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A Vanillaware veteran is about to release a new game on Steam featuring over 300 hand-drawn illustrations created over the course of six years (thanks, @STGshmups).
Yoshio Nishimura has enjoyed a 30-year career as a background artist, with credits such as Monster Hunter, Odin Sphere, Dragon's Crown, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim and Muramasa: The Demon Blade to his name.
He left Vanillaware a few years back, settling in a small mountain village in rural Japan where he tends his fields and creates video games.
The first fruit of this labour is Veritas Tales: Witch of the Dark Castle, which is described as a "reading-style" fantasy adventure.
It contains more than 300 pieces of artwork, all drawn by Nishimura himself without the aid of any Generative AI. "This game has a soul that can only be found in something truly handmade," says the Steam page.
There are over 15,000 words of text included, and the game offers over 20 hours of playtime thanks to its branching storyline. Nishimura has reunited with regular Vanillaware contributor Hitoshi Sakimoto for the music, through Sakimoto's Basiscape studio.
Inspired by the likes of GrailQuest, Sorcery!, Fighting Fantasy, Elden Ring and Baldur's Gate 3, Veritas Tales doesn't have a release date as yet, but it's one that I'm putting on my wishlist, for sure. Will you be doing the same? Let us know in the comments.