Topic: Harvest Moon Creator and Little King's Story Director Join Grasshopper Manufacture

[NWR_Neal]

Formerly of Marvelous Entertainment, Yasuhiro Wada and Yoshiro Kimura are now a part of the studio responsible for Killer 7 and No More Heroes.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/24266

Grasshopper Manufacture, the studio responsible for Killer 7 and No More Heroes, is adding two notable game creators to their staff in Yasuhiro Wada, the creator and longtime producer of the Harvest Moon games, and Yoshiro Kimura, the director of the 2009 Wii release Little King's Story, according to Famitsu (via 1UP).

Both were a part of Marvelous Entertainment up until recently, and Grasshopper head Goichi Suda is hoping that the pair's addition will fill holes in the company's schedule, which hasn't seen a game release since No More Heroes 2 in January 2010.

"Having these two people join Grasshopper will make us a more sturdily-organized company, and it'll improve our development, technical, and release skills," Suda said.

Wada will take on the role of chief operating officer, and Kimura will become the studio's chief creative officer. The specific titles that the two will work on are unknown, though Suda is hopeful Wada and Kimura will help Grasshopper make more than just action games.

"One of my goals is to make a game for all ages," Suda said. "And I think we've got the foundation for that now."

In early 2010, Akira Yamaoka, best known for his musical work in the Silent Hill series, and Kazutoshi Iida, who worked on Doshin the Giant, joined Grasshopper Manufacture.

[Stratos]

No I can't stop thinking about what Suda's imagining of Harvest Moon would be like.

Sounds like he's gathering a pretty strong group of talented developers there. I'm excited to see what they come up with.

[Killer_Man_Jaro]

I thought Yasuhiro Wada was with Natsume... oh well, you learn something new every day.

Should I be happy or concerned about this news? This is a good bunch of talent moving over, clearly, but Grasshopper Manufacture makes very eccentric games that are total hit-or-miss, so I hope this new talent doesn't go to waste amidst the outlandish weirdness of Suda's games.

[NWR_Neal]

Wada worked with Natsume (since he's been working on the Harvest Moon series for forever), but he was a part of Marvelous, who developed the Harvest Moon games.

[Stratos]

I thought Yasuhiro Wada was with Natsume... oh well, you learn something new every day.

Should I be happy or concerned about this news? This is a good bunch of talent moving over, clearly, but Grasshopper Manufacture makes very eccentric games that are total hit-or-miss, so I hope this new talent doesn't go to waste amidst the outlandish weirdness of Suda's games.

They could be trying to build a second team to make different styled games.

[Mop it up]

What comes next is obvious: a game involving a character who is a farmer by day, assassin by night. Like Rune Factory mixed a farming simulator with a dungeon crawler, this game will fix farming with extreme acts of violence.