The creator of a seminal mid-1990s RPG series and its spiritual successor has died.

An update to backers of Eiyuden Chronicles: Hundred Heroes from developer Rabbit & Bear Studios has announced that Yoshitaka Murayama, the director of the upcoming RPG as well as the Suikoden franchise that it succeeds, passed away from an ongoing illness on February 6. No further details have been provided out of respect for the privacy of his family.

Originally hired into quality assurance by Konami in 1992, he was later asked to develop a game for the then-upcoming PlayStation console and chose to create an RPG, which released in 1995 in Japan as "Suikoden" and became a cult hit for the platform. He left Konami in 2002, just before the release of Suikoden III for the PlayStation 2, as part of a career plan to go freelance after ten years. He later worked on manga and wrote part of the scenario for The Alliance Alive, the 2017-18 3DS RPG, before forming Rabbit & Bear Studios in 2020 to create a successor to Suikoden called Eiyuden Chronicles: Hundred Heroes which is slated to release in April.