To say that Atlus (and SEGA by extension) has been on a roll for the past twelve months is quite an understatement. From tactical spinoff Persona 5 Tactica and the widely hailed Persona 3 Reload to its new and refreshing IP in Unicorn Overlord and much-anticipated sequels in Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, it seems as though the hailed Japanese publisher and developer has found its stride, a streak of successes that seemed reminiscent to CAPCOM’s momentum as of late. Not to say Atlus has never been successful, quite the contract in fact with its history of smash hits. But you can’t help but appreciate what Atlus has done for the RPG scene and its fanbase for the past twelve months as if to solidify that the RPG genre is here to stay in the 2020s definitively.

Atlus, however, is certainly not done, as they are ready to cap off their momentous twelve months with a coup de grace that may very well dictate the future of their RPGs, Metaphor: ReFantazio. A game seven years in the making to help celebrate the 35th anniversary of Atlus’ founding, it was developed by Studio Zero, which includes the Persona franchise trinity of director Katsura Hashino, designer Shigenori Soejima, and hailed composer Shoji Meguro. And by hearing those three names alone, you can already tell that expectations are sky high, especially since their last title, Persona 5, went on to become a mainstream mega-hit.

And based on our time with the game, Metaphor: ReFantazio may very well join the ranks of Persona 5 as their next big hit, and a potential look at what RPGs could be capable of in the next few years.

 

Story and Content (5/5)

 

 

You play as a young man hailing from a maligned tribe called the Elda, hated and discriminated against due to their association with forbidden magic. You are tasked to find a way to save your childhood friend, who is also the prince of the United Kingdom of Euchronia, from a curse that’s left him incapacitated and close to his demise. However, at the same time, the king of the kingdom was also assassinated by Louis, a prodigy in the kingdom who had lofty ambitions to become the king. This leads to a chain of events that would necessitate the creation of a worldwide tournament by a major magical force, designed to find a new heir to the throne, with the title of king being granted the ability to utilize the force known as “Royal Magic”. This results in you being suddenly involved in this tournament to potentially become the new king while finding out a way to save your childhood friend from the curse in the process. Along the way, you are joined by Galica, your trusted fairy companion, Strohl, a nobleman who ends up befriending you at the beginning, Hulkenberg, a knight dealing with guilt over the past involving your childhood friend, and Heismay, a former knight also dealing with the challenges of prejudice.

The story feels like a natural evolution to Atlus’ usual storytelling beats, moving towards a dark fantasy style that opens up a new world of possibilities when it comes to telling the tale they want to convey, which I personally appreciated during my time with the game. This sense of maturation can be felt not just in the story that’s being told, but through the experiences of the characters, who are driven by personal motivations that are directly affected by the unjust society they live in. In a way, the game’s narrative is enhanced by their being able to discuss the world they live in, surrounded by distrust, self-preservation, and hope for a better society despite these challenges.

 

 

The story has a filling amount of twists and turns that make for a compelling narrative, and it does feel that Metaphor: ReFantazio is both the culmination of everything that came before the successful Persona series, and a natural evolution of how their RPG would end up becoming. In a way, it reminds me of how Catherine would help shape what would become the aesthetics of Persona 5, and now, it feels that whatever they’re building with this new title will become a foundation for the future of RPGs, not just from Atlus, but with a slight chance, maybe for the industry as a whole as well. Knowing Atlus’ penchant for meaningful plot twists, I would personally avoid talking any further about the plot and highly encourage players to experience the story themselves to its conclusion. For my money, the experience is absolutely worth it.

One element that stood out in terms of game content is how it is deeply inspired by what worked in the Persona series, particularly with its fifth installation. For example, much like past Persona games, does have a phase where you have to finish a main quest scenario dungeon within a specified time limit, and in between, you get to do various activities in your downtime. By that point, it does feature a Bond system where you cultivate relationships with your followers, which include both playable party members and NPCs, cultivating these bringing various benefits that would help you on your journey. At the same time, much like its predecessor, it also has social stats that need to be cultivated through various activities, all to exhibit and improve your kingly worthiness. In a case where “if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it”, that would certainly apply to a new IP like this game, which helps in building the world that it wants to introduce to fans.

On the surface, true, the in-game mechanics do feel reminiscent of Persona 5 (among other elements), but it is clear that they want to couple its graphical and aesthetical improvements with gameplay mechanics that improve upon proven player experience. One such example is its openness to world exploration, with various dungeons and towns made available in the course of the story, a startling contrast to the previous games that came before it. It makes for some refreshing change of scenery as compared to, say, Tartarus, the TV World, and Mementos in Personas 3-5. It makes some of the more “typical” quests such as “defeating a certain monster” feel less monotonous. The ability to visit towns later on is also a nice change of pace, as it helps further expand the world and helps feel like you are more engaged in the setting.

With hours upon hours of gameplay, it shows that the journey to secure the coveted Platinum trophy (or 100% completion for other systems) would feel earned, with so much to do in this game alone. Just for its content alone, you would definitely feel much bang for your buck.

The fact that the main protagonist can talk is a huge plus, by the way.

 

Production (5/5)

 

 

Given we have the Persona trinity involved in this project, you just know that the production will be at peak levels. True enough, much like with Persona 5 and even Persona 3 Reload before it, the artistic aesthetics of the game, from the scene transition and the battle animations to the menu and the story cutscenes, pop off in a way only they can pull off. Despite the dark fantasy setting, they were able to make everything so vibrant, that you can’t help but appreciate the effort they put into making everything, even the location transitions, so seamless. It is clear that there is an artistic direction they want to achieve for their first major fantasy title, and they delivered in strides. One thing I do want to note is that I did notice minor frame drops, which I personally suspect is due to the aesthetic choices for the game. But even then, it doesn’t sway away from the experience overall. Perhaps a patch could fix this issue in the future, but until then, I believe this was worth pointing out.

One other thing that is worth pointing out is its OST. There is some degree of curiosity I had when it comes to the music of Studio Zero’s first new title, much less the first fantasy title, especially since Persona is known for its more modern upbeat music and lyrical songs. Thankfully, Shoji Meguro found the game’s musical soul and created its distinct identity that bursts out during key moments, from major events and exploration to even the combat. The music has a distinct flavor that tells players that you are in a fantasy world while synthesizing what made Meguro a treasure in the industry for so long.

 

Mechanics (5/5)

 

 

For all the talk about how expansive and well-produced the game is, and all the comparisons with Persona 5, what truly stood out to me was the combat system. When we talk about natural evolutions, this, to me, was the true natural evolution from Persona’s long-standing combat and Persona summoning system.

The center of the game’s combat system revolves around Archetypes, which are generally embodiments of kingly aspects which is incepted within various individuals, starting from the protagonist and, later, with other party members and followers. It is how you can cast spells and skills that deal damage and offer support, much like how the Persona system was. However, what makes it distinctly different is the fact that all characters can freely switch between various Archetypes, offering a brand new world of freedom and flexibility when creating your party.

 

 

Newly unlocked Archetypes can be unlocked through the story or by cultivating bonds using MAG (the game’s magical currency), and each can be leveled up by all characters separately, which allows them to unlock even more skills in the long run. Furthermore, by progressing further, you can add skills from other Archetypes to your currently equipped Archetype, making the character more flexible in terms of combat capability. There are benefits to having a certain Archetype party setup, but being able to equip other skills would open up interesting combos that would never have been possible normally while opening up combination skills that provide better benefits in terms of damage and support in exchange for using up two turns. This natural evolution to the proven Persona system makes for refreshing approaches to combat, and a highlight of my experience. It is encouraging to experiment with different party types as necessary and rewards testing the waters instead of keeping things stale and safe.

Speaking of the combat, the turn-based stylings of the game, while familiar, do add an interesting wrinkle wherein you can add more turns when you can exploit an enemy’s weakness. It is an encouraging way to make use of different setups to save on mana and HP, thus being able to explore further into the various dungeons the game can offer.

 

 

Dungeon exploration does take time and effort, as veterans of the Persona series would know. Thankfully, Metaphor: ReFantazio offers a unique approach to both ease of exploration and even power leveling in the form of two. The game offers the ability to decidedly enter your traditional RPG combat, but the big quality of life change is the ability to perform a pre-emptive strike in-map. If you are of an equal or lower level than the enemy, you can use this to gain a decisive upper hand at the beginning of the fight, such as putting the enemy in a stunned state. But if you are of a high level, you can instantly eliminate the enemy and secure some experience and currency in the process. This, to me, is a huge change since it would offer an alternative way to level up your other lower-level Archetypes as needed. This eliminates the demand for long grinding sessions, and you know how useful it is when you’re a busybody in life.

There are two ways to look at these gameplay elements: one on a gameplay improvement aspect, and the other as a quality of life aspect. When you have refreshing gameplay implementations like this, you have an experience that makes you engaged as a player, especially when you’re playing for long sessions at a time. But on the other hand, you can also see this as major improvements to quality of life that show that they do also respect the player’s time despite its game length. It is a harmonious combination of elements that make for a satisfactory and less demanding game experience. As a busybody myself, these kinds of improvements are much needed, and appreciate the developers for making these kinds of considerations to help maximize player satisfaction.

 

Features (5/5)

 

 

If you read our review of Persona 3 Reload back in February, then you’ll do find similarities in the features we appreciated given the lineage of the games involved, such as the ability to adjust between Japanese and English voiceovers and the ability to adjust difficulty between difficulties depending on the player’s preferred experience. To no surprise, these features are also implemented in the game, and based on gameplay done using Japanese VO’s, the acting is well done and was able to convey these emotions in the right direction given the setting and tone of the story.

One thing to highlight is the usage of its networking functions, an Atlus staple since Persona 4 Golden. What is interesting is that while it does enable overseeing what activities players online have done on a per-day basis for guidance purposes, I was a little surprised that they also included an online function in dungeons that displayed the party setup other players used when they finished a certain dungeon. It shows that the team is willing to go a step further in ensuring that even new players have better ease of access when it comes to introducing them to RPGs, and one with much hype for the past number of years before release.

 

Conclusion

 

 

Atlus has the penchant to surprise its players well beyond expectations, and for a new property like Metaphor: ReFantazio, they nailed the right approach when it comes to improving upon a formula they already perfected so many moons ago. By enhancing what works while mixing things up with its story, setting, and characters, the resulting output is a triumph not just in the game they wanted to show to the world, but also a satisfactory proof of concept when it comes to what the future might look like in the role-playing sphere. Atlus and Studio Zero dared to go beyond what made them successful and paid off in spades. It goes without saying, but they earned that perfect 5/5 score, no questions asked.

 

 

We give Metaphor: ReFantazio a score of 5 out of 5

Metaphor: ReFantazio is reviewed on the PlayStation 5 with the copy provided by Sega Atlus. It is also available on PC and Xbox