Metaphor: ReFantazio Review – A Modern Fantasy Classic

Atlus has a long history of creating fantastic turn-based RPGs, but the Persona series never quite grabbed me for whatever reason. Thankfully, Studio Zero has finally decided to explore a more fantasy-oriented setting with Metaphor: ReFantazio. For this reason and others, I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with the game, although some choices hold it back.

Game Name: Metaphor: ReFantazio
Platform(s): PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC (Reviewed)
Publisher(s): SEGA/ATLUS
Developer(s): Studio Zero
Release Date: October 11, 2024

The Adventure Begins

So, what is Metaphor: ReFantazio? Well, it is set in a completely new fantasy world, the United Kingdom of Euchronia. At the beginning of the game, the king is killed, setting off a tale of friendship, duty, and the fight for the throne. It sounds almost like Game of Thrones, right? It certainly features as many twists and turns. The game is so lengthy that I haven’t actually finished the main narrative yet. That said, I have reached a point that we are allowed to discuss in this review.

What I will say is that so far, I love every character and their journey. From your playable character, nameless though often referred to as Captain, to Strohl, whom you meet in the early hours, even your guide, the fairy Gallica, and many more—I haven’t encountered a character I dislike. Even those I’m meant to loathe are so well-written that I can’t help but enjoy them. With great performances from the English voice cast, each character possesses a completely unique identity that comes across perfectly through their voice alone. Even the general NPCs have a host of different personalities and voices.

The world of Euchronia reminds me in many ways of our own. The inhabitants come from several different tribes, some of which are considered more valuable than others, reflecting the discrimination we face in our own world. I have never seen a fantasy game that feels so relatable in its characters, world, and story. This mirror held up to our own reality makes Metaphor: ReFantazio stand out among its fantasy RPG contemporaries.

It’s Your Turn

Now, you might be wondering how Metaphor: ReFantazio plays. The truth is, that much of the gameplay is built on the foundation laid by Persona.

Firstly, turn-based battling returns with a lot of tactical depth. Once in battle, you can position your party members in the front or back row using the d-pad. Being in the front row allows you to deal more damage, but you also take more hits, while the back row results in less damage dealt or received. Changing positions doesn’t require using your turn, which is nice; you can always move first and then perform an action.

Turns work as you would expect: if you have a party of three, you get three turns—unless one of them is KO’d, of course. The tactical aspect of turns comes into play with the ability to pass your turn. All characters in your party can use half a turn to pass their action to another member. Some actions also require two turn points to execute, so make sure you think several moves ahead about what you want to do.

Another massive part of the game is the archetypes. While I can’t reveal any specific details, I can say they effectively serve as Metaphor: ReFantazio’s personas/classes, adding another layer of tactics to the basic combat. These archetypes are used to execute powerful attacks using Magla, the game’s magic resource. Different archetypes also have synergies that unlock even more powerful abilities, which require additional resources to use.

I’ll leave it up to you to discover what these archetypes are and how they combine tactically. I will say it’s nice that any party member can be trained into any archetype, giving you much more freedom than in some class-based games.

It’s also worth mentioning that you can avoid turn-based battles if the enemies are weak enough by using hack-and-slash mechanics while traversing the world. Keep in mind that if an enemy hits you before you can stun or defeat them in real-time, you will transition to a turn-based fight and be stunned yourself.

Taking and Managing Your Time

In battle, Metaphor: ReFantazio’s depth ensures you take your time. Away from battle, however, the game can feel like it takes time from you—not because of the time management mechanics (more on those in a moment), but due to a significant pacing issue.

If you’ve played the demo, you may already have an idea of what I mean. Unfortunately, the pacing feels like a sloth for the first ten hours or so. Things improve slightly afterward, as the game opens up more activities, but it still feels like being stuck in traffic. One moment, things are progressing nicely at a steady speed; the next, Metaphor: ReFantazio slams on the brakes and makes you do little for several in-game days. While this isn’t new to JRPGs, the inconsistent pacing and stop-start nature of Metaphor: ReFantazio can make it a chore to play at times.

These pacing issues also impact the time management system, which allows you to engage in two activities per calendar day—one during the day and one at night. The problem is that the system is unbalanced, often leaving you insufficient time to engage in the rich side content. For instance, you might spend an entire day in a dungeon, but I haven’t encountered a dungeon that I could complete in just one game day. Furthermore, when you start traveling away from Grand Trad, the first city you visit, it can take several in-game days to reach certain locations. This is somewhat alleviated by the teleportation system you eventually unlock, allowing you to fast-travel to previously visited areas to complete side content or build stronger bonds with characters. However, many quests have in-game deadlines, and some require specific weather conditions before you can safely undertake them. If these elements don’t align, you might miss the content you intended to engage with. Missing a deadline on a main quest will result in a game over, but this hasn’t happened to me yet.

Metaphor: ReFantazio’s time management system, combined with often poor story pacing, has made me less interested in engaging with side content—a real shame, considering that this content can meaningfully expand on the world and characters.

Building Your Persona

Another key aspect of the gameplay is your personality traits. These traits grow over time as you take on specific quests or interact with certain NPCs and activities. Leveling up these traits allows you to access additional quests or, in some cases, gameplay systems. For example, I needed a certain level in one of my traits before I could purify (level up) weapons and armor.

Speaking of weapons and armor, you can purchase them from various shops, but if you find them while out on a mission, you’ll need to get them identified first. Don’t worry—the game explains how to do this.

An Aging Structure

There’s one more smaller but still annoying issue I have with Metaphor: ReFantazio: the structure of the world. This is not an open-world game, nor does it need to be, but every location in the game is segmented by a short transitional loading screen. While this wouldn’t normally bother me, given the level of detail and the number of characters present in some of these locations, I see no reason why we couldn’t have seamless traversal.

This overly segmented nature makes Metaphor: ReFantazio feels like a PS2 game when it comes to traversal and ultimately holds back the overall experience. I find myself exploring less because it takes so long to do so. Five minutes in a city can easily result in at least thirty seconds spent in these transition screens. It might not sound like much, but over time, it adds up.

Anime Heaven?

Metaphor: ReFantazio is a beautiful game, featuring a striking contrast between the surroundings and character models that makes the anime-style art pop even more. Speaking of anime, a standout aspect of the presentation is the pre-rendered anime cutscenes that occur during major story moments. At times, it genuinely felt like I was watching a movie—in a good way. I don’t usually appreciate the use of pre-rendered cutscenes, but these are so immersive that they add extra weight to the moments in which they appear.

As for the audio, it is fantastic, but I want to highlight the soundtrack by the legendary Shoji Meguro. In truth, I have one word to describe what I heard: stunning.

Better Optimized Than I Thought

I played Metaphor: ReFantazio on PC, and it was a fantastic experience overall. I was able to play at the highest available settings, achieving a native 4K resolution while maintaining a consistent 120 frames per second. The game seems very well optimized for PC, which is great news. Additionally, for PC gamers considering picking up the game, I experienced ZERO stutter, which will be music to some players’ ears. Given that PC gaming often has issues with micro-stuttering, I wanted to highlight this.

In terms of bugs, the only issue I encountered was the occasional text box error—mostly Gallica telling me I had no money for something when I definitely did. Luckily, this error never prevented me from making any purchases; it was just annoying to keep receiving warnings about not having money when I did.

Final ReFantazio

In the end, despite some aged design choices in its systems and structure, Metaphor: ReFantazio is one of the most enjoyable and surprisingly relatable fantasy games I’ve played. With deep turn-based mechanics, lovable characters, a captivating story, and an intriguing world, Metaphor: ReFantazio is a must-play for any turn-based JRPG fan.

Review Disclosure Statement: A copy of Metaphor: ReFantazio was provided to us for review purposes by SEGA. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy for more info.

Affiliate Link Disclosure: One or more of the links above contain affiliate links, which means at no additional cost to you, we may receive a commission should you click through and purchase the item.