Metaphor: ReFantazio arrives on October 11 on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S and PC. Stay with the date marked on your calendar, because Atlus has come up with a new intellectual property that looks really good.
During the Play Days of the Summer Game Fest I was able to get closer to what promises to be one of the most notable releases of the last third of 2024. Metaphor: ReFantazio has caught the attention of many, but… what does it have to offer?
After Persona 3 Reload, Persona 4 Golden and the success of Persona 5 Royal a few years ago, Atlus embarks on the adventure with Metaphor: ReFantazio, a new IP that does not abandon the identity and successes of its successful Japanese role-playing saga.
Metaphor is a “fantazia” for Persona lovers
Especially if you’ve played Persona 5, soon you fall in love with a Metaphor: ReFantazio, which has the great touch of the creators of a saga that increasingly convinces more and more players. However, this new Atlus game veers in a different direction in terms of setting.
The test was divided into 3 segments of 15 minutes. and each one presented the most important virtues and systems of the game. The first focused on showing some characters and giving some information about the game’s plot.
Set in a fantasy world where humans are also villains (although there is no shortage of monstrous aberrations) we have to undertake a journey in the shoes of an anonymous hero accompanied by a fairy with the aim of competing for the Throne Tournament.
Yes, yes, now we have elections for monarch in the world of this game. The throne is empty after the king’s assassination. With no heirs in sight, the late king dictates that the new monarch will be elected by the people, thus marking the beginning of the fight for the throne, reads the official synopsis.
Little else was known, but I got into the proposal very well. By the way, the protagonist looked like he came out of Fire Emblem Engage with his bicolor pupils. After knowing some of the context, the second test began to clear up doubts.
What is combat like? Metaphor: ReFantazio?
This new part of the demo was a good introduction to make it clear that The combat system mixed between real-time and turn-based action is really good managing in the process to highlight the dynamic transitions of Persona, which are not lacking in ReFantazio either.
Dungeon navigation will appeal to fans of the company. I was able to walk through one of them while facing many enemies, identifying their strength previously with a pulse (the fairy vision of our accompanying “Tinker Bell”) that marked by color the difficulty of the combat to prepare us as best as possible.
If you decided to go all out you could attack directly with a basic attack combo that allows you to damage the enemy like this is a hack and slash. If the opponents were very weak, you could even dispatch them with this technique.
However, in the vast majority of cases these movements only managed to partially reduce the enemies’ life, at which point the turn-based combat, which is very similar to the Persona sagaagain.
Elemental damage, combination of physical blows, party management with different strengths and the possibility of using the Archetypes (the people of this game), who are chivalrous entities with different extremely useful abilities, were seen in quite some depth.
Additionally, ReFantazio offers some new ideas and systems. The position (forward or behind) of the characters allows us to perform different actions or our statistics can be customized to a greater degree when we level up.
The size of the new thing from the creators of Persona
The third and last part of the test was a small appetizer to demonstrate that this game is going to be huge. You already know that there are never enough hours with Persona, but I’m not just talking about duration, but about the game world itself.
The last demo was located at a more advanced point in the game and showed our base, a battleship where we can socialize and set the course for a while. overworld that gave a glimpse of a few settings, towns, cities and dungeons to visit.
The day and night cycle is also seen here to indicate that it will be a vitally important system in the game. The actions we develop will be limited by light and The decisions we make will also have an implication in the campaign.
After chatting with some characters to establish better relationships, I was approached by a beast boss. The battle against this tentacular being with the face of Poseidon was fierce and I had to manage MP, healing and the Archetypes to not bite the dust.
However, beyond telling you what the demo offered, What has convinced me most to speak so highly of Metaphor ReFantazio is its presentation. Atlus has prepared a tremendously attractive game, with spectacular anime scenes and an artistic design that is as characteristic as it is charming that makes even the menus stand out for their personality.
Honorable mention to the couple of songs from the soundtrack that I was able to listen to and that did not disappoint. The graphic plot is not revolutionaryespecially when we talk about the scenarios, but the particles could not have been more present to round out that fairy tone of the game.
The only doubt that I am looking forward to seeing clarified ahead of the release of this game on October 11 on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S and PC is If this game will live too long in the shadow of the Persona saga or if it will manage to differentiate itself enough to continue its own path.
For now, this question will be a pleasure to resolve by playing Metaphor ReFantazio, which is set as one of the most promising RPGs of the year… Although first it’s Shin Megami Tensei 5 Vengeance in a few days.
