The last time we heard of acclaimed game producer and director Yasumi Matsuno, he was involved with the PSP version of Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together alongside the game's original staff members. The latest issue of Famitsu recently revealed that the famous developer will be joining Level-5, the company behind the Professor Layton series, and will be making a new game with the company.
According to the interview conducted by the magazine, the reason Matsuno joined the company was because he felt the appeal of the company from games like the Professor Layton and Inazuma Eleven series. He also said that he shares a common vision with the company CEO Akihiro Hino, and added that he wishes to learn the company's sense and ideas stemming from the aforementioned titles. The CEO stated in the interview that he intended to get Matsuno on board right after the Japanese release of the Tactics Ogre remake on the PSP.
Matsuno also said that Hino has given him free reign to do "whatever he felt like doing" and something "Matsuno-ish". Details on Matsuno's first title under the new company are vague. The title will not be an extension of his past works, but it will be created with the same scope and caliber as Tactics Ogre. He also hinted that his new title will cater to fans of his work as well as by kids. He does not plan to spend two years to produce the upcoming title, as Hino elaborated further that new titles will save the industry and that Matsuno and Level-5 must 'plow the seeds for those new things'.
As a bonus, Matsuno showed off a few illustrations to the interviewers at Famitsu as high-concept teasers of his upcoming project. One of them was a knight holding a large shield, while the other was a group of four units: a rapier-wielder, an axe-bearer, a sorcerer, and an archer. The artwork was done by Hideo Minaba and Yuka Miyamoto, who were involved in the art direction of Final Fantasy XII and other Square Enix titles. Neither Matsuno nor Level-5 has revealed the release window and target platform of the upcoming game.
Yasumi Matsuno began his videogame career at former Japanese company Quest where he created Conquest of the Crystal Palace for the NES and the Ogre Battle series of games on the Super Nintendo. He was more renowned for joining Square Enix (known as Squaresoft back then) and creating Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story for the PlayStation One, both of which received critical acclaim from reviewers and gamers.
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