Toshimichi Mori, the producer and creator of the BlazBlue fighting series, has announced through a letter on Twitter that he will be leaving Arc System Works. In the statement, he says that he cherishes his nearly 20-year experience at the developer, but he also understands that his departure may cause concern from fans. Indeed, it’s unclear what this means for the future of the BlazBlue series, which hasn’t seen a console release in several years.
Mori will be creating a new game in the meantime
Mori mentions that he will be focusing on creating an unknown game near the end of his letter (as translated by Gematsu):
I first joined Arc System works after working on Guilty Gear X as an employee of PicPac, and I cherish many of the experiences I have had during my 20 years there, whether it was working for various fighting game titles, developing my own title BlazBlue, or connecting with many of our users.
…At the moment I’m thinking of creating and delivering a game for the users in some way, and am going to focus my strength on that endeavor.
Given his pedigree at Arc System Works, Mori’s new game will likely be in the fighting genre. In addition to his experience with Guilty Gear X back in 2000, he was the director, planner, system and character concept artist (along with numerous other roles) for BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger in 2008. With the popularity of the Guilty Gear spiritual successor, he then worked principally as producer and general director for other BlazBlue games, including Continuum Shift in 2015, Central Fiction in 2016, and Cross Tag Battle in 2018. In our review, PSLS gave BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle an impressive 8.5/10, noting its accessibility, entertaining story, and all-star roster.
In other news, Disney reportedly wants a new Star Wars game to release once every six months, and The Last of Us HBO teaser trailer shows just how close the adaptation is to the game.
