Metaphor: ReFantazio is game of the year material.
REVIEW by @BoddyZachary: https://t.co/ZUvp2JiEO1#metaphor #Xbox #Steam
— Jez (@JezCorden) October 7, 2024
Katsura Hashino, the longtime director of the Persona series, has made a significant shift from modern-day settings to the realm of epic fantasy with his latest game, Metaphor: ReFantazio. This RPG, which launches on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC on October 11th, began its development journey in 2008. It took several years for the project to fully develop, kicking off three years after initial work started.
I've only played 30 hours of Metaphor: ReFantazio so far (which I assume means I'm almost done with the first act) but I adore it. It's fantasy Persona 5 with a job system and it rules so hard. One of my favorite games of the year for sure
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) October 7, 2024
By 2016, just before the game’s launch, Hashino posed a crucial question to his team: what type of game would they like to create next? The unanimous answer was fantasy. In many ways, Metaphor: ReFantazio retains some of the beloved elements of the Persona series, such as slick menus, turn-based combat, and gameplay systems that thrive on forging meaningful connections with characters.
Metaphor: ReFantazio is an exemplary JRPG that takes clear inspiration from its Persona and SMT predecessors but wraps it around an epic, politically-charged fantasy story.
Here's my review: https://t.co/lZzUY2ePzk
— Aaron Potter (@ItsMeAaronP) October 7, 2024
However, it departs significantly from the detailed depiction of modern-day Japan by immersing players in a high-fantasy realm brimming with fairies, kingdoms, and monstrous beings. The story of Metaphor: ReFantazio begins with the death of a king, sparking a tournament to find his successor. For Hashino, the fantasy genre offered an opportunity to explore ideas that wouldn’t fit within a modern setting.
He aimed to create a game that emphasized a long journey, a common fantasy trope that wouldn’t resonate as well in the context of high school students’ lives. Thus, the game involves players traveling across an expansive fantasy world, using vehicles to reach distant towns and dungeons. Despite its fantastical setting, Metaphor: ReFantazio delves into real-world issues, particularly anxiety.
Exploring anxiety in a fantasy realm
Hashino uses the fantasy environment to address anxiety in an abstract way. “Thematically, we put anxiety as the central focus of the game,” he explains.
In this world, anxiety is an emotion and a physical particle visible in the air. This imaginative representation allowed Hashino to tackle broader themes without getting bogged down in real-world specifics. Creating an entirely new fantasy world presented its own set of challenges for Hashino and his team.
Unlike the modern settings of previous games, where inspiration could be drawn from everyday surroundings, building a fantasy world required a different approach. Hashino revisited classic fantasy literature like “Lord of the Rings” for a refresher but realized that merely imitating existing works wouldn’t suffice. Instead, he aspired to create a fantasy game unique to his team’s vision.
Ultimately, Metaphor: ReFantazio gave Hashino and his team the fresh experience they sought. It pushed them to craft a unique world and imagine how its inhabitants would think and behave. This creative endeavor was unprecedented for Hashino, adding a new dimension to his approach to game development.
Hashino concludes, “Trying to put myself in the shoes of the people in this fantasy world, and how they would think, was a really interesting experience for me. And something I’d never really done before.”
Metaphor: ReFantazio’s innovative take on fantasy promises an exciting new chapter for RPG enthusiasts and is a testament to Hashino’s dedication to exploring new frontiers in gaming storytelling.
