Under the direction of Hironobu Sakaguchi, Final Fantasy games never had a direct sequel. Now we know why.

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“I don’t like sequels,” he told IGN during a recent sit-down interview. “I hate them.”That’s because Sakaguchi -- who’s in San Francisco this week to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award, believes a game should be a complete experience. "That’s why every single Final Fantasy had a new cast of characters, a brand new story, [and] a different system.”It was a philosophy he held dear during his time at Squaresoft, and one his team at Mistwalker still believes in. “Our promise to ourselves is that for every single game that we make, we are going to give it our all, and then we finish it, we’ll end it in such a way that there is no to be continued checklist."There have been multiple sequels and spin-offs of Final Fantasy since Sakaguchi left Square Enix in 2000, including Final Fantasy X-2, Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings, Final Fantasy XIII-2, and Lightning Returns. Despite mixed reviews, the third Final Fantasy XIII game sold over a million copies worldwide.