If you loved Persona 5 and Metaphor: ReFantazio, you will probably want to know where the genre is heading next. Katsura Hashino, one of Atlus’ key directors, is already thinking about how to push JRPGs into a so-called “JRPG 3.0” era, and his next project is being shaped around approaching the genre from a fresh, very different angle.

Katsura Hashino, the director behind Metaphor: ReFantazio and the latest Persona titles, says he wants to take the JRPG formula to a new level. He shared this idea during a talk titled “When Experiences Become Memories – Designing Lasting Impressions Through Art and Structure” at the Korean event G-Star 2025. In that panel, which was reported by 4gamer and translated by GamesRadar, the Japanese creator divided the genre’s history into three broad eras or trends: the JRPG 1.0 style of the past, the JRPG 2.0 of the present, and, of course, the yet to be defined JRPG 3.0. It is this last frontier that Atlus now seems eager to explore.

Hashino did not provide a detailed list of games or strict definitions for these categories, but it is generally understood that JRPG 1.0 covers classics like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, some of the first Japanese adventures that tried to pick up the baton from Western RPGs such as Wizardry or Ultima. As for the current era, he notes that we are seeing games “that feel of higher quality because they respond better to the player,” highlighting the way modern systems react to player input and choices.

The Mystery Of The JRPGs Of The Future

According to the interview, Hashino admits that he does not yet know exactly what JRPG 3.0 will look like, but he intends to explore that idea through his next video game. He suggests that these future titles will have a greater scope and that their presentation and structure will change at a fundamental level. It is a deliberately open description, but it clearly shows that the team in Japan is ready to look ahead rather than just repeating past formulas.

It is worth remembering that Metaphor: ReFantazio itself already experimented with new ideas for the JRPG space last year. In that game, every party member could freely swap archetypes, with each archetype defining their role, skills, and even their visual appearance on the fly and in an instant. Perhaps, in the not-too-distant future, we will be talking about JRPGs that feel even more organic and fluid than anything we have seen so far.

Source: theGeek