Takaya Imamura left Nintendo in 2021 after 32 years, and in interviews he has framed the decision as one about time, freedom, and a well-timed job offer, not a dispute with the company. He had just passed 50, and he weighed how many more games he could make at Nintendo before retirement. He wanted a more flexible way of working. A university then offered him a teaching post that let him pursue his own creative projects, and he accepted. Omega 6 grew out of an older ambition: he had long wanted to be a manga artist. The comic came first, and the game adaptation followed later.
Why Imamura left Nintendo
Nintendo’s US product listing says Imamura joined the company in 1989, worked on art direction for Star Fox, F-Zero, and The Legend of Zelda, and left in 2021 to work as a lecturer at the International Professional University of Technology in Osaka. His own explanation of the departure comes from a GamesBeat interview published September 8, 2024 and updated June 18, 2025.
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A career-stage decision
Asked how he felt about leaving, Imamura said he had just passed 50, that game development takes a long time, and that he had been thinking about how many more games he could work on at Nintendo before retirement. In his account, that calculation about remaining productive years is the starting point, not a grievance.
The wish for freedom
He put the motive this way: “I started feeling that I wanted to get out, get some freedom, and do things my own way. Be a bit more flexible, perhaps.” The interviews quoted here were translated live or conducted through an interpreter, so the wording reflects how each outlet reported his answers.
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The teaching offer
The university where he now teaches made its offer at that moment, and it said it would support his creative work outside the job. He described the timing and the offer in these words: “Just at that time, the university I teach at now, the offer came from them. The timing was great. They also said that they would be fine with me following my own creative aspirations outside the university. I decided to take the opportunity.”
Why Omega 6 began as a manga
Imamura says he had always wanted to be a manga artist, an ambition partly shaped by his father, who was one. He also said a comic was far easier to make alone than a game, and that the story was his own, with no team behind the comic.
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The French edition came through a personal connection. While leaving Nintendo, he emailed the president of Omake Books, whom he had known for some time, mentioned the comic, and asked, half-jokingly, for help once it was finished.
The story’s premise of migration draws on his years living in Kyoto, where he noticed an increase in tourists, especially from elsewhere in Asia. He linked that observation to a fictional arrival of aliens on Earth and a reduced human population. This is his account of where the idea came from, not a statement about tourism or migration in Kyoto.
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From manga to game
The game was an adaptation of the manga, made with small independent partners. Imamura said their flexibility mattered more than their size, and that a larger company would have made his vision harder to realize. Sources describe the game in slightly different terms: Nintendo calls it a 16-bit-styled adventure game with RPG elements, while GamesBeat calls it a command-based adventure game.
| Element | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Manga publisher | Omake Books (France) | GamesBeat, September 2024 |
| Game publishers | City Connection and Clear River Games | GamesBeat, September 2024 |
| Game developers | Happymeal and Pleocene | GamesBeat, September 2024 |
| Platform listed by Nintendo | Nintendo Switch, digital edition | Nintendo US product page, date not stated |
| Premise | Androids Thunder and Kyla seek a new planet for humanity, with treasure hunting and card-based battles along the way | Nintendo US product page |
| Manga languages | French and Japanese | Time Extension, August 2024 |
In a Time Extension interview published August 15, 2024, Imamura said: “I think it would have been impossible to make this game at Nintendo!” That is his assessment of how the project would have fared inside the company, and it reflects his view of what independence made possible rather than a documented account of Nintendo’s internal decisions.
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Where Star Fox fits in
GamesRadar+ reports that Imamura wanted to be known as an independent creator working on something new, rather than only as the former Nintendo employee who made Star Fox. He said his creative freedom was stronger after leaving. He also acknowledged he would have liked to work on Star Fox or F-Zero once more, but concluded that life involves choices and limited time.
What “co-creator” covers
For Star Fox 64, Imamura says he put together the original proposal and contributed to its story, game design, character design, art, and 3D modeling. He says he was involved in about six or seven Star Fox titles in some capacity, with less involvement in Star Fox 2. “Co-creator” is a shorthand label, not a claim that he alone created the franchise.
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His view on fewer Star Fox sequels
Imamura believes Shigeru Miyamoto is personally attached to the series and busy with other work, which he offered as a reason the franchise has seen fewer sequels. This is Imamura’s opinion, not an official explanation from Nintendo.
Creative independence in his own words
At Gamescom 2024, Imamura told CGMagazine that Omega 6 was his first creative product since leaving Nintendo. He said no producer told him what to do and that he did not need to weigh commercial viability while making it. He also said he deliberately wanted the game to be easy to get into, in the way a Nintendo title is.
What the sources establish and what they do not
- Nintendo’s listing confirms the Switch edition is digital. It does not establish physical retail availability.
- The manga’s language editions are dated: Time Extension reported French and Japanese versions in August 2024. Current availability and any English publication were not established.
- The departure reasons come from Imamura’s own interviews, from 2024 and updated in 2025. The sources reviewed do not include a statement from Nintendo or the university about the decision.
- The quotes come from interviews conducted through an interpreter or translated live, so exact phrasing may differ from the original Japanese.
Before buying the manga or game, check the publisher’s current page for edition, language, and format, because the sources above were published in 2024 and 2025.
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