When the most prominent names at Atlus behind Persona 3, 4, 5, and Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne announced they’d be forming a brand new studio to make a whole new IP, it was intriguing. Atlus never had names for their internal teams, and Studio Zero is set to make something that’s not related to Persona and the bigger Shin Megami Tensei series.
So it has caught me by surprise by how much their new game, Metaphor: ReFantazio, is just like Persona.
Not that it’s a bad thing. Persona is an amazing RPG series, especially the latest three numbered entries, which Katsura Hashino, Shigenori Soejima, and Shoji Meguro had a hand in making.
Rather, I assumed Metaphor: ReFantazio is a breakaway of sorts for these established talents, now under their own separate team, as they have carte blanche to steer the future of this brand of RPGs. I stand corrected.
While it has not veer far from the Persona formula, Metaphor: ReFantazio enriches the depth of its RPG/life-sim gameplay, told through a powerful, resonating story.
Presentation
Like other Atlus games, Metaphor: ReFantazio isn’t up there in terms of visual fidelity. Textures can be blurry. Character models don’t look as graphically detailed compared to modern AAA game standards. And the performance can be a bit off—the game frequently dips below 60 FPS in some scenes.
And it matters not, as Metaphor goes all in on art style. And a good art style always trumps good graphics. Its take on a traditional fantasy RPG setting is not exactly your generic high fantasy world with just medieval knights and dragons—though those are there. It just mashes up with other inspirations.
The funky bright clothes inspired by British fashion of the 60’s are an inspired choice, which makes all the important characters stand out quite a lot compared to regular ol’ NPCs. The grotesque monsters that would make Hieronymus Bosch rest well compared to the generated AI slop attempting to replicate his fantastical paintings on humanity. The imaginative take on a typical airship in RPGs, the Gauntlet Runners, is quite the sight to behold.
The world isn’t exactly huge in terms of what you’re able to explore. But it presented itself enough to imply that the land within the United Kingdom of Euchronia is vast and diverse, even if we don’t set our feet into every street at Grand Trad or every village surrounding the Oceana region.
Of course, with the names behind Persona worked on Metaphor, the topic of its UI has to be discussed. It has all the trappings of Persona, but I find the user experience feel a bit… overwhelming.
While Persona benefits from its rather clean lines and bright, contrasting colours to make its UI pop, Metaphor’s visual motifs feel rather scattered. Splashes of cyan and pink. Geometric lines to evoke the schematics and drawings of Leonardo da Vinci. Bold font choices. They ended up feeling like being haphazardly thrown together rather than having a cohesive look. The battle screen sure is attention-grabbing, and the way it animates and flows as you press one button on the controller is still just as majestic and satisfying in Persona 5, but Metaphor shows that we’re edging close to “this is way too much; please tone it down a bit” territory.
And I wouldn’t harp on the UI too much if it was really user-friendly to begin with. I find hopping between too many menus just to setup my party correctly when I feel it could have been streamlined so you navigate it a few menus less than it is. Having to scroll through a long list of items just to use that experience boost is a typical Persona/SMT experience, but why keep that in when you can make a dedicated tab to separate it out to highlight its importance to players who never bothered scrolling through the items list? Why is the ability to switch inherited skills buried too deep in the menus when it’s such an important aspect of building your party? With the gear party members equip now being shared across Archetypes and not unique to each person, why hasn’t the equipment menu been revamped to accommodate this?
In a lot of ways, the user experience of Metaphor is like Persona, but since I don’t find its visual style as captivating as before, it’s now exposed to scrutiny. It eventually grew on me, not to the point that I like it, but to the point that I sussed out the busyness and tolerated the little quirks it carried over from its lineage.
As for the music, another Persona cornerstone, Metaphor’s soundtrack took a good while to get used to. Instead of hip-hop, rock and pop music, or fusion jazz, Metaphor’s music uses a lot more orchestras. There’s really too much grandiose music in the beginning; the theme in Gran Trad really overwhelmed me in a not-good way. It’s oppressing and gloomy, and it exactly serves the point of what the city is supposed to be. But listening to it over and over in the first few hours really set a bad impression for the music.
And thankfully, the music does get better as you venture further into the game. The battle theme comes in two flavours; both swirled my heart into battle thanks to the vigorous Esperanto chants of a Buddhist monk. The other town themes are nice and varied; the heroic hymns in Akademeia and the music while on the Gaunlent Runner are pleasant listens, ever more so important given how much of the game you’ll be listening to the music. The boss fight themes are great as well; the swells of the trumpets are exceptionally emotional, a heroic music fit for a would-be king to slay monsters to.
Metaphor’s music may not be as catchy and groovy, but its take on epic fantasy music, while it can be a bit too much at times, is certainly unique. This isn’t the typical orchestral score seen in AAA games, to the point where it sounds all generic given its overuse. The music can be a challenging listen, but I’m sure music nerds would appreciate the unconventional note movements and use of dissonance and minor note changes some songs have.
Metaphor: ReFantazio has partial voice acting. Some optional scenes and less important story beats (like during dungeon crawling) will resort to text only. But when you do hear them, they are exceptional. The English voice cast covers many different English accents, some not even native to the British Isles. Received pronunciation, Cockney, Scottish, and Irish accents are accounted for, of course, but I didn’t expect to be charmed by a pair of Scousers.
It’s a fresh change, as usually Atlus used American English voiceovers for their games. Though there are still a few American English speakers, like the protagonist. And yes, the protagonist speaks, even outside of battle this time. He’s not chatty by all means, but having the character speak a paraphrased line of what wild choice you pick during conversations gives him a personality of his own rather than just a player avatar. Given how the fandom surrounding Atlus games wants so badly a canon personality and voice for the main leads rather than a blank slate, it took them long enough to get here, but I’m glad we’re here.
The presentation aspects of Metaphor: ReFantazio apply the same formula in which Persona excels, but in the new fantasy-RPG setting. And the results may not be as universally loved, I reckon. It’s familiar yet different, but it’s also different in the parts that made it charming and captivating in the first place.
Gameplay
Metaphor: ReFantazio has you play as the protagonist, of which you can name him. He and his fairy companion Gallica are on a mission to save the prince everyone thought to be dead. And after the death of the king, chaos ensues as the king’s magic decree that the next king must be chosen by the people’s will. One thing after another, and you and your merry party set off to what’s essentially an election race, in more ways than one, to save the prince and place him as the rightful monarch, or the land is doomed to the powers of a tyrant.
If you find the synopsis insufficient, go play the free demo. The first five hours alone set up the stage, but the proper explanation of the election race, the Tournament for the Throne, will only appear after the first proper dungeon.
The gameplay of Metaphor: ReFantazio is, to my surprise, an evolution of Persona 5 rather than a major reinvention. So many gameplay aspects you’d think are so specific to Persona’s identity that it surely can’t be replicated, yet Metaphor has them all. There’s a Velvet Room equivalent. There are the usual deadline missions where you must clear the dungeon before a specific in-game date. You still build relationships with fellow companions (albeit with no chance for any romantic pursuits this time—that didn’t make it here). The first few party members behave in archetypical ways that silly, light-hearted moments in Persona can still happen.
I feel that the list of differences between Persona 5 and Metaphor: ReFantazio is shorter than it is the list of how similar the two games are.
I was under the impression that the game wants to break free from its heritage and history, given this is a whole new IP and all. But it only took a half the step to do so. Consider this: in the world of Metaphor, the calendar operates in a five-day week, each with a different name compared to our world. The weekend is just one day: Idlesday. And every month has 30 days. But yet, the calendar still has 365 days a year (the extra days are tacked on at the end of the year). And months all have the same name as our world. They only world-build it halfway. (For reasons that will be clear once you play the game in full.)
And it’s similar to the spell names. I look at names like “Bot,” “Blizz,” “Kande,” and “Cyc” and think, “Oh boy, it’s time to learn new names of these elemental spells,” only to find there’s two other elemental spells, “Hama” and “Mudo.” Straight out of SMT. The moment I saw “Tarukaja” in the list of abilities, I just reverted back to my SMT/Persona instincts.
And please don’t blame me for mentioning so much of Persona and SMT. The game itself can’t stop doing it. There are clarion-clear Persona and Shin Megami Tensei references.
I agree. Metaphor is, metaphorically speaking, a new Persona game, just not in name. There’s efforts to try and make it something completely different, but it just didn’t want to stray away from its roots.
And for those Persona fans, which are out there in the millions, ’tis good news. This is a new Persona game you can enjoy, and we just had one already early this year. Sure, there’s a lot of minor changes here and there, and similar to the points I argue with the presentation, not everyone will be on board with what Metaphor brings to the table and what it left out, but it’s enough of a familiar taste that it can still be good fun.
So let’s talk about the actual derivations Metaphor made to the Pertsona formula then, shall we? Instead of summoning Personas, Metaphor swaps that Jungian concept with another: Archetypes. Instead of playing Pokemon, where you are capturing demons/shadows and fusing them to be stronger, you’re playing Final Fantasy, as Archetypes are a metaphor for the job system.
Each Archetype will grow and unlock a specific set of skills, exclusively for each job. Mages can learn half of the elemental spells, but the other three are spread across other Archetypes. Want to exploit wind weaknesses? You need the Seeker, the all-rounder Archetype that has physical and magical skills. Want light magic? It’s in the Healer Archetype, which, contrary to the name, can do good damage with its light magic and mace weapon. Want to get dark magic to complete the set? You have to study a non-mage Archetype entirely as it’s with the Thief.
More importantly, each Archetype can inherit skills from other Archetypes. So sort of like Persona fusions but you’re free to slot in any ability the character has learned. But it’s there to encourage you to explore the many, many Archetypes available. A bunch of them unlock early on, and you’re free to experiment with it in full. Sure, each party member has core stats that make them more effective in certain Archetypes. Strohl has high Strength so you might want to consider him for Warrior, Brawler and other damage-dealing Archetypes. Meanwhile, Hulkenberg has good Endurance making her a natural fit for tank Archetypes like those in the Knight tree.
But there are many ways to build a party. Some due to the requirements to unlock more advanced Archetypes. If you want Hulkenberg to venture further into the Knight tree of Archetypes, she’ll need to take a detour and level up as a Mage and a Wizard despite her lower Magic stat. And other times you just have to get someone who’s available to be that Archetype to exploit an enemy’s weakness. Switching Heismay from his Thief Archetype to something like a Gunner might be useful if a dungeon has a lot of enemies weak to pierce damage, or they have electric spells which a thief is weak to.
Some Archetypes can use Synthesis skills, stronger skills that require a specific party composition to trigger. Want to use elemental spells on all enemies? Bring two mages. Some passive skills give you big buffs if you stack the same Archetypes (or within the same Archetype tree).
The requirements for Synthesis attacks are very specific, and is there to make you consider the lineup of Archetypes to have in your party. Figuring out synergies are where the fun of it shines. I would have not consider using Masked Dancer in my lineup until I realise how powerful it can be when paired to a Mage. Having a Commander and a General in one party will see you comprised in raw attack power, but if you need to survive a specific boss battle that can home in on an elemental weakness, this odd combo works really well to my surprise.
Archetypes may only have 20 levels before they are maxed out, but getting to the max level requires a lot of grinding, and in that amount of time you could have gone and grinded other Archetypes and unlocked other useful, cheaper skills you can inherit on. The game constantly makes you think about the party composition—there’s plenty of nasty enemies that can exploit and be exploited through clever builds. And you will always be pondering about the cost benefit of sticking to one archetype or trying out new ones all the time. There’s no clear answer to how to build your party, as there’s many ways you can do it and have them still be viable.
The use of Archetypes also means everyone’s classes can be changed, not just the protagonist. So instead of having your player character fill in the gaps of your team, you have total freedom to shape your team in full. It’s a powerful and flexible system, and clearly the biggest change to the Persona/SMT formula, and it’s such a game-changer. It’s so much fun figuring out and pondering how to develop each party member and prepare for fights. Almost every dungeon requires you to rethink your party composition so that you can counter their weaknesses.
You cannot change Archetypes mid-battle like how the protagonist can change Personas in Persona. But understandably so. That would be flat out broken and ruin the real fun of Archetypes, the party building.
My only gripe about Archetypes is that you can’t refund or reset your builds. Later in the game, you have the opportunity to unlock the ultimate Archetype for each party member, and that requires you to invest in specific Archetypes to unlock. The requirements are revealed in the late game, and by that time it will take some ridiculous amount of grinding if you have strayed too far from those requirements and still want to unlock them.
Metaphor: ReFantazio still has an in-game calendar system. Between experiencing the story, you are required to clear a designated dungeon with a strict deadline. Failing so will result in a game over. And you can spend your time however you like, from hanging out with Followers to doing activities that improve your personality points (Royal Virtues). You can even take on optional dungeons and side quests as well, some being time-limited. The stressful fun of figuring out how to effectively spend your time is still here.
The calendar system in the context of this setting required some slight changes to make it work. And the changes made here make sense. You have to spend time to travel to certain locations, but there’s a fast travel option so you can revisit previous towns. It’s smart gameplay design being made here justified by lore, good stuff.
There are minor changes in the system that I like. Ranking up Followers (this game’s Social Links/Confidant equivalent) is more straightforward. Picking the wrong choice during dialogues won’t require you to spend more time meeting that companion to get it ranked up. You only meet Followers for ranking up. Which means the game’s visual novel aspects are less punishing. Though some Followers do require you to raise a specific Royal Virtue stat. Getting correct choices in dialogues rewards you with Mag instead, the currency used to grow your Archetypes. As such, you won’t feel like you have properly min-maxed your schedule or looked up guides to what’s the best answer for every conversation choice, should you wish to see every companion’s story to the end. There’s plenty of leeway. And the deadlines are not as short as they may feel. You have plenty of time to travel and do side content.
The dungeon crawling has also been evolved. The game calls its dungeons labyrinths, and it sure earned it—the layout of some of these multi-level dungeons can really turn you round upside down. A proper maze if you don’t have your bearings, even with the very informative map and the detective vision Fae Sight that highlights all interactable things. And you now have proper overworld combat.
In the Persona games, you could whack an enemy to start a battle with a turn advantage. In Metaphor, you now need to whack enemies enough to trigger a Squad Battle (normal turn-based battles) with an advantage. It gives a bit of an action-RPG feel, and the labyrinths are designed around it. Enemies can be hidden away behind the scenery only to ambush you. They also have different attack patterns, which you must avoid by dodge rolling should you wish to avoid getting ambushed. It’s good fun; my only complaint is that you cannot lock-on the camera to an enemy. Many a times I mashed away the attack button with no time to readjust the camera, only to get hit from a blind angle. The optional dungeons can feel a bit repetitive—the reused music and samey-looking visuals will wear out the novelty—but the gimmicks keep it fresh.
Metaphor: ReFanzio’s gameplay is built on top of Persona 5, but at least in this aspect, the changes made to the formula are significant and are an overall net gain, to me at least. The Archetype system is a fresh yet familiar system that’s built for players to play and find their ideal party lineup, with so many compositions being viable. That alone is enough to freshen up the tried-and-true system. But the more lenient schedule and nice improvements to dungeon crawling really make the gameplay shine much brighter than ever.
Content
Metaphor: ReFantazio is a big, long game. Claims of runtime going about 80 hours are true. This game will suck up your time. The story beats are told ploddingly, yet each twist and turn it takes makes it feel otherwise. It’s just long enough to really get you absorbing the world, the lore, and the characters in which the story is telling. The emotional moments, being the silly little gags during moments of respite or gut-wrenching revelations as the plot develops, they all hit hard.
And on that note, let’s’ talk about the story. Metaphor’s story is a metaphor of our own world, filled with prejudice. To us, the protagonist looks like a regular old human boy, but in this world where humans are the ultimate monsters and nine different tribes of mortals all look differently, this Elda boy sure looks weird, and we get to experience prejudice from almost everyone. Oh, the story’s not just about the race to be king. It’s about racism.
Thankfully, the story handles its topic and theme well. It’s not too overly preachy with its ideals, as every utopian idea it plants is sufficiently challenged by a realist devil’s advocate. The game presents this ideal world, which the party members believe can exist and thus fight for. And that ideal world is basically the world we’re living here—but not exactly right now given people in various parts of the world are going through war and suffering.
The game is called Metaphor for a reason.
It’s a powerful message. Metaphor makes you ponder what you would want in an ideal world by showing you the harsh reality of it all through this fantasy. This game.
This game wants to inspire its players to be better people, think of a better world, and maybe, just maybe, we can all start striving towards that. And that small step could be as simple as coming to terms and overcoming our own anxieties. The messaging of Metaphor’s story all comes across as genuine and thoughtful. And I hope it resonates with you just as it did for me.
And if that isn’t a selling point to you, then maybe you’ll love the twists and turns the main narrative takes on. If you remember Persona 5’s wild plot twists and revelations (all done with proper foreshadowing), then you’ll love the narrative hooks Metaphor: ReFantazio offers. It can get tense, sad, uplifting, and dreadful at any turn, and you’ll never realise how many hours have flown as you follow along this journey.
Other than the excellent main narrative, the heart-to-heart moments with Followers are just as exceptional. These optional side stories will see you see the wonders and horrors of the game’s world through different lenses and how it affects your close allies.
Whether that be a mixed-race girl struggling to fit in, a ruthless social climber that clawed their way up to riches but hate themselves for doing so, or anything in between, Metaphor’s take on Social Links hit just as hard as Atlus’ previous titles. It may not have full voice acting—it’s the most visual novel-esque aspect of the game—but it uses its limited amount of music, animation, and other assets to great effect. It’s worth going through them all, and as mentioned earlier, maxing out the Followers rank is much easier to do, so no reason to skip them.
Between the story and the sheer size to complete the game, you should be content with the content on offer. There’s plenty of content to experience here.
Personal Enjoyment
While I may be harsh on how some elements of Metaphor: ReFantazio changed over to Persona being for the worse. Yet at the end of the day, it plays like a Persona game, and I absolutely love it.
I might not vibe with most of the changes, but I still very much walk away with playing this game feeling great. This is just like that fun game I played seven years ago. The long journey with a cast of likeable characters (even more likeable antagonists—the “I love to hate” kind), the boldness in approaching sensitive themes in its story without being all daft, and the solid gameplay loop of planning your day and growing booth as a fighter and a person.
My most favourite change with Metaphor is, of course, the Archetype system, but I also very much enjoyed exploring the world. There’s enough lore to make it feel believable and get myself immersed in, and the English localisation is wonderful. The voice actors enjoyed their time performing, as it clearly shows in the final product. Absolutely love the breadth of accents on display here. And those performances really got me to laugh at the silly bits and shed tears at the most emotional beats of the story.
Verdict
Metaphor: ReFantazio may not officially be part of the Shin Megami Tensei series, but this is pretty much the spiritual successor to Persona.
It has evolved the unique RPG/life sim formula with some new additions, but it was done so carefully as to not rock the boat as much. The Archetype system is the crown jewel of it all, and the life-sim element being less punishing makes it easier to enjoy the vast content the game offers within a single playthrough.
One can argue that Atlus could claim to be the monarch of turn-based RPGs. With Persona 3 Reload and Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance all being excellent releases this year, Atlus makes such claims to the throne evermore stronger with Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Played on the PS5. Review code provided by the publisher.
Metaphor: ReFantazio
With such royal lineage from Atlus and Studio Zero behind it, Metaphor: ReFantazio makes a strong claim that it is the monarch of turn-based RPGs.
- Presentation 8.5
- Gameplay 9.5
- Content 9.5
- Personal Enjoyment 10