This week’s issue of Weekly Famitsu magazine #1622 features New Year’s cards and aspirations for 54 Japanese developers for the year 2020, including Atlus.
These cards include statements from the developers for the coming year. According to a magazine leak, Atlus’ comment is the following:
Both Shin Megami Tensei V and Project Re Fantasy are under active development.
Not teasing as much as previous years, Atlus is reiterating that development is still ongoing for both of the company’s upcoming RPGs that have lacked updates for a long while.
The latest entry in the mainline SMT series, Shin Megami Tensei V, was originally announced more than two years ago in October 2017. In December 2018, producer Kazuyuki Yamai stated that implementation of Unreal Engine 4 as well as Atlus’ thorough attention to detail meant that he would like to have more time to finish the game.
Project Re Fantasy: A Fool’s Journey Begins, the new IP fantasy RPG by Atlus’ new development team called Studio Zero—headed by many of the previous Persona Team leads—was announced around three years ago in December 2016. A couple of months ago, in October 2019, a Game Informer interview with the director Katsura Hashino stated that the team finally found a solid direction, and they were proceeding along with it, hopefully with something to show in the not too distant future.
New Year’s 2019 Card Comment
Last year, Atlus’ New Year’s 2019 card comment stated that there would be a follow-up report for Shin Megami Tensei V this year, however that did not occur:
Starting with Catherine: Full Body, we are steadily preparing unannounced new titles. Please look forward to a follow-up report of Shin Megami Tensei V, as well.
Two of the unannounced new titles that were teased ended up being Persona 5 Royal and Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers, both announced in April 2019.