Metaphor: ReFantazio Review — The Strength of a Story

Developer ATLUS, the team behind Persona 3, 4, 5, and Shin Megami Tensei, bring their famous penchant for making RPG games into a brand new, original fantasy setting. Though slow at times and a bit on the nose with its writing to the point of circular speaking, Metaphor: ReFantazio is a visually stunning and exciting game with a powerful message worth hearing and being told.

Very early into the game, Metaphor: ReFantazio asks you the question of whether stories have real, tangible value in our world or are simply escapism. Metaphor: ReFantazio heavily explores the theme of ‘the power of a story’ throughout its roughly 60 hours of playtime, and is something the game wants you to keep at the forefront of your mind as it uses its story and setting to convey very clear messages about our real world.

The game begins with the murder of a king, a look into a desperate and failing state, and a quest to infiltrate the military to save your best friend, the prince, who has been placed into a magically induced coma. Your quest quickly evolves into a race to determine the election of the new king, with yourself as a contender, with the main roadblocks to your success being a deviously twisted villain and underlying social issues.

Metaphor: ReFantazio’s Kingdom of Euchronia is a compellingly severe and dark setting, where the themes of racial prejudice, political intrigue, social inequality, and religious extremism are very bluntly shown in their full ugly glory.

ATLUS very clearly wants you to take the idea of a story having the power to influence our lives seriously. It uses its brutal setting to convey messages of equality, social mobility, and overall “progressive” themes. The general message of the game is anti-exploitation and that diversity makes us stronger, and the game is not extra subtle about it.

While it is, of course, a great message and one I can only imagine the most horrible of people being blatantly opposed to, the game’s blunt writing and tendency to repeat itself can make it feel a bit browbeaten. Regardless, for all the times I found myself a little bored with the dialogue, there were even more moments of excitement, both in the game’s use of poetic symbolism and in the striking visuals presented alongside it.

Being an ATLUS game, it should go without saying that Metaphor: ReFantazio is full of phenomenal art and incredible visuals, both in 2D and 3D, as the game constantly shifts between both animation mediums. Metaphor: ReFantazio is a reminder that video games can and often are works of art, tugging at my heartstrings, leaving me in awe, and, yes, even bringing a tear to my eyes in a couple of segments.

I was asked in my review guide to only share screenshots from the first part of the game, and this is something I’ll happily comply with because I wouldn’t say I like the idea of stealing that feeling of seeing some of the game’s visuals for the first time away from you.

Fans of SMT and Persona will be glad to know that the game’s turn-based combat system is highly reminiscent of ATLUS’ previous works, with some very tense boss battles that challenge you to think strategically and target your opponent’s weak points.

It often surprised me just how much Metaphor: ReFantazio felt familiar to Persona and yet distinctly unique. I would almost describe it as a fever dream, with elements of the game feeling so close to something I’ve experienced before and yet so far separated from the game’s fantasy setting and unique characters.

The game’s calendar system feels very Persona, with a limited number of days to complete your main mission before the new king is elected. The timeframe here, however, feels much more pressing, with each side quest being a very deliberate decision on your part. It makes total sense, given the nature of the conflict, and gives the game a bit of replayability as you go back to re-spend your precious time with different companions.

For everything I love about Metaphor: ReFantazio, there are some genre-specific “issues” that bother me, which likely won’t be a problem for long-time JRPG fans or those who love ATLUS games.

Particularly, I felt like Metaphor: ReFantazio had a tendency to drag on, especially in the beginning. Slow introductions are fairly normal for JRPGs, but Metaphor seemed especially slow in getting to the actual gameplay.

The game has this particularly frustrating habit—which, again, isn’t unheard of in JRPG titles at all—of giving you momentary control of the character only to put you immediately into a dialogue segment or cutscene. Though I was invested in many of these exchanges due to the characters involved, I did occasionally find myself going “ok, skip” when the amount of dialogue was severely cutting into my game time.

Again, this is something most JRPG or RPG fans, in general, won’t mind, and I don’t really dock the game points for it, but it did feel a bit ridiculous how often ten seconds of gameplay would turn into three minutes of cutscenes, followed by dialogue, followed by more cutscenes. Thankfully, these cutscenes tend to be fully animated 2D segments, being highly interesting to watch if nothing else.

As an aside, I recommend players play the game in Japanese with English subtitles. There was nothing wrong with the English voice cast, but I generally found that many of the Japanese voices seemed to fit the characters better.

Try Hard Guides received a PC review code for this game. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles on our Game Reviews page! Metaphor: ReFantazio is available on Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox.