Katsura Hashino

Hashino made his directorial debut with Maken X (1999).[1] He has since directed or produced several games in the Megami Tensei and Persona series.[2] In addition to Persona, Hashino directed and produced on Catherine (2011).[3] Hashino formed a new internal division at Atlus in 2017 called Studio Zero, with their first release being a port of Catherine with additional content, Catherine: Full Body (2019). The studio's first original game is the fantasy role-playing Metaphor: ReFantazio (2024).[4][5]

Hashino aims to make games with messages that people can take into real life, wanting players to feel more than simply beating a game upon completion. He is influenced by novelists and authors such as Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Seishi Yokomizo, Go Nagai, Rumiko Takahashi. As well as filmmakers such as Yukihiko Tsutsumi, David Lynch, and B-Movies. He has gone on record stating that the first game he was ever truly invested in was the first Dragon Quest from 1986. Hashino has said that playing Shin Megami Tensei showed him what video games can do better than other mediums, feeling that it made him feel responsible for how characters stories played out.