There's no denying the popularity of the Persona games, especially after the release of Persona 5, but there are still plenty of reasons it might not strike the right chord for some gamers. Perhaps it's the focus on high school, the length of the various Persona games, or simply the franchise's massive legacy that serves as barriers to entry. There could be any number of things, but if those folks still enjoyed the art and gameplay of Persona, they're in luck with Metaphor: ReFantazio. While there are still plenty of reasons for Persona fans to play it, there are just as many for a non-Persona fan to dive in.

Metaphor: ReFantazio takes the Persona gameplay formula out of high school and puts it into a medieval fantasy realm, while setting itself apart from the Persona legacy at least in name. It's likely to still be as long of a game, focused on turn-based combat, exploration, calendar systems, social sim elements, and social commentary, but it's packaged in a brand new way. Game ZXC was able to play an hour of Metaphor: ReFantazio at Summer Game Fest, which was broken up into three parts: a tutorial-like section early in the game, a proper dungeon a little way into the game, and a full-blown boss fight.

Related

Metaphor: ReFantazio - Every Archetype Revealed So Far

The Archetypes of the upcoming Atlus RPG Metaphor: ReFantazio act as the game's job system, and there are set to be over 40 of these roles available.

Scenario Mode

Going into Metaphor: ReFantazio, players should be aware that the medieval United Kingdom of Euchronia is described as a mirror of the modern world. It explores themes of idealism, reality, and fantasy, and that's likely to turn into real-world concepts before the end of the game. After all...the enemies of Metaphor: ReFantazio are "humans." The king of Euchornia has been assassinated, and an upcoming tournament is set to determine who becomes the new king. Players take on the role of an outsider, often facing discrimination and prejudice for his inheritance of forbidden magic (as if he chose to be born this way), who seeks a way to lift the curse of a childhood friend: the crown prince. This protagonist is joined by a fairy named Gallica, is granted powerful abilities known as Archetypes (essentially Personas), and has a few friends ready to stand beside him. This includes the nobleman Strohl, the elf knight Hulkenberg, and the bat-like Heismay.

This scenario section took place before we unlocked Archetypes but after our character met up with Gallica and Strohl. We arrived at a castle in search of a friend, though not to Strohl's knowledge, and it's unfortunately under attack by a massive human. We had to fight our way to it, with Strohl wanting to at least try to save any survivors, and our character, joined in his conviction, also looking for their friend. The combat is essentially the same as Persona 3 Reload or Persona 5, and at this time, we had a basic skill to use and a standard attack. What immediately caught our eye is attacking enemies before combat allows us to damage and/or stun them. Players can hit the enemy repeatedly and then activate turn-based combat to start with an advantage; of course, the inverse of that is enemies can initiate combat by striking the protagonist first and stunning the player.

It's going to be interesting to see how this impacts combat in the long run. It's possible to defeat enemies in the field, without ever activating turn-based combat, but that's only for those who are much weaker (which the protagonist can use Gallica's fairy sight to determine). Even for equally leveled enemies, getting off the stun meant we finished the combat before the enemy ever got a turn, while getting stunned by enemies was incredibly punishing. It seems like it could swing like a pendulum between making combat encounters incredibly easy or hard, but it's hard to say for sure.

At the end of the scenario mode, Strohl and the protagonist faced off with the massive Human, but we were laughably weaker than it. It was purely comical to try to attack it, but once Strohl was determined to give his life for ours and we refused, an otherworldly voice reached out to tell us to tap into a certain power. There's little doubt this is Metaphor: ReFantazio's Archetypes, although the demo came to an end here.

Dungeon Mode

Up next was a little romp through an early-game dungeon. Players will move from room to room, coming face to face with enemies in various encounters, finding treasure, and otherwise experiencing any story and gameplay associated with the dungeon. This is a good example of how the combat grows from early on in the game, after the tutorial we experienced. Now, we could utilize Archetype skills and figure out how to play these Archetypes in combat. Our Knight, for example, didn't have the best skills but did respectable damage with its basic skills. Meanwhile, our Seeker and Warrior Archetype skills were quite effective in combat. We found a good rhythm where we relied on our Knight to deal the last bit of damage, while our Seeker and Warrior reduced enemies from full health to much less than half. This will only get further complicated as the combat developers and certain weaknesses/strengths become more apparent.

There was also a side quest in this Metaphor ReFantazio dungeon, where we needed to find another Paripus Woman on behalf of Catherine. Luckily, she wasn't among nearby corpses and, instead, the side quest saw us find a locked door with prisoners behind it. We snuck by a sleeping enemy (who we may have been able to fight) to steal the key, went back, and the Paripus Woman there...well, she was dead. But that was okay for Catherine, who explained why, and that quest was now complete. We continued fighting our way through standard enemies and a big bloated, tanky one before this section of the demo came to an end.

Boss Challenge Mode

The Boss Challenge Mode allowed us to touch on Metaphor: ReFantazio's social sim elements by spending time with our allies while traveling. We managed to spend a little time with Strohl before the ship we were on came under attack, and we stepped outside to find a giant human attacking. It's essentially a Kraken, but instead of the typical head of one, it was a giant real human head. The combat encounter gave us a full party of four, as we had to face the head to defeat it while managing four tentacles. Luckily, it was pretty easy to deduce that it would be weak to electric abilities. Between utilizing those and Strohl's new skill that slashed every enemy on the battlefield, we were feeling pretty good and cocky going into the fight. About halfway through, it no longer had its tentacles and we were sure it was going to be an easy win.

But once those tentacles came back, it was almost like a second phase of the boss fight, and it was lashing out and dealing massive damage to us all. Thankfully, we never lost more than two people, but we were desperate enough that we were popping the strongest revival items in our inventory. We essentially had to keep one character healing others at all times once we stabilized, but we did manage to defeat the human threat. And that was where the demo ended.

Based on the demo, Metaphor: ReFantazio is everything it has billed itself as, and it'll be a great year for Persona/Metaphor fans. It's got a great concept, it executes well on the medieval fantasy elements, and it brings in everything that makes Persona so great - just outside the setting. Of course, a demo cannot speak for the entire game, but it sure can represent it well. This demo was a game-seller, that's for sure.

Metaphor: ReFantazio

Developed by Atlus' Studio Zero, Metaphor: ReFantazio is a fantasy RPG set in the United Kingdom of Euchronia, a medieval world that mirrors the modern-day "real world." It takes inspiration from the Persona series with its turn-based combat and social sim elements.

Platform(s)

PS4 , PS5 , PC , Xbox Series X , Xbox Series S

Released

October 11, 2024

Developer(s)

Studio Zero

Publisher(s)

Atlus

Genre(s)

RPG