William B Hill.

You can check out the campaign right now and support it to get any of the issues individually, or a combo of all three with some secret sticker rewards, as well. You can find all the info here:

Final Fantasy XI article!

I have been trying to share some of the original writing I have been doing for Retro Game Zine on my Patreon, so just to plug that here, you can follow along for free to read anything I post for FREE. I do have a paid tier, with bonuses like a “postcard-of-the-month” retro review, early access to my podcast episodes, and free digital copies of Retro Game Zine for $5 a month. You can read this article there, but I wanted to try and share my writing as much as I can, so feel free to check it out here, and if you like it, follow the Patreon for free.

New Millennium. Who Dis?

1505 words on how Sakaguchi’s biggest failure quietly helped create Final Fantasy’s greatest success

The history of Final Fantasy XI began on January 29th, 2000 (though it was initially supposed to be November 23rd, 1999). That’s the date Square held an event aptly called the “Square Millennium Event.” At this event for both the media and the public, Square showcased several upcoming titles, with the most significant buzz coming from announcing THREE new Final Fantasy titles. Final Fantasy IX, X, and XI. The bigger surprise was that these titles would be released in the next few years. There was also time to showcase a teaser for the then-upcoming Final Fantasy movie Spirits Within. 

The juggernaut that was Final Fantasy had been gradually building steam, seeing growing critical and commercial success with each subsequent title. From its epic releases that advanced the genre on the SNES/Super Famicom, then on to the industry-shaking move to support the new PlayStation console with the cinematic and technological spectacles that were Final Fantasy VII and VIII. 

On this same ascent was series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi. He began as the director and planner of the earliest games in the franchise, but as time went on, he was less involved creatively and shifted into producer and executive producer roles. His position at Square demanded his oversight over more than a single game, and with the partnership to create a feature film spun out of his own franchise, Sakaguchi moved to Hawaii, helping establish Square USA in Honolulu. This would be the studio that would house the team creating Final Fantasy Spirits Within. After over four years in development, at an estimated cost of $137 million, Final Fantasy Spirits Within was released and would be considered a box office bomb, only bringing back ~$85 million. 

This is a story many Final Fantasy die-hards know. The results of this failure would impact Sakaguchi’s morale, and he would step away from Square and ultimately leave the company in 2003. What if I were to share, with distance and time from 2001, that Sakaguchi simultaneously helped create the most successful Final Fantasy at the same time? We don’t often reexamine moments in the past, but Sakaguchi deserves the reflection. As president of Square USA, of course, he takes the failure personally, but also, as president, he oversaw numerous projects simultaneously. What were these other projects at this time? What else was cooked up in the late 90s in Honolulu, Hawaii?

While helping to establish the team at Square USA, Sakaguchi was working on Final Fantasy IX in a more creative capacity. It was developed at Square USA, which allowed him to be far more involved than he was able to be for Final Fantasy VII and VIII. IX would reflect on all the games before it and be the purest form and idea he had for a Final Fantasy title. It wasn’t meant to be the “last” game, but he knew the future would change how players interacted with games, both because of the incoming PlayStation 2 and online connectivity with players. Final Fantasy IX’s legacy with players today is one that both took the franchise forward and simultaneously celebrated the franchise with one of the most enduring narratives and cast even today. 

During this time, Sakaguchi felt disconnected from Japan. He turned to games and ended up discovering MMOs like EverQuest. The game’s connectivity and adventure inspired him to look for more like it. At the time, there were no games like this in Japan, so the idea he brought back to the teams in Japan was that they had to be the ones to make one at Square and that it had to be great. Square knew this would require a larger team, so four groups who had recently shipped games would work together to start crafting this online RPG. The teams that finished Parasite Eve II, Brave Fencer Musashi, Legend of Mana, and Chrono Cross unified. Koichi Ishii was tasked as the director, and Hiromichi Tanaka was the producer and designer of the game. It would take a few years, but the bold idea of having a built-in translation feature and launching on PlayStation 2 and PC helped bring players from across platforms and continents to play together in a major way.

So we had a legacy and reflective hit, filled with nostalgia, as a swan song for the PlayStation hardware in Final Fantasy IX. It was well received and respected by critics and consumers at launch. We had the announcement of Final Fantasy X coming to the next-gen hardware as the future of the franchise in Final Fantasy X, which would also go on to be a financial hit, and Sakaguchi’s name was proudly listed as a producer on both. Still, these did what they were expected to do. That leaves us with Final Fantasy XI’s impact. What would this game go on to do?

After launching in May 2002 on PS2 in Japan, the cross-platform dream would come to fruition in November of that year when it was released on PC. By April, the game would have expanded with the release of Rise of the Zilart. In October of 2003, the US launch of the PC version bundled both the base game and the Rise of the Zilart expansion for new players. Now, across continents and languages, players could adventure together around Vana ‘Diel. In January 2004, the newly merged Square Enix announced there were now over 1 million characters in Final Fantasy XI. That March, the PS2 version would be released in a set that included the PS2 hard drive in North America. In April, it was announced that there were over 500k member accounts. In addition to this news, a new expansion was announced, Chains of Promathia.

The game would progress significantly from there. Player counts would continue to rise. Further expansions were released. An unexpected Xbox 360 version was announced and released, allowing players to connect to the same servers and party together playing on a PC, PS2, or Xbox 360 worldwide. The game had yet to peak. From here, there would be routine convention appearances, the creation of official fan festivals, merch, continued growth and add-ons, expansions, and more. In 2009, the population of the game reached 2 million (not active players, but total unique characters made in the game’s lifetime). Final Fantasy XI was a hit. It was beyond a hit. As the peak popularity of the game hit around this time, there would be talks of a sequel (with quite its own history) and the assumed decline of the player base. But that didn’t really happen as expected.

Players continued to subscribe to the game even as Square Enix seemed to be winding it down through the launch (and relaunch) of Final Fantasy XIV. They needed to retire platforms like the PS2 client, then a few years later, the Xbox 360 client, as new console generations came and went, but players continued to log in. The game was revised and opened, making it easier for casual and solo players to explore it in these twilight years, and players continued to log in. The sales of these games and their expansions, the merchandise, and the subscription fees continued to add up. In 2012, it was announced that Final Fantasy XI was the most profitable title in the franchise’s history. It is now 2025, and players continue to log in and play, 13 years removed from this announcement.

So, what was the point of all of this? Well, reading back at headlines, interviews, historical context, and writings, Sakaguchi left Square after the impact that the failure of Spirits Within had on himself and the company. This is a fact. Now, put the microscope down. Stop reading the headline and look at the entire page. Hell, look at the whole book. Sakaguchi’s vision to connect players and to have Square lead the charge on their own MMORPG led us to Final Fantasy XI, and all these years later, led us to the most profitable and successful title in the franchise’s history. His blemish from the failure of Spirits Within should be living in the shadow of Final Fantasy XI. He may have tapped out and stepped away, but his parting gift led to success no other Final Fantasy will come close to beating, maybe ever. 

The story of Final Fantasy Spirits Within should no longer be told on its own. It should be said with the story of Square USA, of Final Fantasy IX, of the idea of a new MMORPG, of a company growing so rapidly it expanded too quickly, but it didn’t fail. The father of Final Fantasy was the most successful creator of Final Fantasy’s. You will not always get it right, but remember to zoom out. Look back at the whole story. Look back at all the decisions and events and responses to those moments and see it for what it ultimately was. Thank you, Sakaguchi, for taking on the title, steering a company in unprecedented times, and trying something new. It worked out in the end. 

That’s it. Thanks for reading this far into the update. I appreciate your support and attention! If you don’t want to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe below. I plan to send them only when I have announcements or something new to share, so they shouldn’t flood your inbox or be too much of a bother.

Follow me on social media for other less exciting posts and updates at bsky. I am @darrenhupke.bsky.social, and I also have @pixelsandpolygons.net there.