So what if Atlus took their two flagship series, Persona and Shin Megami Tensei, and smashed them together? Well, you would end up with the game Atlus has been developing for the last six years, the fantastic Metaphor: ReFantazio. And that, my friends, is about to pay off big time as Metaphor: ReFantazio has the potential to set a new standard of greatness for JRPGs.
Don’t miss the video version at the end of this article, either!
Thanks to the people at Atlus, I had the chance to not only sit down and play the first 3–4 hours of Metaphor: ReFantazio and another two hours of the middle of the game but also sit in on a Q&A session with the devs as we asked them questions about the upcoming game. But before you go read that, stick around to learn about the gameplay and general story of Metaphor: ReFantazio. As always, I will keep spoilers to a minimum, but it’s hard to set the stage for a preview like this without reviewing the experience this game throws at you at the start.
On paper, taking the best parts of Persona and Shin Megami Tensei seems like something that should have happened ages ago, but is only just now coming to fruition in Metaphor: ReFantazio. There could be many reasons it took so long, but it was probably due to the complicated process of creating a new RPG IP in the AAA game space. We will see if it will pay off in about six weeks, but if what I played was any indication of the rest of the game, then it should. Metaphor: ReFantazio sets the stage for a storybook fantasy world where everyone lives in glittering towers of light, is inhabited by a single race of humans that all work together, and discrimination and hardships are a thing of the past. It’s a fantasy version of our world. And who can blame them when the real world of Metaphor: ReFantazio is one of rampant discrimination between races, poverty, and slavery? It’s got a premise to build on, so let’s get into how it all starts.
Metaphor: ReFantazio – First Steps
The game starts by explaining what I just told you and then asking you for your name — not the main protagonist’s name, which comes later — but you, the player. After their caravan heading for the capital city of Gran Trad is attacked, you gain control of the main character and their fairy companion, Gallica. You would think you could just swing your sword and start battles with the enemies in the wasteland, but no, your objective is to avoid them all. Any interaction will end up with you dying, which I found hilarious as it happened to me. This trek is all woven together with some fantastic anime cutscenes that set the narrative of why everyone is on edge with the apparent regicide of the king that just recently happened. An election for the next king is on the horizon, and the masses fear who will be next in line. Will it be the feared and clever General Louis, the calm and pragmatic Archbishop Forden, or will a third candidate rise from the bottom and claim victory?
Gallica explains your part in this. You are there to seek out someone stationed in the army on behalf of the current prince. After the prince is cursed, it is up to you as his childhood friend to find out who cursed him and if it has any connection to who just killed the king. You traverse the city looking for the enlistment center, talking to NPCs along the way. It’s here you realize that all the NPCs despise you simply because the main protagonist is of the Elda tribe. The racism the narrator describes at the start isn’t subtly behind the scenes, but is apparent in almost every conversation as you navigate the city. Eventually, you reach the enlistment center, name your protagonist, and answer questions about yourself. It’s my understanding that how you answer these questions will determine the protagonist’s starting stats. I believe this because I answered I was quick and nimble, and the protagonist began with seven in AGI, which was the highest stat, so all my min-maxers out there should keep that in mind when the game releases. This is also where you meet Strohl, our second playable character, as you are both shipped up north for training.
I enjoyed this section because our “silent protagonist” isn’t really silent. He talks out the choices you make and responds to Gallica in select spots. So don’t go into this thinking Gallica is the protagonist’s mouthpiece; she isn’t. I also enjoyed the abundance of voice acting from the NPCs and anime cutscenes throughout. It quickly brings you into Metaphor: ReFantazio and sets an excellent stage.
The following section shows our characters arriving at the northern training facility, which quickly becomes anything but a typical training day. The fort is under attack by a human. Humans, in this sense, are not a race in the world of Metaphor: ReFantazio; instead, they are huge monstrosities that randomly cause havoc throughout the world. In hopes that your contact in the army hasn’t died, you and Strohl enter the fort to find him and see if they can help. You can only use the protagonist in the first combat sections, but this will change soon. Metaphor: ReFantazio uses the excellent Press Turn battle system introduced in SMT: Nocturne. By exploiting a weakness or landing a crit, you get extra turns, though this applies to your enemies as well. If you have never played an SMT game, the most basic way to describe it is strategically setting yourself up to hit enemy weaknesses while covering your weaknesses simultaneously. During the boss fight with the human, the protagonist awakens to the unique aspect of the battle system of Metaphor: ReFantazio: the job system called Archetypes.
The job system in this game allows any of your characters to switch to an unlocked Archetype. How do you unlock Archetypes? Why, through this game’s version of social links! Create a connection with a character and unlock a new Archetype. Deepen those character bonds and get access to new powers for that Archetype. At its core, it’s a great way to put a spin on the Persona social link system. Each Archetype also has a unique skill tree that you must spend a currency called MAG to unlock. The first job you unlock in this boss fight is Seeker, an all-around type Archetype that can do a bit of everything. This job is attached to the character More, who, to put it in Persona terms, is the Igor of this game, including having his own version of the Velvet Room. Once you have access to Seeker, the gameplay starts to ramp up in the boss fight. Metaphor’s approach to dealing with bosses is similar to Persona 5: you can brute force your way to victory or use unique interactions, such as ordering Gallica to knock off the bosses’ healing fruits so they can’t use them. If you’re a big fan of both series, it’s here you start to see the blend of them together in combat. But what about outside of combat?
Well, those SMT and Persona gameplay elements also mesh well outside of combat. After the first boss, you, Strohl, and your army contact Grius make your way back to the capital in a typical JRPG style of going through caves, plains, and forests between story events. It’s not until later that the time management, social links, and social stat building occur. Metaphor: ReFantazio attempts to find a balance between these elements, having sections like the beginning of the game and others where you must manage your time until the following story section begins.
Later, in Metaphor: ReFantazio…
This brings us to the other demo section we got to try out, which occurs much later in the game in a town called Martira. You have 14 days before your party packs up and departs from the city. How you choose to spend those 14 days is up to you. You have a bunch of things you can do, such as town activities to raise your social stats (called Virtues), do sidequests, go dungeon crawling Shin Megami Tensei-style, hunt down monsters, raise your current social links, or even find new characters to start social links with. Every action, no matter what you choose to do, will increase your popularity score. Remember, at the end of the day, you are in an election, and being the most popular is the only way to win said election. This is also a section of the game where we used the gauntlet runner, the giant vehicle that uses feet instead of treads or wheels to traverse the world. You need the gauntlet runner to access new locations and dungeons. Traveling uses valuable time, but even when traveling, you can do things to increase stats, such as cooking, cleaning, reading, or talking to your party members. Your management of these sections will shape your playthrough, but it does seem you can do everything you need to do in the time allowed.
As for what I got to experience in my play time in this section, it was a little bit of everything. I started a side quest with a blue-haired man who would later reveal themselves as Alonzo and become a social link. His quest sent me to a dungeon to find a ring. So I jumped on my gauntlet runner and made my way there. On the way, a gauntlet runner and another character in the election race attacked us. After a mini-boss with him and a few more scenes, I arrived at the dungeon.
In this part of the game, I had a full party with Strohl, Hulkenberg, and Heismay and access to the Archetypes Healer, Brawler, Merchant, Knight, Thief, Seeker, Mage, and Warrior. The dungeon layout was fun and exciting; off the bat, I noticed something was wrong since this was a dungeon full of mimics, so every chest started another mimic fight, including the dungeon boss. In these battles, I experienced the Synthesis attacks, which are team-up attacks that cost two Press Turns and allow you to do things like AOE attacks and unique moves between specific Archetypes.
The dungeon wasn’t too long, but it also helps that Metaphor: ReFantazio has another remarkable aspect to its combat, and that’s the fact that when you are stronger than enemies on the field, you can choose to engage in action-style combat and wipe them out without having to transition to turn-based. You can even surprise stronger enemies with a few slashes and stun them before entering turn-based mode called Squad mode and giving yourself the upper hand in combat. The transitions are snappy, and going in and out of combat felt quick and exciting. After finishing the boss and getting the ring, the game doesn’t cost you travel time on the return trip to town; instead, it allows you to return immediately, which I did.
I spent the rest of my time doing things like bungee jumping in town to raise my Virtues, doing social links with characters I technically never met but were cool to see for the first time, and unlocking two new Archetypes. These were the Faker, which I got from Alonzo after returning the ring, and Gunner, which I unlocked in a quest with Neuras, our gauntlet runner pilot. A nice little touch was that my Virtues increased in all activities, not just ones that focused on them, so don’t feel constrained to do only activities to raise them as in Persona. Unfortunately, I had more in-game time than I did real-life time with the game and couldn’t see all of the sections of this section. And so my experience with Metaphor: ReFantazio came to a close.
I can’t overstate how much I enjoyed my limited time with Metaphor: ReFantazio. Everything felt so polished, like a game I had been waiting for as both an SMT and Persona fan for a long while. The music was also so great to finally get to listen to. Shoji Meguro has created such beautiful pieces for the game that sometimes I just wanted to sit back and listen to them if I had the time. The standard battle track was a real standout, which fits the game’s tone so well. He is still a master of his craft.
I can’t wait to get my hands on the game this October, and I am even more hyped than ever for it. Metaphor: ReFantazio launches on October 11th on PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC and is available to pre-order now.
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