Shoji Meguro, the composer behind the Shin Megami Tensei series and Shin Megami Tensei spin-off games Persona, has left the Atlus sound team.

According to Atlus, he will be working as a freelance composer effective immediately. Well, he left end of September to be exact. He will still work on new titles with Atlus on the music side of things on a freelance basis. The company will still support his endeavour to expand his future efforts.

Here is his farewell message to his fans:

“I know this is quite sudden, but I, Shoji Meguro, resigned from Atlus Co., Ltd. at the end of September 2021.

I’ve been creating role-playing games by myself during my spare time for the past five years now, and I applied for a Round 1 Kodansha Game Creators Lab recruitment and was selected as one of the finalists. Then staff from Kodansha was assigned to work with me.

I decided to leave Atlus and focus on my dream of developing indie games.

However, I will continue to maintain a good relationship with Atlus. While focusing on my own indie game development, I will continue to work with Atlus on game music, so I hope that those of you who were concerned about the sudden announcement will feel relieved.

Lastly, I would like to thank Atlus Co., Ltd. and my family for accompanying me. I would also like to thank Kodansha for giving me a chance to take on the challenge.

I hope you will enjoy the music of Shoji Meguro as well as the games I am currently working on.”

This also means that Shoji Meguro is free to make awesome music for other JRPGs that aren’t under Sega and Atlus. In fact, Kodansha Game Creators Lab and Meguro are teaming up to develop a new indie title which will be announced on 6th November at the INDIE Live Expo 2021 Winter event. The upcoming title will be a near-future sci-fi stealth action and RPG title with gun-based combat. Nice!

Shoji Meguro has been working in Atlus since 1995, so that’s 26 years! The man has made a ton of bangers for the Shin Megami Tensei series and defined its sounds with his rock, pop, jazz, and medleys. I mean, we have a recollection of his greatest hits below if you need further proof:

Kakuchopurei wishes Shoji Meguro all the best in the future!