Harvest Moon, Little King's Story creators join Grasshopper

Japanese game magazine Famitsu's latest edition features news that ex-Marvelous Entertainment executives Yasuhiro Wada and Yoshiro Kimura have been hired by Goichi Suda's Grasshopper entertainment as chief operating officer and chief creative officer respectively.

Wada is the mind behind the hugely prolific Harvest Moon series, which in recent years has expanded beyond its farming and dating-sim roots to include RPG elements.

It's one of the few evergreen titles for Marvelous, which saw profits tumble this year. Kimura was the creator of the critically acclaimed but low-selling Little King's Story for Wii.

"This move will help us produce games in a more stable manner," 1UP translated Suda as telling Famitsu.

"We haven't released a single [original] title in the past year, which is something that caused a lot of regret in my mind. Having these two people join Grasshopper will make us a more sturdily-organized company, and it'll improve our development, technical, and release skills."

Wada seemed to be relishing the move, praising Grasshopper's holistic culture is the Famitsu interview.

"Grasshopper's games are enjoyed by people around the world, but they aren't necessarily geared toward the overseas market. They just happen to resonate with overseas audiences as well.

"I think that's because this company plays home to a great deal of different cultures that all come together to discover types of fun that everyone can share. It's not a matter of marketing toward individual countries; it's about finding the inner antenna that tells you what's fun and what isn't."

Marvelous have had a close relationship with Grasshopper in recent years, publishing Suda51's kitsch Wii action series No More Heroes.