Ogre Battle Walkthrough

Strategy RPG Pioneer Yasumi Matsuno Jumps to Level-5

The biggest story from the latest issue of Famitsu magazine isn't about a game at all -- it's news of a job transfer that could have major impact for anyone who loves console strategy RPGs.

Yasumi Matsuno, creator of Ogre Battle , Tactics Ogre and the Final Fantasy Tactics series, has reportedly taken a new job with Level-5, the Fukuoka-based publisher of both hardcore RPGs ( White Knight Chronicles ) and more casual stuff like Inazuma Eleven and the Professor Layton series. Matsuno was personally invited to the outfit by Level-5 founder and president Akihiro Hino, who said it'd offer the designer an opportunity to work on stuff he's never had a chance to before, according to Famitsu .

While neither Hino nor Matsuno commented in depth on what they might work on, Hino stated that it won't take two years or so for the next Matsuno project to come out and that it could be "something that the nieces and nephews of Matsuno fans might also enjoy."

The 45-year-old Matsuno joined indie game developer Quest in 1989, where he formed what would become the main staff behind Ogre Battle and Tactics Ogre. After completing Tactics Ogre, Matsuno moved to Square in 1995 and worked on FF Tactics, the first console strategy RPG to break a million copies sold worldwide, as well as classic PlayStation RPG Vagrant Story . He left Square in 2005 in the midst of Final Fantasy XII development and had been freelancing for assorted companies ever since, making contributions to both Grasshopper's MadWorld and Square Enix's new PSP port of Tactics Ogre .

More details as they come.

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