Metaphor: ReFantazio Video Game Review (I get it now)

My brother is a huge Atlus fan, and for years has tried (and failed) to get me to play a video game developed by them. Despite my resilience, he’s gotten close. After years of watching him play in our living room, he successfully got me to appreciate Atlus’ unique UI design and soundtrack composition; however, when it came to playing their games, I never gave them a chance. He kept insisting, of course, but my answer was always the same: “I will play one, eventually…” Now, after much waiting, eventually has come. I’ve played my first Atlus game, Metaphor: ReFantazio, and I must now use this opportunity to say: brother, I get it now.

So, what changed my mind? Why was I so reluctant to play an Atlus game in the first place? Well, to put it simply, Atlus games seemed, to my untrained eyes, indicative of many problems I personally had with JRPGs (Japanese Role-playing Games). These were, mainly, their length, gameplay and story. However, upon playing Metaphor: ReFantazio, I’ve come to see things differently. With its masterful execution, this game brilliantly justifies its lengthy runtime, incorporating it into the gameplay and story seamlessly. But I’m getting ahead of myself. For now, what you need to know is that this game is way more than the sum of its parts.

Metaphor: ReFantazio is a phenomenal game, one that has single-handedly revitalized my love for the genre of turn-based JRPGs. Moreover, it’s a bold and nuanced experience with a lot to say for itself. In the following Metaphor: ReFantazio review, I want to tell you why this game is special. So, join me as I tried to save you the time I’ve lost by dismissing my brother’s advice, as this is an experience you won’t regret.

The Story of Metaphor: ReFantazio

The Premise

The Cursed Prince

Metaphor: ReFantazio is set in a somewhat technologically advanced fantasy world called the United Kingdom of Euchronia. This world, like many in the fantasy genre, takes heavy inspiration from medieval aesthetics; although the environment itself has a more contemporary style, with cities reminiscent of modern day Europe. As expected, there are fantasy races (or tribes, in this case), mages, healers, monsters, etc. However, and perhaps most importantly, there exists some mysterious, giant and grotesque creatures called Humans, which have recently been terrorizing the kingdom.

Encounter with Human, with designed inspired by Bosch’s Garden of Earthly delights.

Amidst this chaos, the king of Euchronia is assassinated, and with his dying breath, he casts a spell that sets up a succession contest: whoever has the most support by October 27th, will be crowned as the new king. The king’s assassin, Louis Guiabern, is the front-runner of the race, having gained the people’s favour as a military genius and renowned Human slayer. It’s now up to you, a close friend of the thought-to-be-dead but actually cursed prince, to defeat Louis, save your friend, and set the kingdom astray again. The clock is now ticking, and you have exactly four months to gather support, resources and strength.

The Journey

Playable Characters: Heismay, Hulkenberg, the protagonist and Strohl

In the four months you’re given, the game masterfully positions you as the underdog in the succession contest. As you’ll soon realize, not all tribes are treated equally in Euchronia, and you’re an Elda, perhaps the lesser of the “lesser tribes”, for reasons I won’t spoil. All you have at the beginning of the story is your trusty companion Gallica, a fairy who was sent to guide you; and a fantasy book, one that tells tales of, oddly enough, our contemporary world. A place our protagonist describes as Utopia.

As the game progresses, for personal or political reasons, many characters from different tribes come to join your cause. Such is the case of rural noble Leon Strohl, who believes Louis let his home town be destroyed by a Human in order to set an example; or ex-royal knight Hulkenberg, who failed to protect the prince and has lived with regret ever since. At first, it’s a small party, but you’ll eventually be able to assemble a team with all the tribes, united under a vision of a society free of prejudice.

Now, I must mention one of the driving forces of the story: the Sanctist Church. Sanctism is the state religion of Euchronia, and its leader, Sanctifex Forden, is only surpassed by Louis in the race. In order to gain the people’s favour, the Sanctist Church organized a contest within the contest, one designed to assure their power to the people. You and your comrades enter this contest and, in doing so, embark on an adventure that traverses the entirety of Euchronia. This is where the story of Metaphor: ReFantazio truly begins. In this journey you’ll find companions, unravel conspiracies, awaken new magical powers, and uncover the truths of this mysterious world.

The Themes

The protagonist’s fantasy novel

The main theme of Metaphor: ReFantazio is the idea of fantasy. To be more specific, it’s about what fantasy does: is it purely for entertainment? Can it say something about our current society? Does it have a purpose beyond being a framework for stories? Does it need to have one? All of these questions are made explicit on the journey you partake in, as characters comment on your “fantasy book” with various different perspectives. Furthermore, the game itself is, as the name suggests, a metaphor for this, giving the player a chance to reflect on the societal and systemic problems this world presents, and apply them to real life.

Originally, I must admit, I thought the framing of this was a little idealistic. Having characters in a fantasy world read about our world is a fascinating idea, but calling it Utopia was a bit too much for me. We all know our world is no Utopia, otherwise, there wouldn’t be as much turmoil as there currently is. However, the game knew this from the very beginning, and masterfully played around it. As our protagonist’s journey progresses, it becomes increasingly clearer that the book he reads is incomplete, leaving open threads that will ultimately result in more inequalities. If Utopia, or at least something close to it, is achievable, new ideas have to be proposed.

Metaphor: ReFantazio, intelligently so in my opinion, doesn’t give you the answer for achieving Utopia. Rather, like a good fantasy story, it gives you ideas worth striving for. This, of course, mirrors the story itself, as our characters decide to believe in the book’s ideals, and find new ways to reach them. Believing in something, the game says, takes courage, and maybe fantasy can help us get a little more of it.

The Gameplay

Battle menu against a Human enemy

Despite this being a video game review, I really needed to address the story before getting into the game part of this game. This is because, as I’ve hinted earlier, the gameplay and narrative are intimately connected. Metaphor: ReFantazio has two gameplay modes: turn-based combat and overworld exploration. This is standard for JRPGs, but where this game differs is in its unique calendar system. True to the narrative, the game gives you deadlines for finishing story related quests. If you don’t complete them, it’s game over. Furthermore, this deadline is also all the time you’re given to explore a given city in the overworld. As you’ll soon realize, doing city activities is very important in a game based around a popularity contest. The more activities you do, the higher your royal virtues, like courage, eloquence or wisdom, will be.

Royal virtues menu

This is also brilliantly related to turn-based combat, and now I must mention the unique magical powers the playable characters have: Archetypes. Archetypes are ghost-like creatures that are supposed to be the embodiment of one’s desire and role in the story. Think of them like the Stands of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures. Interestingly enough, every character is able to use every Archetype, but some Archetypes are better suited for specific characters due to their stat distribution. In order for your Archetypes to be stronger, you’ll need to build relationships with the other characters in the overworld. Building up relationships, like every activity, takes time, a resource you’ll need to carefully balance. Additionally, some characters won’t trust you with their problems if your royal virtues are too low, so they become necessary for progressing.

And so, Metaphor: ReFantazio shows its card as a fascinating video game, presenting an intriguing and addictive gameplay loop.

The Gameplay Loop

Leveling up a companion’s trust

Back when I saw my brother play Atlus games, I didn’t understand how he could be so invested in a game that, from the outside looking in, seemed full of dialogue boxes. For that, I thought, why not play a Visual Novel? However, what I now understand is that Atlus games, and Metaphor: ReFantazio in particular, are about managing resources.

Combat, dialogue and story are all interconnected through the framing device of the calendar; and choosing what to invest your time in is tense, but also exciting. Believe me when I say that I have never before wanted to re-play a game so badly, simply because I now know that I could’ve managed my time more efficiently. This is despite the fact the game took me 75 hours to complete. So yes, I want to play through its campaign again, all because the gameplay loop is so excellently executed.

Furthermore, Atlus fixes one of the problems I’ve had with many JRPGs’ stories, and that’s that they don’t take advantage of the medium therein. For as fantastic as some of their narratives are, most of the time I couldn’t shake the feeling they would be better suited for an anime. This is not the case for Metaphor: ReFantazio, where the stakes feel real because, gameplay wise, they are. Neglecting a companion means not having it at full strength when you might need it the most, and that’s a consequence of your actions, something conventional narratives are unable to accomplish.

This is why, I would argue, anime adaptations of Atlus games, like the Persona series, are considered by some fans as disappointing. These stories were created for the medium of video games, and by translating them, you’ll inevitably lose some of what made them special.

This is still a JRPG

Battle menu against a common enemy

I want to clarify that, for all its innovation, this is at its heart a JRPG, and perhaps it’s the golden standard the genre should follow. Having justified its lengthy campaign with a fantastic story and immersive gameplay, what you have left is an easy to understand, but hard to master, turn-based RPG. The enemies you’ll fight along the way all have weaknesses, resistances and immunities, and learning to play around them is key. In this game, hitting an enemy with a move they are weak to will provide your party with an extra turn; hitting an immune target, on the other hand, will take turns away from you. This, crucially, also applies the other way around.

In practice, this means that a good turn-one can either lose you or win you a fight, which is especially true when fighting an enemy you’ve never seen before. However, this is, brilliantly, still connected with overworld exploration, as gathering information in cities before tackling battle objectives is a possibility. Essentially, the game thrives in giving you options, and things that seemed random at first, truly are not if you’re willing to explore the environment. Investing your time correctly, for the most part, saves you time.

Beyond this, the game inherits some of the most satisfying elements of other turn-based JRPGs. Mainly, the possibility to synergize your party and strategically play around with the powers at your disposal. The game is designed to discourage mindless farming, which means that when the difficulty curve increases, you’ll have to think of new strategies. This adds to the immersion, as it feels like it was you, the intelligent strategist, the one who’ve defeated these powerful foes. As the game masterfully declares: there’s no fantasy without your participation.

The presentation of Metaphor: ReFantazio

Even in my sceptical Atlus days, their video game presentation struck me as beautiful. Now, having played one of their games, I can confidently say they have rewired my brain. I can’t imagine now playing a video game where I enter the pause menu, and it shows me a boring block of text. Or, similarly, a character stat distribution that’s just a spreadsheet of numbers. Metaphor: ReFantazio has shown me that these things, which I’ve usually taken for granted, can be exciting in themselves.

Of course, I wouldn’t ask every game developer to implement these kinds of extra features. What I can do, however, is go over why these extra details Metaphor: ReFantazio adds are gorgeous.

The User Interface (UI)

Metaphor: ReFantazio pause menu

Metaphor: ReFantazio was, in many ways, a challenge for Atlus. I could go over the development of the game, but here I want to focus on how it’s a departure from the Persona series. To my knowledge, the Persona series is themed around colours. Persona 3 is blue, 4 is yellow and 5 is red. This, in the UI department, gives the developers and artists clear guidelines to work around. Take, for example, the Persona 5 pause menu, with its striking red half and rebellious font choice, used to symbolize the colour thematically. Metaphor: ReFantazio, on the other hand, does not have these parameters, so the developers had to come up with a new solution. And what they arrived at was genius.

Persona 5 pause menu

As I hope the image of the Metaphor: ReFantazio pause menu illustrates, their UI decided to focus on the main character. This is incredibly important for story reasons I don’t want to spoil in this review. For now, what I can tell you is that, as the story progresses, we’ll see our character grow, and the UI will reflect that in a major way. Furthermore, as characters from other tribes come to join your party, the menu will get filled with more interesting and diverse visual options. New icons, animated characters portraits and close up of their hands, are but a few examples.

The Sound Design/Soundtrack

At first, nothing about the sound effects in Metaphor: ReFantazio struck me as particularly unique, especially compared to what I’ve seen of the Persona series. To take our previous example of the Persona 5 pause menu, every time you select an option, a silenced gunshot can be heard. This, of course, goes in line with the theme of the game and adds to the experience. In Metaphor: ReFantazio, however, the sounds are a simple click, which is perfectly serviceable, but not what I would’ve expected. However, as I realized the game wanted me to focus on the characters and their relationship, I understood Atlus’ decision. When you open the menu, level up, check on a character’s stats, and so on, you can hear the characters comment on it, making them the focal point at all times.

This being said, it’s not like the sound design doesn’t have its high moments. In combat, for instance, hitting an enemy with an attack they’re weak to is incredibly satisfying, in no small part due to the sound effect added.

Additionally, I should mention these moments are not done in complete silence, as they’re aided by music from composer Shoji Meguro. Meguro is well known for working with Atlus on the Persona and Shin Megami Tensei series, and his work on Metaphor: ReFantazio is equally exceptional. Taking into account the medieval aesthetic and contemporary look of Euchronia, Meguro composed songs that feel both old and new at the same time. Simultaneously, a choir of angels worthy of the biggest cathedral in the world, and a monk rapping like his running out of air. It’s unique, quirky, sounds amazing, and it adds so much to the already fantastic experience.

The Art Direction

Archetype awakening

You might be tempted, as I first was, to believe all of these details are nothing but window dressing. Tempted to say Metaphor: ReFantazio is yet another JRPG with a simple art style that couldn’t achieve “good” graphics, and had to hide it with extra features. So let me be as direct as I can: this game is gorgeous. Thanks to its unique art direction, the game constantly, and naturally, oscillates between a hand-drawn anime style and the 3D Models of the game. By these I don’t mean the cutscenes, rather, the game itself. Every time you enter a fight, talk to someone, level up and so on, these little animated flashes appear, adding to the visual appeal of the game in a major way. They flow so great together, in fact, the two art styles end up successfully mixing in your subconscious.

While I’m on the visual appeal of the game, I can’t believe I haven’t mentioned the characters awakening their Archetypes. Every time a character finds the resolve they needed, a little scene plays where they ripped their heart out, and it immediately transforms into a microphone. They then proceed to say their name and goals in life, thus gaining the magical power to overcome the obstacles they are facing. These scenes are jaw-dropping, not to mention emotionally charged. But, above all, they’re done with the 3D models of the game, making their subsequent transition into combat feel natural in a way I’ve seen few games achieve successfully.

To finally end this section, I need to say the game runs fantastically. Played on PS5, the game ran at 60 FPS with an approximately 1800p resolution. This being said, I would still recommend you look up what the game can achieve in the system you have.

Final words

Main antagonist Louis Guianbern

Since I want to keep this review spoiler free, I must end it now before my excitement gets the better of me. But keep this in mind, dear reader, I have so much more left to say about this game. The characters, for example, are something I’m dying to talk about, as they are simply written excellently. I could write entire articles on the terrifyingly confident Louis Guiabern, the charismatic liar Alonzo, the half-dog siblings Fidelio and Basilio, and so on. But I won’t, since I want you to experience them for yourself. I want you, like my brother urged me to do for years, to give Metaphor: ReFantazio a chance, and let yourself be immersed in this fascinating and mysterious world.

To conclude, Metaphor: ReFantazio is an amazing game. Brilliantly designed, emotionally engaging and fantastically suited for the medium of video games, this is an experience you won’t regret. The game is available on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S and Microsoft Windows, so you have plenty of options (and few excuses) to pick up this game and have a blast. As for me, your humble reviewer, I’ll be looking into more JRPGs, and definitely more Atlus games, in hopes of finding something of similar calibre.