Digitalis Publishing, the independent game label founded by Yoshio Nishimura, has revealed that the fantasy RPG Veritas Tales: Witch of the Dark Castle will debut on July 9 for PC (Steam). After six years of development, this project draws inspiration from classic gamebooks and tabletop RPGs, featuring an interactive book mechanic within the game.
With three decades of experience in the gaming industry, Nishimura began his career at Capcom, where he eventually rose to become the chief background artist for the Monster Hunter series. He later joined George Kamitani’s renowned studio Vanillaware, contributing to the creation of acclaimed titles such as Odin Sphere, Dragon’s Crown, and 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim during his two-decade tenure.
As Nishimura recently shared with Denfaminicogamer, he departed from Vanillaware on amicable terms following the COVID-19 pandemic. During this period, he relocated to a remote mountain village in Japan, embracing a lifestyle far removed from the studio’s Osaka headquarters. Transitioning to independence, the developer poured his efforts into the passion project that would become Veritas Tales: Witch of the Dark Castle. Nishimura originally began crafting the game as a personal side-project in his final three years at Vanillaware, meaning the title has been in development for six years in total.
Featuring a gameplay system that merges visual novel and RPG elements, Veritas Tales presents itself as a digital fantasy gamebook where players roll dice, make decisions, confront adversaries, and navigate a branching narrative. The game takes cues from James Herbert Brennan’s “The Castle of Darkness” and deliberately retains the challenging and unforgiving nature of classic gamebooks, so unexpected perils after poor choices are to be expected. Nevertheless, the title modernizes the experience with save functionality, voiceovers, and a musical score composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto, the mind behind Final Fantasy Tactics.
Veritas Tales promises approximately 20+ hours of gameplay, accompanied by 300 hand-drawn illustrations crafted by Nishimura. Generative AI played no part in its creation, and the development team emphasizes that the game “possesses a spirit exclusive to truly handmade works.”
Veritas Tales: Witch of the Dark Castle is set to launch on July 9 for PC (Steam).