Atlus announced on October 27 that Shoji Meguro, the current main composer of the Persona series has left the studio to become freelance.

An official statement has been shared, so let's look at that, alongside how this can affect, or not, Persona 6, Project Re Fantasy, and future Atlus games.

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Persona composer Shoji Meguro leaves Atlus, official statement

You can find the official statement on Atlus' official site. It explains that Shoji Meguro has left Atlus as of the end of September 2021 to become a freelance composer. However, Atlus is still working with Shoji Meguro for its future title(s). And Atlus will keep supporting him.

While Persona 6 wasn't officially announced yet, it's very likely Shoji Meguro will be the composer for the game. While the core Persona 5 team is working on Project Re Fantasy instead of Persona, as a composer, Shoji Meguro is the most likely developer on the team to be working on both games either way.

Atlus has several announcements planned for the 25th anniversary of Persona. And the final, biggest announcement, probably Persona 6, will be made in Autumn 2022. Read the details here.

Shoji Meguro also shared his own statement on Twitter, explaining he wishes to focus on indie games, but will keep working on Atlus games as well. He's been working on his own indie games since 2016 too, so we might see some of them getting announced soon.

Freelance artists and developers in Japan

It's very common for developers to go freelance in Japan but to keep working on the same series they've been working on in the past. A good example is Neptunia series character designer Tsunako. She left Idea Factory but still works on Nep either way.

It's slightly worrying we have yet to see any Project Re Fantasy gameplay years after its announcement. However, Atlus stated multiple times the game's development is going well.

Long story short, you shouldn't worry and this doesn't particularly change anything. Besides that we'll hear Shoji Meguro on games not developed by Atlus, and get to play his own indie games in the future.