Atlus’ Horrifically Brilliant new JRPG standard
When I’d heard about Atlus’ new standalone JRPG story I didn’t know too much about it apart from the few videos and images that we got. We are all too aware of the Persona series where we live the life of a student whilst exploring the human psyche and ultimately find the true meaning of the human selves or the Shin Megami Tensei series where we explore a destroyed Tokyo whilst conversing with demonic monsters of another world. Metaphor: ReFantazio whilst not directly connected with Persona or Shin Megami Tensei does share some common themes but all in a very new way.
Mataphor: ReFantazio is a new fantasy story which makes it completely obvious of the role that Religion and Politics has on the very world in which it is set and it’s role on society. Not only does this new IP from the creators of Persona feel very new it takes certain elements from its well established IP’s but not so much that it does not detract from the games dark, inviting and unsettling story.
Persona is known for being quite comforting, you go to school, hang out with your friends, play games and build loving relationships with other characters, Metaphor: Refantazio is quite the opposite approach, it involves the unnamed protagonist travelling to a giant capital city known as Grand Trad on a quest to lift a curse placed on his childhood friend, the crown prince of Euchronia who is believed to have died but is actually under a very terrible curse. Your feeling of forebode is quickly apparent as you are thrust into racial tensions, discrimination and religious conflict with the many races that exist in its world.
This tension is elevated even further as within the first hour as you learn that the King is found murdered in his bed, tensions are rising within the City, on top of this you see innocents murdered maliciously and mercilessly at the hand of evil people and struggle as you rescue other soldiers fighting for their lives or have easily given up their lives for the sake of money as they lay bloody in a pile of bodies along with everyone else as they try and do battle with a twisted abnormality which clearly cannot be bested by any mere mortal. These soldiers even at their last and dying breath still throw racial hatred towards the protagonist as one of the Elda tribe discriminated for their inheritance of forbidden magic.
The unnamed protagonist who travels with a flying fairy Gallica soon finds friends who sympathise with his cause and on a journey of loss and life awaken to extreme powers by literally ripping their own hearts out. This is very typical of Atlus who have many other dark and brutal power activation methods especially from the Persona series but again it makes sense as the theme of the game is Anxiety which comes from the heart.
Whilst fighting for a better future, the main character is openly discriminated by everyone he meets, the main protagonist carries a fantasy novel with him which tells the tale of a modern world without magic and discrimination. A far cry from the world he currently resides in but one that he actually wishes to achieve.
Whilst being incredibly stylish Metaphor: ReFantazio is a game of many incredible systems mixed into its core. It still has social elements in it and by focusing on these, it can open up Archetypes with are essentially like Jobs or Classes and can be used in battles and allow for new magic and abilities to open up which can be mixed together. You can also earn Money which can be used to improve your gear. Battles begin usually by getting one over on the enemy by sneaking up and attacking them, here you will dispatch of them quickly by exploiting their weaknesses, a simple mechanic and one that is familiar but is always welcome.
Metaphor: ReFantazio features a day to day system and as events happen the day will move onto the next over several months. This means certain tasks are able to be done within the day but without limitations like in the Persona series. The social and task completing activities parts of Metaphor will see certain stats raised and increase your skills as having the gift of the gab your character will increase their skills in either Courage, Wisdom, Tolerance, Eloquence and Imagination. Whatever the deal Metaphor: ReFantazio always has something going on and whilst it does feel like a Persona game in this regard it couldn’t be any more different.
Aside from it’s incredible game design, Metaphor: ReFantazio delivers audio quality in spades. It has a fantastic soundtrack that really elevates the cruel and dark world, it also has some fantastic voice acting most of it being British accents which I love to see alongside some other great JRPG series’ I love mostly Xenoblade Chronicles and Final Fantasy XVI also set in a medieval/modern fantasy world. Metaphor: ReFantazio in comparison to other Atlus games, especially Persona negates those long cutscenes that drag on about friendship, as it directs those feelings into its short movie sequences which show the cruel nature of the world are a way more powerful technique in telling it’s brilliant but brutal story. Thanks to the likeable cast of characters that Metaphor: ReFantazio introduces and rather than focusing on despair the characters focus on hope in the hopes for a better future. It’s also fantastic to have a main character that does speak and while it is a long way off of a fully voice main character, it certainly makes for a more engaging experience overall.
A PlayStation 5 Review Code was provided by Sega Europe Ltd
