Metaphor: ReFantazio
Developers: Atlus, Studio Zero
Publisher: Sega
Platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S (Reviewed), PC
Release Date: Available Now
Price: $69.99 USD – Available Here $109.95 AUD – Available Here
Overview
Thinking back, it’s a bit surprising that it has been eight years since the original release of Persona 5. Perhaps this is due to how the Persona series remains incredibly popular to this day or the fact that Persona 5 has been given so many revamps or guest appearances in that timeframe that it feels hard to top it. Well, one man thought the same and it happened to be the game’s director and producer Katsura Hashino who left P-Studio when he finished the game and formed Studio Zero within Atlus instead. Intent on crafting a high fantasy style game and moving away from the direction Persona was likely heading, Studio Zero spent years developing their first grand RPG in the form of Metaphor: ReFantazio and it must be said that not only have they succeeded, they’ve created the type of RPG that you just don’t much of these days, an original IP offering both quality and quantity of content with so much lore players will be delving in for more.
Story
Players are thrown right into the mix of things as they find themselves entering the world of Euchronia, a fantasy realm where eight races live in tenuous peace underneath the rule of an incredibly powerful king that has helped hold the land together despite the simmering tensions, blatant racism, poverty, religious extremism, and inequality and all of that entails. The only problem is, that very king has just been assassinated and the only living heir to the throne has also been laid low by a curse so powerful that he has been whisked away to safety, declaring him dead to the public in an effort to find a cure. It is here where players step in as the protagonist, an Elda boy who is from a race looked down on by every other race. Joined by a fairy named Gallica the player quickly learns the identity of the man that took the king’s life and plan an assassination attempt not just for revenge but to possibly lift the curse on the prince only for it to fail in spectacular fashion.
What unfolds then is the revelation that the former king had left a grand magic spell in case of his passing, one that would determine the next proper ruler for the throne should no heir apparent be available. One where the people choose, making the one person who finds the support of this divided land of people behind them, the next proper king of Euchronia. In a world ruled by bloodlines, race dominance, and nobles squashing commoners or even using others as test subjects, the thought of a popular election ripples through the land and even spurs the main character to take to the race for the throne, seeing it as their best possible chance to not only get a chance to get close enough to claim the life of the kingslayer but also save anyone that they can along the way. Especially when the race for the kingdom is turned into a literal race across the land by the country’s recognized religion seeking to create a theocracy through underhanded means.
For a game with metaphor in its title the writers don’t beat around the bush when it comes to the themes of Metaphor: ReFantazio and over the nearly hundred hour journey throughout the game players will be absolutely steeped in the dynamics of this struggling world and its people. With the pretense of the race serving as a driving force to bring players to different locations throughout the land they’ll discover countless new allies along the way as well as the shocking disparities some areas face compared to others as well as the persecution of certain races compared to others. Whether it is as blatant as a direct story interaction with a plot character or as subtle as a passing bit of dialogue while players explore the city how they are a filthy Elda or that they should ignore the corpse on the corner because it was a lowly Paripus, every element of the game seeks to show that despite being a land where no direct conflicts take place, Euchronia has rotted from within.
The thing is, even this is all just a framework set to establish the world that players will be traveling through and the interactions that they will have with their “Followers.” In many ways, despite moving away from the similar stylings found in Persona, Metaphor: ReFantazio still utilizes many of the same mechanics at least as far as character interactions go, though they have been made far more streamlined. Along the way players will meet a number of characters that will become Followers and lend their assistance in any way they can. Some of these characters will be party members while a majority of them won’t be, though one of these, we won’t spoil who, certainly feels like she should have been a party member thanks both in part to her early introduction in the story and eventual bonuses, though I digress. Along these same lines players must deal with an ever ticking clock as every action, be it entering a dungeon, hanging out with a Follower, or even doing an activity to boost a “virtue” takes time and each day only has an afternoon and night cycle to work with as well as deadlines they must meet for certain quests or dungeon completions.
Many quality of life elements have been made to these systems however and that is partially thanks to Gallica. At any time players can ask their fairy friend what Follower is currently available to talk to and have their “Bond” increase, if there are any potential quests they haven’t taken on yet, and even hints on activities that might be useful and even teleport the player right to a Follower if they need to. Similar to the past, there are occasionally certain requirements to continue a Follower’s storyline such as having a certain level of imagination or tolerance, but even this is made a bit easier to handle as players can directly see how far each “virtue” increases when they take part in an activity, never having to wonder just how close they might be to reaching the next step in a virtue to continue their interactions. Along these same lines, there are no requirements of having specific dialogue choices or equipped items needed to maximize an interaction. As for the characters themselves, it must be said that the Followers storylines are just as impactful as one would expect from an Atlus game, if not more so thanks to the darker tones set by the themes as well as the grander scale events occur and some of their developments ended up being quite shocking as we progressed through them, especially in late stages.
Going back to the core storyline buried beneath the outstanding character interactions and deep well of lore that Metaphor: ReFantazio manages to dig for itself and players will find a story that is hard to walk away from even at its slowest moments. There are numerous twists and turns as well as massive revelations, one of which is a bit easier to guess than others, and players will be quite eager to see things through to the end, finding this high fantasy RPG perhaps one of the best RPGs that Atlus has produced even if it does lack the romance aspect in it, though there are hints that they were thinking about it here and there.
Gameplay
As mentioned before, a lot of the standard interactions within towns and the day-to-day time passing remains the same from the Persona series. Players can travel through town and talk with random NPCs, accept side-quests or bounties on monsters though these side-quests and bounties usually involve traveling off to a dungeon that will take a day or two to get to, shop at various shops, or even just kill time by interacting with a supporter or boosting one of the five “virtues” which are courage, wisdom, tolerance, eloquence, and imagination. Now, as mentioned before, dungeons actually take time to get to and players will need to account for that when it comes to taking on quests since they’ll spend the in-between time on their massive “Gauntlet Runner” where a variety of other options become available. Similar to town, players can talk with their party members to gain virtues, cook in the kitchen, eventually plant seeds, or even clean up to find items. In fact, some party member “Bond” increases can only happen while traveling via the Gauntlet Runner and Gallica will even mention this when it is necessary.
Once players get to a dungeon, whether it is for a side-quest or a main storyline quest, they’ll find that while some aspects of combat remain the same, others have changed. First and foremost, Metaphor: ReFantazio makes use of a blended combat system that I’ve seen previously used in The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak where players attack an enemy while exploring in the dungeon and either stun them, giving them an opening attack and stunning blow on the target when entering turn-based combat called “Squad Battles” here or, if the player is a few levels higher than their enemy, slay them instantly in the dungeon and forgoing a turn based battle altogether. This allows for players to avoid having to deal with turn-based fights that would slow down exploration against enemies that they would crush anyways while also encouraging thoughtful exploration to properly stun foes equal or greater than their level to get an upper hand before tapping the button to enter into Squad Battle.
As players enter the turn-based Squad Battle they will find themselves taking part in the press-turn system that the Shin Megami Tensei series used where targeting an enemy weakness or landing a critical blow can provide an additional attack while a missed attack will cost an extra attack or, should it be blocked or drained entirely, completely end your side’s turn and the same with the enemy. This means players will need to always make sure to target weaknesses while avoiding having theirs targeted and can even slide to the front row or back row to deal extra damage or take less damage depending on the class a character is. Or, in the case of Metaphor: ReFantazio, what Archetype a character is currently wielding.
Rather than having a set “persona” or even a devil that will work alongside a specific character, the entire party now can make use of “Archetypes” in combat. These Archetypes all come with their own strengths and weaknesses, passive skills, attack skills, and more and depending on what Archetype the character has equipped it will also determine what equipment they can wear. This is similar to a class-based Job system as any character can take on any Archetype that they want as long as it has been unlocked and they have the “MAG” (a secondary currency for Archetype use) to spend. This means they can take their powerful knight character and transform her into a mage temporarily or swap out a summoner to become a gunner should the need arise.
Various Archetypes are unlocked by obtaining certain Bond levels with Supporters and also by progressing through the game and it is even possible to inherit some skills from already leveled up Archetypes into another one. Meaning players can highly customize their class loadout and change things up should the need arise. That being said, while it won’t take long for players to be able to change Archetypes from the menu even during dungeon exploration it is not possible to swap Archetypes in a fight so be wary of that. It is also interesting to note that various Archetypes can, when certain skills are obtained, are capable of teaming up with an ally of a complimentary type to perform extremely powerful Synthesis Attacks that take up two turns but often deal immense damage or have incredibly powerful buffs as a result.
Metaphor: ReFantazio‘s combat feels wonderful to master, especially when players are really in the groove or have unlocked a number of special Bond abilities as some late stage game unlocks can really power players up. In fact, the game even respects players for sticking true to their favorite character classes by rewarding players with Archetype EXP items should a character’s Archetype level up again past its mastery point. Combine this with its excellent exploration elements and day-to-day life and bonding moments and you have a game that truly strives to put its best foot forward in every regard even if it is in a world at its tipping point..
Audio & Visuals
Metaphor: ReFantazio has a lovely sense of gothic style that works perfectly with its high fantasy setting. The character designs for the eight races that players will encounter play it a bit on the safe side outside of a couple more unique races but they work more than well enough especially combined with the wonderful character portraits that accompany them. It is also nice to note that there are a plethora of fully animated anime cutscenes scattered throughout the game’s most important moments, really making these moments shine. It is interesting to note that the Archetype designs are also incredibly over-the-top even if most of the spells are fairly standard and haven’t been given too much of a revamp compared to what most fans would expect. Along these same lines it would be nice to see a bit more enemy variety as the game does start to reuse enemy designs with only slight variations in later stages and more than a few side-quest dungeons have the same feeling layout and designs which can make them feel a bit on the repetitive side.
The game also supports a very solid English dub with a great number of voiced lines handled by an excellent English voice cast though it must be said that I wish that most of the Bond scenes with Followers would have had voice work as only the introduction and final scenes do at the moment which is disappointing. As for the soundtrack the game makes wonderful use of its score to offer a wide range of excellent tracks with a heavy orchestral theme used during combat combined with some impressive vocals and a number of other great tracks as well.
Overall
It may have seemed like an impossible challenge but Atlus and Studio Zero have managed to pull it off. They’ve created a high fantasy RPG that not only has an impressively in-depth storyline with serious themes spread throughout its day-to-day living style but it delivers an RPG that feels masterfully crafted from the experience the team has had before to create a game that outdoes even their best offerings before it. Metaphor: ReFantazio captures the magic that so many RPGs feel like they sometimes have lost touch of and delivers an experience unlike any other, making it a must play for any fan of the genre.
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