From each character’s magical awakening and all the RPG mechanics it opens, to the social sim elements that feed into how you interact with the world, Metaphor ReFantazio is clearly adopting the Persona formula – but it’s doing so for something seemingly bigger in scope from both a gameplay and storytelling perspective. After playing about five hours of Atlus’ upcoming RPG, it’s extremely apparent how it’s leveraging the strengths of its previous games to think outside the confines of traditional fantasy and create something wholly unique. And as much as I love Persona, it’s about damn time we’ve had a game of this style that goes beyond the classroom walls and halls of high school.
No matter which way you cut it, Metaphor is a politically charged story – not just in the concept of being the main character who is striving to win an election to be the next king. Having played the opening hours, it boldly establishes the social dynamics of its medieval fantasy setting, the Kingdom of Euchronia. The story opens up with the protagonist in a carriage with a group of wanderers getting ambushed by bandits, where he witnesses a red-haired elven girl slice down the bandits before he gets kicked off a cliff to fend for himself. It’s a grim, hostile world outside of the towns and city walls where outlaws and monsters always seeking prey. And even within its capital, its society rife with classism and discrimination shows that nowhere is truly safe. Metaphor makes this clear as soon as you reach the Royal Capital in the opening hours, showcasing how poverty, racism, and militarism dictate life across the kingdom.
The protagonist is an “elda,” a tribe (or race) that presents as regularly human – they’re a rare sight in Euchronia and are treated with disdain. The elven “roussainte” and horned “clemar” are more commonly accepted while the hedonistic cat-like “paripus” live on the fringes of society. The tribal dynamics set the tone for a story that seems to wield social injustice as a major theme. But the main character isn’t just any young elda; he’s best friends with the crown prince, who’s effectively in a coma after a violent coup attempt from years ago. This relationship is revealed early on, which begs the question of what the protagonist’s role and motivations really are as he becomes a serious candidate in the kingdom-wide election process.
Significant parts of this opening use beautiful anime-style cutscenes and I didn’t mind putting the controller down for long periods because these show an elevated level of production chops compared to Atlus’ previous games. That extends to its stunning aesthetic; Metaphor brings the kind of flash and fashion you expect from Persona while blending in the harshness of a brutal medieval world.
However, I wasn’t entirely sold on Metaphor in the opening hours. It’s visually striking with a captivating setup, but it’s delivered in a fairly by-the-numbers sequence of events as it tries to build the foundation of a brand new setting. I started to see the vision once I got deeper into the preview demo, though. After signing up as a foot soldier in the army and getting sent off to a dangerous military operation, you’re paired with a clemar named Strohl, and your fairy companion Gallica reminds you that your mission is to meet with someone on the inside who has vital information for your true goal. Not much is explained at first, but as I got through the introductory dungeon, I saw more of Metaphor’s pieces fall into place. I began to see how corruption from within the kingdom exploits people who are used as political pawns. I forged an early bond with Strohl who’s a well-meaning noble willing to put his life on the line for what’s right. But I also questioned why all the bosses of this world are deranged amalgamations of humans with monikers that harken to our real world. So much of Metaphor remains a mystery, but I was quickly convinced that its world warrants a journey upwards of 80-plus hours. And one thing I was sure of was that it still has that badass edge expected from an Atlus RPG.
Just like in Persona, each party member in Metaphor has an adrenaline-induced awakening that opens them up to supernatural powers, literally ripping their hearts out to transform into beastly figures. In battle, they transform into what are called Archetypes when casting spells or using certain types of attacks – they work more like RPG classes job system than they do than the Pokemon-like personas or demons from Shin Megami Tensei. And instead of the Velvet Room or World of Shadows where you build a roster for combat, Metaphor has what’s called Akademia (which serves a similar purpose) where you assign and customize Archetypes for each party member.
When the preview demo fast-forwarded to much further into the story, the Archetype mechanics opened up significantly. Every character can unlock and spec into any of the 40-or-so Archetypes – a few of which include the spell-focused Mage, the swift trickster of Thief, the more balanced Seeker, and the tank-like Warrior. While I didn’t get to experience how deep it goes, I saw the various branches of Archetypes which also hinted at how they’ll evolve over the course of the game. Each of these come with their own stats that dictate combat roles, but also come with specific elemental affinities and spells, so party composition is still a fundamental part of Metaphor much in the same vein as a Persona or SMT.
Metaphor’s turn-based RPG combat leans heavier into SMT with the press-turn system where you earn extra actions for each turn phase, as opposed to Persona’s one-more and baton pass system. Although the naming conventions for certain elemental abilities have changed (light, dark, and buff spells have not, by the way), the flow is very familiar since you’re still targeting enemy weaknesses to get through battles effectively. A new wrinkle, however, is how you cast multi-target spells – in Metaphor, Synthesis attacks consume two turn icons and combine the elemental powers of two characters in order to execute devastating specials, including multi-target spells. It made me think more strategically about when I should use these kinds of abilities, but it’s also a clever rework since I no longer have to dedicate a character’s limited action slots to these spell types.
Another smart way Metaphor rethinks the formula is in how you initiate combat. There’s a real-time action element where you attack enemies in the dungeon to gain a turn advantage and damage foes before jumping into the turn-based battles. It’s a bit more involved than stealthy ambushes in Persona 5, and instead of repeatedly churning through low-level enemies, you can reach a point where you just hack and slash through the fodder entirely. However, enemies fight back in the overworld so you have to approach them carefully and dodge their attacks, lest you yourself get ambushed and put at a severe disadvantage. While the action element isn’t intended to be in-depth and is more of a preface to the full battles, it improves pacing by having a more sensible flow between exploration and combat.
When I jumped later into the story, I was able to explore the humble town of Martira and experience how the day-night cycle and calendar system work. Spending time to understand the cultures of the world and the different peoples who embody them to build bonds is a revamp of the Confidant/Social Link mechanics, and these feed into combat since they unlock new Archetypes and abilities. Taking part in certain activities boosts social stats to let you access new interactions or quests as well. There’s still a countdown of days until a major story event happens, requiring you to progress the main quest at the appropriate pace and make tough decisions about how you spend your limited time in each phase of the day – as is Persona tradition. But from a conceptual level, winning the hearts and minds of seemingly disparate peoples amid political turmoil while carrying out your own personal mission fits this gameplay framework incredibly well.
Time management isn’t just about how you spend parts of your day either. Going on expeditions for quests to far-off locations across the kingdom consumes multiple days, pushing you to plan ahead and think about what’s worth doing. During expeditions on your Gauntlet Runner (the ground-based ship that works like a mobile headquarters), you can access unique interactions with characters while in transit, so it’s not like you’re simply burning days off the calendar. I got to strengthen my bond with the former royal knight Hulkenberg better through her love for tabletop games, and I cooked with my guy Strohl to get know him better while making healing items. Sidequests themselves involve battling through curated dungeons and bosses, and also present supplementary story content you wouldn’t see from the main quest alone. Metaphor is said to be packed with so much side content that the development team claimed you won’t be able to complete it all in one playthrough.
Playing five hours of Metaphor ReFantazio proved what I’d been thinking for years since I fell in love with Persona – that the series foundation could reach new heights if used in a different context. And the context here is a violent political fantasy drama. The daily structure and social sim mechanics built around a turn-based RPG are so familiar but have been revamped in several small yet impactful ways, and it’s shaping up to be a brilliant, synergistic way of exploring an entirely new and fascinating fiction in the comfort of a framework I already know and love.
Aside from the bold new soundtrack from longtime Atlus composer Shoji Meguro (who’s now wielding classical orchestras and a Latin-style choir), Metaphor’s lasting impact will be in how its political storytelling comes together. A preview demo of a lengthy RPG isn’t going to reveal that, of course, but it’s showing promise with characters who make great first impressions, narrative themes that are clearly inspired by the problems we face in our real world, and a signature style full of powerful imagery.
I was also left with questions I’m eager to seek the answers to. There’s this book that the protagonist is always carrying with him, and it contains a story of a utopia where everyone has happy and prosperous lives with images vaguely representing our reality. And the very first thing you do in Metaphor is name yourself before naming the protagonist. Given the crueIty displayed and the statements it makes early on, I can’t stop thinking about what Metaphor will ultimately say about virtues and perils of the human condition. It won’t be long until we get those answers because Metaphor ReFantazio launches on October 11 this year for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4 and 5, and PC.
