Metaphor: ReFantazio review: Kingmaker

Studio Zero, led by the creative minds behind Persona 3, 4, and 5, is forging a new path with Metaphor: ReFantazio. The fantasy RPG retains the core mechanics of the beloved Persona games while innovating gameplay and delivering a story filled with great characters and unforgettable moments.

A tournament for the throne

Metaphor: ReFantazio introduces the fantasy world of Euchronia. The king's untimely death creates a power vacuum for the throne, kicking off a heated competition for a seat atop the kingdom. With a great evil looking to seize power, the protagonist gets tangled up in the political race.

The developers do a beautiful job of fleshing out the world of Euchronia. In JRPG fashion, there is plenty of exposition dumping during Metaphor’s opening hours, but none feels unnecessary or excessive. By the time the story was in full swing, I had a deep understanding of Euchronia’s demographics and the various dynamics at play. Although this is the first story in this world, it feels like the latest entry in an established franchise.

Characters are the driving force in an RPG, and this is especially true when looking at the Persona series. This is true of Metaphor: ReFantazio as well. I fell head over heels for the traveling party in this game, all of us coming from drastically different backgrounds to accomplish a common goal. This extends to the NPCs as well, with characters like Maria and Fabienne having a profound impact on me. I was also a big fan of Gallica, a fairy that serves as your guide and companion throughout the story.

With the constant onslaught of information, Metaphor: ReFantazio can feel a bit overwhelming at times. This is where the Memorandum comes into play. This notebook details every person, creature, location, and historical event you’ve learned about. It’s an evergreen reference for when you forget why a creature is important, or why two characters are associated with each other. It also provides story recaps in case you lose track of what’s happening. There are a lot of cutscenes and dialogue in this game, and it’s easy to zone out for a moment or two. Having such strong quality-of-life features was a godsend.

Playing on Xbox Series X, I noticed some performance hiccups when loading into a new, populated area. This typically lasted for about 1-2 seconds when entering a new city district or entering a dungeon filled with enemies. It wasn’t a major hindrance, but certainly something I noticed on several occasions.

Awaken your power

Persona fans will be instantly familiar with the core gameplay mechanics in Metaphor: ReFantazio. This game is very much Studio Zero taking the beloved formula outside of a modern high school setting and applying it to a fantasy world. In combat, characters summon Archetypes, which are essentially Personas in Euchronia. Archetypes fall under one of 40+ classes and have their unique stats and abilities. Meeting new characters and progressing your relationships with them will unlock new Archetypes and expand their capabilities.

The marriage of narrative and gameplay elements rewards players for engaging with NPCs and taking an interest in their quarrels. There are tangible, meaningful consequences when you complete a quest for a random person on the street, or when you fail to complete an objective on time and it expires.

In battle, you spend your turns trying to identify and exploit the weaknesses of your enemies. It’s comparable to the turn-based system from the Persona series, with a few notable changes. Now, you can quickly restart a battle with the press of a button, keeping everything you learned about an enemy’s resistance and weaknesses. It’s a massive time-saver for boss battles, where I often treated the first attempt as a scouting mission to learn as much as I could about the enemy.

In Metaphor, you can continue to battle even when the protagonist gets knocked out. This would result in an instant game over in previous titles. This change allows for more balanced party building, as there was previously an incentive to focus on building the protagonist.

Metaphor: ReFantazio’s largest quality-of-life upgrade comes with the addition of real-time combat elements. While exploring a dungeon, you can press a button to analyze enemies in the overworld, getting a quick read on their skill level in relation to yours. Weaker enemies can be attacked in the overworld and defeated without ever entering a turn-based battle. You still earn EXP and rewards, but without having to sit through any extra animations or transitions. This cuts out hours of monotonous grinding, a common sticking point for fans of the genre.

The world of Euchronia operates on a five-day week, and balancing your time is a core gameplay tenant. Days are typically spent exploring dungeons and completing quests, while the evening is reserved for forging bonds and increasing your virtues. The in-game calendar tracks quest deadlines, upcoming story events, and even discount days at specific stores. Your path is quite linear during the game’s first story arc, but when it opens up, you’re given plenty of freedom in choosing how to spend your time. Increasing specific virtues will provide new quests and dialogue opportunities.

Fit for a king

The cherry on top of everything awesome about Metaphor: ReFantazio is its style. If you told me that core development on this game wrapped a year ago and that Studio Zero spent the last 365 days designing menus and UI elements, I would believe you. Obviously, that’s not the case, but it’s impossible to overstate just how utterly gorgeous every screen in this game is.

The main menu boasts animated paintings of the party members, with a splash of color that highlights every tab and dances on the screen. Something is always moving on screen, even when you’re just changing equipment or tweaking the settings. It’s a level of craftsmanship that this development team has always shown, but this is undoubtedly their best work yet.

All the time spent in Metaphor's menus and combat screens were accompanied by tunes from the game's original soundtrack. Metaphor: ReFantazio sees Studio Zero trade punchy modern beats for orchestral compositions that better fit the fantasy setting. From the battle themes to the songs that played as I roamed the Grand Trad, I quickly knew that this was going to be a soundtrack I wanted on vinyl as soon as it was available.

Become royalty

Metaphor: ReFantazio is, in the simplest of terms, a Persona game in a fantasy setting. While it would have been exciting to see a few more risks taken to separate itself from that beloved franchise, I can’t deny how thoroughly enjoyable this game is. Studio Zero bundles its world-class narrative and combat design to create an immersive RPG experience that I wished would never end.

This review is based on an Xbox Series X code provided by ATLUS. Metaphor: ReFantazio launches on October 11, 2024, for PC, Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PS4.

Donovan Erskine

News Editor

Donovan is a journalist from Maryland. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge film fanatic and will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_