Metaphor: ReFantazio Review - The Persona Formula Perfected

Metaphor: ReFantazio is the latest RPG/life-simulation title from Atlus where the player takes on the role of a protagonist swept into a grand plot that could lead about to the end of the world. While Metaphor does share a lot of gameplay elements with titles like SMT and Persona it's in the added scope of story and quality-of-life improvements that might make this the best of them all.

The Tournament Of The Throne

The story of Metaphor: ReFantazio explodes out the gate. Within the first few hours, the protagonist finds himself in the capital city and enlisted into the army, has fought a demonic-looking 'Human' in a training fort, and has returned with plans to interrupt the funeral of the recently deceased king in a hope to flush out his murderer and bring the king killer to justice. 

This plan is immediately thrown into chaos as the magic of the deceased King appears to inform the people of the country that the next king will be decided through what is essentially a popularity contest. With his magic protecting all major candidates from assassination for the integrity of the Tournament of the Throne the protagonist is forced to put his name into the ring and journey the world to compete.

Starting off so strong Metaphor will immediately pull the players into the story, which is very important when they'll likely know they're staring down the barrel of an 80+ hour game. Once you're past that intro the Tournament continues to be an entertaining overarching story while the in-between moments are filled with location-specific plot lines and spending time with your Followers.

Explore The World In Search Of Purpose

Even while the deadline of the overarching plot was looming I was getting drawn into each of the different side-quests and stories. Whether that be something as simple as visiting a hot spring or needing to enter a nearby dungeon to stop the threat of an undead entity, you don't just get to learn how unique each location is, but also how unjust the world is.

The story structure of the Tournament, mixed with the day-to-day plot of the game, reminds me a lot of the story of Persona 5 Strikers. Following the protagonist and his every growing party is a lot like the Phantom Thieves road trip. Where Metaphor: ReFantazio perfects this process is through the incredible world-building of each stop along the journey.

Each new town will offer insights into how the people live, the extremely complicated relationships that each of the races have with one another, and opportunities to learn about the history of the land. Even the little gameplay moments like ranking up your Tolerance stat would come in the form of a masked Mustari person teaching you their history and making the world feel more real.

New followers and party members being added as you visit these new regions also help to create interesting and grounded stories. Every person has their own tragedy that you get to work with as you grow closer to them, not only fleshing them out further as three-dimensional characters but also providing gameplay benefits in the form of new abilities.

You Have Four Months, The Clock Is Ticking

Metaphor: ReFantazio uses a day system where each major event in the story will happen on a certain day. Each of these events will work as a deadline that you'll be constantly reminded of, but all of the time up to that point you have to spend doing what you want.

Each day you can take two actions, in the afternoon or evening, or dive into any of the dungeons that are present in the world. On a day when you visit a dungeon or engage in combat, you won't be able to do something in the evening, but there's plenty to do while traveling on your Gauntlet Runner so you can still make progress.

Outside of spending time with your companions you can also go shopping, visit the other cities of the world, and pick up a variety of quests. There are also a variety of date-based shops to investigate including weekly deals and items that are exchanged daily.

Overworld Dungeon Combat Adds Efficiency

The meat of the gameplay is in dungeon exploration and combat. The world of Metaphor: ReFantazio is filled with unique dungeons, each normally filled with two separate objectives tied to progressing your relationships with your Followers, or just completing a quest or hunt.

Combat can take place in two different scenarios. The first of which takes place in the overworld, approaching enemies you can slash at them with quick attacks. If you're a high enough level this can lead to you finishing combat before it even begins, if not though it's your chance to stun your opponents and enter turn-based combat with an advantage.

Turn-based combat is as you'd expect. Taking it in turns you'll move through your party dealing out special attacks and elemental abilities. Metaphor: ReFantazio uses the same turn counter system from Shin Megami Tensei, starting each round you'll have as many turns as you have characters. Dealing critical hits or exploiting weaknesses will add an additional turn counter while having an enemy dodge or repel your attack will lead you to lose additional turns.

This style of turn-based combat is still my favorite, pushing you to really exploit weaknesses and alter your setup as you enter new areas. It also means for any of the incredibly tough boss fights if you do fail you have nearly limitless potential to respec your team and reapproach the fight.

For a title as long as it is I thoroughly appreciated the ability to essentially 'skip' combat when you were powerful enough, I did feel like the threshold for when combat would occur on the overworld only was a bit tough to reach. I would appreciate when I could get through combat quickly and understand when combat was against a tough enemy, but there was a strange limbo period in the middle that would mean I'd get pulled into turn-based combat, but it would only take a round or so of combat to complete it.

Metaphor: ReFantazio Archetypes Allow Limitless Possibilities

Each character's prowess in battle is based upon their stats along with what Archetype they have equipped to them. The Archetypes are this game's equivalent of the Demons or the Persona. Each Archetype has a different theme, such as Knight, Warrior, or Brawler, and with that comes access to a variety of different active and passive abilities.

With each battle won you'll not only be leveling up the party members, but also their Archetype. Leveling up Archetypes can then give you access to more powerful Archetypes, this can be in the form of a linear evolution or into a completely different Archetype Tree.

There is incredible freedom in the Archetype system because of two factors. The first of which is that each party member can use any Archetype as long as they have enough points in it, the second factor is that with each Archetype you have active you can also equip skills from any of the other Archetypes that the character has previously unlocked.

In a single character, you can choose between over thirty different Archetypes, with a core set of abilities, and abilities from other Archetypes giving you unique combinations, powerful damaging attacks, or passive buffs. Even while leveling up one Archetype path I was constantly considering the different ways that their abilities could synergize with another.

Improving The Formula

As you already know from my review if you're a long-time player of SMT or Persona titles there's a lot here that's going to be immediately understood by you. Spending time with Followers to improve their rankings, familiar combat system, leveling up stand-like abilities to unlock further powers, etc

What Metaphor: ReFantazio does that's so amazing is add a wave of quality of life improvements to all of them to allow them to pack as much into this game as possible, but for it to never feel tedious.

Followers rank up based on your Protagonist's social stats and the timeline of the game and when they're ready to rank up there is a clear indication of it. If your Follower is ready to rank up but you don't have a skill the game will even let you know which one to work on. Once you're ready that same menu will take you right to the Follower.

This ease of movement also extends to the different quests you'll take on, getting to move from city to city with ease, and even navigating within the cities itself.

Overleveled combat occurring on the overworld is a reward to those who like to over-prepare, not punishing you for being powerful but instead giving you the fun sensation of showing off that power.

Each Archetype being unlockable to each party member also adds an insane variety of customization in a different way to unlock and fuse demons that you might be familiar with. Letting you tailor every last aspect of your team and their loadout allows for spectacular possibilities.

The Look And Feel Of Metaphor

Stylistically, Metaphor: ReFantazio sits somewhere between high fantasy merged with modern sensibilities. With the merge of fantasy and futuristic-looking technology, such as swords you can surfboard around on or the Gauntlet Runner literally running instead of driving, it creates an extremely distinct setting that's immediately recognizable as well as memorable.

While in-game Metaphor looks on par with the majority of other Atlus titles, there's nothing inherently wrong with that. The animated cutscenes however did seem to have some very strange stuttering to them, whether that's just that they were at a lower framerate to the in-game moments or something more was happening under the hood I'm not too sure though. I did keep thinking while playing "I can't wait for a Metaphor: ReFantazio anime to be released".

One core aspect that contributes to the look of this game is its incredibly flashy UI elements. While it was a treat to navigate the various menus and equipment screens there were some moments that the UI came across as a bit too flashy. Scene transitions into battles offering a wipe of color, fast effects, and bright lights did wear when near the end of my longer gameplay sessions.

The audio design was nailed perfectly from the vocal direction of the strong cast of main characters (I was impressed with just how much of the game was fully voiced), as well as the incredible background and combat music. Even fast-paced combat felt epic and important with the monastic chanting reverberating in the background.

Metaphor: ReFantazio Review | Final Thoughts

Metaphor: ReFantazio feels like an evolution of the Persona formula in every single way. The way it addresses the core themes of the story are better explored through the story from start to finish, the relationships with your Followers are grander in scale and really address relatable topics like shame and loss, and navigating this complicated world is the easiest it's ever been.

Somehow Metaphoe Re Fantazio manages to add so much more gameplay into the formula while covering far less 'in-universe' time providing more substance without taking away from the narrative weight of what's going on in the story.

Gamers who have been waiting to find a good entry point into titles like Shin Megami Tensei or Persona should know that this is the best place to climb aboard, and for the long-standing fans who are already aware of the high-quality work that Atlus puts out be excited because you're not ready for how great the adventure you're about to take is going to be.

Metaphor: ReFantazio was reviewed on Xbox Series X with a copy provided by the publisher over the course of 85 hours of gameplay - all screenshots were taken during the process of review.