No, no & NO! Sakai does not deserves all these love from the world.
I'm not saying he is a bad guy, he is not really bad. However, he is not that good, though.
I'll try to resume the story:
- Phantasy Star was created by Hayashida Koutarou, Rieko Kodama, Tokuhiko Uwabo, Naka Yuji (+ 2 more women);
- Naka Yuji was the head behind the online version of the series (with the permission of Rieko Kodama);
- Naka Yuji has left Sega before PSU got finished, Miyoshi was in charge of it, and has got all the "love" from the users after the game got released. PSU (alongside with a lot of potential rivals) has won the Japanese "Worst Game of the Year" prize on that year;
- Sega makes a last attempt to save the series, and develops Phantasy Star Portable. Accord to rumors, Sega was decided to end the series with this last title;
- Suddenly, the game sells a lot, but it was too late for Miyoshi. It was already decided that he was leaving Sega. He also made a smash hit on Wii's Wii Ware before left Sega with Pole's Big Adventure;
- Sakai has assumed his post. Sakai announces Phantasy Star Zero. People got confused. It is not a game linked with the original series, but has a "0" on it. The game is for DS. Sakai uses Lunar series designer on it. Users complains about most everything on it. Design, characters animations, etc... clearly, the game was a flop;
- Sakai announces PSP2, and people get realised that most of the things on the PSP (Phantasy Star Portable) series was made almost by Alfa-System, and not really by Sega(Sakai);
- PSP2 sells good, but not enough for Alfa-System. The company's president says on an interview that the only way to Alfa-System getting profits, is the game selling at least one million copies...
PSP1 sold very well, but oddly has got the same hate from the users that PSU has got on the Playstation 2 version, since PSP is completely based on PSU. Sega has just got a "blind big hit" with PSP, after the fever by multiplayer games on Sony's PSP started with Monster Hunter.
Sakai has not really made anything till now... he is just on charge of an almost dead project, since Sega was planning to quit the series before the sudden big hit. And most of the things we are seeing now were already made many times before he was turned into producer of the series and half of these things was made by Alfa-System. He has, until now, 1 major flop with PSU, and a smash flop, with PS Zero.
About the humans in PSU series; yes, they were made by another race. The ancient civilization of this series made them. Dark Falz(or whatever it is now) has killed all the people on all the 3 planets, and they managed to seal him. The ancient people had success in to seal DarkFalz, build a brand new race ( the humans ) and died right after that. Really? REALLY?? C'MON! What a SHITTY PLOT! MYGOD! The main character of PSP2 also has died.... YES! Emilia is actally a zombie! She has made a visit to Ryukross, and died there! LOL!!! There's more: you, your character, you got killed at the first stage in PSP2. Completely dead at the end of the very first mission. You get all this information right in the start of the game. Mika, one woman from the ancient people, who is living inside Emilia, tell you everything. Yes! Right at the very start of the game! XDDD I decided to stop playing after those shocking revelations...you are actually a zombie in Phantasy Star Portable 2.
We will see of what Sakai is truly capable in PSO2, but I'm betting on Sega, not him. This is a big and important project for Sega. After the success (only on sales) of PSP1, Sega has put more efforts on the series, and brought back some people from the Sakura Taisen series. Some people does not knows that, but, in the start, the Sakura Taisen team was build with people right from Phantasy Star 4 team!!!
About Miyoshi, looks like he is at YS'Net now, working with Yu Suzuki.
Sorry for the long post ;pp
