Metaphor: ReFantazio hands-on preview [SGF] – Similar style, different faces, brand new lands to explore!

It is sometimes difficult to create an entirely new IP in a genre as complex as a JRPG/RPG adventure and have your fan base know very quickly how to pick it up and play. Well, Metaphor: ReFantazio is a new IP from the same studio that brought you Persona 4 and 5, and it shows in the gameplay while still providing enough fresh and new that you’ll feel fresh while know what to do.

I am a gamer who isn’t great at JRPG style games but I love playing them. Everything from Final Fantasy to Octopath Traveller and the Persona games, I’ve played and beaten, but it’s not been easy. Well, during Summer Game Fest, I got to sit down and preview Metaphor: ReFantazio in three sections. The first was more showcasing how the gameplay works, the next was a dungeon situation, and we ended with a boss fight. Each one I was able to grasp pretty quickly with no issues and the one time a developer came to help, it was because I got lost on the ship exploring all the things you can do.

The gameplay is very similar to Persona 5, which I think is wonderful. I was able to jump in and know the basics while I learned the intricate mechanics of the newer aspects. It’s turn based strategy with group abilities and solo abilities, all powered by the amount of action points you have at the time, so make sure you don’t use them all too quickly or the boss will be that much harder. I also loved the ability to just destroy some lower level enemies in the normal world without going into combat. Saves wasting time on super low level enemies.

While there won’t be any romancing in the game, your relationships matter to your continued growth with those characters and their abilities. Metaphor: ReFantazio’s biggest plus is their new archetype systems allowing you to change everyone’s archetype to fit your style of gameplay. For instance, if you really love a specific character’s personality or art style, you can choose to manipulate their class to fit your needs. So you don’t have a set tank or healer or mage, but instead, can have anyone be anything and then level up their relationship to make them more powerful.

What this really does is allow for a lot of replayability. I asked if players could do runs with all the same archetype, and my guide basically said you can do whatever matching you want, the difficulty will just be higher if you’re not well rounded. Understandable. However, I like the idea of running with only tanks or only mages for fun, which I can do if I choose to!

Another great aspect to Metaphor: ReFantazio is the passage of time. The team really wanted to make you feel like you are on a road trip with your party. You’ll be able to spend time leveling up your companions, cooking, etc. Each activity you do will pass time while you’re traveling from one area on the map to the other.

I love the look of Metaphor: ReFantazio. Each character looks unique and interesting and each has a fun personality so far as I could tell from the preview. There is clearly a lot of depth not just to the characters but the lands those characters are from, with each land having their own issues and hold ups towards the others on their lands and across the seas. It seems like there will be plenty of space for political discussion and race relations between groups of people. I’m very excited to see how they all end up connecting and how the relationships to the characters around the main character grow and change during the adventure.

When speaking to my guide from the Atlus team, he said the game is FULL, 80-120 hours depending on how quickly you play with a focus on replayability being the key. It seems like if you’re a fan of the JRPG genre and loved the Persona games, you’ll love this all-new IP. Metaphor: ReFantazio will be available on PC, PlayStation4, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S on October 11, 2024.

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