Metaphor: ReFantazio is a game that has been in the works for a very long time. Announced back in 2016 as Project Re: Fantasy, the first game by Studio Zero, a new ATLUS internal development studio headed by Persona 3, 4, and 5 director Katsura Hasino, the game only resurfaced last year with a trailer that provided the first look at the project deeply rooted in traditional fantasy aesthetics. Even with a different setting, however, the Persona series DNA is still quite prevalent in Metaphor: ReFantazio, but that is not a bad thing at all, as I feel the game will be the first real step forward for the formula in a very long time.
During last week’s Gamescom, I had the chance to play through the first hour of Metaphor: ReFantazio. Right from the beginning, I was hooked. The United Kingdom of Euchronia, the assassination of its king, and the main character’s mission, which involves lifting the curse placed on the crown prince, was engaging from the start, as was the little world-building I experienced. The game’s world seems to be rather complex, featuring multiple tribes with tense relationships among one another, which I expect to play a rather big part in the grand scheme of things.
Unfortunately, as everyone Persona fan knows, one hour of gameplay is too little to evaluate a massive game like Metaphor: ReFantazio, but I definitely appreciated how the adventure doesn’t waste too much getting the main character and his fairy companion Gallica into the thick of things. As such, I was able to experience some short exploration sequences on the field surrounding the city of Grand Trad, and I couldn’t help but notice how much better roaming around is compared to the latest Persona games. Fields, for example, are vast and filled with enemies and treasure, while cities are rendered in the proper scale that represents their grandeur rather nicely. Interaction with the environment and other NPCs was standard fare for JRPGs, but at least Metaphor: ReFantazio seems to do its best to properly represent the vastness of its world.
In my hour with the game, I was also able to test out the game’s combat system and explore one dungeon, the Northern Bord Fort, which honestly felt very straightforward and not particularly remarkable. Metaphor: ReFantazio employs the Turn Press combat system, which allows both player and enemy to obtain extra turns when hitting weaknesses, but with a new twist that gives players an advantage if they stun the enemy before entering combat by attacking them on the field. This is a great addition that does wonders for the game’s pacing, even though this iteration of the Press Turn system is pretty snappy to begin with. For the rest, battles play the same as in the latest Persona and Shin Megami Tensei games: find an enemy’s weakness, exploit it, and win the battle while avoiding getting one’s own weaknesses exploited. I was unable to test out the Archetype system, unfortunately, as my time with the demo ended before it was properly introduced, and exactly when another feature from the Persona series got introduced: a time limit for main quests.
Evaluating a massive role-playing game like Metaphor: ReFantazio in just one hour is impossible, but my time with it during Gamescom definitely left me hungering for more. For the first time in a very long time, the formula of the Persona series is getting a much-needed shake-up, and I am very interested to see if the game will end up being something more than just Persona in a fantasy setting.
Metaphor: ReFantazio will launch on October 11th on PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Series S.
