Persona Co-Creator Kouji Okada Says Persona Influenced Villion:Code but His New RPG Was Never Meant to Be a Different Version of the Atlus Franchise

Kouji “Cozy” Okada, one of the founding members of Atlus and a key creative figure behind the early Shin Megami Tensei and Persona games, has addressed comparisons between his upcoming RPG, Villion:Code, and the popular Persona franchise. Although the new game shares a school setting and several familiar elements with Persona, Okada says its development was influenced by a much broader range of his previous work. In an interview with GamesRadar+ published on November 10, 2026, Okada acknowledged the connection…