Short answers, pulled from the story.
Hironobu Sakaguchi is a Japanese game designer, director, producer, and writer born on the 25th of November 1962. He is best known as the creator of the Final Fantasy franchise, which he developed while working at Square from 1983 to 2003. He later founded the independent studio Mistwalker in 2004, where he created Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, Terra Battle, and Fantasian.
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was a computer-generated feature film directed by Sakaguchi and released in 2001, co-produced with Columbia Pictures at a cost of $137 million. It grossed just over $85 million at the box office, making it a financial failure that damaged Square, delayed its planned merger with Enix, and led to the closure of Square Pictures.
Sakaguchi resigned from his position at Square in 2001 following the financial failure of The Spirits Within, and officially left in 2003 with his last major credit on Final Fantasy X-2. He spent three years at his home in Hawaii in a demoralized state before deciding to return to game production and founding Mistwalker in 2004.
Mistwalker is an independent game studio founded by Sakaguchi in 2004 with funding help from Microsoft, operating between Honolulu, Hawaii and Tokyo, Japan. Its titles include Blue Dragon (2006), Lost Odyssey (2007), ASH: Archaic Sealed Heat (2007), The Last Story (2011), Terra Battle (2014), and Fantasian (2021).
During production of Final Fantasy III, a fire destroyed Sakaguchi's family home and killed his mother, Aki. The experience prompted him to focus more deeply on themes of life, death, and what happens to people after death, influences that carried directly into Final Fantasy VII and The Spirits Within. He named the film's lead character Aki Ross after his mother.
Sakaguchi received the Hall of Fame Award from the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences in May 2000. In 2015 he was given the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Game Developers Choice Awards. In 2017 he received the Special Award at the CEDEC Awards, recognizing his extensive contributions to the gaming industry.