Studio Zero released Metaphor: ReFantazio on October 11th. The studio was formed in 2016 with several members who worked on the modern Persona titles. After previously working on the enhanced re-release of Catherine: Full Body, this is their first original IP. Selling a million copies on day one bodes well for Metaphor’s aim to become the third pillar of Atlus’ output, alongside the Persona and Shin Megami Tensai (SMT) series.
Meta-Phwaor: ReFantazio
Metaphor: ReFantazio is a JRPG with a traditional fantasy-style setting. The story opens with the assassination of the presiding king of the United Kingdom of Euchronia. Some years earlier, the king’s son and only heir was struck down by a curse, leaving him in a coma-like state, with the world (barring a few close allies) believing him to be dead. Following the king’s assassination, protagonist Will, the prince’s childhood friend, is sent on a mission to find a way to cure the prince’s condition. A few twists and turns later, Will enters the running to become the new king. To achieve this he’ll need to travel the country to drum up support for his cause.
Getting Meta
As the game opens, we are asked to give our name and name the protagonist. This acts as an earlier indication that Metaphor will weave a narrative that blurs the line between the fictional world it creates and our world. Metaphor also give us a main monster threat in the form of Humans. Humans are grotesque creatures that have some familiar human-like features. The design of these creatures is inspired heavily by the Hell panel in Bosch’s 15th-century painting The Garden of Earthly Delights. The naming of this threat is perhaps another indication that Metaphor aims to provide commentary on how we have impacted our world and society.
From the beginning of the game, Will is shown carrying a book around with him wherever he goes. We learn that this book is a fictional story about a world that sounds similar in some ways to our modern world. Conversely, the world described in the book is a utopia; an imagined place where everything is perfect. This in-game book is inspired by a real-world book called “Of a Republic’s best state and of the new island, Utopia” by Thomas More.
Book Smarts
The world described in the book inspires Will’s vision of a world where everyone is treated equally, there is a perfect democratic system, and those who use power nefariously are ousted by the people. In Metaphor: ReFantazio, the different races of people, known as Tribes, are treated very differently. Racism is prevalent.
Will is often looked down on for being an Elda, one of the oldest and rarest races, said to possess powers of forbidden magic. Others, such as the Paripus (dog-like people) and Mustari (pagans) are similarly shunned by society. The king had once strived to create a utopian world for his people, but something seemed to have derailed his plans, perhaps interference from the state religion, Sanctism. The book Will carries is a banned text and the author has been banished to what seems like a pocket dimension, presenting us with further mysteries to uncover.
All of this lends itself to a heavily political story where our protagonist is pitted against rival election candidates with a variety of philosophies and mantras.
Gameplay
Fans of the Persona and SMT series will recognise a lot of mechanics in Metaphor: ReFantazio. With that said, this fresh combination is enough to give Metaphor a distinguished feel. The gameplay loop revolves around critical missions in a calendar system with strict deadlines. Interwoven amongst those main quests are side quests and optional content such as bounties, Follower interactions and stat-building activities.
Most days consist of an afternoon and evening slot that can be used to complete an activity. If, for instance, you spend time with a Follower, time progresses to the evening or the following day. You’ll need to be wise with how you spend your allotted time between deadlines so you can build your strength, skills and virtues. I think this is the one system in Metaphor that caused me stress. I want to see and do everything and max out my character and their bonds in a single playthrough. The idea that a poor choice on a certain day will mean that that’s not possible weighed on me constantly. That’s the completionist in me I guess!
Combat
Metaphor features a Press Turn battle system with a party of up to 4 characters. Each character in the party generates 1 turn icon every round of combat. Actions such as attacking or guarding cost a certain amount of turn icons. Once all turn icons are spent, it’s then the enemy’s turn.
The system is further enhanced with additional rules that either quickly deplete turn icons or use fewer, meaning that it’s important to pay close attention during each battle. If you hit an enemy’s weakness, the cost will be halved. However, if the enemy blocks or absorbs an attack, you’ll lose additional turn icons. Alongside choosing whether to attack or guard on a turn, you can also select which row (front or back) to place your characters. This will either make their attacks stronger or their defence higher. Additionally, you can choose to pass your turn to the next character in the turn order if that makes tactical sense.
There’s a big focus in Metaphor: ReFantazio on planning correctly for each situation. It’s not a game where I found it easy to grind levels out for my characters to brute force big fights. Instead, I needed to gather info on the dungeons and bosses ahead of time and configure my party wisely. I felt that my party’s damage output was fairly low compared to the other Atlus games I’ve played (Persona 5 Royal and Persona 3 Reload), even when striking at an enemy’s weaknesses. When using magic to exploit elemental weaknesses, MP gets spent quickly. I enjoyed the challenge of being resourceful and cunning during the missions to make it through.
Archetypes
The Archetype system adds great depth to combat. When you gain a new Follower in the story, you’ll unlock new Archetypes; similar to classes or jobs in other JRPGs. Each Archetype has its own equipment set, changing the physical damage type output by a standard attack between pierce, strike, and slash. They also have different abilities that can be learned by levelling up. Some Archetypes focus on magic damage, others on support roles, and further ones on additional physical damage. Being able to switch a character’s Archetype at any time outside battle increases the tactical options available to you.
Customisation and tactics don’t end there though. Once a skill has been unlocked for a character, it can be inherited when switching to other Archetypes, allowing you to have specific builds even more tailored to your tactics. This offers such a brilliant level of freedom. I spent a good amount of time using experience boosting items on a character’s Archetypes while preparing for missions and fights to give myself the best possible advantages.
Absolutely Stunning
Metaphor: ReFantazio also employs a small action-based fight system. While running around and exploring dungeon maps you can engage enemies in a quick fight without entering turn-based combat. If you are 3 levels or more higher than the enemy you’ll be able to kill them quickly there and then. However, if they are higher level you’ll instead have a chance to stun them. Be careful though because if a strong enemy lands a hit on you, they’ll drag you into combat and get the first attack round.
Entering turn-based combat with a stunned enemy gives you a significant advantage. Firstly, a character will launch an opening salvo, often lowering enemy hit points by roughly one-fifth. The enemies will also have the stunned condition, meaning they generally cannot take action for 2 rounds. They can be knocked out of this stun condition early while you’re attacking them so it can be better to use the first round to apply buffs/debuffs as appropriate.
Different Archetypes give the protagonist passive skills that apply during out-of-battle combat, such as regaining health/MP or gaining extra money. In the early game, this was a godsend for recovering MP and earning a stack of coins for shopping.
Metaphor’s combat system is one of my favourites of any JRPG I’ve played. The depth and ease of customisation felt fresh and challenging. The risk and reward of exploring more of the dungeons to find items and gear is balanced on a knife edge, making it exciting and engaging.
Strength Of Character
The characters of Metaphor are easily one of its strongest features. Throughout Will’s journey, he encounters people who will, one way or another, become important parts of his story. Some of these will become Followers; characters with whom Will can strengthen his bond and unlock new powers and benefits. Early examples of these are Gallica, Strohl, and Hulkenberg. Each has reasons for joining Will, and through their storylines, they’ll overcome their fears, doubts and problems.
I grew attached to the whole cast, much quicker and more deeply than in the Persona games. I think that could be because the characters in Metaphor: ReFantazio are more mature than their high school counterparts. It could also be that having a voiced protagonist brings a stronger feeling of connection between the player and the NPCs. Rather than just being talked at every time you select a dialogue option, you can hear the emotion of your character conveyed in the conversation. This was an inspired choice from Studio Zero and I hope it starts a new trend at Atlus.
Virtue Is Its Own Reward
Alongside completing missions and strengthening bonds, Will needs to develop his Royal Virtues: Courage, Wisdom, Tolerance, Eloquence and Imagination. After all, these traits are what make a great leader. What I loved about this in Metaphor: ReFantazio was that there are always several options available to improve these stats at any time. Moreover, there’s usually more than one activity available to raise each virtue. For instance, raising Imagination might be done through reading a book, debriefing with your friends around a campfire or debating rival candidates.
It’s important to be aware of and spend time improving Virtues, as certain ranks will be required to progress Followers’ stories. Higher ranks in your bonds will unlock new Archetypes, skills and benefits. The way the progression systems all interlock is very satisfying and makes engaging with them both necessary and worthwhile.
To Travel Is To Live
One last thing I want to draw attention to is the way travel is integrated into the gameplay. Once the main story gets underway, Will needs to travel around the United Kingdom of Euchronia to take place in the competition for the crown. For him to be able to cover the distance in the allotted time and be safe from monsters, he requires a Gauntlet Runner. This piece of technology is essentially the body of a ship with bipedal legs. It’s a bizarre creation, but really quite cool.
Travelling to different locations using the Gauntlet Runner can take several days, depending on the distance, so plan your schedule accordingly. However, once you’ve been to a city instant teleportation to that city is unlocked. This was another feature I was glad to see. Thankfully as you travel, time is not wasted. Aboard the Runner, you can still interact with any Followers who are along for the ride and participate in activities. A few of which are exclusive to being on the road.
These mechanics add more realism to the world around you and add another consideration to the planning of your campaign. Plotting a course to cover several missions at once and avoid adverse weather some thought.
Graphics & Audio
The United Kingdom of Euchronia feels inspired by medieval Britain, which may be unsurprising given the name. We see a lot of stone architecture, with some more fantastical elements intertwined. This is in keeping with the team’s desire to have a more traditional fantasy aesthetic.
The character designs are memorable and distinctive, at least for important characters in the game. While the different Tribes are mostly human-like with up to a handful of defining features, the inclusion of the Eugief helps to build the feeling of a fantasy world.
As usual with modern Atlus JRPGs, the UI presentation is phenomenal. The main menu screen oozes style in abundance and is a joy to navigate. I’ve realised now, thinking about the battle UI, that I mostly operate on auto-pilot and simply remember which buttons lead to certain commands rather than looking at the action menu. I tend to focus on my character’s HP/MP and enemies’ health and tune out most of the visuals. I’ll have to try and appreciate them more next time I load it up.
When exploring towns, I found the mini-map to be a bit of an annoyance as it doesn’t rotate to match the character’s movement. Having that option would have been nice. Other than that, navigating the world and finding items, shops, interactable characters, etc was all great.
Audio
The voice acting is particularly well done across the board. It’s great to hear so many British accents, rather than just a handful of English ones. We have Welsh, Scottish, Irish, and even some Scouse in the mix. One thing that has begun to grate on me is the level of ad-lib vocals, mainly inside battle. I don’t feel like I noticed it as much in the Persona games, but it has felt excessive here. Every attack comes with a vocal line, which can be repeated several times in each battle, and Gallica seems to comment on each turn in battle too. I wish there was an option to limit this in some way.
Acting as an accompaniment to Will’s journey is a magnificent, regal soundtrack. As a nice meta touch, the in-game music is positioned as a magic spell Gallica has cast on Will allowing him to hear music in his head. There are a few songs early in the game that are heard fairly often. I’ve had them stuck in my head a couple of times after a play session. Brimming Determination, Ode to Heroes and Recurring Thoughts are particular stand-outs. Warriors In Arms easily stands with It’s Going Down Now (Persona 3) and Last Surprise (Persona 5) as all-time great battle tracks. For me, the test for a fantasy RPG soundtrack is whether I can imagine it in a Final Fantasy game. I absolutely can with Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Longevity
At just over 50 hours played, judging by the trophies and my general progress with Followers and Virtues. I think I’m roughly two-thirds into the game. This ties in with the current How Long To Beat Main + Extra time of 75 hours. After completion and a few years gap I could easily see myself replaying Metaphor again, perhaps in the inevitable expanded edition.
Final Thoughts
For me, Metaphor: ReFantazio is an instant classic. We’ve had another stellar year of video games in 2024, and whilst it’s hard to look past my love for Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, Metaphor could easily walk away with Game of the Year at The Game Awards in December. I have loved every aspect of the game, from its story to its characters, its combat to its world-building. Small grievances with some of the audio ticks and my stress from the time management aside. I’ll be fondly reminiscing on this experience for a while.
If you’ve played and loved other Atlus titles, playing this is a no-brainer. If it wasn’t already painfully obvious, Metaphor: ReFantazio is the true king and earns a Thumb Culture Platinum Award.
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
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