3d ago
Veritas Tales: Witch of the Dark Castle, a reading-type fantasy RPG, launched on Steam on July 9, 2026. The game is the work of Yoshio Nishimura, a veteran illustrator and background artist who previously worked on Monster Hunter at Capcom and Odin Sphere and Dragon's Crown at Vanillaware. Nishimura spent six years developing the game while farming in the mountains of Nara, creating over 300 hand-drawn illustrations without generative AI. The game features a gamebook-style format where players read pages, make choices, and roll dice to determine outcomes. It supports combat, negotiation, and avoidance as approaches to obstacles. The text volume exceeds 300,000 characters, estimated playtime is over 20 hours, and a New Game Plus mode is included. Music is provided by Basiscape, led by Hitoshi Sakimoto (Final Fantasy Tactics, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim). The regular price is 1,980 yen with a 10% launch discount for two weeks. A demo covering the first 30 minutes is available and has received a Very Positive rating on Steam. Full monetization of streams and videos is permitted for individuals and corporations.
Jun 16
Yoshio Nishimura, who led background art at Vanillaware for over twenty years, left the studio during the pandemic and moved to a village of 1,200 people in Nara Prefecture. He spent six years developing Veritas Tales: Witch of the Dark Castle under his own label, Digitalis Publishing. Studio head George Kamitani framed the departure as a "graduation" and the first case of a planned strategy to let senior creators open their own shops.
Jun 16
Yoshio Nishimura, a Vanillaware veteran who worked on Odin Sphere and 13 Sentinels, released a free demo for his new RPG Verita Tales: The Witch of the Dark Castle during Steam Next Fest in June 2026. The game is a digital gamebook with dice-roll battles, over 300 hand-drawn illustrations, and branching story paths. Nishimura spent six years developing the title while living in a mountain village in Nara Prefecture.
Jun 9
Marvelous and Vanillaware announced Muramasa: Revenant Blades, an enhanced edition of Muramasa: The Demon Blade and Muramasa: Rebirth, during a Nintendo Direct livestream. The game launches for Nintendo Switch 2, Switch, PlayStation 5, and PC via Steam in early 2027. It features 4K visuals, new English voiceover and localization, and new modes. This marks Vanillaware's first PC release.
Jun 9
During the June 9 Nintendo Direct broadcast, Marvelous and Vanillaware announced Oboro Muramasa Kaitan, a new entry in the Japanese-style action RPG series. The game is scheduled for an early 2027 release on Nintendo Switch. Oboro Muramasa originally launched on Wii in 2009 and later on PS Vita in 2013. Vanillaware, the developer behind titles such as 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim and Dragon's Crown, is handling development, with Marvelous publishing. The announcement was accompanied by images captured from the stream, though no gameplay footage or further details were shown. The title revives a franchise that has not seen a new mainline release in over a decade, positioning it as a notable return for the studio's action RPG lineage.