In 2017,Project Re:Fantasydeveloper Atlus releasedPersona 5, a game that forever changed the direction of the studio and finally helped establish it as one of the biggest mainstream JRPG studios outside of Japan, despite countless cult classics preceding it. In recent years, the game has been followed by other JRPGs such asShin Megami Tensei 5and the recentSoul Hackers 2. It has even seen an expanded re-release in the form ofPersona 5 Royal, however in 2017,Atlusannounced its next big IP, a game from some of the most key minds behindPersona 5:Project Re:Fantasy.
Project Re:Fantasy: A Fool’s Journey Beginswas first announcedbeforePersona 5even released in the west, revealed in a live stream in December 2016, only three months afterPersona 5shipped in Japan. Since then, the game has seen only a handful of updates, usually in the form of interviews with some of the game’s staff and despite numerous teases, it has still never been fully showcased. Since past precedent suggestsPersona 6might be revealed at the upcomingPersonaconcert, rather than Tokyo Game Show, it’s looking likely that Atlus' big game for Tokyo Game Show 2022 next week could beProject Re:Fantasy.
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The History of Project Re:Fantasy
Following its announcement, updates onProject Re:Fantasyhave been scarce for almost six years now, with fans only discovering that the game is planned as a PlayStation 4 title through job listings on Atlus' website. In 2017, Hashino even confirmed thatStudio Zero had begun work on another non-fantasy titlealongsideProject Re:Fantasy. In 2018, he confirmed that the game was ‘halfway’ through development, and in 2019 a song from the upcoming game was discovered in Studio Zero’s first official game release, an enhanced re-release of 2010’sCatherinenamedCatherine: Full Body.
Since 2019, Katsura Hashino has claimed in Atlus' Weekly Famitsu New Years' column thathe hopes to properly revealProject Re:Fantasyin the coming year, ultimately to no avail. In December 2020, he revealed thatProject Re:Fantasy’s development had reached its “climax”, but no new information was revealed during 2021 either. Hashino reiterated in the following year’s New Years segment in Weekly Famitsu that the game’s development is again nearing its climax.
While these lack of updates and repetitive reiterations are somewhat frustrating,Project Re:Fantasyis one of Atlus' most ambitious projects to date, coming from an promising new studio of veterans and tackling a type of setting the studio has rarely touched on before. Atlus has also made a habit in recent years of staying quiet about certain games until they are close to release, like howSoul Hackers 2was revealed only six months before its release, and howShin Megami Tensei 5went almost three years without any updates before it was re-revealed only a year before its release. This likely means thatwhenProject Re:Fantasydoes re-emerge, it will likely be very close to its worldwide release.
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Why Project Re:Fantasy Could Steal Tokyo Game Show 2022
Atlus is in a very interesting position for Tokyo Game Show 2022. Alongside its parent company Sega, the studio has one of the biggest booths on theTokyo Game Show’s show floor, but the only titles that the studio has confirmed that it will showcase so far have been the remastered ports ofPersona 5 Royal,Persona 4 Golden, andPersona 3 Portable. While Sega has some of its own titles and a few third-party titles that it’s publishing in Japan, such asHogwarts LegacyandGotham Knights, this large presence feels off for a studio only showcasing remasters. Atlus will run anotherPersona Super Liveconcert in October, and since the 2015 concert dropped the firstPersona 5trailer, it feels unlikely that the studio will revealPersona 6at the game show.
This leaves an opportunity open for Atlus to showcaseProject Re:Fantasyand give the title a huge blowout ahead of next month’s potentialPersona 6announcement. Given thatProject Re:Fantasy’s development teamconsists of a lot of staff that previously worked onPersona 3,Persona 4, andPersona 5, it’s fair to expect that the next mainlinePersonagame will see the series take a few major shifts that will indicate the change in development staff, ushering in a new era for the series. With this in mind, Atlus could be planning to off-set any incoming controversy by showcasing the ex-Persona 5developers' next game head ofPersona 6, likely to give fans even more RPGs to look forward to.
This is also the first Tokyo Game Show in recent years that Atlus is entering with no big title outside of remasters of pastPersonatitles.Unless Vanillaware is to announce its latest game, following up 2020’s13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, it feels strange for one of the biggest JRPG publishers in Japan to enter the country’s biggest expo with no new titles, even despite launchingSoul Hackers 2last month. In 2021, Atlus confirmed that it had around 10 games in development, which at the time likely included thePersonaremasters andSoul Hackers 2, but that still leaves room for unannounced games, and previously announced games likeProject Re:Fantasyto receive updates soon.
Even almost six years after its reveal, there’s still a lot of mystery surroundingProject Re:Fantasy. All that fans really know is that it is being developed by ex-Personastaff and will feature a fantasy setting. Outside of this, it is not known if the game will utilize the standard turn-based combat present in other Atlus games or be the studio’s first step into action RPG combat. It’s also not known if the game is still planned for PS4.With pastPersonagames now making their way to PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and PC,Project Re:Fantasycould also launch as a multi-platform title.
Hopefully these questions will receive answers sooner rather than later, but it feels like Atlus is planning forProject Re:Fantasyto be its big reveal at this year’s Tokyo Game Show, especially ifPersona 6gets revealed at the upcoming concert. Given that the game has been winding down development for around two years now, it seems that even ifProject Re:Fantasydoesn’t appear at Tokyo Game Show 2022, its formal reveal should be just around the corner.
Project Re:Fantasyis currently in development.
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