Yoshitaka Tamaki, the Japanese artist behind several early era titles such as Landstalker and Shining Force, has sadly passed away at age 55.

According to website Video Game Densetsu, Tamaki began his career via Enix, doing monster and graphic designs for “Fangs”, before then working on classic Sega RPG Shining in the Darkness.

Here’s a short quote from Tamaki on the game:

“I can still remember that I was nervous since it was the first time I was assigned to such a big title. I thought the hero was a bit too small but I decided not to change him, in order to give the life and energy as well as to give the proper perspective in relation to his companions who meet various adventures. By the way, the reason why Princess Clare may look slightly different is because the initial design was used, not the design from the final version.”

Yoshitaka Tamaki succumbed to lung cancer on July 13th, and his funeral was attended by close family members. The Twitter account for the artist hoped that the work he dedicated his life to will always be remembered.

Some of the games Tamaki worked on throughout his early career include Fangs, Shining in the Darkness, Shining Force, Landstalker, Feda, Lady Stalker, and Shining Soul.

Tamaki was also helping to work on the Shining Force remake on mobile as well, before it was cancelled. Here’s a trailer for the title:

Here’s more samples of Tamaki’s distinctive early era artwork: