Katsura Hashino, producer and director of several Persona titles, has moved away from the series. After the international success of Persona 5, Hashino wrote in a letter to fans that he’s giving other designers a chance to helm the franchise.

“Last year, with the milestone of the Persona series’ 20th anniversary, I handed off the series development to my successors and announced the start of my new RPG project that takes place in a fantasy world,” Hashino said toward the end of his post.

Project Re Fantasy is that next step. Revealed in December, it’s the first game from the newly formed Studio Zero. Hashino launched Studio Zero as a development team within Atlus, but it remained unclear whether his work there would take him away from Persona-related projects full-time.

Project Re Fantasy is said to be “a complete departure” from the work of P-Studio, the internal team working on Persona games. That should have been enough of a hint that Hashino was ready to tackle other projects, yet neither Atlus nor Hashino was explicit about whether he’d remain involved with both teams.

His continued work on Persona games remained up in the air as recently as last month, when a Waypoint interview with Hashino mentioned that there was “no guarantee” that he’d stay with the franchise past Persona 5.

Although not surprising, Hashino’s departure is a notable loss for P-Studio. He spearheaded the modern reinvention of the Persona franchise with Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3, which introduced many of the elements that define the series to this day: social links, a more lighthearted story, setting and cast of characters and a plethora of sidequests.

Persona 5 continues to follow and innovate within that mold, broadening the series’ appeal in the West, as Hashino described in his letter.

“No matter what kind of project I take on going forward, I love creating RPGs that are both moving and relatable regardless of cultural differences—in fact, I’m most interested in strengthening those aspects right now,” he said.

The more old-school Project Re Fantasy is currently in development.