‘Persona’ maker flips to fantasy in latest game release

Japanese game designer Katsura Hashino, who made his name with the high-school role-play Persona series, is in a reflective mood days before Friday’s launch of his latest game Metaphor: ReFantazio.

“I can’t even count how many games I’ve worked on,” Hashino, who has worked for Sega-owned publisher Atlus since the mid-1990s, told AFP in an interview.

For his newest title, he has shifted the monster-slaying action of Persona from Tokyo to a medieval-style fantasy world reminiscent of Game Of Thrones.

“We are kind of amateurs in the fantasy genre,” he said, adding that he and his team felt they could bring something different.

“It was this sense of curiosity to see what we would make if we made a fantasy game that drove us,” he said.

Persona, which sees high-schoolers bond as they fight monsters, has been a global hit since its first edition in 1996.

Hashino took over the title in 2006 and helmed Persona 3, 4 and 5 – the last one selling more than 10 million copies worldwide.

‘Emotions and psychology’

While his latest game is quite different from the Persona franchise, he said he hoped players will get similar feelings from it.

Hashino has always used absurd humour and the supernatural to address themes rarely dealt with in mainstream video games, such as school bullying or depression.

“Persona dwells a lot on the emotions and psychology” of its characters, he said, adding that the characters in Metaphor would explore the way they deal with anxiety.

He said he hoped players would discover elements they could use in their everyday lives.

“We’re trying to find ways to inspire you,” he said.

He said Metaphor posed different challenges to Persona, which follows a young boy on an odyssey through a kingdom torn apart after the death of its ruler.

There’s already talk Metaphor could kick off a franchise.

“We have to see what people think about the game,” he said of the possibility of a franchise.

“If they like it and they want more, we could continue. We would think about it.” – AFP