2017, Project Re:Fantasy developer Atlus released Persona 5, a game that forever changed the direction of the studio, eventually helping to establish it as one of the biggest mainstream JRPG studios outside of Japan, despite countless cult classics that preceded it. In recent years, the game has been followed by other JRPGs such as: Shin Megami Tensei 5 and the recent Soul Hackers 2. It has even seen an extended reissue in the form of Persona 5 Royalbut in 2017 Atlus announced its next big IP, a play on some of the key minds behind it Persona 5: Project Re:Fantasy.
Project Re:Fantasy: A Fool’s Journey Begins was first announced before Persona 5 even released in the west, revealed in a livestream in december 2016 just three months later Persona 5 shipped in Japan. Since then, the game has had only a handful of updates, mostly in the form of interviews with some of the game’s staff, and despite numerous teasing, it’s still never been fully showcased. As previous precedents suggest: persona 6 could be revealed on the upcoming Persona concert, rather than Tokyo Game Show, it seems likely Atlus’ big game for Tokyo Game Show 2022 could become next week Project Re:Fantasy.
The History of Project Re:Fantasy
At the announcement in December 2016, Project Re:Fantasy turned out to be Atlus’ first fantasy RPG franchise, taking the modern settings of games like Shin Megami Tensei 5 and Persona 5. The game is being developed by an in-house team known as Studio Zero and is led by key members of the development staff of Persona 3, persona 4and Persona 5, including director Katsura Hashino, lead artist Shigenori Soejima, and composer Shoji Meguro. The game was announced with a developer recruitment ad in the Japanese gaming magazine Weekly Famitsu, indicating that the title had just started pre-production.
After the announcement, updates on Project Re:Fantasy have been in short supply for nearly six years, and fans are only discovering through job openings on the Atlus website that the game is slated to be a PlayStation 4 title. In 2017, Hashino even confirmed that Studio Zero had started work on another non-fantasy title besides Project Re:Fantasy. In 2018, he confirmed that the game was “halfway through” development, and in 2019 a track of the upcoming game was discovered in Studio Zero’s first official game release, an enhanced reissue of 2010’s Catherine called Catherine: Full body.
Since 2019, Katsura Hashino claims in Atlus ‘Weekly Famitsu New Years’ column that he hopes to properly reveal Project Re:Fantasy over the next year, ultimately unsuccessfully. In December 2020, he revealed that: Project Re:Fantasy‘s development had reached its “climax”, but no new information was revealed in 2021 either. Hashino reiterated in the following year’s New Year segment in Weekly Famitsu that the game’s development is once again nearing its climax.
While this lack of updates and repetitive iterations are somewhat frustrating, Project Re:Fantasy is one of Atlus’ most ambitious projects to date, coming from a promising new studio of veterans and an approach of a kind of setting that the studio has rarely worked on. Atlus has also made it a habit in recent years to keep quiet about certain games until they’re almost released, like how Soul Hackers 2 was revealed just six months before release, and how? Shin Megami Tensei 5 went almost three years without updates before being re-revealed just a year before its release. This probably means that when Project Re:Fantasy re-emerges, it will likely be very close to its worldwide release.
Why Project Re:Fantasy Can Steal Tokyo Game Show 2022
Atlus is in a very interesting position for Tokyo Game Show 2022. In addition to its parent company Sega, the studio has one of the largest booths on the Tokyo Game Show show floor, but the only titles the studio has confirmed will be on display are the remastered ports of Persona 5 Royal, Persona 4 Goldenand Persona 3 Portable. Although Sega has some of its own titles and some third-party titles it publishes in Japan, such as Hogwarts Legacy and Gotham Knights, this large presence doesn’t feel right for a studio that only shows remasters. Atlus will run another Persona Super Live concert in October, and since the 2015 concert, the first fell Persona 5 trailer, it seems unlikely the studio will reveal persona 6 at the game show.
This leaves an opportunity for Atlus to show Project Re:Fantasy and give the title a huge punch for next month’s potential persona 6 Announcement. Given that Project Re:Fantasy‘s development team consists of many employees who previously Persona 3, persona 4and Persona 5it is reasonable to expect that the following main line Persona game, the series will undergo some major shifts that will signal the change in the development staff, ushering in a new era for the series. With this in mind, Atlus may be planning to wipe out any incoming controversy by allowing the ex-Persona 5 developers’ next game head of persona 6will probably give fans even more RPGs to look forward to.
This is also the first Tokyo Game Show in recent years to enter Atlus with no major title outside of past remasters Persona titles. Unless Vanillaware announces its latest game, as a sequel to 2020’s 13 sentries: Aegis Rimfeels strange for one of the biggest JRPG publishers in Japan to enter the country’s biggest expo with no new titles, even despite the launch Soul Hackers 2 last month. In 2021, Atlus confirmed it had about 10 games in development, probably including the at the time Persona remasters and Soul Hackers 2but that still leaves room for unannounced games, and previously announced games like Project Re:Fantasy to receive updates soon.
Even nearly six years after its unveiling, there is still a lot of mystery surrounding it Project Re:Fantasy. All fans really know is that it’s being developed by ex-Persona staff and will contain a fantasy setting. Other than that, it’s unknown if the game will make use of the standard turn-based combat present in other Atlus games or will be the studio’s first foray into action-RPG combat. It is also unknown if the game is still planned for PS4. with past Persona games now making their way to PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and PC, Project Re:Fantasy can also be launched as a cross-platform title.
Hopefully these questions will be answered sooner rather than later, but it feels like Atlus is planning for Project Re:Fantasy to be the big reveal at this year’s Tokyo Game Show, especially if persona 6 will be revealed at the upcoming concert. Since the game’s development has been winding down for about two years now, it seems that even if Project Re:Fantasy will not appear on Tokyo Game Show 2022, the formal unveiling should be just around the corner.
Project Re:Fantasy is currently under development.
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