The folks at Artisan Studios have a rather unique approach to developing JRPG-inspired RPGs, and they’re applying it to their new game, Lost Hellden.
While the game is developed primarily by western developers with a passion for old-school JRPGs, the studio is working with veritable Japanese game dev legends, artist Takeshi Oga (Gravity Rush) and composer Hitoshi Sakimoto ( Valkyria Chronicles, Final Fantasy XII, Final Fantasy Tactics, and many more).
The same approach was taken with Astria Ascending, released in 2021, while with Super Neptunia RPG in 2019, Artisan worked directly for a Japanese publisher, Idea Factory.
Lost Hellden is the culmination of this approach, blending Western and Japanese development culture, and we definitely wanted to hear more.
At Gamescom 2025, we talked with Artisan Studios Co-founder and CEO Mario Rizzo and Co-founder and Game Director Julien Bourgeois, and they had plenty of interesting details to share.
In the video below, you can hear about the game’s art, its interesting combat system mixing turns with a smattering of action, and how Artisan found themselves working with Japanese legends.
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Lost Hellden will release in 2026 for PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.
Incidentally, I was able to enjoy an in-depth look at the game at Gamescom, and it’s certainly promising. Astria Ascending was rather enjoyable, but Lost Hellden takes the formula and transforms it into something with a lot of potential.
If you’d like to watch more of our interviews from Gamescom 2025, you can check out our conversation with Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator Jorg Neumann and a chat with Invincible VS Executive Producer Mike Willette.
Of course, plenty more is coming, so stay tuned on Simulation Daily for more interviews and previews from the show.
