ReFantazio is a masterful successor to Persona 5

In 2017, I wrote that Atlus’ Persona 5 was the best JRPG of the last decade. Looking back, I stand by every word in that review, and that’s even without factoring in the enhanced Royal version that came three years later. Simply put, it was an unmitigated masterpiece.

After playing Metaphor: ReFantazio, a new turn-based RPG from Atlus-owned Studio Zero led by several of the key minds behind Persona, I’m feeling inclined to make a similar proclamation.

Truthfully, I haven’t finished the game yet. One of the few issues — if you can even call it that — with the Persona series’ recent entries is that they’re extremely long, running for around 70 to 100 hours. Metaphor: ReFantazio, for its part, is confirmed to come in towards the end of that meaty window. Meanwhile, I’ve only been playing the game for a little over two weeks now (minus four days for a Barcelona trip in between that), so I’m only 40 hours in so far.

If anything, though, that’s a testament to the sheer quality of Metaphor that I’m so bullish on it at this point. In fact, I’d go so far as to say it’s a near flawless mix of recognizable Persona staples and bold new narrative and gameplay elements to create one of the most captivating games I’ve played in quite some time.

A new world worthy of royalty

First and foremost, Metaphor makes the oh-so refreshing decision to eschew the modern Japan high school setting that has defined not only Persona, but so much of anime as well. Therefore, it was time for a change, and Metaphor goes in the complete opposite direction into medieval fantasy. With gothic European architecture, steampunk vehicles and fascinating meta allusions to our modern society (including Hieronymus Bosch-inspired monsters known as ‘Humans’), all rendered through a striking painterly aesthetic and UI, Metaphor maintains Persona‘s unparalleled sense of style while being remarkably different.

What makes this different from your average Game of Thrones kind of tale, however, is the role that the deceased king plays. Under his magic, an all-mighty Majora’s Mask-esque moon floats above the kingdom to ensure a peaceful transition of power, meaning that viable political candidates can’t just kill one another. It’s a fascinating premise that presents some compelling challenges for our party, as they can’t simply kill Louis. All the while, they have to grapple with a deeply prejudiced society dividing the populace based on their background and theology which is especially relevant to our hero, who’s part of the downtrodden Elda tribe.

In this way, Metaphor proves to be a surprisingly thoughtful and well-written interrogation of the nature of power. What kind of leader do our heroes want to be? Who should they ally themselves with? How can they break the cycles of oppression? It’s a natural progression from Persona, which has always tackled social issues, while still being markedly different. If anything, though, Metaphor feels even more timely than its predecessors, given its focus on an utterly divided nation amid a pivotal election, just as both the U.S. and Canada are in eerily similar situations.

Bonds, Metaphor‘s version of Persona‘s Social Links/Confidants, play a key role in further exploring these themes. Once again, this social sim system has you spending time with both party members and NPCs to learn more about them, deepen your relationships and unlock new abilities. The writing and acting are universally strong in Metaphor, but my personal favourite so far is Strohl, a nobleman who, after a great personal tragedy, seeks to use what little privilege he has left improve the lives of his people. His story touches on the all-too-real plight of refugees and the elites who treat them callously, including one sickening land owner who argues that poverty is their own responsibility. Anchored by an emotionally-charged performance from Stewart Clarke (Dion from Final Fantasy XVI), Strohl quickly became the heart of the story for me in many ways. Other memorable Bonds include a newly orphaned girl who tries to find hope amid her grief, a silver-tongued conman who pushes you to have some moral flexibility in your royal campaign and a wealthy shop owner whose steely exterior belies a love of animals.

Across the board, Metaphor gets you to truly care about each and every character, making you feel all that more invested in their journey, and I’m eager to see how it all plays out.

Engrossing twists on an old formula

Structurally, Metaphor owes a lot to Persona as well, leveraging the same daily calendar system. At most points in the story, you have a deadline for a specific mission, like infiltrating a major dungeon, and it’s up to you to choose how to prepare for it. Spend time with Bonds? Engage in activities like candidate debates, listening to stories about shunned religions from impoverished people to raise Royal Virtues like Wisdom and Tolerance and unlock new quests and Bond progression paths? Take on a bounty to tackle a smaller dungeon, level up and earn some extra cash? The choice is yours, but know that doing any of this will use up time in a day. I’ve always loved this setup in Persona, as it challenges you to be more mindful of how you engage with its content, and that remains true here. At the same time, I appreciate that Metaphor allows you to connect to the internet to see how other players opted to spend their day should you want a little guidance. (This, like some of the other gameplay features, was introduced in Persona 5 Royal, but I only played the base P5 so they’re new to me, as they will surely be to many others.)

Time management also feeds into Metaphor‘s greatest gameplay innovation over Persona: the Archetype system, which adds significant depth to the tried-and-true turn-based combat. Typically in Persona games, only the main character could switch between different Personas to wield different abilities, effectively locking the rest of the party to single playstyles. In Metaphor, however, everyone can wield Archetypes, the game’s riff on Personas. With over 40 Archetypes in total, this leads to rich character customization. In one treasure-themed dungeon, you might want to have a Merchant and Thief so the former can distract enemies with money that you throw and the latter can snatch some goodies from them. Elsewhere, goblin-filled catacombs might not be conducive to a magic-based playstyle, especially since some of the fiends actually react angrily to spellcasters and receive buffs accordingly. Admittedly, these mini-dungeons are already somewhat repetitive in their desert tomb-like design and layout, leading me to wish that Studio Zero went for even a bit more diversity in their environmental themes.

Thankfully, there’s an immense level of variety in the Archetypes, which can be switched at any time after you unlock an early-game ability through a Bond with a mysterious inhabitant of a colourful room (ostensibly, Metaphor‘s version of Persona‘s Igor and The Velvet Room). On the flip side, many of the Archetypes are only unlocked through Bonds, which goes back to that idea of properly managing your time to maximize progression. Even at roughly the halfway point, I only have about 20 Archetypes, and I’m excited to see which ones I’ll come across next.

Because honestly, there’s nothing more satisfying than having that finely tuned party wreaking havoc in battle, exploiting elemental weaknesses and using the new Synthesis attacks in which two characters expend their turns to unleash powerful over-the-top team-up attacks with their Archetypes. While I miss the ‘All-Out Attacks’ from Persona, where your party gets to do a flashy supermove after all enemies have had their weaknesses exploited, the Synthesis attacks are at least a smaller-scale strategic variation, of sorts, on this. The thrill of battles is only intensified by returning composer Shoji Meguro (Persona series), who delivers absolutely phenomenal music that trades the funk and jazz of his previous work for insanely catchy opera rap and other grand orchestral and choir pieces.

An experience I can’t stop thinking about

Persona is a series I hold particularly dear, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to see it undergo some sort of change. With Metaphor: ReFantazio, Studio Zero has given me everything I could have hoped for, and then some. It’s a remarkably gripping RPG filled with rich storytelling and themes, nuanced characters, deep mechanics and unrivalled visuals and music. It’s a game that I’ve had trouble putting down, even when I went to Spain, and to say I’m excited to dive into the latter half would be a colossal understatement.

Of course, Metaphor: ReFantazio could always suffer a big dip in quality towards the end, but given how deftly paced it’s been so far, as well as the consistent quality of the staggeringly long Persona games before it, I’m optimistic that won’t happen. And even on the basis of its stellar first 40 hours, I have full confidence this will be one of the best games of the year, bar none.

I’ll have more in the coming days, but for now, Metaphor: ReFantazio will release on October 11th on PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series X/S and PC. A sizeable free demo featuring several hours’ worth of content is now available on all platforms, with progress carrying over to the full game.

Image credit: Atlus