Metaphor: ReFantazio Review (PS5) – The Boldest of Personas

If you’re an avid follower of the Finger Guns podcast, which of course you should be, then you’ll know how much I’ve wrestled with my game of the year for 2024. I’ve potentially had a dozen (or more) games in my personal running. I feared I’d have the hardest decision this side of a Life is Strange game when it got to December. Thanks to Atlus and Metaphor: ReFantazio, that decision has become the simplest, most straightforward it could possibly be.

Typically in reviews, we save the final verdict for the very end to keep you on tender hooks. But Metaphor: ReFantazio is not a typical game. This is a spectacular JRPG experience that’s masterfully crafted in almost every facet of its design. From story to combat, music to visuals, quest design to companions, it’s a complete triumph. Even if the JRPG genre isn’t normally your stomping ground, you owe it to yourself to at least try Metaphor. It’s just that phenomenally good.

What makes this anime dark fantasy epic such a spectacle I hear you ask? The easy answer would simply be “everything”, but let’s give this wondrous entry into the video game space the due time and attention it thoroughly deserves.

Meta-floored Me

Metaphor: ReFantazio’s narrative lives up to the best of the genre. As the self-named protagonist, you embark on a journey of confident self-discovery in a world shorn of unity and almost constant upheaval. The king has been slain, his son lies unconscious, teetering on the brink thanks to a lethal curse slowly enveloping him. The tyrant Louis is seeking power by any means, while the Sanctist Church lords over the populace with arrogance and corruption.

In many ways, the launching pad of Metaphor: ReFantazio’s story is as common as the item drops in any RPG title. What sets it apart, is the complex layers of writing that slowly unfolds over the course of the 50 hour tale. Allegiances will shift, seismic events will occur and the themes of class disparity, desperation for power and a fractured society take root.

It was difficult not to be completely immersed within this fantastic story. The contest to determine the successor to the king takes so many turns it would make a phenomenal racing track. But most importantly, it’s the characters that really suck you in and refuse to let you think about any other game. Both your protagonist and your wider party are interesting, complicated personalities with deep backstories to unfold.

Despite the dark fantasy moments which induce the despair and grief you’d expect from such a rotten, corrupted land, there’s an earnest optimism that permeates at the forefront. This isn’t a depressing game, it’s thoroughly a hopeful one. I lauded the atmosphere and the expertise that weaves so many threads together so successfully. Metaphor: ReFantazio’s world is a stunningly crafted epic, and the final third ramps up the momentum to such a degree, you’ll struggle to turn it off, or even take a break.

Captain ReFantastic

While it’s common in RPGs to be the lead of your merry band of action heroes, Metaphor: ReFantazio excels with its ragtag group. Each has their own relationship meter, filled by spending in-game afternoons or evenings with them. What surprised me was how deep and layered each of their arcs was. I helped a lonesome noble discover his own identity. I aided a father in grieving and coming to accept the loss of his son.

The party’s distinct personalities and backstories are genuinely enthralling. Rather than be a constant hindrance to the overall pacing and narrative, they are the beating heart of this game’s story. Engaging with them brings further rewards in terms of accessing powerful Archetypes (more on that later), MAG currency and various boons that assist you on your journey.

It makes sense both thematically and mechanically. These are people with influence, knowledge and or know-how within this world – meticulously weaving these elements into such a complex and lengthy video game must be exceptionally challenging. Which makes it all the more impressive by how smoothly and easily Atlus achieve it here. Uncovering their histories led to emotive moments and powerful extrinsic rewards, but more than that, I just enjoyed the fantastic writing.

Metaphor: ReFantazio genuinely puts other AAA big budget titles to shame with how gracefully they handle so many evocative themes. Sure, there’s the odd “quirky” moment here and there, but this pales in comparison to the overall quality delivered. It’s a benchmark for me in terms of JRPG writing, albeit my experience in the genre isn’t the widest. Even so, this party is one of my favourites – my biggest problem was who to eventually leave out of combat encounters.

Swords, What Are They Good Phor?

Speaking of which, if you’re not watching a beautifully rendered anime cutscene or spending hours chatting with your crew, you’ll probably be battling. Metaphor: ReFantazio is a turn-based RPG with stylish presentation and huge depth. Your party of up to 4 (with interchanging of reserves possible) will take on dozens of varieties of creatures, soldiers, Humans and beasts. The sheer multitude of enemy types is ridiculous, though with good reason.

Combat is all about maxing your party to exploit the weaknesses of any given opponent. Elemental damage is king, but so too is the type of weapon attack you can deliver outside of your MP. If a foe is resistant to or can repel, an attack, it can wipe out your turn and completely obliterate your chances of victory. Each encounter and therefore dungeon feels like a puzzle box you need to learn and master.

You have access to powerful Synergies for example, but they may use 2/4 of your available turns. Alternatively, blocking prevents your weakness from being exploited, stopping the opponent from getting extra turns. It’s a constant mental Rubix cube that only deepens the more hours you sink into it. It kicked my ass more than a few times, usually when I’d been overconfident or had become too comfortable in a certain party configuration.

Right there is exactly why I think Metaphor: ReFantazio’s gameplay is so rewarding: it aptly forces you to change strategies. Normally, if I can brute force a game in the simplest, most efficient means, I will. Metaphor (on normal anyway), simply won’t allow this. I was constantly tinkering, changing Archetypes, finding new equipment, testing new spells. All of which, I would typically never do. But then again, Metaphor: ReFantazio isn’t your typical game.

(Dungeon) Crawling In My Skin

All of this fighting is in the name of our protagonist rising in the popularity contest to become the new king (albeit with a significant caveat). As is standard in Atlus titles, all of the events must happen by a certain date. Going to a dungeon, whether it be for the story or for a side quest, means using an in-game day to go prowling for treasures or hunting bosses.

Almost all of the dungeons were fun to fight through. A few are straightforward A to B affairs, with offshoot paths for chests or lootable items. However, they often involve a different mechanic – using levers for switching paths, hiding from particularly powerful Humans, or are gauntlets of tough foes. Every one of them has a powerful boss awaiting you, that will test both your preparation and party composition.

Thankfully, enemies lower than your level can be one-shot killed without entering combat proper. Additionally, equal or higher level foes can be ambushed and stunned to get a leg up if you do end up squaring off, creating tactical opportunities when you’re trawling. Often, to conserve MP or HP, you may need to just run, which is also viable. Once more, I really liked how this added a new system of decision-making. When do I run to save in-game days without returning to town, and when do I fight due to needing XP.

The emphasis on MP conservation may not be to everyone’s taste. For me, it created a cauldron through which I could assess and reassess my capabilities. When I pulled off a dungeon run in one fell swoop, having bought intel, outfitted my party and blasted away a boss with overwhelming power thanks to exploiting a weakness, I felt like a badass. When you get to grips with Metaphor: ReFantazio’s many systems, there’s little that can match its sense of intrinsic reward. Saving time and devastating a Human with cyclones and eruptions of flame? Nothing can beat it.

Metaphorical Downtime

When you’re not dicing enemies and ripping through dungeons, you can spend what limited in-game time you have on a wealth of other activities. Archetypes are your character’s classes and there’s a lot of them to experiment and tinker with. Moreover, you need to spend time with your companions to level up your relationships with them, as mentioned earlier.

However, there’s also fishing, cooking, bathing, reading, debates, shops and so much more to engage with. Some take time, some don’t. Becoming more and more efficient and getting the most of each in-game day becomes a hugely satisfying game in-and-of itself. I lament how many days I wasted on the first story dungeon simply from not knowing how best to maximise my time. Once I got my thick head around it though, I was nailing every activity with aplomb.

Given your protagonist needs the popularity of the people on their journey, you need to level their virtues (read: traits). This is typically achieved by speaking with various NPCs, companions or completing quests. All of these mechanics are interlinked – higher virtues accesses quests, which reward virtue tokens, as well as currency for equipment or MAG for Archetype unlocks. It’s a constant dopamine hit of systems rewarding other systems, creating an enthralling and addicting loop.

I’d sit down intending to spend an hour or two doing a dungeon, only to regain consciousness six hours later. Three dungeons completed, a companion’s arc almost completed, several meals cooked, two books read and a desperate real-world social life screaming out for attention. Metaphor: ReFantazio knows how to hook you in and keep you on that tender hook with ever more appetising bait. I achieved a social life here that far surpasses anything I’d be able to actually organise in real life.

Is This The Real Life? Is This Just ReFantazio?

So far, so sensational. Given this is Atlus’ first attempt at a fantasy version of its Persona formula, how does it look and sound to play? To start, I played with English dub and really liked the voice work. There’s a range of British voice actors and hearing a scouse accent actually work in a fantasy Japanese title was remarkable. Lines are delivered with a real zeal and the more emotional beats land that much more strongly as a result.

Secondly, the music is wonderful. The main battle track is now my go-to piece for basically anything involving brain power. There’s a focus on orchestral sound with epic, bombastic tunes overlaying it and man, when it hits it goes hard. In encounters, it’s easy to get swept up in the colourful animation and seeing your party get ravaged by a gorgeously masochistic AoE assault is horrific and incredible in equal measure.

As an anime style, the graphics are lovely, particularly the pre-rendered cutscenes. Locations you travel to have distinct personalities and flavours, though side dungeons can become visually quite repetitive if you’re attempting to complete all of them. Metaphor: ReFantazio’s engine does show its age in terms of the sheer number of (admittedly short) loading screens it has, however.

Personally, given the size, scope and sheer quality of the game, this didn’t bother me at all. It felt like a fair trade-off for everything I was getting in return. I can definitely see this being an issue for some however, while technically it can struggle slightly in larger environments or more hectic encounters. Even so, it never deterred me and it never disrupted my immersion in what is otherwise a beautiful looking, and sounding, marvel of a video game.

If This Is Fantasy, I Don’t Want Reality

In total then, how do I sum up such a consummate experience with Metaphor: ReFantazio? Easy – it’s my game of the year. Hands down, door shut, no competition. It’s worth noting, this is my first Atlus-developed title I’ve played, so whether it would feel different to veterans of their work, I don’t know. As a newcomer though, my biggest concern is that Metaphor: ReFantazio has ruined all other JRPG games for me. I don’t know how this benchmark of quality, creativity and masterful delivery can be matched.

I’m even worried that if I go into Atlus’ previous work of Persona games they just won’t be as good for me as this. In a year dominated with a wealth of unbelievably excellent games, this one stands tall above them all. Even after the dozens upon dozens of hours where I’ve neglected the rest of my lifestyle to play it, I simply want to spend dozens more playing and then replaying in New Game +. This is a behemoth of a title that deserves every bit of sensational acclaim its garnered.

If like me, you’ve been on the fence about Atlus’ work or whether the Persona series would be for you, I’d implore you to play this. Metaphor: ReFantazio is simply superb in every aspect of its design. I can’t think of anything better that I’ve played this year, and if I had to consider my top 10 video games of all time list now, Metaphor: ReFantazio would likely push out at least one of my existing choices. A sensational, stunning, awe-inspiring JRPG that you’ll kick yourself for missing, so don’t miss it.

Metaphor ReFantazio is available now on PlayStation 5 (review platform), PlayStation 4, Xbox Series S/X and PC.

Developer: Atlus
Publisher: SEGA

Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.

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