Tanaka Leaves Square Enix.

I do hope he gets better soon. Cancer is never a battle any of us chooses to wage.

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Originally Posted by Kiote

Best Game Designer/Director/Producer in the industry in my opinion. I don't put any of XIV blame on him. Most of his contributions to this game were revolutionary. Sadly, too revolutionary for this generation of MMO players. All the bad decisions in that game were clearly made at the Board level. Dated Technology, Old Engine, Early Release. These are decisions made by Suits to save money. He has had his hand in a large chunk of the Best RPGs ever made. That is what I'll remember.

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Ditto. This is why i supported him since the very start of FFXIV...and still support. IMO FFXIV had the potential to become the ultimate MMO experience when finished and the fact internal/external factors caused it to be abandoned before its completion doesn't make him a bad game developer.

I still hope he returns one day and maybe even try the original FFXIV again as a different game with the new technologies by then.

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Originally Posted by Jynx

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Come on guys did you even read the thread? Please stop mentioning the thread that got locked for reasons totally outside the scope of this one.

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I didn't to be honest. I clicked on it and went straight to the end. My fault on that one.

http://image.blog.livedoor.jp/jin115...c/9c45d7c6.jpg

That's Tanaka when he was 22
I guess the last hand shake I had with him at FFXI Fan Fest has more meaning to me now.

Hope he gets well and thank you for giving me my dream to wanting to become game programmer :D (although I never got there 'yet')

Wow! Nice pics.

You will be missed greatly. And especially since I love both Xenogears and Chrono Cross. :)

Thank you Tanaka for 10 amazing years in Vanadiel. And thank you for creating Eorzea, even if it did need an overhaul :)
I'll never forget Valkurm Dunes, thanks for the memories

Thank you, Tanaka!
FFXI was definetely the best MMO i ever played.

Thank you Mr. Tanaka.

It truly was his final fantasy.

http://zipmeme.com/uploads/generated...5894199957.jpg

This is probably more relevant to the XI community but I do find it amusing at the amount of tributes pouring in for Tanaka when most people would do nothing but spit venom at the sheer mention of him recently.

After XIV's failure and XI's stagnation over the past year, I would say it's pretty much the best time for him to throw in the towel, really. I would say that his departure is one of the best things that could happen for XI's future after seeing how far XIV has come under Yoshi-P.

That being said, I wish him all the best and good health in the future.

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Originally Posted by Crysten

http://zipmeme.com/uploads/generated...5894199957.jpg

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Hiromichi Tanaka is the new Michael Jackson. :D

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Originally Posted by Crysten

http://zipmeme.com/uploads/generated...5894199957.jpg

This is probably more relevant to the XI community but I do find it amusing at the amount of tributes pouring in for Tanaka when most people would do nothing but spit venom at the sheer mention of him recently.

After XIV's failure and XI's stagnation over the past year, I would say it's pretty much the best time for him to throw in the towel, really. I would say that his departure is one of the best things that could happen for XI's future after seeing how far XIV has come under Yoshi-P.

That being said, I wish him all the best and good health in the future.

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It is pretty funny, but hey it just shows that people are too caught up to really see the truth, when the guy making the game says it's not ready then it suddenly gets released the following month..you don't blame the lemming, you blame the puppetmaster.

I've never had any sort of personal hatred for Tanaka. I think that his vision for FFXIV was horribly flawed, and that FFXIV is better off without him. However, if he actually does have some sort of health problems, that deserves well-wishing no matter what we may think of his latest projects. He's still a human being in the end.

While mistakes were made in FFXIV, people who didn't like him should acknowledge that there wouldn't be a Final Fantasy to begin with if he didn't contribute to it. He has been around since the beginning and sad to see that one of the best minds in the company is leaving now. I do hope his health turns for the better and if he is up for it, create games that not only gave me some of the best experiences of my life, but the best experiences for most of us.

He gave my Final Fantasy, Xenogears, Chrono Cross, and so on. Please come back whenever you feel better and make Chrono Break! :D

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Originally Posted by Keres

However, if he actually does have some sort of health problems, that deserves well-wishing no matter what we may think of his latest projects. He's still a human being in the end.

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Sounds like it may be Cancer, if that is the case, I wouldn't go so far as to say he's "fortunate" but that region - Japan and South Korea in particular - have some of the best cancer treatment facilities in the world. Hopefully he will be back up and around in a little under a year or two. Whether or not he's ready or even willing to get back to work is another question though.

I just hope it was his own decision and that he didnt get kicked out because of FFXIV.
He did great with FFXI and other games and thats what ppl should remember him for, not only for this FFXIV fail.

Farewell Tanaka-san.
Thanks for those many hours of fun i had in FFXI!

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Originally Posted by Crysten

http://zipmeme.com/uploads/generated...5894199957.jpg

This is probably more relevant to the XI community but I do find it amusing at the amount of tributes pouring in for Tanaka when most people would do nothing but spit venom at the sheer mention of him recently.

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Well as it's said most people didn't hate him as a person, and I know people tend to over-exaggerate their dislike for him, however peoples dislike for his development and work methods are not terribly unjustified in their views. He's shown to ignore the playerbases views and concerns when it came to FFXI and FFXIV's alpha/beta in development, if other people were in more control than he is in decisions he could be at fault for not creating enough ruckus to make them rethink their development, it could just be the opposite to blame his team for not backing him up or telling him he's wrong and needs to rethink his strategy.

Who can really say, but I view it this way, a development team is like a family. When the family works together expressing their opinions, thoughts, concerns, and everyone listens to them objectively and tries to address those issues as they come up the team can work beautifully, but all it takes is one person to hold back their concerns/opinions or ignore the rest of the team which could lead to catastrophe. I honestly think that's what has come to pass with Tanaka's team over the past 10 years or so, started out good and things got complacent, some thought we were in a good spot while others didn't and it just snowballed from there.

In either case, best of luck Tanaka and I hope you kick that cancers ass.

thank you tanaka-san for everything u done for us gamers in the last 30 years

I've always liked Tanaka (I LOVED what he did for FFXI, also FFXIV before Yoshi took over XIV's development) NOW the people who loathed him for reasons I'll never know are jumping on the "IMMA MISS YOU TANAKA!!" bandwagon after throwing shit at him.

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Originally Posted by Crysten

http://zipmeme.com/uploads/generated...5894199957.jpg

This is probably more relevant to the XI community but I do find it amusing at the amount of tributes pouring in for Tanaka when most people would do nothing but spit venom at the sheer mention of him recently.

After XIV's failure and XI's stagnation over the past year, I would say it's pretty much the best time for him to throw in the towel, really. I would say that his departure is one of the best things that could happen for XI's future after seeing how far XIV has come under Yoshi-P.

That being said, I wish him all the best and good health in the future.

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Not all of us hated him. He had some ideas that did not work, but I personally never held it against him. He tried something, and it didn't work. That's the problem with being the Producer...you get all the hate. Yoshi-P is currently getting praise from the community (generally), yet nobody seems to realize that he doesn't do any of the coding/modeling/etc. The entire team is to blame for the game being as bad as it was at launch, just like the entire team is responsible for making the game as enjoyable as it is now, plus where it will be when 2.0 launches.

That being said, as I said in the other thread, I wish him the best. Thanks for all you did for Squaresoft/Square-Enix Tanaka!

Who cares about Tanaka retiring, did we just lose Matsui to XI?

Noooooooooo!

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Originally Posted by Murugan

Who cares about Tanaka retiring, did we just lose Matsui to XI?

Noooooooooo!

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Tanaka was working on both XIV and XI. Why wouldn't Matsui?

First and foremost, I wish Hiromichi Tanaka a speedy, full recovery.

I must thank him for playing such a major role in the video game industry as both a visionary producer/developer and video game enthusiast. Major respect for his dedication and work with FFXIV and all the titles he worked on to date. I was drawn to FFXIV's original concept, offering and roadmap ("Tanaka's Vision") and that's when I started looking at the credits to find out who was leading a team on creating such a monumental game. If only he had received the extra time he needed and obviously asked for. This game still has that potential and its great to know we'll see it realised in a fairly different form but with the same monumental results (Naoki Yoshida don't sweat it, you'll do fine).

By the way, Hiromichi Tanaka was the Online Business Management Division Executive for this game to date. Go read the credits.

Tanaka, it's great to know you'll be working on games in the future.
(Let's play together again sometime!)

Tanaka-san, I owe you and the teams you worked with over the years a big thank you for all the great games. Xenogears, Chrono Cross, FFXI, and FFXIV are ones that I have enjoyed playing, even when they didn't work the way they were intended. Get well; the future is full of possibilities.

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Originally Posted by Eekiki

Tanaka was working on both XIV and XI. Why wouldn't Matsui?

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Because being a battle designer and a producer are both pretty demanding. Whereas Tanaka didn't have a very prominent role for XIV after he was moved to XI.

A big part of why I stick with this game is anticipation for endgame encounters, and Matsui was a huge draw for me and others I know. I am sad to see that he will no longer be focusing his full attention (or any at all, there is nothing that says he is going to continue to work on XIV into the future) on designing encounters in this game.

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Originally Posted by KiriA500

Yoshi-P is currently getting praise from the community (generally), yet nobody seems to realize that he doesn't do any of the coding/modeling/etc.

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Of course not, but he does have control over the high-level direction that those teams will take. For instance, Yoshi-P has said that he had the UI team (at the very least, possibly more) play World of Warcraft a bit, and told them "this is the level of UI functionality that our worldwide players will expect." Doubtless he's done the same with other aspects of the game as well. I think he deserves credit for setting a high bar for the team with 2.0.

A big loss for SE , I really never wanted this game as his last contribution :(.
Get well soon!

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Originally Posted by Keres

Of course not, but he does have control over the high-level direction that those teams will take. For instance, Yoshi-P has said that he had the UI team (at the very least, possibly more) play World of Warcraft a bit, and told them "this is the level of UI functionality that our worldwide players will expect." Doubtless he's done the same with other aspects of the game as well. I think he deserves credit for setting a high bar for the team with 2.0.

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Don't get me wrong, I think Yoshi-P is doing a great job as Producer, he just doesn't do as much as people seem to think he does. Having his team play World of Warcraft to see what a proper UI is only part of the solution...the development team needs to do their part in understanding the research, and applying it to the game. He has helped the game immensely since he first joined, but as I've said before, the major changes are up to the rest of the development team. He can dream all he wants, if they can't do anything with the information, it won't matter at all.

I want to state again, I really do like Yoshi-P! I just feel Producers of games get more credit than is deserved.

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Originally Posted by KiriA500

Don't get me wrong, I think Yoshi-P is doing a great job as Producer, he just doesn't do as much as people seem to think he does. Having his team play World of Warcraft to see what a proper UI is only part of the solution...the development team needs to do their part in understanding the research, and applying it to the game. He has helped the game immensely since he first joined, but as I've said before, the major changes are up to the rest of the development team. He can dream all he wants, if they can't do anything with the information, it won't matter at all.

I want to state again, I really do like Yoshi-P! I just feel Producers of games get more credit than is deserved.

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With the amount of sleep he doesn't get, I would imagine he does more than you think he does.

I've only played Final Fantasy XI of his works... but it left me with such memorable experiences that I think I will remember for the rest of my life. It was a great game and I'm glad I played it when I did.

Thank you Tanaka for your work for Square Enix and your fans.
Wish you well.

I've never had an issue with Tanaka san.

It's a bit disheartening that people tend to cling to negativity more than they would remember positive things. As often the case, all a person's good deed are forgotten easily with a few bad ones. Tanaka branched out and took a risk when he created FFXIV. Even if it failed, I still respect him for what he did with FFXIV. Mainly, I respect him for taking that risk.

Compare his latest MMORPG attempt with many other MMORPG creators who wish to clone old games because they are "sure things", only to further the trend of failing games in a genre that is already rife with them. I believe it's Tanaka's kind of people who make real progress. My only regret is that this was not the case with FFXIV.

Whether or not a person had or has issues with FFXIV, I think anyone can still - if they have any sense of compassion for their fellow human being - give well wishes to a person who is in ill health.

Yoshi recently talked about XIV and how certain people will see the current situation as either a glass half empty or a glass half full. I'd like to look at the silver lining and think that Tanaka (and his team) gave us the foundation to which we can build 2.0 on. When it comes to FFXIV, that's what I'd like to remember him by.

Besides, resentment takes to much energy to keep up and I'm lazy. :)

Should Tanaka recover, and should he return to game development, I hope he either goes somewhere like Capcom or Bethesda or creates a new company to just to tell the brass at SE to get over themselves and so his vision can be better realized - I want to see it fully working.

But whatever happens, may Tanaka's journey be blessed

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Originally Posted by Dragon

Should Tanaka recover, and should he return to game development, I hope he either goes somewhere like Capcom or Bethesda or creates a new company to just to tell the brass at SE to get over themselves.

But whatever happens, may Tanaka's journey be blessed

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Or join with his friend Hironobu Sakaguchi in a new game.

XI was pretty awesome, so its not like he's got no talent. Hope he gets better.

He never gave us a bad game, it just wasn't finished when we got it.
All the best, an hope he gets better.

*bow* Tanaka, i enjoyed beta.

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Originally Posted by Dragon

Should Tanaka recover, and should he return to game development, I hope he either goes somewhere like Capcom or Bethesda or creates a new company to just to tell the brass at SE to get over themselves and so his vision can be better realized - I want to see it fully working.

But whatever happens, may Tanaka's journey be blessed

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<_< If he were to go over to Capcom all he would make are rehashed fighting games and a zombie shooter.

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Originally Posted by Airget

<_< If he were to go over to Capcom all he would make are rehashed fighting games and a zombie shooter.

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Never heard of Dragon's Dogma, have you?

sux...dont know what to say.

but, thank you Tanaka for all the wonderful games you given us over the years! :)

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Originally Posted by Esk

He never gave us a bad game, it just wasn't finished when we got it.

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^^^ THIS - I'm really hoping it was just bad management pushing for release of FFXIV for SE's stock market reasons after FFXIII

All the best in your retirement.