Metaphor: ReFantazio is the latest RPG from the minds of the Persona. Like its predecessors, Metaphor is a dense game with lots to do and talk about, from its Archetype class system to Atlus’ maturation as storytellers. There’s even something to be said about how cool it is to skate on your sword. Our first playthrough for the review was just under 80 hours, and a completionist playthrough could easily add another 20 to 30 hours onto that number.
We’ll have a lot more coverage in the coming weeks, but if you’re thinking about dipping your toe into Atlus’ new universe, here’s everything we wrote from the game’s first week.
2 / 11
Metaphor: ReFantazio, the new fantasy RPG from Atlus’ Persona team, is out today. It’s an excellent game that builds upon its predecessor’s foundations and manages to correct some old mistakes, as well. But there is one thing Atlus said was going to be different in this game compared to Persona, and the team was upfront about it leading up to launch: Metaphor: ReFantazio doesn’t have romance routes for its various relationships. — Kenneth Shepard
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3 / 11
Metaphor: ReFantazio, the new fantasy RPG from the minds behind Persona, is a pretty dense game. There are a lot of systems to keep track of, levels to grind, and time to manage as you travel through the world of Euchronia. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the things to do when actual in-game days pass when you so much as talk to someone. — Kenneth Shepard and Timothy Monbleau
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4 / 11
Sometimes the optimal play is to not play optimally at all. In Altus’s Persona-like RPG, Metaphor: ReFantazio, there are the class options you’d expect from the genre, so you might expect to be told the best possible choice to most enjoy the game. It’s just…it doesn’t work like that here. It’s better. — Timothy Monbleau
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5 / 11
Atlus’ new fantasy social sim RPG Metaphor: ReFantazio is out today, October 11. The game’s turn-based battle system is similar to those in the studio’s past work like Shin Megami Tensei and Persona, but is built around Archetypes, which are classes that have different proficiencies and roles to take on in combat. There are your RPG standards like the sword-swinging Warrior and element-spinning Mage, gimmicky Archetypes with original mechanics like the Summoner, and support-based roles like the Commander who plays with the game’s positioning mechanic. — Kenneth Shepard
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6 / 11
There are a lot of tiny details in Atlus’ new fantasy RPG Metaphor: ReFantazio that make moving through its world a delight. I love how Gallica, my fairy companion, sits on my shoulder as I walk through the streets of its fantasy setting. I enjoy reading all the chatter that pops up from the citizens as I make my way from one side of a city to the other. Metaphor isn’t an open-world game, but its towns are still decently sized and take a minute to get around on foot. Sure, you can fast-travel and miss out on all the ambient dialogue, but if you do that, you’re denying yourself one of the greatest simple pleasures of the game: skating around on your sword. — Kenneth Shepard
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7 / 11
Metaphor: ReFantazio, the upcoming fantasy political drama RPG from Atlus, is only a few days away from its October 11 release date. Broadly, the game takes the social sim and time management mechanics of the Persona series and fine-tunes them to make a truly exceptional RPG that represents a step forward for the studio in a lot of ways. Still, having played both it and Persona 3 Reload earlier this year, I’ve got one nitpick: I wish Metaphor: ReFantazio had more voice acting. — Kenneth Shepard
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8 / 11
Metaphor: ReFantazio may be one of the most stylish-looking games ever made, even more so than Persona 5, the incredibly flashy Atlus RPG that preceded it. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it turns out the menus that play a huge role in establishing the visual identities of these games are very hard to make. — Ethan Gach
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9 / 11
Over the years, Persona, Atlus’ high school social sim RPG series, has captured my heart as the quintessential “power of friendship” games. The games have meaningful things to say about human connection as they follow high schoolers trying to save the world and still study for their final exams. But even when the series has touted progressive ideals like accepting your true self and taking down corrupt systems, it’s always found a way to attack people it should be advocating for. I was concerned that Metaphor: ReFantazio, the new fantasy RPG about a high-stakes election, would fall into the same trap. I’m happy to report that it doesn’t, and actually goes out of its way to subvert the tropes its predecessors fed into. — Kenneth Shepard
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10 / 11
Throughout Metaphor: ReFantazio’s roughly 80 hours, the RPG’s protagonist carries a novel with him as he travels through the fantastical world of the United Kingdom of Euchronia. The book depicts an idealized metropolis of skyscrapers where equality is written into law. It’s clear this story envisions a pristine vision of our own world, and as our hero reads through its pages, he’s filled with a drive to try and make his world a place that mirrors the fantasy the author created. I’m no stranger to throwing my heart and soul into the stories I devour in fiction, so Metaphor: ReFantazio had me by the throat in mere minutes. — Kenneth Shepard
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11 / 11