Tales of Xillia Producer Hideo Baba is Working on a Brand New RPG…for Square Enix?!

The man who has worked on several games in Bandai Namco’s Tales series, Hideo Baba, is working with Square Enix?

As years pass by, it’s inevitable to see companies bring in new IPs. After all, seeing the same ol’ faces over and again can make gaming feel kinda stale. At the same time, it’s also inevitable to see people in videogame industry move from company to company, and they may end up in a competitor’s company as well.

Square Enix announced that they’re working on a brand new game. The biggest shocker in this announcement is that the director of the game is none other than Hideo Baba, the man behind several Tales games.

Hideo Baba to Direct Square Enix’s Project Prelude Rune

Square Enix just announced that they’re working on a new IP (intellectual property). That IP is currently titled Project Prelude Rune and it’s not the final name of the game. The game will be developed by the newly founded Studio Istolia and directed by Hideo Baba.

Hideo Baba has been working in the videogame industry for over 18 years now, and he’s most notable for his works on Bandai Namco’s Tales RPG series. This includes Tales of Destiny, Tales of Xillia, and most recently, Tales of Zestiria.

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For those of you who aren’t aware of Studio Istolia, it’s a wholly owned subsidiary of Square Enix. It’s comprised mostly of new developers. The name of the studio itself comes from the Greek word for “History”, which is apparently a major drive for the studio. It aims to deliver a “strong message” and “A story of cheerful song of life”.

The studio will specialize in creating new IPs and as such, they will be gathering a wide range of talents within the industry. Yes, the studio is currently looking to hire a big number of people to fit in various positions.

As far as Project Prelude Rune is concerned, we only have 3 pieces of concept art, which includes a dragon with a female elf, a landscape, and a battle scene. Alongside those concept arts, Studio Istolia has also revealed their mascot on the studio’s website; a light blue baby dragon with an emblem on its head. Hideo Baba mentioned that their mascot has deep meaning in the design but he wants people to interpret it themselves first.

No word yet on when Project Prelude Rune will release, nor does anyone know on which platform it will be released on. One thing’s for sure, it’s not going to be releasing any time soon.

Pokdepinion: Square Enix has a bad habit of announcing games way too early. It’s like they’re always going “Hey, we have a brand new game for you…to be released when you have grandchildren.” It happened when they announced Kingdom Hearts 3 on E3 4 years ago, and keep in mind that it’s been 12 years since the release of Kingdom Hearts 2.