Back in July 2024, we visited Tokyo, Japan, in order to spend multiple days in Sega’s headquarters to write the next Game Informer cover story that would never come to be. There, we played several chapters across the then-upcoming Metaphor: ReFantazio, and spent a whole day with the development behind one of 2024’s best games. Though the trip was plagued by travel delays (it happened during the infamous CrowdStrike system crashes that grounded many flights), logistical problems involving folks being trapped in disparate parts of Japan due to weather, and even a last-minute replacement for which colleague came on the trip with me due to illness, against all odds we accomplished our goal of leaving Japan with a great story to tell. Unfortunately, Game Informer was shut down a week later, and the story was left without a home.
Since the article was already written, I wanted to get it out for folks who were, like me, anticipating the game and wanted more details. I published it on my Medium blog and collaborated with The Game Awards’ Geoff Keighley to promote the “Game Informer cover story that never was.” While thousands read it on my personal blog, now that Game Informer is back, it felt right to bring this story home to where it always belonged. I hope you enjoy reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it. This would have been our August 2024 cover story for Studio Zero’s Metaphor: ReFantazio.
For more on the lost issue of Game Informer, including details on other features that were meant to appear in the issue, head here.
Introduction
Opening The Next Chapter
Few franchises can claim true leviathan status within their genres. Even fewer reach said status after starting as a spin-off of another series. By blending tight turn-based combat, engaging social mechanics, and narratives that explore darker themes, the Persona series has elevated to the genre’s most elite standing. The last three mainline entries beginning with Persona 3 are considered among the greatest role-playing games of the 21st century.
Now, just as the Persona franchise began as a spin-off of the Shin Megami Tensei (SMT) franchise, many of the core developers behind Persona have spun off to form a new development studio under the Sega and Atlus umbrella. The result is an all-new experience that combines tried-and-true elements of the beloved Persona series with many essential tenets of the fantasy RPG genre. With the core development team embarking on this bold, new adventure, I traveled to Tokyo, Japan, to meet with many of Studio Zero’s key members and spend hours engrossed in the world of Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Revealing A New Form
Revealing A New Form
On my second day in Sega of Japan’s offices, I found myself in a conference room, sitting across from Katsura Hashino. After spending 8 of my prior 24 hours playing the latest game from the prolific director, Metaphor: ReFantazio, my brain is overflowing with topics to discuss. Hashino carries himself with quiet confidence, accentuated by a friendly smile and an obvious graciousness. With each question I lob his way, he answers with a noticeable intentionality. On multiple occasions, he profusely thanks me for visiting the studio to learn about his new game.
You would almost never guess that this man’s three decades with Atlus have resulted in myriad critically acclaimed and fan-favorite RPG blockbusters. Starting as a designer of 1994’s Shin Megami Tensei If… — a spin-off to the mainline SMT franchise set in a Japanese high school — Hashino’s career has carried a noticeable upward trajectory, with his directorial debut coming with 1999’s Maken X on Dreamcast. A few years later, he stepped into the director role of the mainline SMT franchise with Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne. That experience would prove invaluable as he transitioned to yet another spin-off of the SMT franchise: Persona.
Though Hashino had little involvement with the Persona franchise to that point, the spin-off series pulled ideas from his first Atlus project, Shin Megami Tensei If…, including the high school setting in modern Japanese society. As Hashino came into the director role for the subseries with 2006’s Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3, he implemented several changes. Perhaps most impactful was the addition of a new Social Link System, which lets you develop relationships with other characters in the game to obtain various effects and experience optional storylines.
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 (2006)
Hashino was joined by another talent ready to step into a new role: art director Shigenori Soejima, who had done limited artwork on the first two Persona games. Other key members joining the team in increased capacities included writer Yuichirō Tanaka as scenario writer, planner Azusa Kido as the person who would head up the implementation of the Social Link system, and designer Kazuhisa Wada. Meanwhile, series veterans like composer Shoji Meguro and planner Daisuke Kanada rounded out the core development team that would bring the subseries to the next level.
Persona 3 arrived in Japan in 2006 and the U.S. in 2007, earning a strong 86 out of 100 on reviews aggregate site Metacritic and several award nominations. The group responsible for the feat would come to be known as P-Studio, a development unit under the Atlus umbrella. P-Studio has overseen the development of the many Persona games since its founding, most notably the releases of Persona 4 in 2008 and Persona 5 in 2016.
While both Persona 3 and 4 sold well in Japan, the series was still considered somewhat niche in the West. Though the upgraded re-release of the fourth mainline entry, Persona 4 Golden, garnered more U.S. attention than its predecessors, it was the 2017 Western release of Persona 5 that finally put the franchise on the map with a global audience thanks to its fine-tuned turn-based combat, compelling narrative, fantastic cast, and undeniable sense of style. Persona 5 garnered a 93 out of 100 on Metacritic and became the fastest-selling entry in franchise history. According to The NPD Group, Persona 5 was only outsold in its Western debut month of April 2017 by Nintendo’s sales juggernaut Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which also launched that month.
Persona 5 (2016)
Hashino saw this explosion in popularity as an opportunity to try something new to avoid the burnout that can set in when doing the same thing over and over. “Persona 5, when we released it, ended up becoming very popular worldwide,” he says. “Initially, when we came up with it, we thought of our modern RPGs as sort of like a counter to the kind of standard fantasy RPG that you see in the world today. But after we finished the development of Persona 5, we decided we wanted to do something new.”
The Persona director asked his team what it wanted to do next, and the resounding answer was an RPG with a fantasy setting. Despite this being the very thing the Persona franchise sought to counter, the team held a great affection for the fantasy genre, citing lifelong passions for it. Hashino’s interest was piqued.
“Persona is obviously rooted in the real world and that was the vibe of the games that we made,” he says. “But we figured if we took all our knowledge and we made a fantasy game, it would probably not feel like a normal fantasy game; it would feel like something a bit different. We were really excited to see what sort of taste we can bring.”
Director Katsura Hashino and character designer Shigenori Soejima
Using that mindset, Hashino left P-Studio and founded Studio Zero, another team within Atlus. He asked around for developers who wanted to make a fantasy game and began assembling a team full of P-Studio veterans like Soejima, Tanaka, Kido, and Persona 5 battle planner Kenichi Goto. Despite all these departures, P-Studio remained intact to reassure Persona players.
“We want our fans to know that we’re going to continue to make Persona games,” Hashino says. “So, when we broke off and made our own, new thing, we left P-Studio intact. That’s saying, ‘Hey, look, we’re still making Persona games, but we’re also going to do this new thing.’”
However, before starting work on that initial project, Studio Zero got its legs under it by releasing an enhanced version of the 2011 Atlus game Catherine, which Hashino originally directed. According to Hashino, this project was meant to show the kind of tone the studio is aiming for when creating its original games. Meanwhile, the fantasy game Hashino and his team started the studio to work on was announced in 2016 as Project Re:Fantasy before later being revealed as Metaphor: ReFantazio.
This bold, new adventure is immediately recognizable as a game from the same developers who worked on the Persona franchise. But despite many of Persona’s most identifiable elements carrying forward, Metaphor: ReFantazio feels like a brand-new experience rather than a simple retread in a new setting. And after playing it for more than eight hours, it’s one of my most anticipated games of the rest of 2024.
A Fantastic New World
A Fantastic New World
When beginning work on Metaphor: ReFantazio, the notion of starting fresh as a new studio on a completely new IP had Hashino feeling anxious. The director tells me he felt 30 percent excitement and 70 percent anxiety near the start of the project, which led to him making anxiety one of the primary themes of the title.
“I don’t think there’s anybody at any time who hasn’t lived with some fear and anxiety within them,” he says. “But the thing is, through our fears and anxieties, we make mistakes, we stumble, but then we learn from those mistakes, and we discover new things about ourselves, or we discover new things about the world around us and they help us grow as people. That’s what I wanted to focus on with Metaphor: the ability to say, ‘Yes, we all have fears and anxieties, but we all learn and grow from them, and we gain this sense of power from them as well.’”
In keeping with their past games, Hashino and his team don’t shy away from difficult topics. The Persona franchise has tackled topics like murder, abuse, and mortality, while Catherine centered on themes of relationships and infidelity. Metaphor looks to broach subjects like anxiety, social fears, and prejudice within a fantasy world rife with political uncertainty and upheaval. While the world is extremely different from the modern Japanese society depicted in the Persona games, many of the struggles are common.
Still, the new setting proved to be a challenge since even those who don’t live in Japan can understand the conventions of modern society, but a fantasy world is completely foreign. “One of the things I struggled with the most during Metaphor is that, different from Persona, there’s a lot more explanation that’s needed,” lead scenario planner Yuichirō Tanaka says. “In Persona, it’s the real world, so we don’t need to say what money is and how it works. You don’t say, ‘This is what walls look like,’ because we’re all familiar with that. But with Metaphor, it’s a fantasy world, so there needs to be a lot more explanation elements in the world.”
Character designer Shigenori Soejima also went through an adjustment period with the new setting, as he initially tried to replicate character designs he had seen in other pieces of fantasy media. “I had a lot of fun doing it — but I was coming up with something that was kind of an imitation of styles I had seen,” he says. “I was thinking, ‘Well, what can I bring to the fantasy genre? How can I add to it and use my own style to bring my own riff on it?’ That was part of what helped inform my character design for [Metaphor].”
Though he had to approach Metaphor’s characters from a different angle where classic fantasy designs meet modern fashion sensibilities, the character designs are recognizable as Soejima’s popular art style. The moment you turn on Metaphor: ReFantazio, the undeniable style the team had previously been known for with the Persona franchise flashes across the screen. Before I even press a button, an anime cutscene, like those present in Persona, tantalizes me with imagery I don’t fully understand. And that’s intentional, as my gameplay session was full of mysteries and interactions that I was left pondering in the weeks following my time at Sega of Japan’s offices.
Page One
Page One
My first gameplay session consists of the first hours of Metaphor: ReFantazio. Over the image of a modern metropolis, a voice attributed to a “Scheming Man” asks me for the name of the one guiding the protagonist. After I enter my name, he asks me for my views on fantasy: “Is fantasy limited to the confines of imagination? Would you call it a powerless creation?” After answering, the Scheming Man reflects on my answer and then says, “Let this tale begin.”
I’m immediately treated to one of the development team’s trademark anime cutscenes. In this opening sequence, a caravan is riding along a cliffside. The passengers mention that the king is dead, while the protagonist — a fully voiced blue-haired man with different-colored eyes — looks down at a fairy in his bag. The caravan is ambushed by bandits, who possess a magical staff known as an Igniter. They call out that the protagonist is an Elda, a seemingly all-but-extinct tribe of the United Kingdom of Euchronia.
One of the bandits tries to take a book in the possession of the protagonist, but when another bandit kills a member of the caravan, a redheaded woman named Hulkenberg fights back, attacking the bandits. In the scuffle, the protagonist and his fairy, Gallica, fall off the edge of the cliff to the wasteland below. At the bottom of the cliff, Gallica looks on the bright side: At least the bandits didn’t figure out their mission.
But there’s no time to waste, as large worm-like creatures descend upon the duo; they need to get to higher ground as soon as possible. With the left trigger, I use Gallica’s Fae Sight, which highlights objects of interest, as well as enemies. A color code informs me how high the enemy levels are relative to my own. The worms ambushing the team are stronger than makes sense to try and fight, so I guide the protagonist to the top of a hill.
As the protagonist and Gallica look at a modern city in the distance, I learn the mission: head to the Royal Capital and enlist as a guardsman at the army’s recruitment center. It turns out the prince — the recently deceased king’s son — has fallen ill, and the protagonist must infiltrate the ranks of the military to deliver a message to an undercover operative. As the protagonist walks through the Royal Capital City Grand Trad, it’s clear not everything is as peaceful as the couple sitting and drinking coffee on the sidewalk would have you believe. A public hanging plays out, and a man approaches the protagonist to beg for coins. Rumors also swirl that the king didn’t die of illness, but rather assassination.
After walking by a shop that sells Magic Igniters, which let everyday people wield magic, Gallica remarks that she doesn’t need an Igniter to wield magic. In fact, she’s so in tune with the magical element Magla that she can see the energy moving through the air. The two head to the recruitment office, where they overhear a brash captain interviewing a young nobleman named Strohl. After a conversation that feels more like an interrogation, Captain Klinger finally accepts Strohl into the military.
When it’s my turn, I’m given a chance to enter the protagonist’s name. After getting accepted and enduring some blatant bigotry from other guards, the protagonist retrieves his armor and an Igniter. When another guard insults the protagonist’s Elda heritage, Strohl steps in to defend him. After the captain intervenes, it’s off to the training encampment up north. Thankfully, that’s where the contact happens to be.
As the protagonist rides in the caravan, Gallica expresses shock at the prejudice the protagonist experienced in the capital city. To pass the time, he cracks open a special book the prince gave him before falling ill. It tells a fantasy story about a world with one tribe and no discrimination. It’s a megapolis full of safe nights with no shadows or magic, and all lives are equal. It almost sounds like an extremely idealized version of our existence, written by someone who has only heard the good parts.
“A lot of people in this world see our world as a fantasy world of their own, a world very close to utopia, a world full of these wonderful ideas,” Tanaka says. “If you think about it, in a medieval fantasy world, in a broad sense, life is cheap; people die all the time in a lot easier ways and there isn’t really any equality. So, for those people, they might see our world and say, ‘Well, this world is a utopia in a lot of senses.’ But at some point, I hope players will play this and have a moment of realization and go, ‘The people in this world see our world as this idealistic utopia, but how do I feel about our world?’ One of the main reasons why I included this book and the idea of this fantasy world referencing our own is for that moment where people start to think about what our world in the real world means to them, and whether or not it is an idealistic utopia.”
This book serves as a crucial item in the story and pops up at several junctures during my gameplay. In a flashback scene, I see the prince sitting with the protagonist, talking about how he hopes to one day make the United Kingdom of Euchronia like the civilization in the book. The prince aspires to be a hero but is falling ill, as evidenced by his cough and purple lines growing on his skin. Sure enough, he fell into a coma and now serves as a driving force for the protagonist.
At long last, the caravan reaches the Northern Border and Captain Klinger addresses the new recruits, rambling about how great of a warrior he once was. During the lecture, Strohl takes the opportunity to ask about the protagonist’s book, but another soldier butts in to clash with Strohl. When the protagonist defends Strohl, the other soldier calls him a “lesser tribesman.”
Suddenly a soldier limps forward and collapses before the group. Klinger sends the recruits to the fort to investigate, finding a reason to hang back himself. When Strohl questions this move, Klinger chastises him. As the group approaches the fort where the injured guard originated from, Gallica mentions that the stench in the air is getting worse, and that she has a bad feeling about it.
Strohl joins the protagonist as a party member and the two rush toward the fort. As they crack open the doors, they see several of their fellow recruits slaughtered at the feet of a monstrous being that looks like a winged giant wrapped in a pomegranate. “That’s a Human!” one soldier says as he runs for his life. With the preamble out of the way, the various systems begin to reveal themselves.
Facing Your Humanity
Facing Your Humanity
Running through the fort, the team begins encountering enemies. The battle system of Metaphor: ReFantazio is similar to the turn-based mechanics of the Persona franchise, but you can land real-time attacks in the world. If you land enough without sustaining damage yourself, you can enter battle with an advantage. However, the enemies can also fight back, and if they hit you hard enough, they’ll start the fight with a leg up. This system also serves as a good way to expedite the dungeon-crawling process, as you instantaneously defeat enemies you are substantially stronger than.
“Most of the time that you’re playing this game, battles are going to be in the turn-based system, but by also adding the monsters to the dungeons in the world so that you can see them, we’ve also added a bunch of information that shows just how tough they are and how you measure up against them when you’re walking around,” lead battle planner Kenichi Goto says. “Turn-based RPGs have been around for a while, and I think one of the things that was evident in a lot of these battle systems is that you get into this situation where you know you can beat up these monsters with no effort, but you still have to go through this rigamarole every single time. But by having the ability to, once a monster is weak enough, you can just whack them and call it quits, that helps relieve that.”
Once you enter the turn-based battle system, or Squad Battle as it’s called in Metaphor, it plays out similarly to fights in Persona 5. However, two major differences exist: You can click the left analog stick at any time to restart the battle, and if the protagonist falls in the fight, it’s not an instant loss. The team tells me this is to offer more flexibility to players as they experiment with the game’s job system (more on that later).
Regardless of the differences, another defining trait of the Persona franchise has clearly made the leap into Metaphor: the gorgeous user interface. Whether you’re talking about the Squad Battle interface or the beautiful pause screen, the U.I. is elegant, flashy, and, most important of all, supremely functional.
“We thought about how the characters’ emotions would affect or inform the U.I.,” U.I. designer Koji Ise says. “We were really diligent in thinking about where people’s eyes go on the screen and what they’ll be looking at. For example, if you select one option, it will pull up information from another in a natural way to keep the flow of information relevant and easy to follow. We want to make sure people don’t lose concentration when they’re mucking around with the U.I. We make sure you’re naturally following the flow of the U.I. in a very efficient way.”
As the party finds more dying soldiers, some of whom find a way to blame it on an Elda being present, they hear a scream emanating from the top of a tower. After fighting through legions of egg-shaped and wolf-like monsters, they reach the top to find the Human, Homo Gorleo. The big monsters in Euchronia are called Humans thanks to the inspiration the development team took from 16th-century Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch, who sometimes depicted twisted, humanlike creatures in his works. Since anxiety is a key theme in Metaphor, Hashino studied the origins of anxiety as it relates to humanity, and felt calling the massive obstacles you need to overcome “Human” was the right call.
As the battle begins, it becomes clear this isn’t going to be easy; none of my attacks do any damage, while its attacks take out a third of my character’s health. Strohl yells at the team to make a break for it as he sacrifices himself. Just as he’s struck down by the boss, the protagonist hears a voice, and he channels the hero within. A cutscene plays where he rips a metal heart from his chest and his Archetype — the Seeker — awakens. The Seeker is a versatile Archetype and grants the protagonist wind affinities, meaning when the Human attacks, he resists its magic.
By targeting different parts of the Human’s body, I open it up to attack. However, the Human starts growing apples, which it consumes to heal itself. I try attacking the apples, but I’m not fast enough. Thankfully, Gallica jumps in and destroys the apples. With no way to heal itself, and my Archetype dealing heavy damage, I take down Homo Gorleo.
The Archetype system may sound like the Persona mechanic in that series, but it’s customizable in different ways. Rather than fusing Archetypes the way you fuse Personas, you can visit More, the author of the book the protagonist carries, in a realm called Akademeia. There, you can study new Archetypes for each party member, and even evolve Archetypes once certain conditions have been met. More also informs the protagonist that by forming new bonds with other people, you can unlock new Archetypes, granting new powers to the party.
“The super difficult task that I gave to the battle team at the start of this project was to make the best jobs system ever,” Hashino says. “I want to make sure that, by the end of the game, every single player who plays the game will be able to come up with their own party compositions, and all of them will work and feel good.”
In the wake of the battle, the protagonist checks on Strohl, who is somehow still alive. Together, they’re greeted by Grius, who turns out to be the contact you were looking for. Gallica delivers the message that his new mission is to avenge the king and kill Louis Guiabern, who assassinated the king and cast the curse on the ailing prince.
Louis is a ruthless strategist, an excellent swordsman, and a master of the Magla arts, making him an intimidating adversary. He’s also vying to be the next king, through the Tournament of the Throne, a kingdom-wide, magic-driven contest that grants kinghood to the most popular person, adding a political tinge to every interaction with those in the running. Not only that but the most popular candidates are protected by Election Magic, which renders them invincible to prevent assassination as a way to take a popular candidate out of the equation.
This means that taking out Louis, who is currently a frontrunner in the Tournament of the Throne, will be easier said than done. But the team needs to try, nevertheless. The protagonist joins the Tournament of the Throne, not with designs on the crown, but with the intent of restoring the prince’s health, and likely, his claim to the throne.
Grius joins the party as they cut through the woods and into an abandoned mine. Strohl says he feels the team is being watched, which proves true as Captain Klinger and his soldiers ambush the party. It turns out he was working for Louis all along. Not only that, but he reveals that he let Strohl’s village get destroyed by Humans, causing Strohl’s Warrior Archetype to awaken.
Since Strohl’s Archetype deals physical damage, this gives me the opportunity to experiment with the new line-based combat mechanics. Positioning a party member in the back causes them to take less damage. However, it also means they deal less physical damage. It’s a small layer of strategy, but it’s meaningful. Thankfully, if you want to reposition any character in the heat of battle, you can do so with a press of the d-pad. For now, I put Strohl and Grius up front, and the protagonist, with his wind magic, in the back.
Another new wrinkle to combat now is that I can directly control Strohl, who was previously on auto-battle. “I really wanted to focus on the idea of these people being like they’re traveling with you,” Hashino says. “But once they awaken their Archetypes, you can finally give them commands because they’re now your friends and your companions.”
You gather Magla from battles, which can be used in Archetype trees to both unlock new Archetypes and evolve existing ones. More reveals to the protagonist that due to his nature, the protagonist can unlock the Archetypes of others, making him exceptionally powerful. You can also leverage multiple Archetypes to perform powerful Synthesis attacks, which allow two active party members to team up and deal damage, apply ailments, or even heal allies during their turn.
Following the confrontation with Klinger, the team works through the mines en route to Grand Trad. It plays out similarly to a Persona 5 Palace, with Magla Hollows allowing you to rest, visit Akademeia, and save your progress. The mines culminate with an intense battle against another Human. This time, its form is that of a giant chicken with an old man’s face. The Homo Fulquilo also guards a giant Magla crystal, which appears to be the source of its twistedness.
Unfortunately for me, this Human is substantially stronger than the first one, and it one-shots both Strohl and Grius and before I can revive them, it aims to finish off the protagonist, as well. I use the left stick to retry the battle and move Grius, with his Mage Archetype, to the back line. By making some small adjustments and having a few lucky breaks, I take down the giant chicken-like creature, and the team destroys the Magla crystal to prevent further corruption in the area.
On the Road Again
On the Road Again
After laying the groundwork with that initial save file, the Studio Zero team takes me on a tour of distinct save files spread across different points of the game. Since these files are later in the narrative, I will avoid spoiling the details while still sharing what I gleaned from the playthrough. Still, be warned that some minor spoilers will be present in this section.
The first follow-up save file takes me to a town called Martira about 8 to 10 hours into the story. This save focuses more on activities you can do around town without much consideration for the overarching story. As such, it involves taking on sidequests from the townsfolk. One man needs a pigeon parcel by a certain date, while another wants you to take down a nearby magic-wielding monster. Since Metaphor retains a calendar system similar to that of the one from the Persona franchise, you budget your spare time through activities like completing sidequests, boosting your own stats, or improving your relationships with your followers.
In one instance, I perform a high-dive stunt to improve the protagonist’s Courage, one of the five Royal Virtue attributes you can improve. Later, I meet a woman who tells me a legend, boosting my Imagination. These five Royal Virtues, which also include Wisdom, Tolerance, and Eloquence, are for more than just show, as they open up options when interacting with NPCs. I witness this firsthand as the protagonist’s improved Imagination from listening to the woman allows him to convince a pompous man in town to reveal the location of a mission objective.
While strolling through the town, I can also improve my relationships with my party members. For example, Strohl asks me to meet up with a local politician to ask him to use vacant homes in the town to house refugees. Each action adds up to points towards the protagonist’s relationship with that character.
“The main story has a theme to it, so you need to think about that theme from different angles,” lead daily systems planner Azusa Kido says. “I think of ways in which we can explore it, and I think, ‘Okay, who would be the best person to explore this side of the main theme?’”
One of the key times you can interact with your followers is while traveling to new locales on the Gauntlet Runner. This multi-terrain vehicle carries the party across the world map, but it isn’t instantaneous; you have some free time while you’re in transit. I take this opportunity to further improve the protagonist’s attributes by playing tabletop games with Hulkenberg, the woman who defended the protagonist in the opening cutscene and a new follower for this file, to improve the protagonist’s Wisdom.
In my demo, I don’t get a great sense of how open the United Kingdom of Euchronia is, but it seems like you can select from multiple destinations, each of which has a different travel time. However, in some cases, you may be able to teleport instantly to certain cities. My demo was primarily focused on traveling to specific locations, so while I experienced the travel wait times, I didn’t see what would happen if I decided to go explore a location not associated with a current quest or the story.
In this case, I head to a sandworm’s nest, which is a lead the team gathered for some missing children. Unfortunately, it turns out to be an ambush by a Human, who is in the form of a giant sandworm. Though it’s able to perform multiple actions in a turn and makes me grip my controller a little tighter at one point, the fight progresses rather smoothly thanks to everything I’ve learned up to now.
However, as its health gets low, instead of trying to stick it out, it swallows the party. Once inside the worm, the party has 15 minutes to explore, fight, grab any rare treasures they can find in the inhospitable environment, and escape the bleak locale in the worst way possible: the backdoor. This sequence carried with it a tutorial, including the warning message that once you leave these kinds of locations, you can never go back, so I would imagine this happens multiple times throughout the game as an opportunity to retrieve powerful and rare loot.
Following that delightful experience, I’m taken forward yet again to a completely different area in the game. The team has caught up to Louis and is set to attend a soiree hosted by him in the port city of Brilehaven. The goal is to get on his Gauntlet Runner and find a valuable piece of information. The section possesses a heist-like feel, with new party member Heismay distracting a menacing man named Glodell so the protagonist and Gallica can sneak into Louis’ quarters, and two of Louis’ followers, Fidelio and Basilio, hot on your tail.
After Louis’ Gauntlet Runner unexpectedly goes airborne, the protagonist and Gallica get swept off the deck and onto the wings. The protagonist hovers his blade and begins using it like a skateboard. I’m not sure how frequently Blade-Riding will come into play, but I enjoyed the minigame of jumping from wing to wing on the way to Louis’ private quarters.
After scouring much of Louis’ room, I find he has the same novel the protagonist has been carrying. Unfortunately, my search is interrupted by Junah, a singer scheduled to perform at the soiree. After striking a deal with her to keep each other’s secret that they were snooping, she leaves. Shortly thereafter, we hear her scream from outside. Without spoiling, this leads to a battle that reveals a lot about the protagonist’s place in Euchronia and the Tournament of the Throne before my time with this save file wraps up.
The next save file picks up just after that, as the party travels from Brilehaven to a new island to search for an ancient relic. Junah, the singer from the soiree, has joined the party, along with her Masked Dancer Archetype, which can equip different masks to unlock new skills and apply resistances in battle. Strohl, Hulkenberg, and Heismay round out the party, while Fidelio and Basilio tag along to serve as Junah’s bodyguards. Though they are there to perform a job and serve antagonistic roles, it’s obvious the anthropomorphic dog-like Fidelio and Basilio have a lot of heart. I’m looking forward to getting to know them better in the full game.
It’s going to take a few days to get to the island, so I use that time to get to know the main party better. I go fishing off the side of the Gauntlet Runner with Heismay and spend some time chatting with Junah, but the road-trip vibes come to a head with a stop at the Towering Seawall, a Magla anomaly that allows the party to stand on the seafloor. These vista-style pitstops allow the party to reflect on the journey to this point, drop bits of personal lore, and flesh out the kingdom of Euchronia in meaningful ways. This is just one of the three road-trip-style diversions I encountered during my time with Metaphor: ReFantazio, and I loved these quiet moments amidst the chaos. There’s nothing like a beautiful sunset to give characters an excuse to reminisce on impactful moments from their past. The cast has always been my favorite part of the Persona games, and Metaphor: ReFantazio seems to carry forward that tradition.
Before arriving on the island, the team is attacked by a tentacled sea monster Human, which I had already experienced during my hands-on time at Summer Game Fest in June. By using the lines system and my know-how from my previous encounter with this beast, I don’t have much trouble, and it’s on to the island.
After a contentious start to their relationship with the locals on the island, the protagonist accepts a quest to save one of the islanders deep inside a temple. Unfortunately, the temple follows similar rules to that of the Lost Woods from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, with a thick fog impeding your progress; if you go off the course, you are teleported back to the start. Thankfully, I read a sign that says to look to the stars for guidance, revealing a golden line that shows the path.
Along the way, I encounter murals depicting an ancient war that used dragons and monsters, as well as a modern society with skyscrapers and a world in ruins due to the conflict. I don’t exactly know how to piece together all these hints at a past modern society, but the mystery is as compelling as any found in the Persona games. After battling through the temple, I finally find Eupha, the island priestess I’m tasked with saving.
Eupha joins the party, and her powers immediately feel reminiscent of the traditional summoner role in a Final Fantasy game. It makes sense, as she wields the Summoner Archetype and can call upon various creatures to deal elemental damage or heal status ailments. I love her play style and how it complements the more straightforward battle styles. I could easily see her becoming a mainstay in my party in the full game. Unfortunately, shortly after adding her to my team, my time playing Metaphor: ReFantazio comes to a close.
ReFlections
ReFlections
As a fan of both the Persona and Final Fantasy franchises, Metaphor: ReFantazio feels almost akin to some kind of merging of these two series. The setting, world-building, and travel all indicate that Studio Zero may have taken inspiration from one of the other tentpole franchises in the RPG genre, but it still has that distinct Persona-style flavor that made figureheads like Hashino, Soejima, and the rest of the development team fan favorites.
When I first heard Metaphor: ReFantazio was going to be set in a fantasy world rather than modern-day Japan, I was worried it would lose something due to just how integral that setting is for the Persona series. However, after emerging from my extended gameplay session, I feel more enthralled by the world of Metaphor than I initially thought possible.
But what I played was just a fraction of the game’s overall length, as Tanaka ends our conversation saying he thinks those who enjoy the lengthy experience granted by the Persona franchise will not be disappointed by Metaphor. I thoroughly enjoyed my vacation in the land of Euchronia as I explored the many regions of the kingdom and forged new friendships within the world. Now, with mere weeks to go until launch, I’m eagerly anticipating taking up residence in the vast and rich world of Metaphor: ReFantazio.
