Metaphor: ReFantazio is setting high stakes for itself

Metaphor: ReFantazio’s developers are not being subtle about the themes they’re seeking to tackle in this game. The upcoming RPG takes place in a medieval setting that is a mirror to our contemporary world. The world-within-a-world depiction of a utopia, illustrated as a modern city during a cutscene, is considered an anomaly. The game’s characters read about it in a book, in which it’s told that no soul is born into discrimination, and all lives are equal. “It really does sound like a fantasy,” says Gallica, the protagonist’s companion.

The Persona series has always woven real-life issues into worlds riddled with fantasy. These efforts have faltered and not always stuck the landing, with Persona 5 Tactica being a recent example. Now, as key ex-Persona developers prepare to launch Metaphor: ReFantazio later this year, the stakes have never been higher, as they take a new step with a bold attitude, albeit also with some clear familiarity.

During a hands-on demo at Summer Game Fest 2024, I played three different sections of Atlus’ upcoming RPG, totaling about an hour. The first was set early in the game before the protagonist summons his powers, acting as a tutorial of sorts that introduced the story and some of the key design standouts when compared to Persona.

For one, the protagonist is voiced. This might sound like a small detail, but compared to previous Atlus games that often had more of a self-insert hero, the voice acting adds authority and a more specific sense of personality to the choices you make during conversations. From my time with the game, it seems not every single dialogue bit is fully voiced, but rather the ones that occur during main story-related sections as well as convos with key characters, which is fair. At other times, such as when taking on activities with companions — similar to hanging out with your fellow students to increase your Social Links — the protagonist said a few phrases instead, like Joker from Persona 5 does when performing certain actions.

The structure of the story is another outlier. You’re essentially going on a road trip while recruiting people and taking on requests. There are main objectives that serve as deadlines, but aside from that, you’re free to explore and spend time as you see fit. The demo offered a glimpse of this in the second section, as I traveled to a dungeon in search of a missing person. The overworld map, which is beautifully drawn, has indicators for the time of day and weather conditions as well.

Again, if you’ve played Persona before, you’ll be able to hit the ground running in this game. As I explored the dungeon, however, I witnessed some standout features that shake up the usual process of trying to get an advantage attack on enemies to initiate combat. In Metaphor: ReFantazio, there are multiple ways to do this. If you spot a stronger enemy, you can perform multiple real-time attacks to weaken them before diving into a classic turn-based encounter. Don’t expect full-on hack-and-slash gameplay, though, as the protagonist can only do a few sets of attacks, but these did feel satisfactory each time.

If you manage to sneak around an enemy without them seeing you, you’ll perform one strong attack instead, leaving them stunned. For smaller or weaker enemies, you can just take them down in real time without the need to do an actual encounter for what would essentially be a quick turn. The dungeon I did wasn’t too big, but it was refreshing to be able to tackle groups of foes with ease and get some experience and loot as I worked my way to the objective.

Image: Studio Zero/Atlus, Sega

Speaking of which, exploiting weaknesses is still the bread and butter of every turn-based fight. The key difference here is that you no longer have Personas at your disposal. Rather, Metaphor introduces Archetypes, which work in a similar way — you take on the qualities of the Archetype as you fight, gaining different skills to use in battle. The Archetype lineup is made up of the usual RPG classes that you can expect (mage, warrior, and so on). Whenever you meet a key companion and create a bond with them, you’ll unlock a new Archetype. I was able to see a glimpse of the Archetype’s corresponding skill tree, and it seems some of these classes can be leveled up to rank 20, so it’ll likely take you a while to unlock the full potential of each.

These Archetypes can perform joint attacks with other party members, adding another layer on top of the usual basic attack and magic abilities. Some are focused on dealing damage with a specific element (fire, ice, and so on) while others can heal party members or add a debuff to multiple foes at once.

Most of the abilities and items carry the same naming conventions as the ones in Persona and Shin Megami Tensei at large, which makes it easier to pick things up. Even in the demo, combat got pretty hard fast, especially with enemies being able to stock extra turns themselves as well. I was stocked up with an absurd amount of healing items, but I dread the thought of meeting some of the foes I fought without stopping by the nearest merchant shop first. (In case you’re wondering, yes, the protagonist can die during combat, and you can continue using your party members instead of getting a game over screen.)

Image: Studio Zero/Atlus, Sega

From my short time blitzing in and out of combat, the visuals of Metaphor: ReFantazio look even more flashy in motion. I was worried that general art design would mimic Persona 5 too closely, compromising its own vision in favor of overly pushing for stylization like Persona 3 Reload did. While it can be a bit overwhelming at first, Metaphor’s art direction is constantly cementing its own tone, which is in part complemented by the use of anime-style cutscenes, which happen more frequently during story beats and also appear when you’re entering turn-based combat.

As I recall my time with the demo, there’s a long list of reasons to be excited about Metaphor. The enemy designs, the potential around Archetypes, all the subtle refinements to systems that have been in iteration for decades across the Shin Megami Tensei universe at large — all feel like both a culmination of ideas and an all-hands-on-deck approach to create a new series. But I keep coming back to the story themes, and their potential to showcase whether or not this group of veteran developers has reflected on the legacy they’ve built over the years with their teams at large.

When I first entered the dungeon, it was made clear that somebody had attacked a group of guards, and we were tasked with looking for any survivors. The first one we found, who was on his last breath, said he’d rather die than speak to the protagonist’s kind. As the main structure of Metaphor revolves around creating bonds with characters from all over the realm, each with their own backstories and races, I’m curious to see how the game will tackle the concept of equality, or lack thereof, that its characters see as such a rarity. The use of different voice dialects for companions, as well as the story putting these themes front and center even in an hour-long demo, are promising. I’m hoping these themes are an aspect of the game that manages to break from the familiarity we’ve grown used to in the past few years.