Atlus is known for thrusting new gems in the Persona and Shin Megami Tensei series into our sticky gamer hands, and it seems like the developer-publisher is keen to keep the goods coming.
Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu has published its annual year-end game developer interviews. For this feature, Famitsu rounded up 127 Japanese industry luminaries for their takes on what’s in store for 2022. Gematsu did a fantastic English-language rundown of the best bits from these interviews and I recommend you have a read. While there were many notable statements from this feature, it’s the statements from Altus that caught our eye.
Shinjiro Takada is the manager of Atlus’ 1st production unit, the department responsible for titles like Shin Megami Tensei V and Etrian Odyssey. In his statement to Famitsu about his ambitions for Atlus in 2022, Takada said,
“I chose ‘Challenge’ as my keyword for 2022 in hopes to release a title to the world that will become a pillar for Atlus. The staff are working hard on development to make something that’ll be interesting and satisfying for everyone, so I’d be happy if you could look forward to it.”
Some may speculate that this could be a new Persona title, but the phrase “a title that will become a pillar at Atlus” makes me think that a potential new IP could be in the works. Considering Shin Megami Tensei V arrived eight years after its predecessor, talking about a new Shin Megami Tensei game seems unlikely.
“With Shin Megami Tensei V finally released, we are taking a breath of relief, although we hope to announce something this year (2022) too, so please stay tuned,” said Takata.
Shin Megami Tensei V was released earlier this year for the Nintendo Switch, scoring generally favourable reviews with a critical rating of 85 on Metacritic.
The Megami Tensei series is a staple of Atlus’ work, with the Persona series being its’ most popular spinoff. It’s very possible we’ll see a new spinoff of the series, but it’s also just as possible that Atlus could bring an entirely separate IP into the world as they have with Etrian Odyssey or Catherine.
Persona producer Katsura Hashino also mentioned that the studio is “entering a time when Atlus can start to release a completely different title”. Hashino also gave us a hint at another title that we might be seeing very soon, mentioning, “PROJECT Re FANTASY, the title I’m leading that we announced we were starting up a few years ago, has reached an important phase after some ups and downs, so I’d like to stay focused and work as a team to get it down to form. It will be an important year for us to get started on things coming further ahead.” The game he mentioned, codenamed Project Re Fantasy, has been in development by Atlus’ Studio Zero for about five years now, so it’ll be exciting to see what’s to come for this title.
In terms of what’s confirmed from Atlus next year, we’ll be seeing a remaster of Persona 4 Arena Ultimax coming March 17, 2022.
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