If anyone can take credit for the global acceptance of JRPGs in recent years, it’s Katsura Hashino. The director of Shin Megami Tensei, Persona and Metaphor: ReFantazio, and the man who has brought his vision of the genre to place Atlus among the most important companies in the world, challenges the turf where Square Enix has always maintained the safe fortress of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, which failed to adapt or change with sufficient player support, even if they remained popular. However, the evolution of JRPGs is far from over, according to Hashino, and he believes that we are now living in the beginning of JRPG 3.0.
In an interview with 4gamer, Katsura Hashino reviewed the history of the genre and divided its progress into three phases. Version 1.0 would be a conception of JRPGs of the past, what he called “a true classic.” He doesn’t cite examples, but Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy in the late 80s would be the closest to that vision. The genre is entering its second iteration with “their current style, which seems higher quality because of how responsive they are to players”. The next step, which would revolutionize these games structurally and in their gameplay presentation, was 3.0. And Hashino would like to think he’s forging it now.
Of course, the interview doesn’t mention anything enlightening about its future, but our hopes are once again pinned on the upcoming announcement of Persona 6, the next major installment in the genre’s most acclaimed franchise at the moment, which Hashino is currently working on after completing Metaphor: ReFantazio in 2024.
Who knows, maybe with The Game Awards so close, Hashino warned us that we’d be seeing some of those 3.0 JRPGs soon. What do you think?
