It’s with great sadness that we must report that Yoshitaka Murayama has passed away at the young age of 55. As of time of writing the exact reason for his passing is unknown, but it is known that it was due to an ongoing illness and that his actual date of passing was February 6th, 2024. This news was brought to us by Rabbit and Bear Studios on their personal blog, as well as by the Eiyuden Chronicle Twitter account.
Murayama-san was the creative mind behind the iconic JRPG series Suikoden, being the producer, writer, and director for Suikoden, Suikoden II, and Suikoden III. Of those games Suikoden II especially is held in very high esteem, being regarded as one of the greatest Japanese roleplaying games of all time with a fantastic cast, overarching story, an incredibly memorable first act villain and of course the gameplay.
He had recently resurfaced into the world of video games with his work as supervisor to 505 Games’ Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising, an action RPG that saw many of the old Suikoden team come back together to collaborate on a new IP under Natsume Atari. Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising was received well enough that the team was able to come together once more for a sequel: Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, which is set to release on April 23rd of this year. This game was fundraised on Kickstarter as the spiritual successor to Murayama-san’s Suikoden series, a return to form for those that wanted something resembling the much vaunted series which has lain dormant for decades at this point.
55 is far too young to go, but the most we can do is celebrate his life and work and appreciate the future he worked towards, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes looks fantastic, a grand final piece for a man who lived his life for the art, but it is depressing that Murayama-san will not be able to see the spiritual successor to a series that stands as one of the pillars of the genre, a pillar he helped build, be released.