Hironobu Sakaguchi, the famed designer behind Final Fantasy, Blue Dragon, and Lost Odyssey will be recognized for his contributions to gaming next month. He will be awarded with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the GDC Awards in San Francisco on March 4.

Sakaguchi since left Square Enix and helms his own company, Mistwalker. The developer’s most recent release is Terra Battle, a fluid and strategic take on RPG combat.

“Over his illustrious and thriving career, Sakaguchi-san has established some of the most successful entertainment franchises of all time, and helped cement the RPG genre in Japan and around the world,” says GDC’s Meggan Scavio. “But the gaming world owes an even greater debt to Sakaguchi-san and team for making a compelling game narrative as important to game development as its graphics and sound. Final Fantasy helped pave the way for game stories that dealt with death, regret and character development in a mature and significant way, and we’re proud to honor Sakaguchi-san as a true leader in the space, and an inspired game developer.”

The Game Developers Conference has also announced that Double Fine founder Tim Schafer will host the event. Capybara co-founder Nathan Vella will host the Independent Games Festival award ceremony that will take place immediately preceding the GDC awards.

Check out our previous coverage for more on the GDC Awards and IGF Awards. For more on Sakaguchi, check out an interview from PAX in August 2014.