When I think about what I like most about JRPGs in general, my mind tends to conjure up small static images, often remembering a related musical theme and paying attention to the details of the pixel art or character design and monsters . A bit of the same thing happens to me with Shin Megami Tensei V and the Persona series. I visualize the easily recognizable designs of Shigenori Soejimaand the urban themes of Shogi Meguro. Essentially, it’s about gameplay, art, narrative and sound coming together to create a strong identity in a genre that’s as long-lived as it is full of projects. Atlus has been climbing to the top of JRPGs with success after success for years and now, on the occasion of its 35th anniversary, presents us with its most diverse, daring and different project. His project ReFantasy, already known as Metaphor: ReFantazio.
“Do you believe in the power of imagination?” a distant voice asks you in the first moments of the game. And whatever your answer, the story sets the tone that it will show you from the very first moment. Metaphor: ReFantazio is set in a fantasy world where (literally) magic is in the air and monsters are everywhere, but it is also a dark world dominated by some of humanity’s worst forms: racism, xenophobia, religious radicalism, tyranny… even if people like us don’t live there. The world design, created from the ground up and not based on a supernatural Tokyo like previous works, is bursting with unique life and personality. The creatures you encounter bear no resemblance to the studio’s previous creature designs, aside from the NPCs designed by humanoids (not humans, as I’ll talk about those humans later).
This also goes beyond the design of the world, cities and buildings. It is not for nothing that one of the main attractions of this title was not only the work of the great development leaders of their own successful franchises, led by Katsura Hashinobut also the collaboration of artists like Ikuto Yamashitawho worked on the design of the EVAs in Neon Genesis Evangelion, or Koda Kazumaresponsible for the design of the NieR: Automata scenarios. The creative team even created their own alphabet to give their world a more unique feel.
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And where do we fit in? Well, our character, the Hero (who has voice acting for the first time in the studio), is a member of the rarest, most unknown and despised race, the Elda, who live in the United Kingdom of Eucronia, a multicultural empire with nine species of different humanoids, so-called tribes, coexist in a fragile truce. Our character sets out on a mission to find a cure for the curse of his childhood best friend, the Crown Prince, hidden by a group of loyalists against a deep network of political intrigue aimed at ending the monarchy and its to reclaim royal magic (the most powerful) to create a new world. At the beginning of the adventure, the king is murdered in his bed, but he has prepared a contingency plan. The next ruler of the kingdom can only be chosen by general acclamation and anyone can take part in this throne tournament. The hero is determined to participate in the tournament on behalf of the prince and will have a group of active and secondary followers who will help him in the adventure.
I won’t say much more about the story, but I would like to emphasize that it is an epic that unfolds gradually, with important twists and surprises, in which religious and racial conflicts and class struggles are intertwined and at the same time A fantastic adventure that, despite being so ambitious while touching on so many sensitive topics, works. It works, and most importantly: it clicks into place.
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We shouldn’t get too excited about so many new features either, because in practice Metaphor plays like Persona 5. With its characteristic menu design in combat, we have the options of physical attack, protection, use of objects or special ability, with a familiar system of “elementary strengths and weaknesses”. Some enemies are resistant to certain elements or weapon attacks and weak to others. Therefore, the group of characters must be balanced to cover as many fighting styles and magic as possible, and this is achieved through Archetypes.
These archetypes are a type of magical power unknown to this world in which magic is channeled through devices called detonators. This new magic arises within people as soon as they face their latent fears and triggers an awakening. And they can take many forms (up to 40 types) and each of them would be a class for the characters. All archetypes can be controlled by each character using an in-game “secondary economy” called Magla (basically magic that can be stored and quantified). There will be conditions for finding them, either by progressing through the story or by meeting certain level or mastery requirements of other archetypes, as some of them are improved or expanded versions of the originals. Social vehicles are available and through them we will also forge synergies in the team, such as: B. Characters that protect or help us without spending turns, or combine attacks to create devastating synthesis abilities, which are also necessary to defeat the toughest monsters in this world. These enemies, inspired by Bosch’s surreal designs, are just one of the secrets we will discover in the game. To fully understand how these Synthesis attacks work, I’ll remember another great JRPG from 2024, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, as a good reference.
No two games of Metaphor: ReFantazio will be the same between players. Although the beginning may be more or less the same, very soon the map will open up and both the selection of party members and their archetype, as well as the decision to choose one mission or another (since there is a continuous time cycle, fluctuations between Day and night). Night and even weather conditions, which can hinder exploration and strengthen enemies, become key. I’m not entirely sure what to say now, but I have a feeling that it won’t be possible to see all of the content in a single sitting, and that there will actually be several different endings.
Before we conclude, a very reassuring warning for those who have never played an Atlus title and want to start with this one. Metaphor: ReFantazio is Studio Zero’s most accessible game yet. You don’t need to have any previous knowledge or experience with a series and the difficulty levels are highly customizable so everyone can experience the story.
Metaphor: ReFantazio is a tribute to a form of storytelling perfected over 35 years, and here it explodes, giving us a title that feels truly unique and special. Expect deep character development, a changing world, and a sense of humor that few other studios can replicate in a project of this magnitude. As I mentioned in my preview a few months ago, Shoji Meguro’s work on the soundtrack is, for lack of a better word, excellent. Combining choirs, reciting religious verses and wrapping everything in a transcendent epic, his music becomes a common thread between the phases of city exploration, the dialogues, the dungeons and the battles.
Having tested the game in both its PC (via Xbox) and Xbox Series versions, it is now clear how a game of this size and ambition can be compressed to less than 40GB in the case of the PS5 version.
Metaphor: ReFantazio has managed to meet and defy the high expectations that have grown among players in recent months. With a rich and immersive story and world, unforgettable characters, a timeless soundtrack, and game design praised by some of the best developers in the genre today, I can only recommend diving headfirst into this fantasy.
