Metaphor Re:Fantazio (PS5)
by
Thomas Froehlicher
, posted 16 hours ago / 1,173 Views
When I was reviewing Final Fantasy VII Rebirth a few months ago, it looked set to be my Game of the Year. Metaphor: ReFantazio was still a distant concept and, I thought, communication of that concept was anything great. It turns out that I was really underestimating Atlus at the time. It’s been eight years since Persona 5, and maybe I had begun to forget its magic, because as a JRPG from the creators of Persona 5, the magic is undoubtedly there in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
When I was younger, I used to watch the Columbo series, where you know the culprit’s identity right away at the start. Metaphor: ReFantazio is a bit like that, because the introduction shows the King of Euchronia (Metaphor‘s fantasy world) being murdered in his sleep by an ambitious aristocrat named Louis, which throws the whole country into turmoil. From there, the protagonist and the comrades he meets all have different reasons for sharing the same goal: to prevent the wicked Louis from seizing the throne.
As simple as it seems, the narrative has its fair share of surprises. This has to do with the tremendous wealth of characters in the game. Due to a certain magic, the race for the throne is turned into an election, in which the protagonists gets to runs. Adding to the eight playable characters, you meet several competitors and followers who back you. All of them have personal stories and strange personalities that make Metaphor’s adventure strikingly vivid.
The sub-stories are quite interesting for most part, for they convey a range of different emotions: sometime are heart-breaking, sometime heart-warming or just purely fun, and they’ll keep you engaged for hours. They often leave you in suspense, since the structure of the game has you experiencing them little by little. And, just like in Persona, you can spend extensive time with your allies in a whole lot of mini sequences that play a great part in making the cast truly unforgettable.
But that doesn’t mean you’ll forget about the main story. Metaphor: ReFantazio offers some fascinating chapters. Take for instance the Opera house one, it’s a breathtaking chapter very reminiscent of the great Final Fantasy VI, absolutely loaded with memorable sequences, grandiose fights, and striking reveals. And in the end, the whole game is like that. The thirst for more is real, as Atlus always drops a little something to make you eager to progress and feel engaged – a new character, intense combat, a shocking truth, stunning landscapes, etc. Even the most common NPCs sometimes tell a tale that blows your mind. Metaphor: ReFantazio has so much to offer in terms of characters, creativity, and storytelling that I couldn’t help feeling overwhelmed at times.
The incongruity of an election in a kingdom ruled by Royals for ages is in reality an occasion for the story to develop elaborate thoughts about democracy and society. The protagonist always carries with him a strange book about an ideal world, where people have equal chances, decide their own fates, and live in harmony. It’s a dream-like realm wholly different from Euchronia, which is a medieval regime plagued by injustice, greed, and poverty.
But there are whispers of a past, of a very advanced civilisation that ultimately failed, creating a scenario that raises the question of the relationship between democracy and freedom. There are also different tribes in the game, and it’s worth noticing that the protagonist’s party has one representative of each tribe, like a call for tolerance in a kingdom known for its inequality. The narrative therefore has powerful philosophic elements – something that only the greatest works in JRPG history possess.
Metaphor: ReFantazio boasts world design like you seldom see, starting with the giant flying rock that has symbolized it since reveal. Here again Atlus’ creativity is absolutely inspired. The designers left their comfort zone and came up with an innovative take on characters, meaning that they ditched the classical human hero or heroine. You befriend an elf-like girl, a bat-like character or a maiden with a third eye, but no real typical human. The result is a party that literally breathes fantasy, a bit like Final Fantasy Tactics Advance did in its time. Humans exist, though, but on the opposite side of the divide.
These so-called Humans are twisted and awfully misshapen creatures roaming Euchronia as dangerous enemies. Atlus went beyond the boundaries of the bizarre with these designs and the result is amazing. I could also mention the funny Runner, a land vessel with legs that the party owns. Just travelling with it feels incredible. There are numerous examples like this, but in short the world is packed with wonders that I’ve never seen in a game before.
As for combat, Metaphor: ReFantazio is a good old turn-based JRPG, where strategy and careful planning matter. Characters wield the power of Archetypes, abstract figures that party members turn into when attacking. Archetypes are essentially jobs, hence my mention of Final Fantasy Tactics above. You can equip a character with an archetype, and they then acquire attack and passive skills specific to that archetype. For example, the Gunner can deal what is called “pierce” damage from behind, the Warrior heavy “slash” damage with its greatsword, and the Mage masters the natural elements.
There are also very complex Archetypes like the Masked Dancer, which can wear different masks to mimic other Archetypes, or the all-powerful Summoner, who masters absolutely ever type of damage once you acquire the corresponding stones (needless to say, these are incredibly difficult to come by). Unlike Persona 5, every character can equip any archetype, so you can choose the allies you like the most. Besides that, the currently-equipped Archetype can also inherit a couple of skills or spells from another, allowing for very elaborate lineups.
Combat isn’t simplistic or easy; basic skills won’t do much against bosses or even the relatively big enemies within dungeons. For these, the player must analyze how Archetypes can cooperate. Two Healers can, for example, cast a light spell on all opponents, while a single healer only targets one. Three magic-type archetypes lets the Mage unleash the mightiest fire spell available, which comes in handy at times. Such cooperation skills take more than one turn crystal (as turns are represented in game), but you can save turn crystals by exploiting the enemy’s weakness, like you can in Shin Megami Tensei and its spin-offs.
The possibilities offered by Archetypes are fantastic and their complexity goes well beyond anything I’ve experienced from Atlus thus far. You have several types of Archetypes that work against a set weakness (three Archetype lineages have fire spells, for example). So you can choose the ones that fit your current goal or preferences. Boss fights are no joke and it’s a renewed pleasure to overcome the various (tough) challenges after devising the right strategy. Metaphor: ReFantazio also lives up to Persona 5 in two particular aspects: main dungeons are never short of surprises, and the presentation of the battle menu is once again fantastic.
Like in Persona, Metaphor: ReFantazio is played in limited time. There’s an in-game calendar with deadlines set to clear the main dungeons. So you can’t have everyone master every archetype – you need to choose and use every day wisely. Unlike Persona 5, which gives you fixed Personas that you have to figure out how to use optimally, building characters and Archetypes in Metaphor: ReFantazio must be planned well ahead of time. This a fundamental difference between the two and the reason why this new IP elevates Atlus’ core gameplay conceits, which were already very good. Exploration is important and quite entertaining too: you can tackle tricky secondary dungeons, discover special shops, or visit your followers.
The latter provide perks, like increased slots for inherited skills, greater experience gain and, most importantly, the ability to unlock advanced Archetypes. The Healer can become the Cleric, for instance, with far superior healing capabilities, and you can become a General after being a Commander, gaining powerful ice skills in addition to the potent fire skills the latter had.
The whole game must be seen as a wide array of possibilities, with the player finding their own way to victory with their choices and favorite characters. As far as I’m concerned, this feels rewarding beyond anything I expected. Overflowing with content, the game is very long (around 70 hours), even with Atlus allowing you save time (any low-level enemy on the map can be beaten instantly without entering a turn-based battle, and you’ll still gain experience and materials).
The visuals are Metaphor‘s clear weakness. The game modeling isn’t what you’d expect from a PS5 game in 2024, and I’d say it’s fairly underwhelming for PS4 too. The backgrounds aren’t very sharp and you see aliasing here and there. Secondary dungeons look very common; actually, they don’t look like much of anything really. And there are several towers to explore across Euchronia, but the interior of each tower looks the exact same everytime. This kind of reuse of assets is fairly disappointing for a game of this magnitude. I shiver at the thought of what Metaphor: ReFantazio could have looked like with a Final Fantasy-sized budget. I expect it would have been my first perfect score, but it looks like I’ll need to withhold that one once again.
One aspect that does score perfect marks is the original music score. Here again, I was pretty sure that Final Fantasy VII Rebirth would be my soundtrack of the year, but Metaphor‘s music blows it away completely. Atlus’ sound team has crafted vibrant choruses befitting the heroic fantasy genre, but with such unorthodox compositions that it felt fresh to my ears. Other vocals and melodies are bewitching to the point they lift your spirit in battle or dungeons. And there’s the strange theme of Virga island, with its weird vocals and hypnotic murmurs. It sounds like a tribal chant from afar, a bit like what Genshin Impact achieved with the Natlan soundtrack two months ago. The music is a splendid journey in itself.
Metaphor: ReFantazio is the type of game you feel was made to achieve something greater than just sales. It’s a completely new world, boasting an immense wealth of gameplay, characters, locations, and music, redefining heroic fantasy like no JRPG has done for decades. Atlus’ latest title is also a fantastic challenge for turn-based combat and strategy lovers, with highly enjoyable and rewarding dungeons. Put another way, Metaphor: ReFantazio is the golden age of fantasy JRPGs, revived from the ashes in all its majesty, no less.
During the day, Thomas is a normal account manager. But at night he becomes Ryuzaki57, an extreme otaku gamer hungry for Japanese games (preferably with pretty girls in the main role). He spends a lot of time on F2P RPGs, but never misses the lastest interesting releases. Feel free to contact on twitter at @Ryuz4ki57
This review is based on a retail copy of Metaphor: ReFantazio for the PS5
