Persona Composer Shoji Meguro Leaves Atlus

Shoji Meguro, the composer behind the Persona series and the latest installments of the Shin Megami Tensei series is leaving Atlus. The announcement was made by Meguro through a post on his Twitter profile.

Meguro joined Atlus Co. in 1995 and is one of the composers responsible for the soundtrack of many of the company’s best and most acclaimed titles. Among his many works, we have, Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, as well as many games of the Persona series, such as Persona 3 and 4. Meguro was also the main composer behind Persona 5. His last work for the company was on 2020’s acclaimed Persona 5 Royal, an enhanced version of Persona 5 and a title considered by many JRPG fans as the best JRPG of the PS4 generation.

According to the composer’s post, he left the company in September 2021, in order to pursue his dream of developing indie games, as he was selected as one of the finalists of Kodansha’s Game Creators Lab Project. Meguro also made sure to say that he will continue to maintain a good relationship with Atlus and that he will ”continue to work with Atlus on game music.” In his open letter, he thanked both Atlus Co., his family, and Kodansha, the latter for giving him the chance to take on a new challenge, now as a developer.

The Persona series celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2021. To celebrate the mark, Atlus revealed a new website that currently showcases 6 mysterious upcoming Persona projects, all set to be revealed by the end of next year. Many fans suspect that at least one of the projects is related to the possible release of Persona 5 Royal for both PC and Nintendo Switch.

As fans hope for news about the upcoming and already confirmed to be in development, Persona 6, Shin Megami Tensei V, the latest title of the acclaimed franchise is set to be released on November 12, exclusively for the Nintendo Switch. For those interested in card games, Atlus revealed Persona VC, an upcoming tabletop battle card game, where they will take on the role of their favorite protagonist as they collect Personas and take part in a mysterious celebration. The game is set to be released in December 2021. Celebratory concerts will also be held in celebration of the anniversary.

You can currently play Persona 5 Royal, the latest main installment in the acclaimed series right now, exclusively on the PlayStation 4 and on the PlayStation 5.