One of Atlus’s most tenured employees is no longer with the company. Shoji Meguro announced that he has left Atlus, where he was a longtime musical composer for the Shin Migami Tensei and Persona franchise. Meguro actually stated that he departed the company back in September. In addition, he also mentioned been working freelance for various indie developers over the past five years. Meguro departed the company in order to further pursue his work as a freelance composer.
Despite no longer working with the company, Meguro states that he departed with them on good terms. “I will continue to maintain a good relationship with Atlus.” Meguro said. Meguro also mentioned that he intends to continue working with Atlus on future projects. As we states earlier, Meguro’s departure was due to his intention to pursue more freelance work as a fully independent worker. This essentially frees him up to work with anyone who’s willing to hire him, composing music for their new and upcoming IPs.
As we already mentioned, Meguro was a long time musical composer for Atlus, a position that he held since 1995, well over 26 years. His most well known compositions all come from the Shin Megami Tensei series, as well as its arguably more popular spin-off franchise, Persona. He also worked on a number of other titles while at Atlus, including Devil Summoner, Catherine, and Trauma Center. He was also one of the principle composers for the anime adaptations for Persona 3 and Persona 4.
It’ll be interesting to see where his work takes him in the foreseeable future, but he has no doubt left an indelible mark on the gaming industry for his music alone. Some of the best songs in video game history have some from the titles he’s worked on, and we can’t wait to see what he creates for us next.