Many no doubt want a new mainline Persona title, which could still happen, but we may also learn more about Project Re Fantasy. Announced in 2017, the fantasy RPG is directed by Katsura Hashino of Persona 5 fame. Atlus revealed in 2021 that it was making progress “little by little,” so this year may possibly see more details.

In the meantime, Vanillaware’s GrimGrimoire OnceMore, a remaster of its 2007 PS2 real-time strategy game, is out on April 4th for PS4, PS5, and Nintendo Switch. Check out the latest trailer here and stay tuned for more updates in the coming months.

In a new years message written by Atlus and published by Famitsu (via Persona Central), looking ahead to what’s in store for 2022, in addition to mentioning the upcoming releases of 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim on the Switch and Persona 4 Arena Ultimax for PS4, Switch, and PC, as well as the ongoing Persona 25th anniversary announcements, Atlus also mentioned that it’ll be announcing “a surprise new title” in the coming year.

The developer wrote: “2022 will start with the remastered version of P4U2 (Persona 4 Arena Ultimax) in March and the release of 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim for the Nintendo Switch in April.

“We are also preparing a surprise new title that has not yet been announced. Also, the 25th anniversary of Persona, which started last year, will enter a new phase. Please look forward to it!”

Recently, Atlus spoke about (probably) the same project, saying that it’ll be releasing a major new game in 2022. What that game will turn out to be remains to be seen. Project Re Fantasy has been in development for a while, while rumours have also been circulating about a PS4 and Switch release for Persona 4 Golden, as well as a Persona 3 Portable remaster.

In a recent annual end-of-the-year feature, Famitsu interviews over 100 developers as they look ahead to 2022- one of them was Atlus’ product manager Shinjiro Takada, who says that sometime next year, Atlus is planning on releasing a major game that will “become a pillar of Atlus”.

“I chose ‘challenge’ as the keyword for 2022, with the hope to release a game that will become a pillar for Atlus,” Takada said (translated by Persona Central). “All of us at Atlus are working hard to develop this game so that it will be interesting and satisfying for everyone, so please look forward to it.”

The game that instantly comes to mind here is Project Re Fantasy. The new fantasy RPG IP, led by Persona director Katsura Hashino by Atlus’ new internal team Studio Zero, was first talked about way back in 2017. Around this time last year, Atlus suggested that concrete details on the game would be arriving sometime in 2021, though we can probably assume that the ongoing pandemic presented obstacles there. Earlier this year, the developer also said that Project Re Fantasy was making progress “little by little”.

Of course, Atlus has started staffing up for the next mainline Persona game as well, though it’s safe to say that that one’s probably several years off yet. Rumours have suggested that a multiplatform Persona 3 Portable remaster and Switch and PS4 versions of Persona 4 Golden are inbound as well, though it remains to be seen how accurate that is.

That game is Project Re Fantasy, of course, a game that we’ve been hearing about for a long time, and probably will be hearing about for plenty more. According to Hiraoka, Project Re Fantasy is making progress “little by little”- which comes as a bit of a surprise, since just a few months back, it was said to be reaching the climax of its development.

Either way, Atlus apparently has quite a bit more in the works as well. Hiraoka said the company is working on “a variety of titles”, which includes further collaborations with 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim developer Vanillaware, and work on other Atlus IP. Atlus has about 5-6 internal projects in development, but if you also count Vanillaware and collaborations with other studios, that number is closer to ten.

At least a few of these have to be Persona games, which are bound to be announced over the coming year in celebration of the series’ 25th anniversary. Atlus is currently also hiring for development of Persona 6.

https://twitter.com/Nibellion/status/1417072116004962308

Sega and Atlus seem to be much more open to porting the latter’s core games to more platforms of late, but while PC and the Nintendo Switch have often come up in conversations about Atlus games, Xbox has mostly been ignored. In its own yearly surveys, when Atlus asks about what platforms players would like to play their games on, Xbox is typically missing from the options. That’s changed this year.

In its newest survey (via Persona Central), Atlus asks if players want to see releases from a number of its core franchises on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. These franchises include the likes of Persona, Shin Megami Tensei, Etrian Odyssey, and more. Meanwhile, several questions in the survey also seem to be focused on smartphones, while the survey also asks about older games from several franchises.

Atlus is currently at work on a number of upcoming projects, including Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne HD, Shin Megami Tensei 5, and Project Re: Fantasy, while the developer also seems to have something planned for Persona’s 25th anniversary celebrations this year.

Not long after Persona 5 first came out, series producer Katsura Hashino broke off to form a new development team within Atlus called Studio Zero. Their next game was confirmed as a new fantasy RPG called Project Re Fantasy a while back, and barring some scant development updates (and rumours) here and there, little has been said about the game since then.

That could change in 2021. Speaking with Famitsu, Hashino said that development on Project Re Fantasy is “now at its climax” and that gameplay details could be released soon. “With the world having experienced a flurry of change since last year with the coronavirus, all I can do now is continue to work quietly,” Hashino said (via Persona Central). “The project in development is now at its climax, so I would like to continue head on to provide the world with interesting gameplay.”

“I look forward to announcing the title under development as soon as possible,” he added.  “Please look forward to the fantasy RPG that we, who have been creating modern dramas, will be challenging.”

Meanwhile, 2021 will also have some new Persona announcements in store. As was recently teased, Kazuhisa Wada (who took over as series producer and director after Hashino left) told Famitsu that the series’ 25th anniversary will be celebrated with some “exciting” things.

“We are quietly working on our projects,” Wada said. “Thanks to your support, this year marks the 25th anniversary of the Persona series! We’ve got some exciting plans in the works, so please look forward to them!”

Persona 5 Strikers is coming to Switch, PS4, and PC in February, but beyond that, what else the series has in the works is anyone’s best guess.

PlatinumGames’ Game “That Has Never Been Done Before”

There’s a lot going on with PlatinumGames. It’s even developing an exclusive game for Apple’s Arcade platform. Even with these titles in development, studio head Atsushi Inaba confirmed that two of its projects would be “new independent IPs owned entirely by the studio”. Speaking to VideoGamesChronicle, Inaba also said that, “Right now we’re in the middle of designing something that has never been done before. I know a lot of people say that, but the game we’re working on truly is unlike anything else. Even for our varied history of veteran game developers, this is something that has never been designed before.” 2019 is an important all-round year for releases at PlatinumGames but what could make these IPs stand out? Hopefully E3 provides some answers.

Remember when Persona 5 director Katsura Hashino talked about taking a break from the series to lead a new development team and work on something completely different? That something different is Project Re FANTASY headed by Studio Zero. Hashino offered an update on the same along with Catherine: Full Body’s game director Kenichi Goto when speaking to Famitsu. If that wasn’t enough, a new “teaser” for the game has also been released.

If you’re wondering about the project’s direction (and we don’t blame you after that teaser), then Hashino noted that it’s currently finding it. However, he’s also getting the “This really makes for something interesting” feeling so take that how you will. Currently the studio is short on programmers and designers though there’s been a strong response of developers applying.

Currently, as Goto noted, the developers are also working on Catherine: Full Body and he feels that there’s a creative unity of sorts to be had. Goto said that the remake will have a positive effect on Project Re FANTASY with Hashino saying that they’re connected in a way that, “In this world, even this kind of games can exist.”

The potential of both Project Re FANTASY and Catherine: Full Body has us intrigued but we’ll need to wait for more details.

Persona 5 director Katsura Hashino, who’s also worked on Persona 3 and 4 along with Catherine, revealed last year that he would be moving to Atlus’s new internal studio called Studio Zero.

Hashino was handing development of the Persona series to his successors within Atlus and would be working on new project with artist Shigenori Soejima and composer Shoji Meguro.

Now the first details of that project have been unveiled, sort of. It’s a new fantasy RPG codenamed “Project Re Fantasy” and will be a new start for both Hashino and Atlus. It was made clear on the official site for Studio Zero that this wasn’t Persona or Megami Tensei. “This is the beginning of a new story.”

It’s worth checking out IGN First’s story on Hashino where he talks about working on Persona 5, shifting to Project Re Fantasy, the new setting and how it could appeal to Persona fans, and so on. What are your thoughts on this new project? Let us know in the comments.

Persona 5 releases in the west next month, ending a years long epic odyssey of bringing the game to market worldwide. And while Persona 6 is surely going to come, the director of the series, Katsura Hashino, is now pursuing something new entirely- a brand new fantasy RPG IP, codenamed Project RE Fantasy.

We don’t know anything about this new game- not its story, not its setup, not what it looks like, when it will come out, or what systems it will come out for. What we do know, however, is what Hashino was willing to share with us recently.

Hashino stated that he wanted a change from the core humanism of his games- exploring themes and characters relevant to the real world was creatively limiting, which is why he decided to tackle a fantasy game. He wants to use a fantasy setting to view reality with a new lens.

It sounds interesting and intriguing- and given Hashino’s pedigree, it’s something I will keep my eye on. You can watch a video of him discussing this RPG, courtesy of DualShockers, below.