Metaphor: ReFantazio feels like a fantasy Persona where no one was allowed to say no to the art team

GamesRPGMetaphor Re FantazioMetaphor: ReFantazio feels like a fantasy Persona where no one was allowed to say no to the art teamWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Sega)

Gallica and the protagonist from Metaphor: ReFantazio.

It’s a loop you’ll recognise in Metaphor: ReFantazio, Atlus' upcoming fantasy RPG, and that’s no surprise. Metaphor is a new game—and new universe—from Katsura Hashino, Persona’s director ever since 2006’s Persona 3 set the template for what those gamesarein the modern era.

(Image credit: Sega)

A demonic “human” enemy in Metaphor: ReFantazio.

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The three demo scenarios I got were all combat-focused: The first was essentially a short tutorial area, the second was a meatier dungeon, and the last was a showdown against a many-tentacled boss that emerged from the sea to menace my party’s mobile base.

Like I said, a lot of the broad strokes of how combat works will probably sound familiar: Single enemies wander the world, waiting for you to whack them and transition into the turn-based squad battles.

(Image credit: Sega)

Cooking in Metaphor: ReFantazio.

That’s if your attacks don’t simply kill them outright before you get into the turn-based mode: Low-level enemies will just keel over when you hit ‘em—a bit like in Persona 5’s Mementos—sparing you the effort of fighting them for real to grab their XP and loot.

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(Image credit: Sega)

Striking an enemy weakness.

It’s worth doing it, though: Making smart use of my synthesis moves made short work of the boss in phase three of my demo. Or it almost did. Sorry, everyone: I got lost on the ship and wasted 5 minutes in the pantry, meaning I didn’t quite get to finish the fight. Hey, it was a very stylish pantry.

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No, really, more stylish than ever. More stylish than Persona 5, even, a game drenched in so much confidentswaggerit launched a thousand character artist careers. The game’s UI in particular is a feast for the senses. Every button press in Metaphor triggers some kind of gala event. Something as simple as checking my character stats sparked a sugar rush of Shigenori Soejima artwork as party member portraits twisted across the screen, all of them distinct and gorgeous. It’s the same artistic philosophy that saw, for instance, Joker’s outline present you pause-menu options in Persona 5, but taken to a lavish, technicolour extreme.

We’ve got bunny-girls, goat-boys, and your protagonist appears to be some kind of persecuted, adolescent David Bowie

It’s great, if you couldn’t tell from my gushing, and really feels like a squad of Persona grandmasters operating at the height of their powers. It extends into the design of the world and its characters, too. Atlus is leaninghardinto fantasy for Metaphor, and has taken that as an excuse to go hog-wild with its characters and world design.

(Image credit: Sega)

Squad-based combat in Metaphor: ReFantazio.

But most of all, it’s British as hell. Bid farewell to Persona’s all-American voice casts, friends, because Metaphor: ReFantazio promises to be the first Atlus game to acknowledge the existence of Geordies. As someone used to the dulcet US tones of the Troy Bakers and Cherami Leighs of the world in my Atlus games, encountering a rabbit-woman bounty hunter with the most potent cockney accent a person’s vocal cords can muster had roughly the same effect on me as being flashbanged.

(Image credit: Sega)

Meeting a Paripus Bunny bounty hunter.

It was a joy to play and to look at, and it all of it combines to give Metaphor a very distinct sense of setting even in my short time with the game, even as it draws on Atlus’ (and Hashino’s) other work to invent itself. I can’t wait to play a bit more, mostly because of what I’ve just spoken about, but also to find out just what the hell a ReFantazio even is.

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Mass destruction#

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals#

Wake up, get up, get out there#

Mass destruction

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals

Wake up, get up, get out there