Spearheaded by a trio of veteran builders greatest identified for his or her excellent work on the Persona collection, Metaphor: ReFantazio is the daybreak of a model new IP from Atlus. In its construction and mechanics, it feels comfortingly acquainted, however in its fantastical setting and daring fashion — each by way of visuals and audio — it breaks new floor in brilliantly memorable methods.
Proper off the bat, Metaphor boasts one of many strongest overarching narratives that the Japanese developer has ever authored. The place the Persona video games typically let their deeply endearing characters all however carry the central plot, Metaphor crafts a tightly-knit story that includes political machinations, racial tensions, spiritual corruption, and persistently inventive worldbuilding.
In choosing a fantasy setting, it virtually appears like Atlus is ready to unleash a stage of creativity that we have not seen from the corporate in a long time. Whereas there is no doubt that the title borrows from established ideas and themes of present works, it manages to meld one thing distinctive — a sport that’ll stick with you lengthy after the credit roll. And in an period when so many fashionable RPGs both battle to face out, or are happy with merely using the coattails of style classics, that is extremely excessive reward.
A cursed prince is the crux of Metaphor’s story, and your wide-eyed protagonist is tasked with being the would-be king’s saviour. The sport opens as you strategy the foreboding capital metropolis of Grand Trad, your solely aim being to fulfill up with a contact within the kingdom’s army. For sure, proceedings do not essentially go to plan, and earlier than you recognize it, you are tousled within the title’s narrative hook: the royal match.
Primarily, the late king’s last want sees hundreds of potential successors compete for the throne. Very like Persona, Metaphor operates on an in-game calendar system, which provides you many months to ascertain your self because the main candidate, all within the identify of your curse-stricken prince. You journey the land through a fantastically drawn map, partaking in contests of brains and brawn at key areas together with your rivals, all whereas trying to win the individuals’s favour.
Once more, Persona is the closest comparability close to construction. Every time you arrive at a contemporary vacation spot, you are launched to new characters and story beats throughout a variety of in-game days — by which era a menace to the native populace is unearthed, and you are the hero in ready. It is fairly formulaic stuff, however you are given ample quantities of free time in between the introduction of your present job and its looming deadline.
Metaphor shines throughout these player-driven sections. There are monster bounties to money in on, non-compulsory dungeons to rummage by way of, and, after all, allies to converse with. Free days are damaged down into afternoons and nights, and also you’re clearly inspired to spend your restricted time properly. But when that sounds demanding, know that the sport does a formidable job of constructing every thing really feel streamlined and accessible; it is a tightly designed expertise the place numerous techniques feed again into others, guaranteeing that there is at all times one thing to work in direction of.
For instance, ‘Followers’ are a set of your closest allies, from social gathering members to secondary characters. Spending high quality time with them provides you entry to a rising checklist of helpful perks — advantages like diminished store costs and enhanced fight instructions. However a Follower’s true value is discovered within the Archetypes (learn: character courses) that they unlock, with extra highly effective incarnations saved for extra severe relationships.
Archetypes are the lynchpin of Metaphor’s gameplay development. Our protagonists can assume the type of hulking heroic entities in battle, granting them harmful magics and skills in order that they’ll go toe-to-toe with the dominion’s most harmful creatures. Whereas your social gathering members do have statistical preferences — the stoic knight Hulkenberg, for example, is primarily constructed to resist harm — you are still free to have any ally channel any Archetype.
Naturally, there’s plenty of potential for party-based experimentation. Tanks, damage-dealers, healers, spellcasters — it is your commonplace RPG job system, but it surely’s brilliantly woven into the remainder of the sport’s mechanical tapestry and its worldbuilding. Levelling up your Archetypes and pushing in direction of a particular social gathering steadiness is at all times rewarding — particularly since expertise can ultimately be transferred between Archetypes, permitting for but extra customisation.
That brings us neatly to the turn-based fight, which takes cues from each Persona and the broader Shin Megami Tensei franchise. Atlus’ trademark weak point system, during which you exploit enemy vulnerabilities with a view to achieve further turns, stays on the coronary heart of battle — however typically talking, fights are extra strategically paced than what you will discover elsewhere.
The title’s bestiary is not significantly massive — in truth, enemy sorts can develop fairly repetitive as the journey wears on — however your foes are well-defined of their behaviours and traits, in a method that is considerably harking back to older Last Fantasy video games. Take Goborns, for instance — merciless monsters that fly right into a frenzy ought to they spy a celebration member wielding any sort of magic-based weaponry. Or the bird-like Cockatrice, which is able to one-shotting allies who aren’t buffed by a defensive spell.
What we’re saying is that there is rather more to fight than simply placing elemental weaknesses; there are plenty of particulars to take note of, and that elements into each your chosen tools and Archetypes. Certainly, Metaphor generally is a brutally unforgiving RPG even on its regular issue setting; enemies will be downright ruthless in case you’re caught underprepared, harkening again to the hardcore days of Shin Megami Tensei 3 and the like.
That sort of demanding issue curve retains Metaphor partaking all through; its fight system is continually supplying you with one thing new to contemplate. It is value mentioning, nonetheless, that in case you’re taking part in for the story at the beginning, there are simpler difficulties to mess around with — and people choices are at all times welcome when there will be such a high quality line between enjoyment and frustration.
The boss battles, by the best way, are clear highlights. We’re speaking distinctive and stunning mechanics that demand your consideration, showcasing the most effective elements of Metaphor’s fight design. You get the impression that Atlus desires every combat to really feel significant, and that extends by way of to the truth that you possibly can select to only obliterate lower-level foes through motion fight, which takes place as you are dashing round dungeons.
Very like within the current Trails by way of Dawn, you possibly can stun enemies with action-based assaults, resulting in an instantaneous benefit upon triggering the common turn-based battle. Nonetheless, the trade-off is that ought to you be attacked by a suitably robust opponent — often since you’ve woefully mistimed your dodge roll — you will find yourself being ambushed. And that is just about a dying sentence in relation to coping with extra succesful monsters.
Whether or not it is by way of storytelling or demanding fight eventualities, Metaphor retains you locked in — but it surely does stumble with dungeon design. The beast-infested areas that you will discover throughout the primary marketing campaign are largely high quality, however non-compulsory dungeons undergo from a noticeable drop in high quality. Granted, their predominant objective is to accommodate encounters and get you enthusiastic about treasure chests, however they’re shockingly bland to have a look at, and their repetitive layouts depart a lot to be desired. And no, they are not procedurally generated — though they typically really feel like they could possibly be.
Talking of presentation, Metaphor will be disappointingly tough across the edges; a problem that is amplified by the sport’s frankly unbelievable artwork route. The character portraits, their designs, the painterly menus, the person interface… it is all beautiful, and so it stings a bit when NPCs and environments are coated in terribly low decision textures and dodgy anti-aliasing. In the end, the sport’s artistry overshadows these ugly graphical flaws, but it surely’s nonetheless a jarring downgrade off the again of the completely immaculate Persona 3 Reload, which Atlus launched earlier this 12 months.
And at last, let’s contact upon the music, which has received to be a few of longtime composer Shoji Meguro’s most placing work up to now. It is a booming orchestral rating that makes use of incessant, religious-sounding chants and rousing choirs, leading to an odd and arguably otherworldly tone. It has been a very long time since we heard such distinctive however compelling tracks in a online game, as soon as once more emphasising Metaphor’s creativity.