ATLUS has a lot of major series under its belt, and by far the most popular is the Persona series.
Many of the developers from the modern Persona games (Persona 3 onwards) have gone on to develop a new game and it’s one of our most highly anticipated of the year.
The DNA for a Persona game is here in Metaphor: ReFantazio, and this is immediately apparent as soon as you open the menu.
In fact, the team may have outdone themselves when it comes to aching gorgeous UI design, but aesthetics aside, there is a lot new in Metaphor.
I was able to sit down and play four hours of Metaphor: ReFantazio, which is the longest preview session we’ve ever experienced.
Not only was it long, but we were given almost complete free reign outside of a few spoiler-ridden cutscenes.
We were about to play from the beginning for two and a half hours, and then we were dropped into the open world and told to explore to our hearts’ content.
The freedom and large amount of time we were given with Metaphor shows a large amount of confidence from the developers, and this wasn’t misplaced.
The setting is high fantasy rather than high school, as our character, the last of his tribe, is on a mission to uncover the truth behind the king’s assassination.
Rather than fighting with monsters you fuse and collect, you learn new fighting styles from the people you meet.
You might find a tank or a brawler, but you could also pick up skills from a thief or a merchant that can be integrated into battles.
Time is also less structured in Metaphor: ReFantazio compared to its cousin Persona.
The modern Persona series has a strict one activity per time slot rule, while in Metaphor things like travelling can take several days, but you can also multitask, or complete several quests in one day.
It can take days to arrive at certain dungeons, and during this time you can build your stats and strategize with your teammates, or you might even get ambushed by a political opponent.
Dungeons and battles are very different from the Persona games, and despite the large number of dungeons in Metaphor, each of them is hand-crafted.
Battle stances are called Archetypes, and you can use the skills gained in one for other Archetypes as well.
These combinations are at the heart of the battle strategy which has interesting combinations for hitting enemy weaknesses.
Metaphor is still two months from release on October 11, but it’s shaping up to be one of the best RPGs of all time.
Even after four hours of playing, I felt like I had barely scratched the surface of the highly complex gameplay and story.
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