Metafora: ReFantazio to świetna niespodzianka dla fanów pragnących więcej Persony

There’s a percent of people who will go absolutely feral at the first confirmation of information about the next Persona game. The runaway success of Persona 5 converted first-time players into evangelical worshippers at the altar of Altus. (This is even to the chagrin of Shin Megami Tensei fans, who will be fast to remind everyone there was an RPG series before Persona, long before Persona 5 took the series mainstream.)

But we — and I include myself among them — don’t request to keep frothing for Persona 6, due to the fact that Metaphor: ReFantazio is the successor worthy of the crown and adoration. It’s a finely crafted triumph that isn’t restricted by trying to be another Persona game. By throwing distant those trappings, Metaphor: ReFantazio doesn’t gotta hew to the same constructions, and its developers can open themselves up a fresh story, alternatively of another game set in a modern advanced school in Japan.

Metaphor: ReFantazio drops the modern setting, mostly. It’s set in the fantasy kingdom of Euchronia in the year 785. Our first cutscene starts with the king’s assassination and the ensuing chaos due to the fact that he has no heir. The king’s only boy had been killed earlier by a magical curse cast by a mysterious assassin — or so everyone has been led to believe. In actuality, the prince is inactive alive, but the malignant curse has put him into a deep sleep. erstwhile we first meet our protagonist, he’s on a secret mission, journeying to free the prince from the curse.

Unfortunately, there is simply quite a few table-setting before the game finds its footing, and its weakest section is the first fewer hours. I learn about the 9 tribes of Euchronia: the ruling tribes that include ram-horned Clemar and elf-eared Roussainte, and lower-caste tribes like the dog-eared Paripus, the bat-person hybrid Eugif tribe, or the three-eyed Mustari tribe, who are chastised for their appearance and their refusal to adhere to the state-sponsored religion, Sanctism. My protagonist is simply a associate of the most feared and misunderstood tribe, the Elda, and everyone I meet on city streets is fast to note my tribe and castigate me by association. The Elda are the only tribe without a distinguishing feature, meaning my character looks like a average anime boy. (His heterochromatic eyes seem to just be a character plan choice, and not an Eldan feature.)

But thankfully, it only takes 4 or 5 hours for Metaphor: ReFantazio to kick off. any ridiculously fantastical things happen that are besides good to spoil (and besides weird to decently explain!), and we’ve found our plot. There will be an election to replace the king, and anyone can win the throne — no substance their tribe or station — as long as they have the top support of the people. The tribal divides and attendant prejudices weigh heavy in this election, of course, as many downtrodden hope this is their chance to fix a strategy rigged against them.

And where Metaphor does hew to the Persona franchise is in its larger themes: We are made to feel the divide over and over between these tribes, echoing the Persona series’ larger sense of concern for societal injustice and the anxiety it causes. And of course, only the main character and his organization can overcome it all, thanks to the protagonist’s pure heart and overwhelming supernatural magic powers. (Magic exists in this world, but everyone else needs tools to cast it, whereas the hero’s power comes from an older magic reborn.) Thus, to save the prince’s life and hopefully return him to the throne, the protagonist throws his hat into the ringing to become king, competing in the (probably fixed) trials set out by the church to gain the people’s favor.

The election isn’t the only threat; Euchronia is constantly under attack by monsters, the worst of which are hilariously and bizarrely called Humans — despite looking nothing like the humans we know in our world. All monster designs in Metaphor are detailed, but the Humans are downright horrifying, though Most are ripped from the works of 15th-century Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch. Each Human comes alive in grotesque ways that surely will etch them into the video game monster hall of fame (and weirdly has made me prioritize seeing The Garden of Earthly Delights in individual as a bucket list item).

Every part of Metaphor: ReFantazio’s art and visual plan feels advanced touch. Characters stride about in superb outfits that item their tribe’s angel wings or dog tails. There are 3 styles of character animation — in-world animation, cel-shaded conversation, then a fewer full animated sections to item the most show-stopping moments — and they’re all gorgeous. I’ve taken so many screenshots of a unique character design, or of my favourite l’il guy organization member, or the horizon streaming by while my organization rides the giant mechanized contraption that takes them around the kingdom.

There are maximalist menus and transition screens that rip across my display. The organization associate choice menu uses a watercolor style, with close-cropped portraits of each of my organization members as I build my squad. Unfortunately that stylish maximalism can sometimes get in the way of figuring out how to change my character’s skills, ability, and loadout. Sometimes the user experience doesn’t rather hit the same advanced bar, as it feels like besides many button presses to jump back after utilizing a healing item. any information that would have been helpful was besides just hard to hunt down, like the kind of weapon each character class uses.

But it’s not entirely amazing any UI is jumbled, due to the fact that Metaphor: ReFantazio has so much more going on with its combat than its Persona cousins. The skills in the game’s turn-based combat are assigned by the game’s own twist on a occupation system, called Archetypes. In my 67 hours of play, which took me a small more than three-fourths through the full game and its side content, I was able to unlock 25, with a fewer inactive hidden or out of reach. These Archetypes are any of the fantasy RPG classes you’d anticipate (Mage, Warrior, Healer) and any that are full wildcards: a Merchant class, which uses money to do damage; a Summoner class, a mana-burner of a class that summons monsters for high-damage, single-attack spells and has its own strategy of skill acquisition. The most revolutionary trait of this occupation strategy is that any of my organization members can be assigned any Archetype; there are no affinities that I can discern, so I can choose to build any organization I want.

The turn-based combat truly clicked for me somewhere in the first large dungeon, erstwhile I changed most of my organization members’ Archetypes to suit the fresh enemy kind I began encountering. I besides noticed benefits in leveling up Archetypes that had strong Synergy skills, which are erstwhile 2 or 3 characters squad up to do a more powerful attack, skill, or heal. (It costs all of these characters’ resources to execute this action, so while these attacks are powerful, they can rapidly drain your party’s MP.) As I progressed, I balanced having each organization associate learn 2 or 3 Archetypes, not including that Archetype’s evolved form that unlocks after earning 20 levels. (Archetype XP is earned separately from each character’s XP, and each character retains their own Archetype XP for each role.) Balancing this progression is made easier by the fact I can choose to inherit between 1 to 4 skills between Archetypes, so I can always have a favourite skill for a character on deck even erstwhile I have them performing a different role.

The only real wrinkle I’ve been frustrated by is almost all the Archetype skills, even for physical attacks, usage magic. My MP for hard-hitting characters is rapidly drained, and my plain Jane physical attacks usually can’t compare. Synergy attacks are frequently the only way to cast spells that hit all enemy, so they sap my MP bar. Overall I found Metaphor stingy with its MP-restoring items. Sometimes the only solution was to stop, rest, and take an additional day to tackle a dungeon.

I’d describe many of Metaphor’s bosses as that sweet place of good challenge, where the solution was simply to restart from the last save and effort a different organization configuration. There are plenty of side dungeons scattered across the map with unique bosses, and any truly are a challenge that I ended up just returning to later erstwhile I’d leveled up more. The only times I felt punished by the challenge was erstwhile the game’s weather strategy would take over. Any adverse weather conditions — rain, snow, utmost heat, sandstorm — give the frustrating effect of nullifying the weakness system. In average conditions, hitting an enemy weakness adds a turn to your party’s turn counter. Bad weather cancels that out, but I inactive had to do just as much damage. It usually meant a bigger mana drain as I utilized more heals or skills during the extended battle, and the XP boost wasn’t always worth the drain. It meant checking the weather forecast (for a tiny fee) or changing it (for a larger one) became an essential part of the mid-to-late-game gameplay.

I must counter this combat gripe with a bright spot: Metaphor: ReFantazio has 1 of the better interpretations for how to handle weaker enemies I’ve seen in a turn-based RPG. Any weaker enemies can be taken out in simple overworld, real-time combat. erstwhile my main character takes a fewer swipes, my organization will help, and I besides have a dodge rotation to avoid taking damage. These fights inactive supply meaningful adequate XP rewards to level my organization members and their Archetypes, and sometimes it’s just specified a good break to smash a fewer weaker enemies. This overworld combat strategy besides means I can soften up any enemies equal to my level before choosing to jump into the turn-based combat, or even knock them out adequate to daze them and gain an advantage.

“But surely,” you say, “this is simply a Persona-like. Where are my friends? Where are the social links? Is it all about punching??” There is absolutely a cast of fantastic, unique characters with tragic backstories ready to have heart-to-heart talks with the protagonist. Metaphor: ReFantazio calls them Followers, as they are followers of your character on his road to the election for the throne. All Followers have an associated Archetype, so boosting your relation unlocks first that Archetype, then more inherited skills, then fresh levels of that Archetype. any non-party associate Archetypes besides supply another in-game benefits; grifter Alonzo provides discounts at magic shops, and the town commander Bardon randomly sends you care packages with supplies. Their stories are all sad, mostly due to the fact that they’re all surviving in a very tough world, and as each chapter of their stories unfolds, we see more of their struggles and individual growth.

Some of the more frustrating parts of the Persona social link strategy feel cleaned up with Followers. Metaphor clearly communicates erstwhile individual is ready for their next level with me, and I never encountered a situation where I’d gotta waste an afternoon talking to individual only to not actually advancement the relationship. There are besides only 8 ranks in a Follower relation — alternatively of Persona’s 10 — all neatly displayed in a pastry illustration so it was easy to see where I was at. If a Follower relation wasn’t ready to progress, I could find that out in menus, with a note that 1 of my protagonist’s 5 kingly Royal Virtues wasn’t advanced enough.

This strategy of Royal Virtues was besides much easier to figure out, as my overworld map clearly showed me spots where I could spend a condition of my day earning more Courage, Wisdom, Tolerance, Eloquence, or Imagination. These Royal Virtue levels seemed to mostly gate Follower interactions, but there were a fewer merchants who required a certain level of Wisdom to buy their goods.

Persona games have trained a certain level of time force into me; I request to max out all available afternoon and evening to level up social connections, build attributes, grind out experience. That doesn’t even include the calendar deadlines for each main quest. While Metaphor: ReFantazio has all those elements, there is just a small bit little force here. I always felt like I had adequate time to do everything. That’s not a problem, though! alternatively I don’t feel like I gotta complete a main game dungeon in 1 calendar day. While I inactive haven’t finished the game, I feel assured adequate that I’ll be able to max out my Follower ranks based on the time left, and that’s a immense relief.

Obviously I’ve spent quite a few this review talking about Metaphor: ReFantazio in terms of Persona. While that franchise set a advanced bar, and I think its audience is primed to like this game, Metaphor’s biggest accomplishment is just how different it is, both from the Persona franchise and from many fantasy RPGs that have come before. The way I see it is, Persona walked so Metaphor: ReFantazio could extend its gorgeously feathered wings and fly into the sunset.

Metaphor: ReFantazio will be released Oct. 11 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X. The game was reviewed on PlayStation 5 utilizing a pre-release download code provided by Sega. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though Vox Media may gain commissions for products purchased via affiliate links. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.