We previously reported that Shouzo Kaga, who is widely considered the father of the Fire Emblem series, is working on his own strategy RPG project. announced as Vestaria Saga. Kaga updates us on how it’s coming along on his official blog page.

As previously reported, this project began with Kaga and a group of people with a desire to work on a private project using the doujin software SRPG Studio. Once it’s done, the game will be available to play for free.

The above shows some more gameplay screenshots, and it looks pretty reiminiscent of the older Fire Emblem games.

In an earlier post, Kaga mentioned that he gathered 10 staff members that range from acquaintances to professional developers, and while he considers it a small yet excellent group of members, he says that it’s been exhausting to work on Vestaria Saga through the hot summer.

That said, Kaga is currently looking to increase the staff number by two or three additional members from people that are reading his blog. Here are his requirements:

Someone that loves strategy RPGs and would like to try making one.

Be polite and proper.

Must have some endurance and time to spare.

Someone that really wants to participate in the project.

Those who wish to participate can leave a comment on his blog page. Kaga updated the page adding that they’re having trouble getting a character designer, so that certain “wonderful artist” he had in mind before may not have been available.

He notes that he’s willing to pay for a character designer (as long as they’re not too expensive) and jokingly asks if there are any people out there that can draw characters the way he likes. The character designer will be required to draw about 100 characters faces at 96 x 96 px resolution. Kaga hopes to have it figured out by this fall.

We’ll have more details on Vestaria Saga as it becomes available.