ATLUS has produced quite a few spectacular and beloved role-playing video games over the previous few many years. Loads of these titles have been a part of the Shin Megami Tensei or Persona franchises. Persona 3, 4, and 5 director Katsura Hashino established a brand new studio in 2016, named Studio Zero, with the objective to create and work on new IP. The primary one was introduced as Challenge Re:Fantasy. This is able to later be renamed to Metaphor: ReFantazio, and it was the star of the ATLUS’ lineup at mother or father firm SEGA’s Tokyo Recreation Present 2024 sales space.
Metaphor: ReFantazio has a variety of main Persona alums engaged on it, similar to character designer Shigenori Soejima, composer Shoji Meguro, author Yuichiro Tanaka, and designer Azusa Kido. And never least of all, Katsura Hashino stepping again into the director’s chair for the venture.
Mainly, think about if the Persona staff made a excessive fantasy RPG full of an epic journey and a kingdom at stake.
The official premise synopsis reads:
“This can be a story of how folks should discover unity to elect a brand new king.
Our story takes place in The UK of Euchronia, the place the assassination of the king brings chaos and unrest to the land. Then, one fateful day, a magic recognized solely to the king known as the Royal Magic is invoked, and the world turns into embroiled in a royal event for the throne.
Within the midst of this, the protagonist, collectively together with his companion, the fairy Gallica, should discover a strategy to break the curse that has been positioned on the prince that the dominion believes to be useless. To take action, they depart on a journey throughout the huge land.
They’ll uncover that as a way to obtain their objective, they have to take part within the event for the throne, and this nice process shall require them to ally with many pals and followers of the assorted tribes inhabiting the world.”
Metaphor is full of dungeons to discover, numerous characters to find and get to know, and a grand journey so that you can go on. Fight is turn-based however like latest Persona video games, it’s quick and snappy, with slick menus and animations. The presentation and pacing make the turn-based fight all of the extra partaking, responsive, and satisfying. Merely put, the fight is a lot enjoyable and rewarding, and that’s coming from somebody who doesn’t typically like turn-based battles.
As most likely anticipated, Metaphor: ReFantazio is oozing with model and a really distinctive one at that. There’s a good quantity of European fantasy aesthetic, joined with extra anime-style character, creature, and mechanical designs. The top result’s a mode and taste that seems like an superior fusion of east and west to create one thing that feels recent.
This couldn’t be represented any higher than Metaphor’s battle theme, which is a principally orchestral and operatic however then additionally encompasses a fast-paced chanting by Keisuke Honryo, chief priest of Myojoji in Kanagawa, Japan. It’s one of the wildly distinctive online game tracks I’ve heard in a very long time, and you may’t assist however really feel epic and amped up concurrently while you hear it.
Instantly after from my hands-on time, I knew Metaphor: ReFantazio was going to be one thing particular. It appears my intestine intuition was proper, as early evaluations are glowing with reward and the PS5 model’s Metacritic common is sitting at 94 on the time of writing. This can be a sport that isn’t solely seeking to be top-of-the-line JRPGs or RPGs of the yr, however downright top-of-the-line video games of the yr.
When you’re nonetheless skeptical, you may obtain the demo obtainable now or you may watch my gameplay from TGS 2024 beneath.
Metaphor: ReFantazio releases on October 11, 2024 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Sequence consoles, and PC.
Thanks to SEGA for having me at their sales space at Tokyo Recreation Present 2024.
