Unlike 2020, 2021 has seen the return of many of the games industry's biggest events such as E3 and Gamescom, albeit in a digital form. While some events took place last year, many of the ones that did featured more laid back production due to the ongoing pandemic. One of these events was Tokyo Game Show, which featured far fewer major reveals than previous years. That appears to be changing this year as publishers such as Capcom, Square Enix, and Xbox preparing major showcases. Sega has now revealed that it is planning to reveal a new RPG title at its joint showcase with Atlus at this year's Tokyo Game Show.
While Sega was present at last year's Tokyo Game Show, the company's appearance was different to other years given the COVID-19 pandemic's effects on the game industry, not announcing any new titles and instead hosting a Yakuza: Like a Dragon live stream hosted by some of the game's development team and voice cast. This year, it appears that Sega is changing things up as the Tokyo Game Show website has updated its listing of live events to highlight Sega's showcase for the event, which will also showcase Atlus titles. On the showcase's listing it has been revealed that Sega is planning to announce a new RPG title at the event.
Previously it was discovered that the TGS 2021 website featured a logo for the 25th anniversary of the Sakura Wars series, one of Sega's longest running RPG franchises that first launched on the Sega Saturn in 1996. The series was rebooted in 2019 when a brand new title, Shin Sakura Wars (localized as simply Sakura Wars) launched on PlayStation 4, which was later released in the west in April 2020. This most recent installment featured character designs from Bleach manga creator Tite Kubo with guest designs from Persona character designer Shigenori Soejima and Pokemon artist Ken Sugimori. The game was also built using Sonic Team's Hedgehog Engine. Given that almost two years have passed since the Japanese release, and the evidence found on the website, it would not be hard to believe that this is what Sega is planning to announce.
Another possible announcement is the official unveiling of Atlus's long anticipated Project Re Fantasy, the newest title from Persona 3, 4, and 5 director Katsura Hashino under Atlus' new internal team Studio Zero. Project Re Fantasy was first announced in 2017 as a new PS4 exclusive action RPG, however the team has remained nearly entirely silent regarding the game's development since then, however at the beginning of this year Atlus confirmed that the game's development had reached its "climax" and implied that the game was nearing its development, so even if this is not the planned RPG game for Sega's event, it might make sense to expect it at Tokyo Game Show.
Tokyo Game Show 2021 will take place from September 30th to October 3rd 2021.