The last year has been kind to fans of Japanese developer Atlus. Persona 5 rocketed to the top of the international sales chart and met all expectations, while recent news indicate that not only is Shin Megami Tensei V on the way, but it will release worldwide, potentially as Nintendo Switch exclusive. Today, die-hard fans add another exciting rumor to the pile: Atlus is apparently working on “follow-up”—and possibly “remaster”—of one of their PS3 titles.
The news was broken by way of Ryokutya2089, a famed Japanese leaker of upcoming Weekly Famitsu and Dengeki PlayStation content. By his own account, the game is not a numbered sequel, and will apparently not feature any DLC. The most likely possibility, according to him, is “a remaster with an additional element,” and he also maintains that an announcement is imminent “within the year.”
It’s an exciting rumor and one rife for speculation, especially since Atlus released only three games not named Persona 5 on PS3. If we assume the team is remastering a game that they themselves developed, the possible titles include only Persona 4 Arena and its sequel Ultimax—both developed in tandem with Arc System Works—and the most likely candidate: Catherine.
Catherine is one of the most interesting and bizarre projects to come from Atlus, which is saying a lot considering they came up with the Persona franchise. With gameplay split into a daytime dating sim and nighttime puzzle-platforming—in a similar vein to many of Atlus’s other projects—Catherine functions as both a hypersexualized, boundary-testing fever dream and a punishingly difficult gameplay challenge.
Aside from the game hauling in minor awards and pulling in over 500,000 in sales worldwide back in 2011, additional evidence for another visit to the world of Catherine already exists. At the beginning of September, Atlus announced a new arm called Studio Zero, responsible for the upcoming Project Re Fantasy RPG. And the presentation not only teased the existence of another project—it was actually hosted by character from Catherine.
Assuming these rumors are true, and with only a couple of weeks left in 2017, we should be hearing of this announcement relatively soon. Atlus has steadily become one of the most respected names in gaming, and it would make a lot of sense for the developer to bring one of its most inspired titles ever to an ever-expanding audience.