Yoshitaka Murayama, known as the writer and director of the Konami RPG series Suikoden, has died. Murayama's death was reported by Rabbit & Bear Studios, which he founded in 2020. In a statement published Wednesday, Rabbit & Bear said he passed away on February 6 due to complications arising from an "ongoing illness."
Murayama gained fame with the 1995 release of the original Suikoden, and enjoyed even greater success with the sequel, Suikoden 2, which we said in our retrospective on the games "is often considered one of the finest JRPGs ever." He served as the writer and director on Suikoden 3, but left Konami shortly before its release to launch his own company, Blue Moon Studio, which developed the PS2 shooter 10,000 Bullets.
