Katsura Hashino Reflects on Western Interviews of Persona 5 for Project Re FANTASY

Atlus' Katsura Hashino has just added a new post on Studio Zero's blog after almost 3 months of inactivity. Although being written at Studio Zero, the majority of this post mentioned Katsura's reflections on how he had been receiving interview from Western media as Persona 5's director following its release in North America and Europe on April 4th. However Hashino also related those reflections to how he would shape his upcoming Project Re FANTASY.

You can read a translation of the blog post's main subjects after the jump.

"By the way, the contents of interviews from foreign media are indeed a bit different from domestic ones. In the case of Persona series they took place in Japan, so while questions about foreign cultures were a given, I had an impression that there were very many questions about behind-the-scene developments, or even designs of settings and themes.

Of course considering the overseas release was later [than Japan], I could imagine that the questions would approach the deeper aspects, but there were also times where I heard for the first time [questions] about the background settings which were very important throughout the whole series.

I sometimes think that the work of having to answer while digging up [memories of] development at that time is a precious work, especially at this time since I'm heading towards the next thing. So there... while picking up parts of contents about the creatives I had been fixated (= suffered?) in past titles I had used to answer in interviews, I'd also like to start a series of very serious work in looking back for the sake of the future."

"In foreign interviews about Persona 5, the topic of Studio Zero working on a new Fantasy was also being touched on, and it could also become an opportunity to introduce it to [Japanese] game fans who don't normally read foreign articles.

There may be intriguing parts somewhere, either for people who are interested in our upcoming new title, or for people who want to learn the know-how of game production (if you're fine with talks from the likes of me). You can [write an article in Japanese and] give it a title like... "The ideals, realities, and also illusions of a certain developer (even though it's me)".

If it's alright with you, I will be posting updates in tiny bits but frequently, including articles from development staffs other than myself."

In the postscript, Hashino also would like to thank the fans for Persona 5 winning the Excellence Award in Famitsu Awards 2016 and the Users' Choice Award [in PlayStation Awards 2016], on behalf of Persona 5 developers.