Metaphor: ReFantazio Might Be My Game of The Year (Demo First Impressions)
“What if the world we live in today… is their utopia?
This is the question that introduced Metaphor: ReFantazio to the world last year, and it’s a game that’s been on my radar ever since. Of course, that’s due in no small part to the game being developed by Atlus, the company in charge of Persona and Shin Megami Tensei, which happen to be some of my favorite franchises. But still, the details following that initial trailer led me to pre-order the collector’s edition, as well as play the demo as soon as that was released. And I have to share my thoughts somehow now that I’ve played the demo, or else I’ll explode from excitement.

And then you’re thrown into the world of Metaphor: Refantazio. You play as a boy with different colored eyes and a name of your choosing, accompanied by a fairy named Gallica. Your mission is to assassinate a man named Louis, who murdered the king and cursed the prince. Yes, it turns out the king had a son, and he’s.... mostly alive. He’s been in a sleeping beauty-like state for years, and few know he’s still around. The protagonist, (who, by the way, actually speaks frequently! No silent protagonist! Rejoice!), knows because he was childhood friends with the prince. There's even an adorable flashback scene.
The first step of that goal is heading to the country’s capital to meet up with one of your allies. Unfortunately, the assassination attempt goes about as badly as it could. The king’s magic kicks in and a rock bearing his face appears in the sky, invoking a kingdom-wide election that’ll allow anyone with enough support to become the next king. Much to the dismay of our protagonist, Louis’ charisma makes him one of the top contenders for the throne. After all, he claims to fight for the common man, and to help eradicate the monsters known as humans. Yet his effortless murder of the king and attempt on the prince make him incredibly menacing, meaning he's shaping up to be a really compelling antagonist. And he's got a sick design to boot.

I might’ve died instantly. Whoops. But like all Atlus games, the game over screen is great, and caught me off guard.

Guess I single-handedly killed the entire genre of fantasy. My bad.
The gameplay in general feels like a perfect blend of Persona and Shin Megami Tensei mechanics. The combat uses SMT’s press turn system, allowing you to gain turns by hitting weaknesses and landing critical hits. I don’t mind Persona’s combat, but I’ve always preferred press-turn to one more. If you’re a Persona fan though then don’t worry, since characters can awaken to something called “Archetypes”, bearing resemblance to how Personas function. The awakenings for these Archetypes are also absolutely metal in ways that words cannot describe. I mean, the characters quite literally rip a metallic heart out from their chest and yell into it as if it was a microphone. That is a crazy sentence and I love it.
Metaphor borrows the calendar system from Persona as well, meaning you can do whatever until the deadline, but you have a limited number of actions per in-game day, so you’ll have to budget that time wisely. An image of the prince is shown on the calendar with each passing day, a reminder that the stakes are high.
Something unique to this game is the option to adjust your combat formation by having the characters fight in the front or back. They’ll do more damage in the front, but they’ll have a higher defense in the back. Another unique trait is the ability to hit enemies in the overworld. This’ll either defeat them instantly if they’re weaker than you, or stun them before fighting in the typical turn-based style if they’re stronger. It is insane how much this improves the flow of the game, since I doubt many people enjoy being forced into fights random fights they'll win instantly anyway. There’s these really fun animations that play before each fight, and that combined with the incredibly stylish and colorful UI makes it that much more hype to play.

I say that the combat is stylish, but really, this whole game is just oozing with style. Vibrant magenta and cyan paint splatters decorate the game’s menus and interface, adding pops of color. I mean, just look at the main menu.
Atlus also did not sleep on the characters, as they’re all accompanied by beautifully painted sprites. Then there’s the world itself, which has what I can best describe as a storybook feel to it - the sky looks like watercolor, and the world looks like it was drawn. Definitely helps to sell the whole “this is a fantasy” idea.

As a side note, I love how they make the background music canon by having it be completely silent until Gallica reveals that she can create music with magic. And let me tell you, the music is amazing. It’s not the kind of thing I’d listen to on its own, but it’s got this orchestral vibe that’s so fitting for a fantasy world. The only gripe I have with it is that it can sometimes overpower the characters. When I say sometimes, I particularly mean in the location called Akademeia. Here, you can adjust Archetypes, pet a cat… and try to listen to whatever the heck More is saying over the choir in the background.


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