Yoshio Nishimura has finished Veritas Tales: Witch of the Dark Castle, a gamebook-style RPG created during his isolation in rural Japan.
Nishimura left Vanillaware at the start of the COVID pandemic and moved to the mountains outside Nara. He spent six years developing the title as a tribute to classic fantasy gamebooks such as Grailquest and Deathtrap Dungeon.
The game places players in a world threatened by monsters after a kingdom seeks help from the witch Ingeborg. Choices between a barbarian or an apprentice witch lead to branching quests resolved through dice rolls, cards and page-flipping mechanics.
All artwork and animations were created by hand without AI assistance. Nishimura stated on the Steam page that the game contains a soul found only in handmade work.
The title is now available on Steam for players interested in old-school adventure game experiences.