Metaphor: ReFantazio has been a very long time within the making. It was introduced in 2017 as Venture re Fantasy via a bizarre lengthy video that mentioned little or no. Since then, Atlus has swapped the Venture for Metaphor and scoured Google Translate to discover a cool technique to say ‘fantasy.’ It’s additionally made an enormous fantasy JRPG — and after rolling via a demo at Summer season Sport Fest final weekend, I’m dying to play it.
ReFantazio is the primary authentic title by Studio Zero, a comparatively new Atlus division headed up by Katsura Hashino. Because the director of the third, fourth and fifth Persona sport, Hashino is liable for the Persona collection’ pivot in direction of social simulation components. After ending up Persona 5, Hashino left P-Studio to work on all-new titles unrelated to Atlus’ Shin Megami Tensei and Persona collection.
Atlus and Hashino are each recognized extra for (semi-) grounded city fantasy than wizards and elves, and ReFantazio in that sense represents an enormous departure. That is an epic, sprawling story protecting a complete nation, the UK of Euchronia. The Euchronian king has been assassinated, and the folks of the land should elect (!?) a brand new one.
Euchronia is residence to eight “tribes” (fantasy races) and our hero is making an attempt to reunite them. There’s additionally a cursed prince who everybody thinks is lifeless, a royal event for the throne in six months and monsters in all places. To make issues worse, Euchronia is being invaded by hideous, Hieronymus Bosch-inspired creatures known as people, which perform as the sport’s bosses. People, huh? Marvel if it’s a… metaphor?
Given Atlus’ storytelling historical past, the broad strokes of ReFantazio will most likely make extra sense than the moment-to-moment beats. Finest to only let it wash over you.
The sport takes place over the course of six months, and also you’ll be touring throughout Euchronia in a Gauntlet Runner (a cool ship designed by the Evangelion mech man) making an attempt to rally help on your entry into the royal event. Every city within the sport has a tavern the place you may seize a chew and collect data, a recruitment heart the place you may settle for quests, numerous outlets and an inn the place you may relaxation. Finishing quests and making mates alongside the best way will achieve you supporters among the many numerous tribes, which is essential to each the overarching story and the fight.
Atlus’ Summer season Sport Fest demo was segmented into three 15-minute chunks. The primary was a coaching sequence of types, story-heavy and light-weight on fight. This felt largely like a showcase for ReFantazio’s cinematics, which had been beautiful, regardless of the TVs within the demo space being set to interpolate frames. Atlus has a convention of showcasing top-quality anime in its video games, and the demo clips had been among the many finest I’ve seen. What I appreciated greater than the standard of the animation was how intently the character designs and vibe of the sport matched the cinematics.
Additionally memorable is the voice performing. For the English-speaking forged, Atlus is taking the “United Kingdom” of Euchronia very critically, as everybody I bumped into had a completely over-the-top British accent. Because the proprietor of an English accent, I discovered the characters past theatrical however nonetheless pleasurable. At one level within the demo I met a hyper-cockney cat lady that might’ve been auditioning for Oliver.
In one other phase, I fought alongside an cute floppy-eared fellow from fantasy Liverpool who gave the impression of he was analyzing a soccer sport. If none of this excites you, the Japanese voice forged appears to be capturing for a typical fantasy vibe. Personally, I can’t think about enjoying this sport in something aside from English at this level.
Not every part is voiced — as in loads of JRPGs, key strains and conversations play out in full, however many interactions will likely be confined to textual content, with the voice actors emoting slightly alongside the best way for taste. As a velocity reader, that is completely tremendous by me.
Section two was all about dungeon-crawling fight — time for the Persona comparisons! The setup right here will likely be acquainted to followers of Atlus video games: It’s a turn-based JRPG, with numerous forms of bodily and magical assaults, standing results and illnesses. ReFantazio’s model of the traditional JRPG class system is Archetypes — there are 14 lineages containing over 40 distinctive Archetypes, together with some acquainted roles like Mage, Thief, Knight and Healer.
There’s additionally a tactical aspect to occasion composition, with a back and front row enjoying an element in fight, and Synthesis strikes that let you mix your occasion’s Archetypes for stronger assaults. The whole lot has slightly Persona and SMT to it — you handle Archetypes in an Akademeia (just like a Velvet Room), they will evolve via expertise, and their proficiency in battle is linked to your bond together with your supporters.
A twist on the traditional turn-based method — and one I’m more than happy about — is the Quick battle system. Once you come throughout an enemy, you’ll have the ability to gauge their energy earlier than initiating fight. The Quick system allows you to goal a specific enemy and strike them; this could insta-kill underpowered foes, which lets you keep away from turn-based battling completely when grinding low-level enemies. For stronger foes, you should utilize Quick to butter them up and begin a squad battle with benefit, however for those who mess up this engagement you might begin the turn-based fight in your ass. Different Atlus video games have an identical risk-reward system to permit gamers to achieve a bonus, however that is extra nuanced and satisfying.
The interface for all of it is a sometimes beautiful menu system and UI that feels extra refined than ever. Easy actions are assigned a face button on the controller, which implies much less time spent in menus. It’s all fairly intuitive, and in direction of the tip of my brief demo I used to be already rushing via the turn-based fight with out questioning what button did what. Taken as a complete, the fight system looks like a pure evolution to the traditional method Atlus is thought for.
The ultimate demo part begins contained in the Gauntlet Runner. It’s a claustrophobic area, extra submarine than tremendous yacht, however crammed with issues to do. There are folks to speak to, actions to partake in, and routes to decide on. Just like Persona, the sport occuring over a set interval means you possible gained’t have the ability to do every part you wish to, and as a substitute have to resolve how finest to spend your time every day. You may attempt to stage up one of many primary character’s 5 traits — braveness, knowledge, tolerance, eloquence and creativeness — or maybe give attention to combating monsters or incomes money. I performed to kind and skim a e book, which was sadly not sufficient to boost my braveness from “craven.”
My cozy e book session led instantly into the primary present: a face-off in opposition to an enormous human. This started with an anime sequence, which gave technique to traditional four-on-one fight. The human designs on this sport are buckwild. This one was known as, “Sea Horror Homo Sabara” and listed here are the Cliff’s Notes:
Lengthy violet beard and eyebrows.
One yellow eye, one white eye, each glowing.
12 ears organized in two rows? Edgy piercings.
Crown of thorns. Truly, make that two crowns of thorns.
High half of head has been scalped. There appears to be a human coronary heart protruding.
Additionally, eight large bejeweled tentacles as weapons.
It’s not like I haven’t seen loopy bosses in a JRPG earlier than, however this octodad was loads of enjoyable to struggle. There was no main problem: Take out the tentacles, wail on the physique, tentacles regenerate, repeat. However he hit arduous, and the demo clearly set me up for achievement. It’s straightforward to see this man wiping your group for those who don’t come correctly ready.
Of all of the issues Atlus squeezed into the brief Summer season Sport Fest, the human battle was probably the most memorable. From the lore being drip-fed to followers, it looks like the people are literally from our world, and are being Isekai’d into Euchronia as these messed-up monsters. Right here’s hoping loads of them made it over.
At first blush ReFantazio looks like an actual auteur second for Hashino — as if, after the worldwide success of Persona 5, he’s mainly been given a clean verify. Hashino’s Persona titles bend over backwards to indicate you ways cool and edgy they’re, however the one concern for ReFantazio is how loud, assured and distinctive it may be.
Sure, there are components borrowed from virtually each Atlus RPG you may consider, however it’s all been remixed and refined. I left my temporary time with ReFantazio crammed with this glorious milieu of nostalgia and shock, a heat familiarity from one thing not like something I’d performed earlier than.
Metaphor: ReFantazio involves PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbox Collection consoles on October 11.
Atone for the entire information from Summer season Sport Fest 2024 proper right here!