So 2020 has pretty much been a giant bust when it came to art exhibitions and shows which has been such a big bummer for me because art shows have become such a big source of content for my site. This ATLUS Art Exhibit was actually something I attended last year I just forgot about it. The only reason I remembered it was because I was going through some old memory cards before reformatting them and I stumbled on the photos.

Looking at the meta data for some of the images I saw that this exhibit was held in August of 2019 and then I remembered why I forgot it—it was right after San Diego Comic Con. I had so much stuff from SDCC to go through and I was so caught up in coming up with stories that I just forgot about other things that were going on.

The ATLUS Art Exhibit was a collaboration between Gallery Nucleus and video game publisher, ATLUS to help celebrate and promote the at the time upcoming releases of two upcoming ATLUS games, Catherine: Full Body and Persona 5 Royal. Like with most art exhibitions I’ve attended at Gallery Nucleus the show was mostly made up of fan-created tribute pieces but as a special treat Gallery Nucleus also had several pieces of concept art by Shigenori Soejima, the character designer for both games on display as well.

Catherine: Full Body is actually a re-release of the game Catherine with more content. In Catherine the object is to navigate towers made of blocks, arranging the blocks into staircases to reach the exit before the tower collapses from underneath you.

The title for Catherine comes from the game’s story. In Catherine you play as a man named Vincent Brooks, a man who is having trouble committing to marrying his longtime girlfriend Katherine McBride. One night while drunk at a bar called the Stray Sheep, Vincent meets a woman named Catherine who he starts having an affair with. Vincent’s affair with Catherine leads to him having nightmares where he and other men must ascend a tower while outrunning horrible demons—these nightmares are the puzzle aspects of the game. Vincent’s nightmares cause him to break up with Catherine leading to a confrontation between him, Katherine, and Catherine in which Catherine is killed. The entire confrontation is revealed to be a dream, of which Katherine has no memory of, however Katherine does discover Vincent’s infidelity and breaks up with him.

At this point Vincent realizes he is the only person who is aware of Catherine’s existence. Vincent confronts Mutton, the proprietor of the Stray Sheep and the only person who saw him and Catherine interacting with one another. Vincent learns that Mutton is Dumuzid the Shepherd, a demon and that Catherine is a succubus who targets men who cannot commit to men and family. Vincent enters the nightmare world one more time in order to free himself and other men that Catherine has enslaved by reaching the top of the tower, a task that Vincent is successful in.

In Catherine: Full Body there is one more character named Rin (short for Qatherine). Rin an amnesiac who plays piano at the Stray Sheep and who grows closer to Vincent, comforting him in the nightmare world by playing piano. Rin is later revealed to be a cross-dressing man which causes a rift to form between them and Vincent. In one of the endings Rin is revealed to be part of an alien race of “angels” whose brother challenges Vincent to determine the fate of mankind. If Vincent wins the challenge he and Rin become a couple.

That’s a pretty crazy plot for puzzle game, but honestly if you want crazy plots for seemingly innocent games then you should read the plot behind Centipede and Arkanoid (Brick Breaker), games that I’m sure many remember playing on either a Nokia 3310 phone or a TI-84 Calculator.

The Persona series are RPG games and are actually a subseries/spinoff of the Megami Tensei franchise. The Persona games are your typical RPG games, although instead of taking place in a fantasy world like most RPGs, Persona games take place in modern day Japan. The defining factor that sets Personas apart from other RPGs are the focus on Personas, physical manifestations of a person’s psyche and subconscious which can be summoned to assist the players in combat.

In Persona 5 you play as a silent protagonist who has been tasked with “rehabilitating” in order to avoid forthcoming ruin. To do so the protagonist is given access to a supernatural app that leads him to the Metaverse, a supernatural realm made up of the physical manifestations of humanity’s subconscious desires and palaces, domains within the Metaverse that are manifestations of strong negative or corrupt thoughts that warp the perceptions of people into a danger for themselves and others. In the Metaverse the protagonist meets Morgana, an amnesiac, cat-like creature who explains that the protagonist has the ability to change wicked people’s hearts by stealing their “Treasure”, the emotional root of their behavior from Palaces ruled by their Shadow Selves, corrupted mirror versions of the people they represent. Taking the codename Joker, the protagonist along with Morgana and his friends form the Phantom Thieves of Hearts and set out to reform the city by stealing corruption from the hearts of adults.

As their activities attract new members and attention from the public and police, including prosecutor Saie Niijima and detective Goro Akechi, the Phantom Thieves learn that another group which includes a black-masked assassin is using the Metaverse to murder people and framing the Phantom Thieves for the killings. While investigating the killings the Phantom Thieves are joined by Akechi and together they learn that a politician named Masayoshi Shido is behind the conspiracy to frame them, using Akechi’s ability to enter the Metaverse to remove any obstacles in his way so that he can become Prime Minster and transform Japan into a fascist state.

On their way to face Shido the Phantom Thieves learn that Akechi is the black-masked assassin and Shido’s illegitimate son who has been secretly plotting revenge on Shido for the years of neglect he was forced to endure.

After facing Akechi, the Phantom Thieves face Shido and despite defeating him and exposing his part behind the conspiracy the public has no interest in him and also have no support in either authority or the Phantom Thieves. In response to this the Phantom Thieves infiltrate Mementos, the core of the Metaverse and the Palace for everyone’s hearts in order to steal the treasure contained within. Inside Mementos the Phantom Thieves learn that the public has chosen to give up their autonomy, sending the public into chaos. After being ejected from Mementos by the Treasure itself the Metaverse and reality begin to merge together. Joker awakens in the Velvet Room, a realm that exist between consciousness and subconciousness. There Joker learns that his ally, Igor is Yaldabaoth, the “God of Control,” the true power behind Shido and his conspiracy as well as the one behind the Phantom Thieves’ and Akechi’s quest to dismantle the conspiracy&mash;a complicated thought experiment and game to see if Joker’s desire to save and reform the world would be stronger than Akechi’s desire to destroy it.

Yaldabaoth offers Joker the chance to restore the world to its original state at the cost of his freedom. Joker rejects the offer and he and his allies fight and defeat Yaldabaoth, saving humanity and returning the world back to normal.

After saving the world the Phantom Thieves learn that in order for Shido to be prosecuted Joker must turn himself in for a false assault charge pressed against him by Shido so that he can provide testimony and save his friends from arrest. Joker turns himself in however the Phantom Thieves are able to find evidence that support Joker’s innocence and his conviction is overturned and he is freed from prison.

Like Catherine: Full Body, Persona 5 Royal builds on the original game by adding extra characters which expand the plot a little bit more.

I’m really pissed at myself for forgetting to get this up sooner because looking back at the photos I remembered that I had all this extra information I wanted to include in the write up as well as arrange the pieces by whether they were Catherine: Full Body or Persona 5 Royal, unfortunately for me I can’t remember what I wanted to say only that I wanted to say something.

Before I get into the art pieces I do want to say that after taking a look at my photos I decided it would be best for various reasons if I divided up my posts with tribute artwork and game art here while the concept art will be saved for a future post.

Anyway enjoy the artwork from Gallery Nucleus’s ATLUS Art Exhibit.

The Phantom Thief by Shigenori Soejima

Velvet Room by Shigenori Soejima

Joker and Arsene by Shigenori Soejima

Makoto by Shigenori Soejima

All-Out Attack: Comic Cut-In by Malcolm Pryor

Kasumi by Sung Joon Baek

Johanna! By Janice Chu

Fool I Am by Tess Stone

The Last Surprise by Josh McKenzie

You’ll Never See It Coming by Mike Luckas

A Queen Upon Her Steed by Tiffany Le

The Phantom Thieves by Phillip Light

Full Bodied by Jasmin Darnell

Catherine by Andres Blanco

Katherine by Andres Blanco

Catherine and Katherine by Samuel Youn

Arsene by Ameorry Luo

Kasumi Yoshizawa by Bryce Kho

The Gorgeous Panther by D.J. Kirkland

Phantom Thieves by Bryce Kho

Catherine: Full Body (1st of edition) by Shigenori Soejima

Catherine by Shigenori Soejima

Rin Triangle by Shigenori Soejima

Katherine Triangle by Shigenori Soejima

Catherine and Vincent by Shigenori Soejima

The following pieces didn’t have title cards with them. Judging by the style most of them are done in, I’m assuming most of these pieces are game artwork done Soejima that he was just cranking out and never bothered to give titles to.

Catherine: Full Body

Persona 5 Royal Art