Famitsu broke the news that Atlus has formally announced development of a new RPG project. The new game will be unveiled at a niconico livestream, set to be broadcast on December 23rd, 8pm JST.
In advance of the game’s unveiling, a teaser site was put up by Atlus – a simple site featuring a message from Katsuhiro Hashino, the director and producer of the game (and of Persona 3 through Persona 5, and Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, and Catherine…a known quantity, to say the least.) The new title is being developed by “Studio Zero”, a new studio designed for this project and hopefully for many other new projects.
“It’s not Persona, or Shin Megami Tensei“, as the heading of the website claims. If it’s neither of the two, what sort of game is it?
Beyond this, little is publicly known about the game. Famitsu’s article did include a new piece of artwork, shown below. It’s a present from Shigenori Soejima, a well-known name as an in-house Atlus artist, and the style itself should feel quite familiar to Atlus fans.
The message from Hashino, translated by Gematsu, has been reproduced below:
25 years ago, the Atlus RPG uttered its first cry. Speaking of RPGs in those days, the stories in so-called “fantasy” worlds were mainstream. The Shin Megami Tensei series was released as an “opposition” to such a “common” world view, and the Persona series was released as its spin-off. Both series, even today in their latest entries, have always been made with the concept that it will be a counter to the times. And now, in addition to continuing the titles within those series, what will our approach to a new RPG be? That is, to challenge the norms of the genre gamers have been consuming for decades. The challenge is about to begin. We would be happy if you would stand by for the moment we began from zero and the moment we began our challenge from zero.
Atlus likes to take on projects that challenge the conventions of gamers worldwide. We will have to see what awaits!