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Creator Works

https://web.archive.org/web/20121021194113/http://www.atlusnet.jp/topic/list?page=1&category=creator_works

Date Author Article Name Topic Notable Information
2007.04.16 Shigenori Soejima 副島のクリエイティブ日記
Soejima's creative diary		 Persona 3 FES *AtlusNet website has just opened
*P3F will release on April 19, 2007
2007.04.16 Katsura Hashino 橋野のクリエイティブ日記
Hashino's creative diary		 Persona 3 FES *AtlusNet website has just opened
*P3F will release on April 19, 2007
2007.04.16 Kazuma Kaneko 金子のクリエイティブ日記
Kaneko's creative diary		 Persona 3 FES Not on the Internet Archive

Date Author Article Name Topic Notable Information
2007.04.23 Kazuma Kaneko 金子一馬の映画日記 Vol.01
Kazuma Kaneko's movie diary Vol.1		 — Not on the Internet Archive
2007.05.07 Kazuma Kaneko 金子一馬の映画日記 Vol.02
Kazuma Kaneko's movie diary Vol.2		 — Not on the Internet Archive
2007.05.14 Kazuma Kaneko 金子一馬の映画日記 Vol.02
Kazuma Kaneko's movie diary Vol.3		 Bubba Ho-Tep
2007.05.21 Kazuma Kaneko 金子一馬の映画日記 Vol.02
Kazuma Kaneko's movie diary Vol.4		 — Not on the Internet Archive

https://web.archive.org/web/20120126044630/http://www.atlusnet.jp/topic/list?page=3&category=creator_works&creator_id=17

Date Author Article Name Topic Notable Information
2007.05.28 Kazuma Kaneko 金子一馬のマルカジリ日記 Vol.1
Kazuma Kaneko's Markajiri Diary Vol.1		 — Not on the Internet Archive
2007.06.04 Kazuma Kaneko 金子一馬のマルカジリ日記 Vol.2
Kazuma Kaneko's Markajiri Diary Vol.2		 — Not on the Internet Archive
2007.06.11 Kazuma Kaneko 金子一馬のマルカジリ日記 Vol.3
Kazuma Kaneko's Markajiri Diary Vol.3		 — Not on the Internet Archive
2007.06.18 Kazuma Kaneko 金子一馬のマルカジリ日記 Vol.4
Kazuma Kaneko's Markajiri Diary Vol.4		 — Not on the Internet Archive
2007.06.25 Kazuma Kaneko 金子一馬のマルカジリ日記 Vol.5
Kazuma Kaneko's Markajiri Diary Vol.5		 — Not on the Internet Archive
2007.07.02 Kazuma Kaneko 金子一馬のマルカジリ日記 Vol.6
Kazuma Kaneko's Markajiri Diary Vol.6		 — Not on the Internet Archive
2007.07.09 Kazuma Kaneko 金子一馬のマルカジリ日記 Vol.7
Kazuma Kaneko's Markajiri Diary Vol.7		 — Not on the Internet Archive
2007.07.17 Kazuma Kaneko 金子一馬のマルカジリ日記 Vol.8
Kazuma Kaneko's Markajiri Diary Vol.8		 "Spiritual photography"

Shoji Meguro

Date Author Article Name Topic Notable Information
2007-04-25 Meguro Vol. 1 Intro "Up until a few years ago, I lived in a room crammed with musical instruments.

Now, all I have at home is a single dusty guitar. So when I come up with a melody at home, it’s pretty inconvenient.

I used to scribble down notes on paper or my PDA, but lately, I’ve been humming into my phone’s voice recorder. And that’s the worst. After listening back to my terrible humming, I can’t bring myself to listen to it again. Right now, I have three abandoned melodies sitting in limbo..."

2007-05-09 Meguro Vol.2 Exploring Ikegami
2007-05-16 Meguro Vol.3 Fishing
2007-05-30 Meguro Vol.4 Moving Offices The sound department hasn't relocated offices yet.
Introduces the sound team (Meguro, Tsuchiya, and Kitajoh)
Kitajoh joined last fall, has a lot of potential.
Meguro and Tsuchiya handle sound direction for Hashino and Takata's project's respectively, Kitajoh supports the two and is gradually taking on more responsibilities.
2007-06-13 Meguro Vol.5 Gear Overview Sound booth complete, pic included
  • Gear:
    • PC: Mac Pro (Quad-Core 2.66GHz) hidden behind the desk.
    • Input Devices: Trackball for most work switches to a mouse depending on the situation. Mousepad is a bonus item from Ultima Online: The Second Age.
    • Speakers: Yamaha NS-10M → Classic monitors, but the cones have yellowed from sitting neglected for so long.
    • Keyboard: Korg Trinity Pro → "It’s basically just a large MIDI controller now. I never use it for sound output anymore."
    • Guitar: Fender Stratocaster → "The only "real" instrument in the setup. The red effects unit next to it is a POD2—affectionately called "Oshiri" ("butt")."
    • TV: A 23-inch widescreen monitor → "Honestly, probably too big for this setup."

Modern software has become so convenient and advanced that Meguro hardly uses hardware synths anymore, and produces everything digitally. Instruments like guitars and vocals are still recorded IRL.

2007-06-20 Meguro Vol.6 F1 Races
2007-06-27 Meguro Vol.7 Fishing Trip Already running out of ideas, wrote about fishing trip. Pic of fishing spot included.
2007-07-04 Meguro Vol.8 Meguro's Guitar Meguro's guitar is a 1974 Fender Stratocaster, bought 5 years prior in Shibuya. 2 pics are included in the post.
Chose the guitar because it "has a sharp, high-pitched tone with a distinctive edge, typical of ‘70s rock and funk."
Been getting "crazy noise" during recordings in new studio, apparently the ceiling was radiating electromagnetic waves. The guitar has single-coil pickups, which are prone to picking up noise from electromagnetic interference.
2007-07-11 Meguro Vol.9 More Fishing
2007-07-18 Meguro Vol.10 Piano Bought a digital piano last month, which is his only keyboard at home.
Meguro hardly has played the piano, learned to play electric organ as a kid.
Been practicing every night before bed
Used to primarily compose at home, but in recent years hasn't played instruments or written music from home.
Includes audio in a flash file, a short snippet of a song when he was in a band (same band as mentioned in the p3 reincarnation liner?)
2007-07-25 Meguro Vol.11 Model of a Mazda RX-8
2007-08-01 Meguro Vol.12 Trauma Center
2007-08-08 Meguro Vol.13 Recorded a song Recorded a very confidential vocal track the day before with lyrics written by Komori.
says "多分この曲はよほど運の良い人でなければ聞くことが" whatever that means.
song probably isnt for p4 ost since its booklet says he started the music after september '07.
2007-08-15 Meguro Vol.14 Ultima Online " Wouldn't it be cool if we made Persona Online at our company…"
2007-08-22 Meguro Vol.15 More guitar talk Comparison between his guitar and Kato's (etrian odyssey dev)
3 pics
2007-08-29 Meguro Vol.16 Even more guitar talk Another guitar added, owned by Kitajoh.
1 pic of kitajoh's guitar, and 3 audio clips comparing the three. Each clip plays the intro to Unavoidable Battle from p3. they all sound basically the same cuz of the compression
2007-09-05 Meguro Vol.17 Audio Compression Acknowledges that the 3 audios in the previous week sounded identical cuz of the compression.
" The ability to recognize differences in sound quality isn’t as huge between pros and amateurs as you might think."
"For example, during game development, if I encode a song and think, "Eh, this level of quality loss should be acceptable," other team members (who aren’t part of the sound team) will point out that the sound quality is terrible."
2007-09-12 Meguro Vol.18 Digital Devil Saga Audio file of Meguro playing a piano arrangement of "Pray", Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner's opening theme, played quick cuz of filesize limits and recorded on garageband .

"Personally, it’s one of my favorite projects. The development period was pretty short and tough, but I was involved from the early stages and got to really dig into the story. That meant I was able to fully control all the music from start to finish, which made it a really satisfying project. Since all the event scenes had fixed lengths, I was able to time the music to match each event, which was a great learning experience for me in terms of sound production."

2007-10-11 Meguro Vol.19 Surgery Meguro got surgery the two weeks prior, which is mentioned at the beginning of the p4 ost liner notes.
2007-10-24 Meguro Vol.20 Vocaloid The voice heard in the second half of "Nirvana" from ddsat2 is the vocaloid LOLA.
LOLA kinda sucked, especially compared to Miku
Audio clip of LOLA's section
2007-11-07 Meguro Vol.21 New Phone
2007-11-21 Meguro Vol.22 Vacation in the Izu Peninsula
2007-12-05 Meguro Vol.23 Fishing (Again)
2007-12-19 Meguro Vol.24 Composing/Recording Process "First, there’s the question of which track to start with.

Lately, I've been handling the entire soundtrack for projects, so I first get a feel for the game's overall atmosphere and direction, then start with whatever song comes to mind first. This seems to annoy directors and planners every time, and I'm always sorry about that.

I compose music in three different ways: in my head, on the piano, or on the guitar, depending on the song. The main part, like the chorus or the key melody, often comes to me first as if it’s just "descending" into my mind. From there, it’s not a smooth process—I struggle through it bit by bit. When composing in my head, it usually happens while I'm walking. I jot down the notes on my PDA in handwriting mode.

Once I have a rough structure, I jump into the programming phase. Programming means inputting the notes into music software and recording instruments to create a complete track. For drums, I use a software sampler. When I press keys on a keyboard, drum sounds play, and I create the rhythm by hitting the keys like "Do… Dodo…" or "Sososososososo." If someone saw me without hearing the sound, I’d probably look pretty suspicious—but the drum sounds come through the speakers properly.

Next, I play the bass, piano, and synthesizer along with the rhythm using the keyboard. When I play the keys, the software automatically writes down the notes, so I can later swap out the bass sound or fix wrong notes. I didn’t really want to admit this, but for difficult phrases, I sometimes slow down the tempo while playing and then restore it afterward. (I only do this occasionally, I swear.)

But I can’t pull that trick with guitar recordings… If I mess up, I have to keep re-recording until I get it right, which can take a lot of time. After that, depending on the track, I might head to an external studio to record vocals. Finally, I adjust the overall volume balance, add some reverb, and export it as a wav file to complete the track."

2008-01-09 Meguro Vol.25 P3F Soundtrack P3F Soundtrack sold well
p3's ost was rank 3 on amazon's "animation and gaming" category in 2006 and p3f's was rank 3 in 2007, making a consecutive 2 years
New years goal is to watch 2 movies a week and make a soundtrack that reaches #1
2008-01-23 Meguro Vol.26 TV Shopping
2008-02-06 Meguro Vol.27 Introducing Ryota Kozuka Recorded a vocal track the other day
Kozuka is a newcomer, joined in February
  • Name and Age
    • Ryota Koizuka, 23 years old
  • First Impression of Atlus After Joining
    • Surprisingly approachable. Didn’t have that underground vibe.
  • Impression of Atlus Sound Staff
    • Meguro → "Nothing"
    • Tsuchiya → "Different from the blog character on Atlus Net…"
    • Kitaoji → "Nothing"
  • Favorite Music
    • Club music
      • Recent: Timbaland
      • Older: Meat Beat Manifesto
  • Favorite Movie
    • Taxi Driver
  • First Game Played
    • The Legend of Zelda (Super Famicom)
  • Favorite Game
    • Tactics Ogre
  • Thoughts on Atlus Games
    • Devil Summoner → First Atlus game I played. Quit after my save data was erased at the Yakuza mansion.
    • Soul Hackers → Cleared it! Loved the atmosphere.
  • Favorite Game Music
    • Xenogears (by Yasunori Mitsuda), Rez
  • Final Comment
    • "Please set up the sound equipment quickly!" (Meguro: Sorry about that…)
2008-02-20 Meguro Vol.28 Vocal Recording Completed recording the vocals for a "certain game" (likely P4) the week prior. Recording was split over 3 days. Final day took 8 hours.
The Process:
  • Send karaoke MP3, lyrics, and sheet music to the singer beforehand for preparation.
  • Recording sessions start in the early afternoon ("musician time").
  • Engineer "Sato (佐藤さん)", now more of a producer/director, handles both engineering and direction, making him reliable during sessions.
  • Singer does a "light pass" to warm up; this time, they nailed it in one take ("smooth take").
  • Fixes are done using "punch-in" — recording over specific parts at natural breathing points.
  • Melody is recorded first, then the chorus. Chorus harmonies are recorded block by block, sometimes harmonizing by ear or using pre-prepared melodies.
  • "Double tracking" creates a fuller sound by recording the same melody twice and panning left and right.
  • Repeat blocks are sometimes copy-pasted ("stamping") to save time.
  • After recording, playback with the singer to confirm quality before moving to the next track.
2008-03-05 Meguro Vol.29 A day in the life Started and finished composing the final dungeon track on 3/3.
Started and finished composing the final boss track on 3/4.
2009-03-19 Meguro Vol.30 Deadlines "The planning section tends to have earlier deadlines, but they often have a follow-up period for fine-tuning adjustment data. The design section closes the deadline for in-game graphics fairly early, but things like cutscenes, which are less prone to bugs, tend to have later deadlines. Programmers, meanwhile, can’t afford to relax even after the data deadline because they have to stay on top of things until the master build is complete. As for the sound section — since we’re the last to receive the materials created" the deadline is usually last
"Even after the data submission is done, you often have lingering fixes and adjustments. Even after the master build is submitted, there’s usually follow-up debugging."
During the development of the original Persona there were people sleeping on the floor at all hours. For his birthday that year Meguro's seniors got him a sleeping bag.
2008-04-02 Meguro Vol.31 Persona 4 Announced "Like in Persona 3, the music in Persona 4 was composed to create a sense of surprise with how the songs are used — but without making it feel jarring or out of place. The biggest difference from Persona 3 is how the world of Persona 4 is set in the countryside. So instead of aiming for the polished, urban atmosphere of Persona 3, I went for a sound that’s a little rougher around the edges — not overly refined or trendy."
2008-04-16 Meguro Vol.32 Choosing a method to manage a schedule
2008-04-30 Meguro Vol.33 Living in Kamata
2008-05-14 Meguro Vol.34 Composing for Persona 4
  • Sound team’s work starts once graphics and text are implemented, so the game initially has no music.
  • Without music, devs and testers complain, leading to the use of placeholder tracks.
  • Poorly matched placeholders hurt the atmosphere, but fitting ones risk disappointing players when replaced.
  • Used Digital Devil Saga tracks as placeholders to avoid strong attachment and complaints.
  • Created a generic placeholder track when no suitable existing one was available. (audio included)
    • "It’s kind of plain and flavorless, so I figured it could be used for any calm, uneventful scene.
    • Was so versatile that it ended up being used everywhere. Meguro figured he'd use it as a final track.
    • Hashino refused, knowing that the track only took 14 minutes to make
    • Track created on: December 20, 2007, 5:00 PM and updated on: December 20, 2007, 5:14 PM
2008-06-11 Meguro Vol.35 Headphones Persona 4 will be released next month on July , the soundtrack will be two weeks after that on July 23rd. It’s a two-disc set with 52 tracks.
Mastering for the first disc was finished the week prior, second disc will be mastered tomorrow.
There's gonna be a bonus track, but Meguro hasn't finished it yet.
2008-06-25 Meguro Vol.36 Composing for Persona 4 (Continued) Meguro wrote a little ove 40 tracks for the game
Vocalist is Shihoko Hirata
The positive reception to Kimi no Kioku made Komori happy.
The credits theme for P4 made Meguro tear up, and he especially likes the lyrics in the second verse.
2008-07-09 Meguro Vol.37 Composing for Persona 4 (Continued 2) Persona 4 releases tomorrow
Town BGM changes with the weather. There are separate tracks for sunny and cloudy days, and on rainy days, you’ll only hear the sound of rainfall as ambient noise.
" For some reason, a lot of the dungeon tracks ended up being four-on-the-floor techno-style." (Aside from Heaven)
Junes BGM and the summer festival BGM were created as environmental sounds by Kitajoh and Kozuka, they're super compressed in-game to be diagetic but for the OST they'll be high quality.
Velvet Room remix in the OST
2008-07-23 Meguro Vol.38 Persona Music Live Today's the day the OST releases for P4.
Persona Music Live concert at Akasaka BLITZ on August 22
Meguro will be playing guitar at the concert, his first time playing live in 10 years.
The concert's gonna include P4 and older persona tracks, so Meguro's going thru old files and getting the necessary data.
2008-08-20 Meguro Vol.39 Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon Persona Music Live's in two days, finished four days of rehersals yesterday
Raidou 2 was recently announced. OST will have 23 songs and mastering was done at Sony Nogizaka Studio
Timeline:
  • Music for King Abaddon was produced before Persona 4.
  • Meguro worked on Persona 4's music while also handling the requests and adjustments for King Abaddon
  • Persona 4 was completed
  • Persona 4 was released
  • King Abaddon announced.
2008-09-03 Meguro Vol.40 Persona Music Live (Continued) Meguro has been playing guitar for 21 years, started at 16 years old.
rehearsed for four days, eight hours each day
"Because of the way I hold the pick, my right index finger nail started wearing down and became painfully exposed by the third day. I used a bandage on the second half of the third day, and on the fourth day, I secretly put on a fake nail (a women's one) to get through practice."
Was super nervous the morning of. Not because of the performance, but because he didn't know where to park.
Called on by Hirata during the show as "Masashi Meguro (めぐろ　まさし)"
"I played “The Almighty” with a lot of energy, but I ended up snagging my right pinky nail on the strings. It didn’t break or anything, but it completely threw the tuning off—so during the chorus of “Burn My Dread”, the last part of the chorus sounded pretty weird because of me. I switched to a different string for the second chorus, so that part was fine."
2008-09-17 Meguro Vol.41 Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon As opposed to the first game's "big band" feel, this one is more of a small jazz ensemble.
"I went for a rough, rock-band-like texture, with a dry, minimal-reverb sound that feels like it's being played right in front of you.To make it sound rough and raw, every instrument had to have a thick, strong presence—which was tough to achieve with my previous production setup."
Recently switched composing setup from Logic+ProTools HD to just ProTools HD. ProTools works wonders but its software sucks.
"to get used to ProTools, I ended up scrapping eight songs I wrote for King Abaddon"
"Some songs from the previous game—like the Tsukudo-cho theme and the normal battle theme—have been rearranged for King Abaddon"
2008-10-01 Meguro Vol.42 Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon Kuzunoha Raidou's Theme 2008 is an arrangement of the original game's theme. the shakuhachi section in the A-melody was inspired by one of the new stages added in this game.
Meguro rarely composes based on visuals, instead reads through the scenario or other text documents to get an image. Also by reading articles online to brainstorm musical ideas.
2008-10-15 Meguro Vol.43 Festival "when we were naming the tracks for the Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers soundtrack, I wanted to name one of the battle tracks "Kishimo Beat", but everyone around me desperately stopped me."
2008-10-29 Meguro Vol.44 Vocal Recordings Been recording vocals for an upcoming project for the past two days, one more session the day after tomorrow for the ending theme and a bonus track sung by a male amateur. (Persona 1 portable???? mystery vocalist could be Junichi Nozawa)
2008-11-12 Meguro Vol.45 More Vocal Recordings Komori's writing the opening and ending themes to the mystery game (Probably persona 1 portable, it was announced in Jan 09. Komori also wrote the lyrics for its opening and ending)
2008-11-26 Meguro Vol.46 Old PC games
2008-12-24 Meguro Vol.47 Reach out to the Truth Includes audio for a Reach out to the Truth arrangement. Was later released on Persora: The Golden Best 4 as a bonus track called "Reach Out to the Truth (Christmas Arrange)". A mashup of Reach out to the Truth and Dream of Butterfly (more evidence that the previous stuff was about p1 psp)
2008-11-26 Meguro Vol.46 Final blog post in this series
Persona 4's ost sold 50,000 copies, was outsold by the 2 Macross OSTs but outsold Ponyo's

Date Author Article Name Topic Notable Information
2009.02.10 Shoji Meguro ディレクター目黒の開発日記Vol.1
Director Meguro's Development Diary Vol.1		 Persona PSP *Bought an Emobile Touch Diamond smartphone
*Persona PSP will release on 4/29
*13 years since the first game, many new fans haven't played it. PSP was made for people who started with 3 and 4.
*Based on internal feedback, they made significant adjustments to the difficulty level, interface specifications, loading speed, battle effects, dungeon structures, item management, town maps, etc.
2009.02.26 Shoji Meguro ディレクター目黒の開発日記Vol.2
Director Meguro's Development Diary Vol.2		 Persona PSP *Meguro gained 5kg over the past two years.
*Almost all of the music "has been rearranged to be a mixture of the pop music in Persona 3/4 and the calm atmosphere in the original game. It was tough deciding to either use the original tracks, enhance them slightly, or just remake them completely.
"It's not just about changing certain songs to a different arrangement, but also adapting how the music is used to fit the current gaming landscape. For example, regarding event tracks, while in the PS version, there was a theme song for every character, this time, rather than such a presentation method, we chose to match the mood of the event scenes with the music."
*Two disc soundtrack, 67 songs, limited release.
2009.03.11 Shoji Meguro ディレクター目黒の開発日記Vol.3
Director Meguro's Development Diary Vol.3		 Persona PSP *Currently mastering Persona Original Soundtrack CD. At Sony Nogizaka Studio.
*Battle footage recently posted to the official website. Uses older versions of the game, latest build is more complex.
*Added footprints to minimap, skip button for battles, and made battles faster.
*Songs are all under 500KB
*Bug from the original game where you could recover SP on a staircase by crab walking was fixed.
2009.03.25 Shoji Meguro ディレクター目黒の開発日記Vol.4
Director Meguro's Development Diary Vol.4		 Persona PSP *Growlanser's PSP remake and Persona PSP started at around the same time. Initially, both games struggled with Battle loading speeds but were made faster.
*Takes around 2-3 seconds to load things on the PSP-2000. Varies based on party and enemy demons.
Battles consistently take less than a minute with the skip function, slightly above a minute without it.
2009.04.08 Shoji Meguro ディレクター目黒の開発日記Vol.5
Director Meguro's Development Diary Vol.5		 Persona PSP *Battles are speedy compared to the original game since it's a portable game.
2009.04.23 Shoji Meguro ディレクター目黒の開発日記Vol.6
Director Meguro's Development Diary Vol.6		 Persona PSP *Multi-directional movement with the analog stick *Dash by pressing X+Direction
*There is a bug where the saved location is displayed as a room name, and the load screen does not show the room name.
*Traesto implemented
*Songs are all under 500KB
*Looping songs was tough due to their small file size. Meguro didn't want people to think "Persona's songs are just so short."
2009.04.28 Shoji Meguro ディレクター目黒の開発日記Vol.7
Director Meguro's Development Diary Vol.7		 Persona PSP *Dungeons have more floors
*Development started 10 months before release
*Arranged song included in the post. Part of an unarchived flash file.

Date Article Name Topic Notable Information
2007.09.21 Vol. 1 Persona 3's Opening Tsuchiya says he'd probably rank in the top three for most frequently appearing names in Atlus game credits.
He had to put in footstep effects that sound good to the ears, but don't actually line up with the protag's visual footsteps since cuts in the scene would make the sounds jarring and sound like he's tripping up.
2007.10.05 Vol. 2 Sound Design Stuff Talks about things going through his mind when doing sound design
"I made my voice acting debut as the Shadow being crushed by Thanatos"
"By the way, Mitsuru’s bike has a Desmodromic L-twin engine."
Aigis's clutch ears were supposed to rattle but it was always too loud.
2007.10.19 Vol. 3 Not Archived
2007.11.02 Vol. 4 Cat pic
Being a composer is not just about composing. It's a lot of meetings and excel sheets.
2007.11.16 Vol. 5 "on November 13th, we had a launch party to celebrate the completion of Trauma Center: New Blood."
"Kazuma Kaneko, Soejima from Persona 3, and Doi from Trauma Center: New Blood—are all quite fashion-forward. But it’s not just the designers; even the planners and programmers are pretty fashionable. As for me, just… ignore that. There are always exceptions."
"If you can recognize this track, you’ve earned an Atlus Certification Level 2!" (Flash file not archived sadge)
"This is the staff roll BGM from the PSP version of Princess Crown. I personally loved the original Sega Saturn version, so I was lucky to be involved in the PSP port. I asked—well, more like begged—to include a new track for the staff roll. I actually arranged the fanfare from the original track “Castle of Justice” and adapted it for the new version. This is a rare piece of music that’s never been included on any soundtrack before. I even swapped out the orchestra library for a higher-quality one, so this is a new recording you can only hear here."
2007.11.30 Vol. 6 Chat log Shows off chat logs between him and some debuggers for a healing spell in p3f. kinda amusing honestly
2007.12.14 Vol. 7 Christmas & BGM in the real world
2007.12.28 Vol. 8 Reflecting on 2007 Today's the last day of work in the company for the year
This post is the last Creator Works post of the year
2007.01.18 Vol. 9 Trauma Center New Blood OST Cat Pic
Trauma Center New Blood was released yesterday
2007.02.01 Vol. 10 Trauma Center New Blood OST again
2007.02.15 Vol. 11 Recording car noises
2007.02.29 Vol. 12 Etrian Odyssey 2
2007.03.14 Vol. 13 Etrian Odyssey 2 again
2007.03.28 Vol. 14 Recording train sounds for Persona 4 Sound effects in the Famitsu DVD are already different than the final game.
Recording train noises is notoriously difficult.
"So, on February 16th, while it was still freezing cold, I headed to my hometown, which I’m familiar with geographically, and spent an entire day recording the sounds of various local train lines."
"Just like with the monorail in Persona 3, I messed up the train sounds in P4 too! The train model in the P4 opening is based on the limited express 183 series and the KiHa 40 series, which appeared in the movie Poppoya (Railroad Man) and The Place Promised in Our Early Days. I had even been properly briefed about this beforehand… That’s not a train! It’s a diesel car! Sure enough, when you look at the animation, there’s no pantograph or overhead wire!"
2007.04.11 Vol. 15 Recording diesel car sounds for Persona 4 Soejima and Hashino pushed for the real diesel sound
"Kitaojo discovered that the Tsukuba Express Rapid Line was just 30 minutes from Akihabara. The Joso Line of the Kanto Railway, which features KiHa 2x00 series cars, runs through locations like Shimotsuma and Tonbo-no-e—both of which were featured in the film Kamikaze Girls."
Kitajoh and Tsuchiya went together to record, "After blending the diesel car sounds we recorded with the train sounds from the previous session, I think we managed to recreate the atmosphere of the local station at Yasoinaba. A product of our hard-earned embarrassment on the road—please listen for yourself in the final version"
2007.04.25 Vol. 16 Negotiating for more memory "I’ve pretty much wrapped up the music and sound effect work recently, so right now, my top priority is to peacefully and diplomatically negotiate with the other departments for more sound memory—any scrap I can get."
2007.05.09 Vol. 17 P3F Snow Queen "With the addition of the feature where Fuuka can switch dungeon exploration music, I got the chance to compose one new track (two if you count the awesome Persona 2 “Maya’s Theme” arrangement by Meguro-sensei). Since P3F is all about that “festival vibe,” the idea was to bring back a nostalgic track from a past Persona game. Anyway, the track I ended up choosing was the main theme from the infamous Snow Queen scenario in Revelations: Persona. When deciding the direction of the arrangement, I put together a rough ear-copy of the original track to get a feel for it. Since I still have that data, I thought I’d share it here, along with the final arrangement for comparison. As I mentioned in the soundtrack comments, the P3F version was arranged to sound like “slightly nostalgic and embarrassingly youthful game music.” Meanwhile, the original version sounds like something that should be sung by a beautiful boy soprano in a mysterious foreign language."
Audio file of the rough version and some sheet music are included.
2007.05.23 Vol. 18 Wrapping up development "With P4 and a few other projects mostly wrapped up, I’m now juggling cleanup work while also starting new projects. When I say cleanup, I mean things like backing up data, organizing materials, and preparing soundtrack CDs for release. For P3, I had to reverse-record sound effects from the PS2 for a drama CD and help replace voice data for the overseas version. Wonder how things will play out for P4…"
My Mac Pro has four internal drives with a combined capacity of over 1.8TB—and it’s already starting to feel cramped.
"One track of background music or sound effects for an anime cutscene can easily exceed 1GB nowadays. In the past, we used professional DAT cassette tapes to store voice actor recordings, but now everything’s saved as waveform data on the hard drive. That includes all the sound effect data I’ve accumulated over the years. At this rate, I may need to switch to BD-R (Blu-ray discs) instead of DVD-R soon."
2007.06.06 Vol. 19 Everybody's scattered across dev teams "some people are deep in the trenches while others are recovering from the last fight. That’s why Creator’s Works has been a bit quiet lately. Sorry about that—we’re still alive."
2007.06.20 Vol. 20 Setting up the Mac after hard resetting it
Vol. 21 For some reason this post just doesn't exist.
2007.07.18 Vol. 22 Junes Theme Unique Audio file and sheet music for the mini Junes Theme jingle.
"Right before the voice recording session, the planner suddenly gave me an emergency order: "There’s a scene where a little girl mimics a TV commercial song, but we don’t have a song yet, so make one now."
"By the way, the version I made was actually just a karaoke track for the voice actress to reference. The in-game version features an arrangement by the sound team’s rising star Kitajoh, who added a chill backing track for the TV commercial version. The extended in-store BGM version was further polished by the team’s supernova Kozuka, who gave it that authentic “electronics store BGM” feel—kind of cheesy, but intentionally so. Kozuka’s skills go way beyond this, just so we’re clear"
2007.08.01 Vol. 23 Trauma Center 2
2007.08.29 Vol. 24 SMT Nocturne Amala Battle "I’m not sure how it happened, but the “Let’s remake an old BGM with K’s live guitar” project got accidentally activated."
"This K guy isn’t just some random planner—he’s the one who handled the battle system specs for P4. On top of that, he’s incredibly knowledgeable about sound, a skilled guitarist, a master of music software, and even acted as the driver when we recorded car sounds for the game’s cutscenes."
"Back when I was working on the PS port of Shin Megami Tensei if…, I had this burning desire to sneak one of my own compositions into a Megaten title. That’s how I ended up writing this track for the hidden Akira route. Naturally, since I was working under the shadow of Tsukasa Masuko, the original Megaten sound master, I made sure the composition paid proper respect to the classic Megaten battle BGM style. Then, later on, it resurfaced as the battle BGM for the Amala Network in Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne. At first glance, it might seem like a lazy reuse, but actually, it’s all connected in my mind. It’s this whole “people who ended up turning into demons for various reasons” theme—Akira becoming Amon and the Demi-Fiend. Both are forced to rely on unwanted demonic power as a last hope in the face of despair and engage in fierce battles tied to that struggle. Plus, both settings—the Tower of Confinement and the Amala Network—are essentially worlds separate from the main storyline. Not that this is official Atlus lore or anything. Honestly, it’s just me trying to force some narrative connection."
"Originally, the second half of the track was actually an arrangement of the Chaos Hero theme from Shin Megami Tensei—a little tribute to the OG Chaos Hero who willingly fused with a demon. But I realized it was too forced and confusing for anyone to understand why the Chaos theme was showing up there, so I scrapped it. Instead, I slipped the Law and Chaos themes into the Maniax battle BGM for Metatron and Beelzebub. The Beelzebub one is pretty hard to catch, though"
Includes mp3 of the live recording, was later used for the P5 SMTif... DLC
2007.09.12 Vol. 25 Las Vegas The R&D team is going to Las Vegas for some training.
2007.09.26 Vol. 26 Battle Cries Been working on Battle Cries for an upcoming game
120 KB per ally character voice limit
" we use a magical tool that allows us to downsample and compress the audio while preserving as much quality as possible, trying to find the best balance between sound quality and file size."
"during P3, the limit was 100 KB. That extra 20 KB is the result of winning a battle with the programmers."
"In the Persona series, the signature "Persona!" shout is a staple — but it’s actually one of the longer battle cries. In P3, not only was there a memory issue, but the characters’ movements were so fast that there wasn’t enough time for them to shout "Persona!" properly, so a lot of characters couldn’t say it. Based on that experience, in P4, we had the actors shout "Persona!" more sharply and quickly. I think it resulted in a more intense and well-timed battle cry "
2007.09.26 Vol. 27 Purification Rituals Supposed origins of the ATLUS romanization.
", I remember hearing from Atlus’s founder, President Harano, that the name was actually given by a highly virtuous monk.Since this came from the founding president himself, it’s probably true — but then again, it was back when I had just joined the company, and I think it was at a drinking party, so there’s a good chance my memory is totally off. Still, I clearly remember how convincing it was when he explained that the company was named "ATLUS" instead of the more common "ATLAS" because the number of strokes in the characters would add up to eight, which symbolizes prosperity — so maybe it’s true…?"
2007.10.24 Vol. 28 Devil Summoner and Soul Hackers "Since joining the company, I’ve mostly been assigned to the Persona series, so I’ve never been fully involved in the Devil Summoner series. But I’ve helped out with minor details each time. That said, during the development of the first Devil Summoner and Soul Hackers, I was just a rookie debugging grunt."
"I remember that the first Devil Summoner was released around Christmas the year I joined the company, during the development of the first Persona. The dungeon design was so brutal that even though I joined the company as a Megaten fan, I couldn’t beat it through debugging. "
"As for Soul Hackers, I actually made a cameo appearance. ... Soejima was in charge of designing the NPCs, and apparently, when he ran out of ideas, he used some Atlus employees’ faces. I think I was cast as a clerk taking care of plants at the VR Park or something like that."
"I wasn’t involved in Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army at all because it overlapped with the development of Persona 3. However, due to certain circumstances, I ended up creating some sound effects for the cutscenes and skills."
" I’ve also helped with the recording of Atlus Net Radio. Since the hosts’ schedules are tight, we usually record it in the meeting room at the Atlus development department (just a regular office room)."
2007.11.07 Vol. 29 Devil Survivor Tsuchiya feels like it should take up the Megami Ibunroku name instead of the Shin Megami Tensei name.
2007.11.21 Vol. 30 Testing game "The other day, we held a test play session for a certain project currently in development (I can’t say what it is yet…). The purpose was to play the unfinished software and identify elements that need improvement—in other words, a “flaw-finding session.” Generally, an early but somewhat functional build is called an “alpha version,” and a nearly complete build is called a “beta version.” This project is at a stage between alpha and beta, still flexible enough for meaningful adjustments. Once it hardens past this stage, it becomes much harder to make changes."
", I was mainly checking system-related sound effects like cursor movement, decision, and cancel sounds—though to be honest, I was probably just playing the game. The boss was still running on placeholder data, so I managed to beat it in five seconds…"
"To be honest, game development is about spending months and months drawing things like dungeon floors, walls, ceilings, window frames, icons, panels, fields, grass, trees, and rocks—or creating sounds like footsteps, door sounds, magic sounds, and cursor sounds for months on end. Of course, prominent staff like character designers, scenario writers, and composers are important, but behind them are the unsung heroes—the polygon modelers, UI experts, and many others working behind the scenes."
2007.12.05 Vol. 31 Working from home "For example, with Maragi, I need to test both single-target and multi-target cases. I have to repeat this process hundreds, even thousands of times. That’s why I begged the programmers to create some debug and testing convenience features, like "set the game to an ideal state for sound effect testing with one button" and "remember the cursor position from the last used spell."
2007.12.19 Vol. 32 Vocal Recording Today happens to be the very first day of voice recording for a certain project. (Probably P1PSP)
"Each company probably handles things differently, but at Atlus, the scenario writer usually explains the in-game context to the voice actors. The acting direction is handled by a veteran sound director who has thoroughly studied the script, and the recording itself is managed flawlessly by the studio engineers."
"Koto, the art director, lent me a debug ROM of the “New Game Plus” state that he used for testing"
2007.01.09 Vol. 33 Devil Survivor Sound Effects "Since the game’s story mainly progresses through conversations between characters, we figured there wouldn’t be that many event sound effects needed. But as the scenario and events became more and more packed with content, the sound effect list ultimately doubled. We had to cram more in, which "
"Since DS software is stored on high-speed ROM cartridges, loading times aren’t a huge issue. So you can kind of take the lazy approach like, “Ah, we ran out of space—oh well, we’ll just make another file and load it."
2007.01.23 Vol. 34 More Devil Survivor "If I were to very roughly summarize the early flow of game development, it goes something like this: the planners write the scenario and system, the designers create the artwork, the programmers assemble all the materials, and once the foundation of the game starts to take shape, that’s when we finally figure out how to implement the sound effects. Of course, that doesn’t mean the sound staff is completely ignoring everything until then, but we don’t really get involved seriously until the middle of development."
2007.02.06 Vol. 35 Difficulty of ports Really interesting one.
"The biggest hurdle in porting is gathering materials. Of course, the data and materials from completed games are backed up and stored, but when you open the treasure chest where they’re kept, you end up finding floppy disks (5-inch ones, no less) and MOs covered in green fuzz. Naturally, to execute the original programs, you also need the development hardware from back then—literally a case of encountering lost technology from the previous century."
A lot more info in here
2007.02.20 Vol. 36 Has some unused music from Growlanser V
2007.03.06 Vol. 37 Mac Pro Rental
2007.04.03 Vol. 38 Atlus’s first release of the new fiscal year, the PSP version of Persona, is coming out at the end of this month.
"I mentioned at the Creator Works on September 12th last year that I had “carelessly accepted five songs.” Those tracks were for Persona’s BGM. It’s already been half a year since then… After that, I ended up carelessly adding one more track, bringing the total to six. At this point, it’s not really hidden anymore, but I’ve been in charge of the dungeon BGM for the hidden route, the Snow Queen Quest."
" I started with ear training by copying Famicom (NES) sounds, which eventually led to arranging, and finally to composing."
"I owe my place in the game industry today to the late Hidehito Aoki, who led the Atlus sound team and handled much of the BGM for the original Revelations: Persona. There’s a lot to think about when arranging music by Aoki-san, whose work has become an unattainable benchmark for me."
2007.04.17 Vol. 39 Muscle Pain
2007.02.20 Special Message Goodbye One last cat pic

Hashino

https://web.archive.org/web/20120126053326/http://www.atlusnet.jp/topic/list?page=2&category=creator_works&creator_id=16

Date Author Article Name Topic Notable Information
2007.04.26 Katsura Hashino 橋野桂の開発通信 Vol.1
Katsura Hashino's Development News Vol.1		 Persona 3 *At the Famitsu Awards 2006, Persona 3 won the Excellence Award (RPG category)
2007.05.10 Katsura Hashino 橋野桂の開発通信 Vol.2
Katsura Hashino's Development News Vol.2		 — *Photo of IRL Jack Frost Vending Machine that was used for promo materials.
Jack frost machine was in P3 and SMT3.
Hashino's currently in crunch mode.
2007.05.25 Katsura Hashino 橋野桂の開発通信 Vol.3
Katsura Hashino's Development News Vol.3		 Persona 3 *Renders of the P3 Cast doing their dorm activities (reading, eating, etc) with tidbits for each
*Atlus Development has returned to the Kojisaka area near Iidabashi in Tokyo.
2007.05.31 Katsura Hashino 橋野桂の開発通信 Vol.4
Katsura Hashino's Development News Vol.4		 Persona 3 FES *P3 FES just released, devs already started with new project.
2007.06.07 Katsura Hashino
Kazuhisa Wada
Masayoshi Suto		 橋野桂の開発通信 Vol.5
Katsura Hashino's Development News Vol.5		 Persona 3 UI *Many concept design images for P3's ui.
*One of the challenging aspects of Persona 3 was the dynamic interface.
"from the beginning of Persona 3's development, we wanted to create a dynamic and innovative graphic user interface." -Wada
*"went through 30 to 40 drafts before reaching the final decision..." -Suto
*P3 being Blue was Soejima's idea.
2007.06.14 Katsura Hashino
Kazuhisa Wada
Masayoshi Suto		 橋野桂の開発通信 Vol.6
Katsura Hashino's Development News Vol.6		 Persona 3 UI *Photograph of Storyboards for the UI's movement.
*Getting the UI to move properly was a struggle.
*Did simulations in Flash.
*Hashino wanted to scrap the dynamic UI, but also didn't want to throw all the work in the trash.
*The instruction sheet to the programmers (in the image) was three times longer than Shin Megami Tensei III or Digital Devil Saga's.
2007.06.21 Katsura Hashino 橋野桂の開発通信 Vol.7
Katsura Hashino's Development News Vol.7		 Persona 3 *Photo of a break room in their new office space. Has snacks, drinks, video games, and a massage chair. The chair is a Matsushita-made "Real Pro" machine.
*Development of each in-game day often coincided with IRL days as they were occurring.
*When the devs were busy they'd sleep in sleeping bags on the floors, and the morning chill would drain their energy.
2007.06.28 Katsura Hashino 橋野桂の開発通信 Vol. 8
Katsura Hashino's Development News Vol.8		 Hashino's jammed finger *Early in life Hashino left his jammed finger untreated, and eventually it needed surgery.
*Says he's the director of the Trauma Center series.
2007.07.05 Katsura Hashino 橋野桂の開発通信 Vol. 9
Katsura Hashino's Development News Vol.9		 *New game has started development, only core staff so far.
2007.07.10 Katsura Hashino 橋野桂の開発通信 Vol. 10
Katsura Hashino's Development News Vol.10		 Persona 3 *"ユングとタロット　〜原型の旅" was a vital book for Tarot info.
The Social Link system in Persona 3 was originally conceived separately from the Tarot.
During the development of Persona 3 the team also went to buy several cards, including the Rider-Waite and Thoth decks.
2007.07.10 Katsura Hashino 橋野桂の開発通信 Vol. 11
Katsura Hashino's Development News Vol.11		 Persona 3 *Taking feedback on FES into account for next game.
2007.07.26 Katsura Hashino 橋野桂の開発通信 Vol. 12
Katsura Hashino's Development News Vol.12		 Games that devs play *Developers have been playing "a certain mobile hunting game," "a certain high-definition fighting game," and "a certain mobile occupation board game."
*Hashino predicts handheld/mobile gaming is the future.
2007.08.02 Katsura Hashino 橋野桂の開発通信 Vol. 13
Katsura Hashino's Development News Vol.13		 Barbarossa *Photos and discussion on Barbarossa board game.
2007.08.09 Katsura Hashino 橋野桂の開発通信 Vol. 14
Katsura Hashino's Development News Vol.14		 Persona 3 FES Official Fanbook: My Episode Persona 3 FES Official Fanbook: My Episode will be released on 8/11.
2007.08.16 Katsura Hashino 橋野桂の開発通信 Vol. 16
Katsura Hashino's Development News Vol.16		 Persona 3 Has two pictures of the inside of Hagakure ramen, one of the room itself and one of the TV.
The TV just shows an island. Nothing special.
The ramen shop was conceived by Shogo Isogai
There was a ramen shop called Aoba-san near the company, with its main branch in Nakano, Tokyo, and it was quite popular among the staff.
The designer who created the interior model for Hagakure originally had Aoba-san in mind, but it turned out quite different from initial drafts.
2007.08.23 Katsura Hashino 橋野桂の開発通信 Vol. 16
Katsura Hashino's Development News Vol.16		 The time to record audio for an upcoming project is quickly approaching.
Voice recording typically takes about two months.
2007.08.30 Katsura Hashino 橋野桂の開発通信 Vol. 17
Katsura Hashino's Development News Vol.17		 No development update, so he recommends watching the movie Darwin's Nightmare (ダーウィンの悪夢)
2007.09.06 Katsura Hashino 橋野桂の開発通信 Vol. 18
Katsura Hashino's Development News Vol.18		 Persona 3 The book Nine Personality Types (９つの性格) was used in the development of P3 to give personalities to the main characters.
2007.09.13 Katsura Hashino 橋野桂の開発通信 Vol. 19
Katsura Hashino's Development News Vol.19		 Persona 3 "Reflecting on RPG titles I've been involved with in the past, such as Shin Megami Tensei If..., Devil Summoner, and Soul Hackers, I was responsible for the game system parts centered around battles. For Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne and Digital Devil Saga, I handled all aspects of game design except for scenario settings. And for Persona 3, I've been in charge of all game design, including scenario settings."
2007.09.27 Katsura Hashino 橋野桂の開発通信 Vol. 20
Katsura Hashino's Development News Vol.20		 Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne Multiple images of early depictions of the Press Turn system, designed by Hashino.
The One More! system originates from Nocturne's Press Turn system.
"So, I decided to introduce a rule where, instead of by turns, the player's turn is indicated based on the battle situation, not the order. If the situation favors the player, their turn continues until the situation changes, thereby bringing about an advantage." like a real life brawl
" Once you've memorized the enemy's weaknesses, it's easy to win just by exploiting them. Of course, that's what you'd want to do, but if the enemy's turn doesn't switch reasonably, it wouldn't be fun." so a "familiarity gauge" was designed. By continuously using the same attack the enemy becomes more familiar with it and if the opponent anticipates it, the "Press Turn" is taken away.
"Now, since the rules didn't seem elegant enough, after much pondering and struggling, I finally realized, "Instead of doing this, if the gauge simply decreases forcibly after each action, wouldn't that be better?"", doing this felt fun but somewhat "heavy", since the gauge was still used instead of icons.
2007.10.11 Katsura Hashino 橋野桂の開発通信 Vol. 21
Katsura Hashino's Development News Vol.21		 Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne Continues from Vol. 20.
Hashino realized the Press Turn gauge wasn't very intuitive, so he switched to icons instead. The icons were inspired by Pachinko.
Switching to icons made things way easier to understand.
During test plays, everyone unexpectedly wiped out in front of Forneus repeatedly. Sometimes, they'd get wiped out by bad luck in the first minor battle. Adjustments to the difficulty are done based on reactions to the first dungeon.
2007.11.08 Katsura Hashino 橋野桂の開発通信 Vol. 22
Katsura Hashino's Development News Vol.22		 Persona 3 Has an image of a mid-production screenshot of a battle.
Persona 3 had a significant mandate: to appeal to new gamers as well.
feedback from test players on Nocturnes Press Turn was that it was difficult to understand in the beginning. One of the factors was that the number of actions is "shared" among the player party units.
One More system has three intuitive rules: "If done well, you can act again." "If done well, the opponent will stumble." "If everyone stumbles, it's an all-out attack!".
This caused significant trouble for the battle setting team. Depending on how the compatibility is set and how the enemies are placed, the system balance changes drastically.
2007.11.22 Katsura Hashino 橋野桂の開発通信 Vol. 23
Katsura Hashino's Development News Vol.23		 Persona 3 Two videos of early battle systems. Can't be played on the page, but they;re uploaded to the internet archive separately.
Originally, battles took place directly on the field. Due to memory constraints, switching to a battle screen was considered. Dungeon exploration had an isometric view, similar to the camera angle in battles in p1/2.
2007.12.20 Katsura Hashino 橋野桂の開発通信 Vol. 24
Katsura Hashino's Development News Vol.24		 Persona 3 Mainly about the calendar system
Wanted to give the player a sense of everyday life.
"At first, I was planning to create a story about three years of my high school life (!), but I realized that I was being reckless with myself and others, so I ended up making it in less than a year ^^"
Created a calendar daily progress simulator on the PC before getting too deep into development.
Did a similar simulator for a feature in nocturne where demons grow/merge in battle.
In the P3 sim you could recieve dungeon quests (which turned into Elizabeth's quests), join clubs, do everyday activities, and simulate fusion.
Took a team of people around 2 weeks to create the tool.
Staff feedback said that once they got a lover event the simulation felt more fun, even without pictures.
2008.01.10 Katsura Hashino 橋野桂の開発通信 Vol. 25
Katsura Hashino's Development News Vol.25		 -- New photos of their office break room
Photo of Yuji Hinata's desk (Artist for Etrian Odyssey) with a loli Santa in his art style.
2008.02.07 Katsura Hashino 橋野桂の開発通信 Vol. 26
Katsura Hashino's Development News Vol.26		 -- When you enter the dorm in the final game you are greeted and possibly invited to Tartarus. Originally, there were no greetings and you had to talk to people. Was changed because it made the player feel lonely.
Talks about scenario writing for the game.
2008.02.21 Katsura Hashino 橋野桂の開発通信 Vol. 27
Katsura Hashino's Development News Vol.27		 Persona 4 Title currently under development (Persona 4) is at critical moment.
Will be officially announced soon.
2008.03.21 Katsura Hashino 橋野桂の開発通信 Vol. 28
Katsura Hashino's Development News Vol.28		 Persona 4 Weekly Famitsu comes out on March 21, comes with promo DVD for Persona 4.
2008.03.21 Katsura Hashino 橋野桂の開発通信 Vol. 29
Katsura Hashino's Development News Vol.29		 Persona 4 Development is going well, they're currently doing playtests.
Loading times for menus, locations, and battles had been improved from 3.
2008.04.17 Katsura Hashino 橋野桂の開発通信 Vol. 30
Katsura Hashino's Development News Vol.30		 Persona 4 Persona 4 is #6 on Famitsu's list on anticipated releases. It's one of very few PlayStation 2 games coming out.
Beta Opening Movie, which was shown on the DVD, has just been replaced with the final version.
2008.01.10 Katsura Hashino 橋野桂の開発通信 Vol. 25
Katsura Hashino's Development News Vol.25		 -- New photos of their office break room
Photo of Yuji Hinata's desk (Artist for Etrian Odyssey) with a loli Santa in his art style.

Behind the Scenes with Artist Soejima

Date Vol # Topic Notable Information Image(s)
2007.04.27 Vol. 1 Research Gathering reference materials is very important
For P3, the setting was Tokyo, modeled after the area around Shinagawa and Odaiba
2007.05.11 Vol. 2 Biking
2007.05.24 Vol. 3 Moving Offices Pic included, some anime layouts and materials from Persona 2: Eternal Punishment's cutscenes.
2007.06.01 Vol. 4 More Biking The engine sounds for Mitsuru's bike in P3 were sampled from Soejima's motorcycle.
Pic included, sketch of Chihiro Fushimi
2007.06.01 Vol. 5 P3 The Night Before The online game Persona 3: The Night Before held a ranking event people were given some prizes, autograph boards signed by the voice actors who participated in Persona 3.
the voice actors had signed these boards during the recording sessions, so each one was one of a kind
Soejima was asked to draw characters next to the signatures.
2007.06.15 Vol. 6 Rain and Lambos
2007.06.22 Vol. 7 Figures for P3 Figures are in the works with Kotobukiya and Alter. As the copyright holder
"there was actually a plan during the development of Persona 3 for the staff to try making their own character figures."
Wada suggested that the 3D modelers should make their own figures, and eventually more staff joined and made it a competition. The theme was "Aigis"
Nobody completed theirs, and all of them looked horrible. There were jokes about making the figure a first print bonus.
"I eagerly started with the head, but what I ended up with was some kind of suspicious-looking Buddha statue… I actually still have a photo of it, but to protect my reputation, I’m going to refrain from sharing it here."
2007.06.29 Vol. 8 Pets
2007.07.09 Vol. 9 Art Materials Paper: Standard office paper. Also draws on a tablet monitor sometimes.
Pens:An out-of-production Staedtler mechanical pencil that can swap between 0.3mm, 0.5mm, and 0.7mm leads. For sketches, a Porsche Design mechanical pencil made with titanium wire and thicker lead.
Eraser: MONO eraser by Tombow
Most of his work is done on the computer nowadays
2007.07.13 Vol. 10 Drawing Process and Workspace "After I finish a rough sketch on paper, I scan it and trace over it to create the final line art. Up until Persona 3, I used a lightbox to trace the original line art onto paper, but around the time we were working on FES, I switched to tracing digitally using a pen tablet. After that, I apply color to complete the piece."
For a cell-shaded look he uses Photoshop, and for a more traditional feel he uses Painter (1st pic). When working on professional projects, it’s more practical and efficient to use digital methods for game production.
Photo of workspace, featuring Kotobukiya's Mitsuru figure. Alter's Aigis figure is still in development.
(Mitsuru Figure and Aigis Figure stores) 		File:P3DL Cover Sketch Artwork.png
2007.07.20 Vol. 11 Cockpit-ism Magazine When I draw for work, finding reference material for the cockpit area can be tricky, so the "Cockpit-ism (コックピットイズム)" Magazine is helpful.
" I don’t often design mechanical stuff, but when I do, I tend to focus on functionality. I try to justify the design by giving it a functional reason — like, "this part looks this way because it serves this purpose." That’s how I build up the design image."
"When I designed Aigis in Persona 3, I followed the same approach. Even though the game’s atmosphere didn’t allow for an overly sci-fi look, I designed her with functional details in mind. Most of it is just self-satisfying lore that has no real meaning, but I’ll share some behind-the-scenes details that didn’t make it into the official material (or got cut after being discussed)."
2007.07.27 Vol. 12 Aigis "The design for Aigis began with a single comment: “Let’s add a robot.” But among the main characters, Aigis was the last one to be completed. This was because I was working on her design alongside the world-building, and I couldn’t figure out the right balance between fantasy and realism. Since Persona isn’t a sci-fi series, I ultimately decided to prioritize making her a fun and engaging character over being too realistic."
(Image1): "Aigis’s name comes from Aegis, the shield (or breastplate) carried by Athena in Greek mythology. Originally, her design incorporated more Greek-inspired details."
(Image2): "For the mechanical parts, rather than a high-tech look, I aimed for a more analog, precise feel inspired by the Greek out-of-place artifact, the Antikythera Mechanism — like the inside of a clock. Since the story involved Aigis fighting, I figured she would likely get damaged at some point, so I even drew sketches of her in a damaged state. But in the end, the only “damaged” scene that made it into the game was her ear part coming off."
(Image3): "In the game, Aigis’s hands turn into Gatling guns, but initially, she held weapons instead. Her original weapon was a Luger P08 with a drum magazine (also known as a snail magazine). I thought the vintage feel matched her vibe really well, but it was a little too niche for general appeal. Still, the drum magazine itself was carried over into her final design."
"Since Aigis was going to appear in a high school setting, I wanted her to have a somewhat nostalgic atmosphere. That’s why I gave her a red, blue, and yellow tricolor color scheme, reminiscent of classic TV anime heroes, rather than a cooler color palette."

2007.08.03 Vol. 13 P3 Protag "In recent Shin Megami Tensei entries, some protagonists have had defined names and personalities, but the concept behind P3 was to have players fully immerse themselves in the high school experience from a first-person perspective. That’s why the protagonist doesn’t have a default name"
(Image 2): This is the very first sketch I drew. In fact, this was the cover illustration for the P3 project proposal, drawn before the story or anything else had been decided. But the uniform design is already pretty close to the final version. At first, I drew him as a cheerful, straightforward young boy. However, since the Persona series explores the complexities of human nature, I realized that portraying him as a simple do-gooder would make it harder to convey that nuance, so his expression gradually became more shadowed."
(Image 3): "He might look a little more dignified here than the final design. After a few more adjustments, the final version of the protagonist was complete. Even though the design was finalized at that point, the way I portrayed the protagonist in artwork after the game’s release was influenced by player feedback. The expressions and gestures I used in later illustrations were often based on the impressions and responses I received from players."

2007.08.10 Vol. 14 Akihiko Sanada His basic concept was "a cool senior,"
(pic2)"I designed him to be the kind of character that male students would find annoying. But if he wouldn't get squeals from female players as well as in the story, that would be a problem—so it was immediately scrapped."
(pic3)"I tried making him more of a "beautiful, aesthetic" type. The visual cues are those of a handsome guy, but he looks a little creepy... And he doesn’t look like someone who would box."
"He’s one of my personal favorites, but I don’t get many opportunities to draw him. That's because P3 has a large cast—even among the main characters, there are ten of them. That top sketch was a doodle I made just because I realized I hadn’t drawn Akihiko enough."

2007.08.17 Vol. 15 Mitsuru Kirijo "Mitsuru has consistently ranked among the most popular P3 characters, and she was also popular among the staff during development. Her concept was easy to understand from the start. Her basic image hasn’t changed much since I first began designing her, but I experimented with a lot of different hairstyles."
(pic2) "In the beginning, I strongly envisioned her with short hair. It emphasized more of a "fighting woman" vibe rather than the idea of a wealthy young lady. Her speech was also more like that of a soldier."
(pic3) "When I started focusing on differentiating her from Yukari, her hair became longer."
"the helmet Mitsuru wears when riding her motorcycle was modeled after a Louis Vuitton helmet." 		Pic1

2007.08.24 Vol. 16 Gekkou Uniform "Since P3’s gameplay is half school life, if the uniform design felt too outlandish and unrealistic, players wouldn’t be able to relate to it. So I had to find a balance where the uniforms were distinctive but still believable."
"Aside from the fact that the jacket has a zipper instead of buttons to make it stand out, it’s a fairly typical school uniform. Incidentally, the zipper is actually meant to carry a subtle message about how modern society tends to prioritize efficiency above all else."
Another notable feature is the school emblem. After the game’s release, a lot of people asked me, "Is that a BMW logo?" but it’s not (laughs). The black-and-white checkered pattern was designed to reflect the central theme of the Persona series: the duality of human nature—light and shadow, the conscious and unconscious. The color black is simply my personal preference."
2007.08.31 Vol. 17 Ken Amada (pic2)"Ken was originally designed with a pretty dark personality, driven by the tragic desire for revenge. Early on, I imagined him as a rather scary child. But as the story started to take shape, his character became more honest and childlike, and that scary side gradually faded away. Incidentally, in the illustration above, he’s shown wielding darts as a weapon."
"Shorts are practically a defining element for elementary school kids. The moment we decided to include an elementary schooler in the party, putting him in shorts became an absolute requirement in my mind."
"One of my most memorable experiences with Ken’s development was attending the voice recording session with Megumi Ogata, who played Ken. I was really busy around that time and couldn’t make it to many of the recording sessions, but I managed to attend Ken’s." 		(pic1)

2007.09.07 Vol. 18 Koromaru (pic1)

2007.09.07 Vol. 19 Fuuka Yamagishi (pic1)

2007.09.07 Vol. 20 Junpei Iori (pic1)

soejima2

Date Vol # Topic Notable Information Image(s)
2007.10.12 Vol. 21 Yukari Takeba (pic1)

2007.11.09 Vol. 22 Shinjiro Aragaki
2007.12.07 Vol. 23 Nighttime photography
2007.12.21 Vol. 24 Vespas
2008.1.25 Vol. 25 Persona: Trinity Soul
Persona 3 (Manga)
P3 Drama CDs 		Soejima designed the main characters and the school uniforms
2008.02.08 Vol. 26 pollen
2008.3.21 Vol. 27 Persona 4 The announcement for P4 was announced in today's issue of Famitsu.
2008.4.4 Vol. 28 Persona 4 Soejima is drawing a lot of posters and promotional artwork. he is also currently working on the package illustration (cover artwork) for the game.
2008.4.18 Vol. 29 Yasogami Uniform Soejima had designed four uniforms by this point, for P3, Trinity Soul, Another Century's Episode 3: The Final, and P4.
It's difficult to use creative silhouettes and colors since they don't work well as school uniforms.
The Yasogami uniforms are meant to be more old school since the town is rural. The stitching is meant to look like the unfinished look and the seams obtained through draping, a process in tailoring
2008.5.2 Vol. 30 P4 Portrait Graphics Bust-ups are now digitally drawn instead of hand drawn. In p3, the linework was done on paper but it was colored digitally (Soejima hadnt used paint for coloring since Soul Hackers). For p4 it's entirely digital.
Brainstorming is still done on paper
 Line artwork of Yukiko's neutral portrait
2008.6.13 Vol. 31 P4 Soejima had mostly finished drawing artwork for the bonus artwork given out by various shops at release
He also got a new PC.
2008.7.11 Vol. 32 P4 Persona 4 released today
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