As a seasoned gamer who has traversed countless virtual realms, I must say, Metaphor: ReFantazio is nothing short of a revelation. This game, much like a masterfully crafted sonnet, weaves together literary motifs and psychological insights in a way that leaves one both enchanted and enlightened.
In my younger years, I was advised to steer clear of discussing religion and politics in social settings as they could cause disagreements. This advice left me puzzled since these subjects greatly influence our perspectives on life and the world’s institutions. How can we ignore them? As I’ve matured, I’ve noticed that many people still follow this guideline, while others seem to ignore the heated debates that surround us. It’s a lonely feeling to be engulfed by the flames when everyone else appears unaffected. Lately, I’ve felt an overwhelming mix of anger, disillusionment, and anxiety bordering on hopelessness. I’ve been searching for a solution to this emotional turmoil, but it has proven elusive. It’s astonishing that I’ve found solace in an unlikely place: a fantasy role-playing game (RPG).
In a nutshell, ReFantazio recognizes the significant impact that religion and politics have on society, and is open to discussions others might shy away from. This game also appreciates the influential role stories and imagination can play in shaping our deepest convictions, taking this responsibility seriously. To start, the narrator poses a crucial query to the player: Does fantasy hold the potential to instigate genuine transformation? Indeed, my spirit resonated with a yes, but there was a worried aspect of me that held back. Could art, fiction, and fantasy matter in a world devastated by war, inequality, injustice, and hunger? I wasn’t convinced. However, by the game’s conclusion, my certainty about the answer had grown stronger.
In simpler terms, “Metaphor” is a captivating game brimming with adventure, endearing characters, touching narratives, and refined renditions of Atlus’ classic elements such as turn-based combat, stunning visuals, and vast dungeons. It’s not just a game; it’s a title that provides solace to those in need, encouraging players to hold onto hope for the future, their friends, and themselves. After investing around 80 hours into “Metaphor”, I felt refreshed – even rejuvenated. The themes and stories seemed healing, while its dramatic moments transported me back to the RPGs of my childhood that molded me and sparked a desire for camaraderie and epic journeys. In essence, “Metaphor” showcases Atlus at its best and most genuine. It’s a game that stirs memories of the idealist you once were, the person you aspire to be, and how imagination can influence real life.
In the realm of Euchronia, we encounter our hero, ReFantazio, embarking on a journey that begins as a simple task: delivering a message to a contact in the northern territories regarding a prince lying comatose. As the story unfolds, this mission transforms into an epic odyssey. It is quickly revealed that our protagonist was not only a dear friend but also a trusted confidant of the prince. The young man yearns for nothing more than to see his idealistic friend ascend the throne, following the suspicious demise of their father. However, the prince’s life has been tainted by a curse, keeping him in a deep slumber until those few who know he is still alive can discover a means to break it and restore him to consciousness.
As I tread the cobblestone streets of Grand Trad, the capital city of Euchronia, my heart beats with a mix of excitement and trepidation. The peaceful sleep of the prince is a stark contrast to the tumultuous state of this kingdom – monstrous beings known as Humans rampage through villages, echoing the chaos of Attack on Titan. Social tensions simmer, turning neighbors into adversaries.
The ensuing adventure is one I will never forget, filled with soaring highs, tender moments, devastating losses, and plot twists that, even if you can see them coming, present themselves in unexpected ways, creating a sense of anxiety that echoes what our heroes feel. When I spoke to Atlus developers earlier this year, they mentioned that they were focused on creating a sense of journey in Metaphor: ReFantazio. They accomplished this mission with gusto, as traversing the world in your hefty Gauntlet Runner–which acts both as your mode of transportation and home away from home–feels akin to taking a road trip with your close friends.
During your journey to various destinations, a multitude of activities and choices become available, keeping the straightforward exploration feel engaging without ever becoming monotonous or leaving you yearning for personal vehicle control. Engaging in combat with Strohl, listening to Heismay’s laundry troubles, or challenging Hulkenberg to a game of chess not only adds excitement but also boosts your social standing within the game. I found delight in the instances when Neuras, the Gauntlet Runner’s driver and head mechanic, would shout from the stairs for us to come see something remarkable. The group would then assemble to behold breathtaking sights, such as the heart-wrenching remains of a Human-ravaged village or an ocean teeming with luminous fish that inexplicably floated above the planet’s surface.
As a gamer, let me tell you, the story’s success is largely due to its meticulously created and superbly voiced characters. I found myself utterly smitten with the noble Strohl, and I couldn’t help but grin as Hulkenberg, the usually stoic knight, gobbled up every local delicacy he could find at each city we visited, causing his friends to cringe in horror. Heismay was a character that left a deep impact with his tragic past and numerous Uncle Iroh-like moments. To be honest, I couldn’t help but love each of the game’s six party members.
Atlus chose to give the main character from Metaphor a spoken role for the first time, deviating from their usual preference for stoic characters. The dialogue of this character infuses the game with a unique personality and humor that could have been absent otherwise, greatly enhancing the overall experience and making me much more invested in his fate throughout his journey to claim the throne and save his friend. In fact, I found only one issue with the character development: I wanted more voice acting because some social links were not fully vocalized; it’s a pity when the characters and actors are so captivating.
Still, their stories are brilliant vessels to deliver the game’s major themes. While not particularly novel–fantasy and sci-fi have often acted as ways to discuss social issues somewhat removed from the context of our world–Metaphor: ReFantazio impressed me by placing emphasis on long-term collective action and compassion while also admitting that we will probably never know how to “get things right.” It handles its topics and politics with maturity and precision, respecting the player’s intelligence and avoiding falling into one of two dreaded camps: “everyone is right/respectable and the world is completely grey,” and “there is a clear right and wrong and you are the savior who dictates what is what.” It also doesn’t shirk away from allowing real-world context to seep into the game, creating a sort of metanarrative that pops up in surprising ways, yet doesn’t overstay its welcome or cheapen the experience.
In the side tales, we delve deeper into emotional themes like grief, prejudice, vengeance, and forgiveness, often using social connections as a means. These stories offer a personal, intimate look at characters grappling with life after being wronged. Questions like “how to resist fear or hatred?” or “how to continue when your purpose is lost?” or “how to improve the world when anger burns within you?” are explored. Despite tackling such grim subjects, Atlus manages to infuse this game with a unique blend of melancholy and optimism, making Metaphor: ReFantazio a more emotionally raw experience than ever before.
In this game I’m playing, the blend of art and music is spot-on. The angelic voices soaring over subtle orchestral tunes create a serene atmosphere, but then it switches to intense tracks with fast-paced chanting that makes me feel like I’m part of some grand, passionate crusade – a theme that keeps resurfacing in the storyline. It’s an amazing mix of beauty and strangeness, with moments that fill me with awe and others that make me feel claustrophobic.
In contrast to many games by Atlus, Metaphor stands out by avoiding the use of a singular color to represent its theme. Instead, it employs raspberry pink, teal, aquamarine, saturated green, and deep cornflower blue, adding elements like splatter effects, fades, and distortions to give these colors an edge, making them feel tense and violent. This approach is surprising given the game’s focus on the battle between anxiety and hope, idealism and fanaticism. Unlike games like Persona that are predominantly set in one location, Metaphor uses colors as motifs for characters, factions, and locations, creating a sense of diversity and travel that Persona doesn’t quite capture. Initially, I was concerned that the game’s textures and liberal use of grainy effects might be distracting, but in practice, I found them impressive. The texture, floating particles, and grain made the atmosphere feel heavy with tension and magic.
It’s worth noting that Atlus may have achieved their greatest success in seamlessly integrating their fully animated cutscenes with in-game cutscenes through Metaphor. While there is a clear distinction between the anime-style scenes and gameplay, by employing creative camera angles and emphasizing color consistency, they effectively showcase the optimal blend of these two worlds.
Metaphor cleverly employs contrasting elements and themes, ensuring each moment is engaging while its compelling narrative propels the game forward at a steady pace. This could potentially be the best-paced game yet from the former Persona team. Although it shares some systems with the Persona series (notably the calendar, social links, and social stats), these elements feel more purposeful; your skill-building activities, social connections, and side quests seem significant rather than filler or a means to pass time or level up specific skills. Furthermore, each mission’s deadline seems perfectly balanced, allowing you to complete everything if managed wisely; there was never a sense of being rushed or bored.
In general, I don’t have a strong inclination towards completing all additional tasks or combining every character in a game, but when it comes to Metaphor, I found myself eagerly participating in various activities such as monster-slaying, quests for unusual items, dungeon exploration, and crafting a character’s Archetype tree. The experience is enjoyable due to its well-organized design and fully developed features. The dungeons are intriguing, with small puzzles adding uniqueness compared to those found in the Persona series. There are fewer social links, initially disappointing as there’s no romance option, but I later appreciated this choice because it made relationships feel more substantial and less like a reward for saying the right things. Instead, it encouraged me to invest time in developing these connections, gaining both wisdom and benefits from their camaraderie.
As I delved into this captivating game world, I quickly realized that the Archetype system was unlike anything I’d experienced before, especially compared to Atlus’ Persona system. Instead of feeling restricted, each character could master numerous classes from the game’s variety of around 30, which felt more like jobs. The Social Links were intricately tied to this system, as my companions were the ones who unlocked new Archetypes and granted me access to spells and abilities from one class to blend with another. I could then enhance these classes using magla, or MAG, a currency earned through battles and social interactions, to acquire new classes or transfer learned skills to different Archetypes. It was incredibly rewarding to have a swift, evasive Ninja who also unleashed black magic, or a tough Knight capable of healing my entire team. I was truly amazed by the brilliance of this system within the game, emphasizing how Metaphor is a fairy tale that relies on these traditional roles and storytelling tropes to convey its message. Kudos to Atlus for seamlessly integrating literature and Jungian psychology in such subtle yet impactful ways.
The turn-based combat in this game could be one of Atlus’ finest creations yet, providing both flexibility and demanding more strategic thinking than ever before. The system employs turn counters, visibly represented by stars in the top left corner of the screen. A critical hit or exploiting an enemy’s vulnerable spot only consumes half a star, enabling you to strike an opponent up to eight times before they can retaliate, provided you make the right moves. This is particularly useful because defeating an adversary before they can attack grants a significant Unscathed Battle bonus. If, like me, you’re fixated on emerging victorious without a scratch, you can easily restart the battle with a simple touch, offering you the chance to test various strategies and explore until you uncover an enemy’s weakness.
As a player immersed in this captivating game, I can share my excitement about the intriguing Synergy abilities. Unlike traditional party dynamics, these abilities aren’t tied to specific characters but rather the classes each member represents. The freedom to shuffle my party members during combat, with only a half-turn cooldown, offers an engaging strategy element.
I’ve always been a fan and defender of turn-based combat, even as it’s slowly phased out in favor of action-driven combat. But even I can admit there are some faults with it, and grinding out enemies can be a real annoyance when you have to wait to both enter and exit a battle and feel forced to waste MP taking down smaller enemies when you know you have a boss lurking around the corner. Metaphor finds a remedy to all of these grievances in allowing you to also hack at enemies while roaming around a dungeon. Once you reach a set level, select enemies will possess a blue aura, which means you can take them down without ever entering battle and still attain experience, MAG, and gold from the encounter. Sneaking up on an elite monster–or dishing out enough swings to take them down before they land a hit on you–results in you starting each battle with major advantages. This makes a big difference, as some of the game’s battles are absolutely grueling. Fortunately, you can adjust the game’s difficulty at any time which I, admittedly, had to do to clear a few optional endgame bosses with absolutely devastating gimmicks and attacks.
In an extraordinary fashion, ReFantazio, the game, surpasses the combined excellence of its individual components. Each segment of the game is meticulously designed to perfection. The overall experience was uplifting, leaving me in awe as it felt fresh yet familiar – contemporary and innovative, while still echoing the classic charm of the fantasy RPGs I used to immerse myself in on my old grey PlayStation. Above all, it stirred within me a sense of the importance of hope. Though it may seem trite or overused at times, this sentiment often holds true – it doesn’t extinguish global conflicts, but it serves as a reminder that succumbing to despair and fear benefits no one, not even myself. It underscored the potency of imagination and storytelling – the power they hold in providing inspiration and solace. These elements are crucial for survival, and it reminded me that we ourselves can be proof of goodness in the world, making it a solid foundation to build upon.
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2024-10-07 17:40