Koji Igarashi, producer of the widely acclaimed Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and its handheld successors has left Konami. The Japanese developer is leaving to form his own studio.

IGN reports that Igarashi’s final day at Konami was Saturday, March 15. Igarashi says deciding to depart wasn’t an easy decision, but that the freedom will allow him to make the kinds of games he wants. He says he wants to make the types of games “fans of [his] past games” have desired for years.

Igarashi is attending the Game Developers Conference this week in San Francisco, California, where he will be talking about his last 15 years in the industry.



Our Take

Igarashi helped create some of the most critically praised games in the Castlevania series, though more recent entries like Castlevania: Judgment and Castlevania: Harmony of Despair didn’t live up to fans’ desires. Perhaps similar to Capcom’s Keiji Inafune and his Mega Man series, we hope to see Igarashi continue the spirit of Castlevania-style games at his new company. I wish the best of luck to Igarashi and his new studio.