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When I first saw the reveal trailer for Metaphor: ReFantazio, I honestly thought it was a Persona or Shin Megami Tensei game. The art style’s incredibly similar, as are the music stylings. Plus, it’s also developed by ATLUS, the same guys behind the both series!
It turns out that Metaphor: ReFantazio is a brand new I.P., albeit one with a whole lot of similarities to both Persona and Shin Megami Tensei.
Does that hurt or help the game?
What is Metaphor: ReFantazio?
Metaphor: ReFantazio is a single player turn-based JRPG developed by ATLUS and published by SEGA. It’s available on the PC, as well as the Playstation and Xbox consoles. It’s out on 11 October 2024.
Our advance copy was provided by our awesome friends over at SEGA! Thanks so much!
At first glance, Metaphor: ReFantazio seems like a typical fantasy RPG.
You (as a nameless protagonist) are out to save the country from the clutches of evil.
Political intrigue abounds; your first glimpse into the world is when the king is murdered in his bed, with the kingslayer revealed to be the kingdom’s most favoured commander. There are knights, there’s magic everywhere and the architecture is decadently medieval, with fantasy trappings. There also also elements of steampunk (mostly in the machines and the Gauntlet Runners) thrown in for good measure.
Then, of course, there’s the massive dollop of Persona trappings…just colored a bit off-kilter so this can’t be called a Persona title.
Instead of the Velvet Room with Igor, this time it’s a regal study called Akademeia, with a man called More. Instead of Safe Rooms where you can regroup and save, you have Magla Hollows which have the same functions. Instead of social links to strengthen your Persona and increase your stats, you have bonds that empower your Artefacts and improve your Royal Virtues. Instead of students to group with, you get knights and nobles who join your cause.
The biggest one is of course, instead of Personas, you get Archetypes.
All the party members have access to the same Archetypes, so you can build your team however you please. That’s a plus point for Metaphor: ReFantazio because you’re not forced to use characters you might hate just because of the Persona they possess.
On top of that, you can also equip a certain number of skills (how many depends on your bonds) from other Archetypes that you’ve studied. That means a Warrior Archetype can come with a buff skill like Tarukaja or even a heal spell!
There’s much more room to experiment and customize your party than with the Persona games, which helps Metaphor: ReFantazio stand apart. Using the Inheritance Skills feature means you can mix and match your Archetypes to play how you want to play.
I saddle everybody on my team with the ability to self-heal, healing spells and round out with elemental spells to take advantage of weaknesses. Even the Tank classes can sling spells and self-heal in my party!
While the gameplay mechanics behind the Archetypes are to be lauded, I don’t feel their design is up to snuff with the rest of the game. They’re much too…abstract for my tastes. They reuse the same color schemes and definitely don’t stand out as much as Personas.
There’s not one Archetype in the game that I’d buy a figure of. That I think speaks volumes in itself because I’m a sucker for figures. Hot Toys, Mezco, Amazing Yamaguchi, Kotobukiya…you name it. For me, not wanting to buy a figure from a game that I love, it’s something special. Not in a good way though.
Hell, I have multiple Morgana plushies if it helps!
The gameplay loop however is very similar to those who’ve played Persona 3 – 5. There’s a dungeon you need to clear by a specific amount of time or it’s game over. I personally just rush the dungeons the first chance I get, clearing them as soon as I can and then build up my social stats (by doing side quests, bounties and the like) while waiting for the deadline to come.
Days are divided into two parts; morning and night. Dungeons can only be entered in the mornings, and entering one automatically ends the day when you exit. If you don’t do dungeons, you’re free to build links, do optional missions and the like. Sounds super familiar right?
In other words, this is a Persona game in all but name.
However, that’s not all there is to it!
Metaphor: ReFantazio has you travelling sometimes, so the monotony is broken up by events. You’re not always on the same schedule of dungeon dungeon dungeon.
You need to factor in travel time, to make sure you hit the optional quests datelines, while also progressing the main quest. It’s whiff of fresh air, and I recommend fans that are starting to grow tired of Persona’s formulaic progression to still give Metaphor: ReFantazio a try. It’s a simple enough twist on a familiar formula but a very welcome one.
Will all these similarities between this game and ATLUS’ more famous series, the question then becomes…is Metaphor: ReFantazio connected to Persona or the Shin Megami Tensei series as a whole? The tentative answer I’ve come up with is…maybe.
Some spells in the game (such as Hama or Tarukaja) are from both SMT and Persona. If Atlus wanted to separate the games, why would they use similar names? They could’ve just invented all new ones.
The way I figure it is, Metaphor: ReFantazio is one of the many, many alternate universes in the Shin Megami Tensei multiverse. Just like some of the various SMT games are from different realities, so is Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Perhaps the biggest difference between the Persona games and Metaphor: ReFantazio is its plot. This game deals more with politics and political idealogies. Theocracy, meritocracy, even aristocracy is talked and debated about.
It’s a much more serious message, couched in a typical fantasy format. I love it! I just wished that the game did more with its political leanings and made it more central to the plot.
The game deals with other issues too!
Loss, abandonment, duty…all heavy themes that Metaphor: ReFantazio tackles without fear.
Nobody in the game is perfect, and everybody carries emotional baggage. Yet, I never felt burdened to listen to the backstories of the characters that share the world with me.
It might be because so many of the themes being dealt with resonated with me. I know (or at the very least, can relate) to what these characters are going through. Metaphor: ReFantazio is certainly more deft at storytelling and conveying drama to me than both Persona and Shin Megami Tensei.
When it does come to the battling, the game definitely channels its Persona inspirations right on the cuff though.
It’s pretty much like Persona 5’s in nearly every aspect. Enemies are visible on the world map. Fights against weak enemies can easily be avoided by attacking them. It’ll kill them in one hit AND net you the rewards you’d get if you fought them without the need to battle.
Metaphor: ReFantazio takes a lot of elements from the Persona series, but I wouldn’t mind the Persona games taking this gameplay mechanic to use. Anything that saves time and effort from useless battles is A-OK with me.
Battles appear much smoother than the Persona series because there’s a ton of animated flourishes (like whirling smoke and fire effects). Everything segues into one another, giving the impression that fights are fluid and flowing seamlessly despite being turn-based. It’s beautiful to watch in action and I regularly find myself enthralled during the times I opted for auto-battling.
You can do a combo with repeated attacks on enemies, and if that manages to stun an enemy, you can trigger a battle which puts you at an advantage. Deft manipulation of enemy weaknesses nets you an extra turn (for a total of 8 if done right), which can decimate entire grounds of enemies, while making sure your squad is unhurt.
As a bonus, flawless victories (which means none of your squad gets hurt), nets you extra XP and money!
You can’t switch Archetypes mid-battle (unlike in Persona), but can swap them around outside of battles via the Equipment menu at any time. That means battles take a bit more strategy, making sure everybody has moves that complement each other.
Everything’s wrapped together in a super slick presentation that not only looks great in motion, but is quick enough to not bore you. Loads are insanely fast, and you’re back to exploring before you realize the battle’s over!
The music that plays in the Akademeia is lit! It might sound cliched, but the tracks are honestly banging. Some of them remind me of the tracks from Koei Tecmo’s Bladestorm, which is always a good thing. Calm calm calm and then WHAM! Uplifting and heroic! Most of the tracks are like that too! So very many of them incorporate chants or choruses.
The main battle theme stands out because of exactly this. Unlike the choral singing of the other tracks, it feels like the other side of a coin. It’s all rapid fire, guttural chanting. If the other soundtracks were akin to to something you’d hear from a church, the main battle theme is something pagan and ancient.
It gives them all a sense of epicness that’s missing from the Persona soundtracks.
Don’t get me wrong, the Persona soundtracks are insanely good. Persona 4’s especially. I’d not call them epic though. They don’t have the range for it. Range that Metaphor: ReFantazio does with its score.
On the ASUS ROG Ally X, the game plays fine enough. It doesn’t hit a stable 60FPS with max settings on 1080p so get that expectation out of the way. However, with tweaking, the game does hit 60FPS. All you need to do is lower the resolution to 1600 x 1200, Rendering Scale to 75% and the Texture Quality to Normal.
It’s not a perfect solution as the environmental textures will take a massive hit in quality, but nothing beats a blazing framerate.
The Bottom Line.
Metaphor: ReFantazio might have DNA shared with its siblings (aka the Persona and Shin Megami Tensei games) but it does have merits to stand on its own.
I love the political nature of the plot, though it’s certainly not as fleshed out as I’d hoped. However, the nuanced and flawed characters that populate the tale makes it all worthwhile nonetheless. The Archetypes and how they’re handled might seem like a lazy take on Personas, but they give you much more freedom on how to kit out your crew than the Persona games ever did!
Even the presentation of the game is stunning. The battles flow like water, the UI is nice yet stylish, and the music simply divine! That’s high praise indeed for a game that is so similar to Persona and SMT!
TLDR:
Not just a clone of Persona or SMT, Metaphor: ReFantazio is now the standard of what those games show aim to be!
The Good:
- Awesome plot.
- Memorable characters.
- Incredible music.
- Slick UI and presentation.
- Fast loads in and out of battles.
- Tons of customization options with regards to Archetypes.
The Bad:
- Need to rush through to meet deadlines.
- Takes a while to get interesting.
- Archetype designs are crap.
Salehuddin Husin, EIC
Sal's been in the industry since the early 2000s. He's written for a ton of gaming and tech publications including Playworks, Hardwarezone, HWM and GameAxis. Recently, Sal served as a juror for the Indie Game Awards at Taipei Game Show 2020. A geek and hardcore gamer, Sal will play everything, on any platform.
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