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is a Japanese game designer, game director and game producer. He is the creator of the ''Suikoden'' series of role-playing video games, which he produced and directed for Konami until his departure in 2002 before the release of ''Suikoden III''. ==Biography== After finishing his computer programming studies at University of Tokyo in the summer of 1992, Murayama visited Konami's newly opened Tokyo headquarters to submit his first job application whereupon he was hired.〔Nowakowski, Kasper & Kudo, Takashi. (August 2009) "I goda vänners lag" ''LEVEL'' #41〕 Initially hired for QA and menial tasks, he was handpicked six months later along with a few others to create his own launch game for an internally developed video game console, where he began collaborating with designer Junko Kawano, also a newcomer to Konami and future writer and designer for ''Suikoden IV'' and ''Suikoden Tactics''. Tasked with writing an RPG and being fond of historical epics, Murayama composed an early version of the script for Suikoden II before the console project was scrapped. Murayama, Kawano and ten other employees were instead assigned with developing Konami's first games for Sony's upcoming console, the PlayStation. With the pick of making a baseball game, a racing game or an RPG, Murayama and Kawano decided to reopen their RPG project, although Murayama has stated that given the opportunity, he would have preferred to make a shoot 'em up, citing his preference for arcade action titles such as Taito's ''Metal Black''. Committed from the start to make a franchise to rival series such as Enix's ''Dragon Quest'' and Square's ''Final Fantasy'', Murayama wrote a chronological prequel for his story and used that instead in order not to waste the ''Suikoden II'' script due to his lack of experience. Unimpressed with their early 3D polygon tests, he opted to make a traditional 2D RPG using sprite graphics. In the winter of 1993, when pitching his idea of an RPG with a great gallery of supporting characters, inspired by Murayama's preference for manga such as ''Fist of the North Star'' and ''Captain Tsubasa'' he instead decided to use the classic Chinese novel ''Shui Hu Zhuan'' in order to better illustrate his point to his boss, who was around 50 years old and assumed to be unfamiliar with these manga. The pitch was a success, and in this short meeting the game was given the name ''Suikoden'', the Japanese reading of Shui Hu Zhuan, and Murayama was tasked with making 108 characters mirroring the 108 outlaws in the Chinese classic. Suikoden was released in Japan in 1995 to positive reviews and an initial lackluster response from the market. However sales increased when word of mouth started spreading and a cult following was formed. Murayama personally responded to each and every fan letter that was sent. Konami was also intent on making Suikoden into a franchise, and he was asked to develop its sequel, bringing back most of the team from the first game. By then, it was well known that Square was developing Final Fantasy VII for the PlayStation, and Murayama and his team were sure from the start that their game would not be able to stand up commercially to Square's RPG. Deciding what aspects to focus on for Suikoden II, response from the fans prompted them to concentrate on further developing the world and its characters over the graphics and mechanics. The game was released in December 1998, like its predecessor to positive reviews and slow but steady sales. A third game in the series was developed, but a month before the release of Suikoden III in July 2002, which would become the best received and best selling installment in the series, Murayama left Konami. In compliance with Konami company policy, his name was taken out of the credits for the game. The reason for his sudden departure has been long theorized on by fans, many believing corporate meddling to be the reason, in part because of the omitted credit for Suikoden III. However, in an interview with Swedish gaming magazine LEVEL in August 2009, Murayama clarifies that this was only because it had been exactly ten years since he was first hired by Konami, and his personal goal had always been to stay no longer than ten years before turning freelance. He claims that after the success of Suikoden II, his superiors were very supportive and that he was allowed to decide freely how the next Suikoden would be made, and that he is still on good terms with the old team. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Yoshitaka Murayama」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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