Metaphor: ReFantazio – Archetype Do’s and Don’ts
Metaphor ReFantazio is a very deep RPG that will be on rails for the majority of the experience. As such, when it comes to grinding in the story or optional dungeons, you will have to make the most out of your time. Especially for your archetypes, which need all of the experience points you can get in every dungeon you find yourself in. But when it comes to what you should keep in mind when working with the archetype system, there are some things you need to understand and be opportunistic about. Here is a small list of things that in my experience, has helped immensely.
What to Do with Archetypes in Metaphor ReFantazio
Archetypes in Metaphor ReFantazio are essentially the job system from past Final Fantasy games, where you will have certain roles that every character can fulfill. Such as the main character starting with the “Seeker” archetype that focuses on a mix of wind-based, and physical attacks with healing capabilities. As well as your first party member, Strohl, having the “Warrior” archetype, that as the name suggests, focuses on physical attacks.
When you start unlocking other archetypes in the game, you will be able to spend a unique currency called “MAG” to unlock other archetypes. This opens up a lot of possibilities for customization of your party. With all of this in mind,
Do
- Look at every character stats to look into which archetypes to unlock for them.
- Ensure you have up to date weaponry when swapping archetypes.
- Stick to one archetype at a time for every character before unlocking another.
- Make sure you have a variety of archetypes in the early game.
- Keep up with character bonds to unlock more archetypes.
To Clarify:
- Strohl, for instance, does not have a good magic stat, so giving him archetypes that do not specialize in physical attacks is a bad idea.
- If you swap archetypes in the middle of a dungeon, you run the risk of leaving a character with a weaker weapon than what they have with their previous archetypes.
- When trying to level multiple archetypes at a time, you can become scatterbrained and not max out everything to get the most out of a singular archetype.
- As in every standard RPG, having a good tank, physical damage dealer, magician and a healer can give you the best chance of survival throughout the game.
- Leveling up archetypes is just half the battle, so make sure you do the character stories to get the upgraded variants.
What you Should Not Do with Archetypes in Metaphor ReFantazio
The Archetype system in Metaphor ReFantazio will also unlock ways to purchase abilities from other archetypes. Allowing even further customization for your builds. Some of these abilities you can buy take the form of passives, some passives cannot be bought. Such as the archetype specific lineage buff, where you can benefit from stacking multiple archetypes. In my experience, you should only buy abilities and passives that make sense.
With all of this in mind,
Don’t
- Buy high-cost passives unless you absolutely need to in the endgame.
- Stack multiples of the same archetypes.
- Mix in physical skills for a magic focused archetype and vice versa.
- Buy archetypes in bulk, buy them as needed.
- Finally, use Archetype XP items on low level archetypes.
To clarify:
- Buying high-cost passives can sap your MAG reserves for just experimenting and stopping you from buying necessary abilities. Unless you save scum carefully, avoid this.
- Variety throughout the game is good, even in the endgame. You can be risky and add healing abilities to a mage, or the Knights taunt to a warrior if you think it’s useful in certain boss fights.
- Doubling back to the Strohl example, if you give, say, a gunner’s piercing physical abilities to a mage, this will help with ensuring you have every weakness on lock, but if the strength stat is low, you might as well pass the turn to another character.
- One mistake I made in the beginning of the game was buying multiple archetypes for everyone to experiment with. Do not do this, you will not need every archetype for every character unless you are going for your platform specific achievements.
- Finally, starting from a level 1 archetype is not fun. Even with skill inheritance, you should try to level up a new archetype using XP items a few times if you have a good amount on hand. But do not try and max them out right off the bat, just grind in a dungeon!
But this has been a short list of do’s and don’ts for archetypes in Metaphor ReFantazio. There is a lot more minutia for this system, but these are the easiest things to point out to anyone just starting out and unlocking this system. I hope this helps you!