Vagrant Story and Ogre Battle developer leaves Level-5 after less than 17 months

Yasumi Matsuno, best known for his work on Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy Tactics and Ogre Battle, announced his departure from the studio Level-5 on Twitter today.

Matsuno said in a series of translated tweets: "I'd like to formally announce my departure from Level-5 effective last month. With my work done on the domestic and overseas version of my latest 3DSWare game, it was good timing for me to step down and take a short break in order to recharge for my next project. My deepest thanks to everyone at Level-5 and everyone playing our games for your continued support."

Matsuno joined Level-5 in June 2011 where he worked on Crimson Shroud, a Nintendo 3DS game that was released in Japan as part of Guild 01, a compilation of four games, and is due out later this year in the west as a standalone title. Prior to joining Level-5 he was a freelancer and before that he worked on some of Square Enix's most well-known games like the Final Fantasy series, the Ogre series and Vagrant Story. Matsuno has not announced what he plans to do next.