An Internet Matlock at NeoGaf has uncovered some very interesting information regarding the newly released (in Japan) Xbox 360 RPG Lost Odyssey. The Feelplus development team that worked on the game seem to be mostly made up of ex-Nautilus employees -- if you don't know Nautilus, get outta town -- it's the now-defunct company responsible for Legend of Dragoon, Phantom Dust and, most importantly, the awesome Shadow Hearts franchise.
Originally called Sacnoth, the company was acquired by Azure Entertainment and changed its name to Nautilus from the development of Shadow Hearts: Covenant onward. In early 2007, however, Azure dissolved Nautilus and the current Azure Global Trading has nothing to do with videogames.
So, what of the talented RPG developers who were left behind? It seems a vast majority of them are now with Feelplus and working on Lost Odyssey. Sadly, the Shadow Hearts creator himself, Matsuzo Machida, is not involved along with realtime cutscene director Toshiyuki Terada. A number of designers and planners are also MIA, but otherwise over forty members of Nautilus have found a new home with Feelplus.
I've already had some tentative interest in this latest current-gen RPG offering, but having been a big fan of Shadow Hearts for years, my anticipation has shot right up. Hit the jump for the full list of staffers, as found by NeoGaf user "duckroll."
[Also, thanks to Chris for tipping us off]
Art Director: Takamasa Ohsawa
Program Lead: Nobuyuki Yanagisawa
Animation Lead: Takeshi Toyoda
Environment Model Lead: Junichiro Asakura
CG Cinematics Lead: Izumi Obata
Audio Lead: Hirotomi Imoto
System Program: Takaaki Ishikawa, Izumi Hamamoto
Battle Program: Masahiro Honma
World Map Program: Suguru Yokoyama
Battle Planner: Takehiro Ishida
Character Model Artists: Mieko Okuto, Kazuna Mikamoto, Hiroko Ito, Koki Nakadai, Yoshiyuki Yanagisawa
Motion Artists: Kazuya Nishimura, Hiroshi Mitsuzuka, Isao Takeuchi, Naohiro Endo
Background Map Model Artists: Ayumu Kuboya, Seiji Tokizawa, Hiroki Nakamura, Junichi Morita, Ikuo Yamazaki, Noriko Yoshida
Effect Artists: Hisaya Suzuki, Katsunori Ootsuka, Kumiko Takada
Visual Production Manager: Shinya Miyakawa
Cut Scene Visual Artists: Hideki Kubo, Masahiro Satou, Fumiyo Tanaka, Minoru Saegusa
CG Artists: Takayuki Higurashi, Hiroshi Yamamoto, Nozomi Sanada, Norio Tachikawa, Tomoaki Morizumi, Shigeru Kasai
Sound Artists: Masakatsu Tamura, Tomoko Imoto
Next page: More Role Playing Games stories
 Article contributed by Jim Sterling
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8:21 AM on 12.06.2007, 
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