Atlus’ Katsura Hashino debuted on the scene with a Game design role in 1994’s Shin Megami Tensei If, but it wasn't until 2006’s Persona 3 that he made his biggest effect on the company. While it was probably unfathomable back then that the weird spin-off of the company’s main eventer, Shin Megami Tensei, would end up being the biggest thing under its belt, Persona 3 kicked off the new era of the series that would eventually grow in popularity before hitting superstar status with 2017’s Persona 5 (he also directed 2011's Catherine).
But after 10 years of working on Persona titles, Hashino founded Studio Zero and started work on a brand new role-playing game (RPG) franchise known as Project Re Fantasy, with some of the main staffers from P-Studio moving over alongside him – including artist Shigenori Soejima. And now, eight years after the studio was formed, we're about to see the release of the studio’s first project outside of the re-release of Catherine: Metaphor: ReFantazio.
I’ve now gone hands-on with Metaphor twice, once at Summer Game Fest 2024 (SGF), and more recently at Gamescom. The SGF demo allowed me to play through three sections of the game to get a feel for each of the main modes: story sections, dungeon crawling, and a big boss fight. While that was a great way to get to grips with what the game will be, the Gamescom demo was unique, as we were allowed to play the first hour of the game uninterrupted.
Royal Rumble
Metaphor takes place in the United Kingdom of Euchronia, which has just been plunged into chaos as its king has been assassinated, and the prince has come down with an unfortunate case of the old curse. The player gets to witness this act firsthand; unlike the murder-mystery style of Persona titles, we can only assume Metaphor plays out like an episode of Columbo as you piece together the evidence to find out who the devious so and so that did this is.
Your character (who you get to name) then goes to the kingdom to join the State Army to protect the kingdom from the monsters known as humans. However, due to your character status as a member of the rarely-found Elda tribe, things aren’t easy, as the people of the kingdom hold prejudice in their hearts towards your kind. You have one friend at least, as you’re accompanied by the fairy known as Gallica, who seems to be this game’s equivalent of a navigator like Teddie or Morgana.
Another Persona alumni who departed Atlus entirely returns for Metaphor, that being composer Shoji Meguro, and those of you who know these games know that his name being attached automatically sends the game right into best soundtrack of the year contention. And so far, it hasn't disappointed. While it does have the sweeping orchestral sounds you’d expect from the fantasy genre, it’s a fast-paced and epic-feeling soundtrack that keeps the excitement up during battle, plus, its use of chanting helps it stand out from anything the Meguro / Atlus collab has given us before.
Even from the opening minutes, Metaphor: ReFantazio sets up an interesting premise, a well-realized world, and a lovable cast of characters. But you’ll probably have noticed that I haven’t really talked about the gameplay, which is what I alluded to in the ‘unique’ demo comment before.
As anyone who has played Persona will know, things can take a while to get going, and while I did reach combat in my Gamescom session, it was about 10 minutes of an hour-long hands-on. Thankfully, I can tell you that the combat seems to be just as snappy and interesting as Persona, but this opening isn’t quite as effective of a demo as we’d hoped.
We’re still excited for Metaphor: ReFantazio and are certain it will be a game that lives up to its pedigree – but just don’t expect the first hour to be full of fast-paced action.
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