As part of the Atlus event where we got to play a large portion of Metaphor: ReFantazio (don’t miss my preview of the first four hours with the game!), we also got to participate in a question-and-answer session with a few of the developers. Producer Junichi Yoshizawa, Lead Scenario Planner Yuichiro Tanaka, Lead Daily Systems Planner Azusa Kido, and Lead Battle Planner Kenichi Goto joined us from Studio Zero.
Since this was not a direct interview and more of an open press forum for asking questions, it was a long session. As such, and because not every questioner stated their name and press affiliation, I have summarized each question and the developers’ answers. A direct transcript of the entire session would be incredibly long, so I opted to keep this as concise as possible. If you were curious, I never got to ask my question. I was next in line at the time, but unfortunately, we ran out of time. But that’s okay, as many excellent questions were asked and answered, and I appreciate any time busy developers can spend answering any questions for us.
Throughout this article, you’ll also find photos of the great (and photogenic) location of the event and some of the artwork on display.
Question: So, I had an encounter with a rival gauntlet runner during my playtime who had a political platform opposing that of the main protagonist. I was curious about how often these political platform positions are discussed with those of gauntlet runner combat scenarios and how frequently they occur. How often are you going to go up against people with different political alignments than you?
Answer: You can definitely expect to have similar encounters across the days as you travel to different parts of the world. There are many more rivals you will have to battle against, but there are others in certain cities where you instead will have a sort of speech contest against you in order to speak to the people as well. So there are many different kinds of interactions with various rival teams.
Question: Where did the title of the game come from?
Answer: A lot of discussions happen with creating a new RPG game, and we thought deeply about how we could convey the concept of this game to the players. Ultimately, in order to convey the dichotomy of, or mirroring a fantasy as well as the real world to the players, that “metaphor” would best convey and portray that.
Question: We have seen many iterations of the Press Turn battle system throughout the years. In a lot of recent games, you can add press turns as you progress through the games. In Metaphor, will we go beyond the standard four press turns?
Answer: Yes, we will have mechanics that allow you to add press turns. Specifically, certain Archetypes have skills that will allow players to increase the number of press turns.
Question: So far, there have been many similarities between Persona and Metaphor. Did you have any concerns during development about how to bring Metaphor out of the shadow of Persona and ensure it stood on its own feet?
Answer: We believe the biggest difference, aside from the fact that this is a fantasy game, is the fact that Metaphor is more of a journey through the world, while Persona tends to mainly stay in one city. You will visit various cities and get to know many different characters throughout this journey, and how you approach it will be entirely up to the player.
From a developer standpoint, Persona is about being a high school student in Japan, something we, the devs, are very familiar with. Meanwhile, Metaphor portrays the player as a young boy in an unknown world, so we really wanted to portray him as a character anyone could resonate with! So, making various system adjustments to make this work was one of the challenges for us.
Question: In the second half of the demo, we came across a giant boss whose weakness was not tied to the standard elemental weakness you would see in Press Turn combat. You could use the Merchant Archetypes’ throw money skill to distract them and waste their turns. Will we see more of this kind of approach to battle throughout the game?
Answer: Thank you for finding that out in the gameplay; we hoped a few people would pick up on that! To answer your question, yes, certain Archetypes will bring certain advantages in battles like these, while others will put you at a disadvantage as well. Please, as you play through the game, use the various Archetypes and Synthesis skills and try to think outside the box to give yourselves the best advantage you could possibly get. You can also use the informants in the cities to give you a leg up on what to expect in a dungeon.
Question: It’s a very interesting time to make a game that is so explicitly political, especially with so much backlash against politics in games right now. Was there any hesitance or difficulty navigating these themes as you made the game?
Answer: So when you ask about politics, I believe you’re talking about the election portions of the game. When talking about elections, there is, of course, the aspect of severe rivalries and such, but we also see this aspect of people putting in a lot of effort and power into making a better future for everyone. So, of course, there are times of battle but also times of festivity in trying to make the world better. We wanted to bring that power to the forefront without sort of ignoring it and challenging it head-on to bring a realness to the game. And, of course, we have no political agenda or message we want to push with it. We really wanted to see if this sort of election magic was established and how people would react to it for themselves and the world. We used that as a tool to push the story.
Question: Will there be procedurally generated dungeons, or are they all statically designed?
Answer: No, they are not procedurally generated. So, all dungeons in this game are preconfigured with different settings and maps.
Question: We have seen how much Shin Megami Tensei and Persona have influenced the creation of Metaphor. So I was curious: were there any ideas or concepts that you could foresee yourself incorporating into Persona or future titles?
Answer: So I don’t know if this answers your question, but we put everything we had into Metaphor. Of course, there were elements we had to let go of in development, and throughout the development process, new ideas always pop up. So I am sure those new ideas will be incorporated into future titles in one way or another.
Question: What was the biggest challenge or obstacle in shifting kind of the aesthetic or genre from a more modern-day based game like Persona with a real-world aspect to a high fantasy world?
Answer: A lot of previous Atlus games are set in a more modern setting or a post-apocalyptic setting, so taking on a high fantasy theme was a challenge for us. In a modern setting, we have a good idea of what buildings look like or how money is used, for example, but when creating a world from the ground up, these and other little things are a big factor to making the world feel like it’s lived in. It was a fun, creative process but also a challenge for us.
Question: Early on, the game establishes a lot of themes of racism, poverty, and religious extremism. How have real-world events, either Japanese or outside of Japan, influenced the direction of Metaphor?
Answer: There aren’t any specific real-life events that have impacted or inspired the game. But in terms of the different tribes in the game, we can go a bit deeper into that. Many developers on Persona worked on Metaphor, and in Persona, you have people clashing on how they see our world. We really wanted to focus on the anxiety and confrontation that exists there but in our own way with our own races. Create new thrives and disdain and set a foundation for these tribes and why they may like or dislike each other. And just to reiterate: I know we have a presidential election in the US this year and worldwide, but it’s pure coincidence that Metaphor‘s release coincides with them.
Question: The journey system specifically feels very complex and very interesting, which makes the game feel more open-ended than previous games. When you mix it with the time management system, it feels a bit pressured to find all the content. Is that something you had to discuss and figure out during development on players missing out on content, or is the game set up so that we are supposed to play it several times over?
Answer: The systems definitely added volume on the development side as well, and on any given playthrough, I do understand that some people might be overwhelmed by this bombardment of things to do and see, but I also think it’s a fun and exciting way to play. Making small choices about what to do today or the next day really helps your journey become fun and entertaining and become something that is unique to each player.
Question: So a lot of your previous games such as Persona are very specifically about Japan and Japanese culture. Has working on a high fantasy game allowed you to be a bit freer in terms of exploring other themes and representations? How important is it to appeal to a global audience with this game?
Answer: When we look at fantasy, we very much look at it as being something universal. It allowed us to free up and be a bit more creative in our approach. Persona‘s approach to storytelling is far away from what you would consider classic, so Metaphor opts for a more classical approach. Our experience in creating something modern has helped us create Metaphor. When you look at modern-day travel, for example, it feels like when people travel, they have itineraries for the journey, and it’s not just a linear experience. Those stops along the way and the people you meet make the trip stand out, so it’s something we wanted to incorporate into the Metaphor that the journey isn’t the destination but the experiences along the way. We didn’t want to leave the journey from point to point up to your imagination. The calendar system also allowed us to put a unique spin on this classic approach. These foundations of Persona mixed with the freeing setting of Metaphor really helped us create something we are proud of.
Question: I was wondering if there was a specific point in development that the game shifted from a very traditional fantasy setting that was originally shown off when the game was announced as Project Re:Fantasy to what we see now as Metaphor: ReFantazio?
Answer: We didn’t begin development thinking we were going to make a world with a high fantasy setting. We did know we wanted to make something classic, however. Of course, throughout development, various ideas and errors are brought up at any given stage, which ultimately shape the game we are trying to make. What we did set out to do was reinvent and recreate the sort of vision that felt right for us, which ultimately led us to what we see today.
I want to thank the developers for their time answering questions, and I would like to thank all my colleagues for asking some great questions. Finally, thank you, Atlus, for a wonderful event! Metaphor: ReFantazio launches on October 11th on PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC and is available to pre-order now.
