Atlus unveiled its new RPG title Metaphor: ReFantazio during the Xbox Games Showcase 2023. Rumors regarding a new RPG by Atlus that may be announced at the Xbox Game Showcase 2023 were recently spread around on the Internet, and the rumors have been confirmed to be true. Atlus announced Persona 3 Reload, Persona 5 Tactics, and a new RPG title and IP Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Metaphor: ReFantazio may seem familiar to those who have been keeping up with its development. Metaphor: ReFantazio has been in development since December 2016 and was codenamed Project: Re Fantasy. Atlus kept it and fans in the dark about it since then, but in hindsight, Atlus and its development team Studio Zero have been working on it in silence.
Publisher and developer Atlus announced its new fantasy RPG Metaphor: ReFantazio during the Xbox Games Showcase 2023. It seems Atlus is leaving the modern school days of Persona and Shin Megami Tensei behind for traditional fantasy role-playing in its new RPG. Its expected release is in Spring 2024. Atlus also revealed Persona 3 Reload and Persona 5 Tactica alongside Metaphor: ReFantazio and all the other upcoming titles making their way to Xbox.
Gamers speculated Metaphor: ReFantazio, codenamed Project: Re Fantasy at the time, could be revealed during the Tokyo Game Show 2022 after its first announcement consisting of a concept video in December 2016. However, no new information regarding Metaphor: ReFantazio has been made public for the past seven years. Fortunately, Atlus seemed to never have the intention of ditching its new IP, and RPG fans expressed how hyped they are for its release after the long wait and consider it a win for Xbox since Metaphor: Re Fantasy will be exclusive to Xbox and PC.
Its exclusivity to Xbox and PC may be surprising to the gaming community considering that Microsoft’s consoles are not well known for its library of JRPG titles compared to Nintendo and PlayStation’s consoles, nor has Xbox’s playerbase shown much interest in them. The genres most played by Xbox’s playerbase are first-person shooters and sports games. Microsoft struggles to appeal to an audience in Japan, and due to its lack of popularity there, Japanese video game publishers and developers often do not bother porting their games to Xbox. Atlus’ actions may either be a financial risk or open the doors for a newfound audience and new games for the Xbox playerbase. Although Atlus’ upcoming titles may only be temporarily exclusive to Xbox and PC, this is indeed a win for JRPG fans who own an Xbox Series X|S.
Metaphor: ReFantazio will be available in Spring 2024 for Xbox Series X|S and PC.