Metaphor: ReFantazio Review – The Final Fantasy
Metaphor ReFantazio is a very unique turn-based RPG. It tries many different ideas both mechanically and narratively without missing a beat. The game not only begins in one of the most unique ways that allows the player to become part of the journey to come, but it also slowly rolls out a breadth of mechanics that are all executed expertly in a way that only Atlus after decades of expertise in the turn-based genre can accomplish. From start to finish the game was so familiar, yet fresh, with engaging and at times, brutal combat and some of the most experimental narrative twists and turns I have seen in a long time.
Developer & Publisher // Atlus, Sega
Platforms // Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4|5, PC
MSRP & Release Date // $69.99, October 11th, 2024
Reviewed On // Xbox Series X
Welcome to Euchronia
Metaphor ReFantazio is set in the fantasy world of Euchronia, a nation plunged into chaos after the mysterious murder of the King. You play as an Elda character who is on his way to the Grand Capital. He is on a mission from a faction operating in secret to track down the caster of a curse that befell the King’s only heir to the throne. When he arrives at the capital he enlists as a guard where he finds new companions and ones that are on the same mission.
But things are not so simple, as the moment he discovers who cast the spell. It turns into an assassination mission that goes awry at the king’s funeral. As Louis, a former military general, causes chaos at the funeral and declares his attempt to claim the throne. However, in the midst of the chaos, the royal palace is lifted into the air by the king’s magic and will only be made accessible to the person who wins the favor of the people. Creating a race amongst many different candidates, including the main character to gain the most favor and claim the throne once and for all.
To say the plot of Metaphor ReFantazio is complex would be an understatement. It starts simple enough, with plenty of character motivations, the main character included, to grab intrigue. For example, the main character was an Eldan child taken in by the prince’s village and they are both friends. With Gallica, his trusty fairy companion, leading him along with little comforts like the music he can hear thanks to a spell. As well as other companions are found along the way like Strohl. He willingly joins the mission to honor the memory of his village now left to ruin due to the royal army under Louis ignoring their cries for help when he was a child.
Every character has motivations that feel natural and tragic. During the story, each character grows and learns about the entire country in the race against the other candidates while slowly getting closer to confronting Louis. With a finale that reaches into the same fourth wall-breaking aspects of the beginning of the game to execute an emotional, heartwarming, and satisfying bookend to my 78-hour playthrough.
A Fantastical Journey with Virtues and Bonds
After the opening of Metaphor ReFantazio, the main character and his party are given a Gauntlet Runner. A land vehicle that is wonderfully designed. With a basic carriage design elevated by two fully movable legs. The Gauntlet Runner is a truly unique design that carries the main character from the various different locations in the game. From the desert surrounding the Grand Capital to a port town off the coast with floating islands and orbs of water in the distance.
The locations feel very inspired and fantastically realized with different races of people, like the Elda being the most human-like and other fantasy designs. While the Roussainte are elves, Eugiefs are short bat-like people, Paripus are dog-like and Mustari people have a third eye. The designs feel right at home in the setting with their own differences between other races. Eldas are viewed are lessers, with Paripus’ being the most unfortunate of the races across the nation. Leaving them to be executed for fun or having to steal to survive.
But when it comes to every location in Metaphor ReFantazio there are multiple narrative beats tied to them that make them feel important. Especially in the beginning, middle, and end make the trip to the next very exciting and fulfilling by the time you leave for the next. Beautifully animated cutscenes greet you along the way. Each location also has denizens going about their day, offering teachings that help with your Royal Virtues.
The Royal Virtues are a set of stats that allow you to access various side stories in the game. Particularly for your companions, as you can spend a day with them to level up your Bond with them and unlock various perks.
These perks can either be little daily bonuses, like free money, items, or cheaper prices at various shops. However, the only problem I have with the Royal Virtues in Metaphor ReFantazio is how they do not offer similar perks like the character Bonds do.
The Bond system feels very fleshed out, similar to the Persona series, but the Royal Virtues only feel like a time sink to feed into the Bond system. It feels like a missed opportunity to not add another incentive to investing into them. On the other hand, the Bond system is more aimed towards the Archetypes and what kinds you unlock for the combat ahead.
The Right Archetype for the Job
Archetypes in Metaphor ReFantazio are akin to the job system in the Final Fantasy series. Different types of Archetypes fill specific roles in a team composition. The main character starts with the Seeker Archetype, which is focused on wind magic, buffs, and healing. It is a great all-around Archetype, but his first two companions, Strohl, and Hulkenberg, come with more unique Archetypes that show how varied the system gets early on. Such as the Warrior, as the name suggests, focuses on physical attacks. Whereas the Knight Archetype can bolster its own defenses and taunt enemies to attack it.
The Archetypes get leveled alongside the character it is equipped with. Unlocking new moves, and after progressing in certain character Bonds, evolutions of those Archetypes that get progressively more powerful abilities.
You will also accrue MAG, which can be used to buy different Archetypes for every character. While being able to use Skill Inheritance to take already unlocked skills and passives from other Archetypes for use with others. The Knight, for instance, can grab a General’s ability to move the party to either the front or back row in combat. This creates an interesting synergy for coordinated buffs that speaks to the Knight’s role.
The design for every Archetype also gets very weird, but coherent at the same time. My favorite is the Persona Master due to its ethereal and gilded design. All of this is in service of Metaphor ReFantazio’s layered and strategic turn-based combat.
Brutal Familiar Combat
The combat in Metaphor ReFantazio seems simple on the surface. The UI in gameplay would have you believe it mimics Atlus’s Persona series. However, it is more rooted in the Shin Megami Tensei series in more ways than one. For starters, you will have a set number of actions depending on how many party members you have. Getting a critical hit or hitting a weakness can give you up to eight actions per turn. But these rules apply to the enemies as well.
There are staples to the weakness and resistance system with foes being able to nullify certain damage types and deflect those attacks. But there are catches to the system. If you or the enemies miss or nullify each other’s attacks, you or they lose two actions during your turn. With deflection automatically ending a turn. It creates a stressful system you have to be wary of when stepping into an encounter. But if you do not like the outcome of a fight at any point, you can rewind the entire encounter and retain the knowledge you have to master it.
The mixture of the Shin Megami Tensei combat system with the Archetype system creates a very unique experience. You can mix and match to find the right combos to overcome any challenge at any point in the game. Especially when fighting the various bosses in the game.
Crazily Designed Bosses
The bosses in Metaphor ReFantazio are not only mechanically heavy, but also crazily designed. The first major boss of the game is this four-armed owl with an exposed ribcage inside a pomegranate and four legs skating around on blades with a vine carrying apples around it. The design alone, and I say this respectfully, is very unhinged. Later human designs are either tame in comparison, or equally unhinged. Such as a later fight against a giant with an eggshell for a torso. His face is half peeled off and replicas of humans walking around its heart on a plate atop the body. The designs are so unique that describing them makes me want to be a fly on the wall in the design rooms for these alone.
The bosses also have unique mechanics. For example, the first boss will heal itself if you do not destroy the apples and if you do not destroy its legs, it will continue to do a sweeping attack against your group. These bosses break the mold and the imagination that went into them leaves me in awe.
Dungeon Delving
In between the various narrative beats and different locations you explore there will be a variety of dungeons you can explore. In the beginning of the Metaphor ReFantazio, you go through a fort, and then a traditional mine before getting back to the Grand Capital. These two locations are short-lived but have unique layouts and enemies. Like ducks with human legs in an eggshell body, or wolves and even walking teeth.
But as you progress through the game, you will find more traditional designs. Such as desert ruins, forests, and even towers that have different layouts and enemies. However, these traditional locations lack in unique environmental design.
There will of course be secrets and Metroidvania-styled shortcuts to unlock in them. But there are only a handful of times the dungeons truly surprised me. One of the first optional dungeons is a ruin with goblins aplenty that go berserk if you explore with the Healer archetype equipped on a character. These goblins do not have weaknesses, so it makes clearing them out in the first few turns very crucial. In contrast, one of the towers has a unique room with ogres and minotaurs lined up to lead to a mini-boss. No doubt creating an eerie feeling after opening the door.
But what makes exploring dungeons, both optional and the main story ones, unique is that you will be able to ambush enemies by slashing at them before pressing a button to initiate combat. The ambush will take out a chunk of health and pulling it off consistently is very exciting. This hack-and-slash system is also fully fleshed out. Where you can dodge certain enemy attacks, and have your allies help attack the enemy before it gets into that ambushed state. With level advantages that allow you to instantly kill certain foes.
The overall gameplay experience of Metaphor ReFantazio exudes variety and wears the inspiration of not only Atlus’s past titles but also other great JRPGs like Final Fantasy with the job system. I never found myself getting bored, and the mixture of all of these systems worked excellently without feeling overwhelmed.
Beautiful, Symbolic UI and Main Menu
It goes without saying, but the UI and main menu in Metaphor ReFantazio are the best in class. There is no clutter when exploring dungeons, you can clearly see stats and options on the bottom right of the screen. With a coherent main menu, the remainder of your days before the next major story beat clear without eating up too much of the screen. But one thing I truly loved was the little text you see in town of what certain NPCs are doing. Such as “murmur” or “gab” and even seeing what they say when you walk in certain sections. It’s immersive and stylish.
The main menu also follows the lead of the recent Persona games in being amazingly stylish. Each sub-menu shows a different body part of the main character or companion in the style of the Vitruvian Man. But the coolest detail in the menu is that if you are in a dungeon. The party will have an orange aura on their body as you explore. But if you open the main menu, this effect will persist for the main character. It’s such a subtle touch, but it’s this attention to detail that truly make the game stand out.
Wonderful Technical and Vocal Performances, Mostly, with a Dash of Experimental Music
When it comes to the technical performance of Metaphor ReFantazio, I found myself intrigued by some of the shortcomings. When you leave the inn of any town, the framerate takes a very noticeable hit that stabilizes after a short while. Moreover, some of the dungeons have clear light stutters in between each floor. It’s strange because the rest of the experience looks flawless. But the consistency of these shortcomings really bugged me.
The music of Metaphor ReFantazio is hands down the most experimental part of the game. It uses similar orchestral arrangements like other fantasy games. But there is an honestly crazy twist when it comes to the vocals in certain tracks. Such as both of the battle themes have Buddhist chanting in the style of rapping that caught me off guard. The boss themes also do an amazing job at ensuring the tension those scenarios have. But certain locations, like Virga Island, reach into Konnakol to offer a beautiful cultural twist. It’s the cherry on top of an already stylish sundae and feels like Atlus truly went above and beyond for the music itself.
As for the vocal performances of every character particularly for the English dub. The only character I found to do a poor job was Grius. His lines either get cut short or he just does not have the proper energy in his voice, especially when compared to even the main character, Strohl, Gallica or even Fidelio and Basilio who pull off cockney perfectly. Couple this with almost every pre-rendered cutscene and animated cutscene having lip sync issues that at times killed some of the moments. Suffice it to say, but the lip sync issues, similar to the framerate drops, were too consistent for me to ignore.
Difficulty and Accessibility
When it comes to Accessibility in Metaphor ReFantazio there are tons of missing features. From color blind assistance to motion blur removal. As well as not being able to continue sprinting by just tapping the button, instead of having to hold it down. To the game’s credit though, there are very few instances where you need to have precision button pressing for those who cannot handle quick time events.
There are difficulty options too, from a Story mode to Regicide, or the hardest option available after finishing the game. You can pick from any difficulty option in the main menu, and it will not affect achievement or trophy acquisition. However, this does not apply to Regicide. So if you pick this in new game plus, ensure you do not save over your original clear data.
Closing the Book
Metaphor ReFantazio is an absolutely incredible experience all around. From the grand story to the long journey across the land with fantastical designs throughout. With an incredibly fleshed-out job system with the Archetypes and a combat system that makes exploration more fun with a classic JRPG experience beside. The amazingly stylish UI and menu coupled with the experimental music hammers home the time, talent, and effort poured into it.
Metaphor ReFantazio feels like a home run for Atlus. Especially considering the fact this is their first new IP that does not rely on already existing stories or brand association in a very long time. To me, they were able to take risks and execute new ideas without forgetting what they excel at and brought people together for a new and beautiful fantasy tale that I cannot recommend enough, even with some shortcomings. This game and its tale filled with grandiose surprises and a satisfying finale will be something that will stick with me for years to come.
Note – A key was provided for the purpose of this review.
Final Score: 9/10
Pros
- Incredible Story
- Varied Locations
- Intense Combat System
- Wonderfully Designed Bosses
- Impressive Archetype System
- Stylish UI and Main Menu
- Experimental Music
Cons
- Royal Virtues feel Underwhelming
- Framerate Drops in Cities
- Some Weak Vocal Performances
- Lip Sync Issues in Cutscenes