Persona Composer Shoji Meguro Has left Atlus

Shoji Meguro, best known as the composer for  Persona and Shin Megami Tensei series, has left Atlus. He has now joined the Kodansha Game Creators Lab (GCL) as an independent developer.  The announcement came in a press release linked on Meguro’s official Twitter in English and Japanese. A video version of his remarks, with English subtitles, was also uploaded to the Kodansha GCL official YouTube channel.

In the announcement, Meguro confirmed that he left Atlus in September 2021 to focus on developing indie games. Since 1995, Meguro has worked with Atlus on many of its most well-known titles. He composed or helped compose music for every Persona series title, as well as Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, and Catherine, to name a few. Besides composition, he acted as Game Director for Persona 2: Innocent Sin and Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, has a producer credit on Persona 5, and Sound Director for Persona Q, Persona 4 Arena, and the Persona rhythm games. He also composed music for various adaptations of Persona titles, and contributed songs to the soundtrack for the Persona 3 films.

Since 2016, Meguro has been experimenting with independent development, creating titles in Unreal Engine 4 under the “Megarock” alias. Meguro applied to join with the Kodansha Game Creators Lab, a program run by Kodansha to support indie game developers. Kodansha did not select him for the program’s “Round 1” recruitment phase, but opted to award Meguro a special prize. After subsequent negotiation, it opened a special position for Meguro separate from the Round 1 members. He assured fans that he maintains a close relationship with Atlus. While his focus is on game development, he will continue to work with Atlus on game music.

Now, Shoji Meguro will announce his first production alongside Kodansha at the Indie Live Expo Winter 2021, which takes place on November 6, 2021.