Kiyoshi Sakai only had a support role in Umihara Kawase Fresh!

[sol-alpha]

Decided to make a thread in case this got missed.

So I finished Kawase's story mode and when it got to the credits, I noticed Kiyoshi Sakai's involvement in the game wasn't like the first trilogy, he was listed as the only "Support" staff on the game.

Here's the credits:










Now why would he decide to take a backseat with regards to the franchise? Unless anything changed since October 2013, this article could help shed some light on the matter.
https://www.usgamer.net/articles/indie-before-it-was-cool-the-umihara-kawase-story

"I'm not sure if there's a future for the series," he muses. "I feel like I'd be okay either way, if it went on or if it has to end here. I don't have any regrets about the series. I've done everything I wanted to do with it. At this point, I don't feel like, 'Oh, I have to make another game to accomplish this or that.'"

[KawaseFan]

It struck me as kind of odd, seeing this after I finished Kawase's quests.  The Sayonara ++ collector's edition artbook has a few messages and comments from Toshinobu Kondo; one of the messages states that "Sakai-san and I are working really hard on a new game, so please look forward to play it!"  That made it sound like Kiyoshi Sakai would be more centrally involved with Fresh than he actually was, unless it was referring to some other, unannounced game (though, if that was the case, it would seem unlikely to be an Umihara Kawase game at this point).

[sol-alpha]

It struck me as kind of odd, seeing this after I finished Kawase's quests.  The Sayonara ++ collector's edition artbook has a few messages and comments from Toshinobu Kondo; one of the messages states that "Sakai-san and I are working really hard on a new game, so please look forward to play it!"  That made it sound like Kiyoshi Sakai would be more centrally involved with Fresh than he actually was, unless it was referring to some other, unannounced game (though, if that was the case, it would seem unlikely to be an Umihara Kawase game at this point).

I've seen the quote you mentioned from this link: https://www.strictlylimitedgames.com/releases/sayonara-umihara-kawase-plusplus/

I'd like to think Sakai is working on a new IP but I think Kondo was talking about Fresh! in that quote since it wouldn't make sense talking about getting back the rights to Umihara Kawase and then in the same sentence mention a new IP as opposed to a new Umihara Kawase game.