So in comes the Philippine Game Developer’s Expo 2024, and to our pleasant surprise, SEGA has given us a closed-door session for their upcoming game, Metaphor ReFantazio. The build presented allowed us to play 15-minute slices of three different aspects of the game. No, obviously this doesn’t represent the whole experience, on the other hand, they let me dive in straight into what the game will be like. Given my experience with ATLUS RPGs, I can string together a good guess of what they have planned for Metaphor ReFantazio. So without further ado, let’s go break it down.

The first section appears to be where the game starts, you are introduced to the protagonist and the not-so-annoying fairy side-kick. We soon find ourselves in what looks like your run-of-the-mill world where spells are flung and swords are swung. One particular thing you’ll soon take notice of is how nobody calls themselves humans, in fact, they seem to be the big threat to the world we will be playing in. The introduction runs us through a castle and introduces us to how some of its systems are run. It’s difficult to say anything about the story at this point. There’s only so much I can get out of a 15-minute slice, after all. Though on the game’s presentation are stylistic choices you’d recognize from the very man responsible for the last 3 Persona games.

The visual style of Metaphor is somewhere between new, familiar, and unique. The anime flavor is still there and I’m glad it never left, though the style is closer to something like Death Note or JoJo’s Bizzare Adventure if those ring any bells to you. There’s some roughness and grunge to the textures that extends all the way out to the menus, on-screen prompts, and even portrait art of each character. It all feels like the natural maturity of the developers within Atlus, where you can tell how each element feels purposeful, and informs the viewer easily while looking fantastic. The way they’re laid out, and the way they animate, it’s not as flashy as the latest Persona entries, but they do the job well.

Since I already told you that the minds behind Persona 3/4/5 are the ones behind Metaphor, you’d already expect that this would be the standard turn-based combat. With the flashy menu-style combat, along with the great camera work to keep the contextual information in front of all the time. Even the elemental system that most newcomers will be heavily confused by, you got all that. So what’s different?

First of all, there are now two modes of combat. As opposed to the dungeon area mostly just a place to start encounters, there’s a new dimension to this now. I know that adding a roll function would just make it look like they’re saying ‘Oh yeah we’re a souls-like now’ but let me give you better context. There are now two sides to battles, the solo and the squad.

Solo mode lets you roam around as your lead character in the dungeon, and you can initiate combat by stunning enemies on the field before entering the traditional turn-based squad combat. It’s no longer as straightforward as before, though. Weak enemies quickly get taken out on the field, while stronger enemies require more hits, where you can get hit and lose initiative in return. A single turn can seriously affect how easy or difficult an encounter can be with this game. So you really want to consider your risks. 

When it comes to squad combat, I’d like to stress that rather than the persona system, Metaphor is basing its battle system on Shin Megami Tensei 3. Whereas the former has characters take on a predetermined, permanent archetype for fights. Where their abilities are further enhanced with social links. SMT3’s system allows for more flexible party formations through customization. If you want 3 warriors or all mages for your party, it’s possible. This also affects the Synthesis abilities available to the party, these are stronger skills that take more resources like MP and the turn of those involved with the chosen ability. And around here is where I finally got to the boss of the first section, and it’s exactly here where it ends. 

Next is the second part, which is pretty much an introduction to what the dungeon crawl will be like. Skipping what I’ve already gone over during the first part, we are introduced to what looks like a future party member, and a sidequest she presents for us. Things of note that I see here are the mini-map at the bottom that helps us get our bearings as we go through the dungeon and the pace you can dynamically play the game. And the fact that you can just one-shot weaker enemies on the field, while ones at your level or higher will inevitably be fought through our well-known turn-based system.

One thing I particularly noticed is how the game will let you play at a much faster pace if you wish. You can skip or speed up so much animation at any time you want, the menus aren’t plagued with confirmation prompts, and there’s even a run function on the field, in case you just want to run past other enemies that might spot you. It’s pretty clear that there will be some level of grinding involved with this Metaphor, so these quality-of-life improvements are more than welcome.

3D maps are a bit more complicated than usual, having multiple floors accessible without having to go through a loading screen. This is also the first ATLUS RPG I’ve played where the camera has a lot more freedom of movement, which may mean that there’s a lot more hidden stuff that you might want to spot around the dungeon. Whether that be foes waiting in ambush, items waiting to be picked up, or routes you’re trying to find. Admittedly, I find scouring the dungeon a bit more challenging than I expected. Not only because it’s much easier to get ambushed from blind spots, but also because the way the dungeon is rendered can make it a bit difficult to make out objects in the distance. It’s not as easy to map out mentally, but maybe that’ll come to change in other parts of Metaphor.

All I really did around here is explore the dungeon to see how they would design it, see how rewarding exploration can be, and what sort of encounters they have planned. I was a bit surprised that they are putting quite a bit of effort into active combat, where you do all of the fighting on the field, rather than making every encounter a turn-based fight. It does mix it up quite a bit, and I hope they explore this concept healthily because I’m sure fans would want it to still be focused on the squad-type combat they like. One major change I realized was the player character getting KO’d doesn’t equate to a game over, which I’m sure was a point of contention for at least some of the fans out there.

Thanks to my fumbling my boss’s encounter with the minotaur, I wasn’t able to finish this section in time. But I did see something very familiar on the unit next to me, the ability to forge relationships with other characters in-game. And this became more evident in the third slice I played through.

They stated that this would be a boss encounter, and yes it did have that, but you start at some sort of hub, which turns out to be the travel vehicle you’ll be using for the game. It’s here that I noticed that the daily life and social aspects that we’re quite familiar with from Persona are already here. I can read a book, I can spend time doing something with someone else, and I end up cooking with another character. And it’s at this point that I realized the game probably has social stats, and one press of a button showed me exactly that.

Exploring what’s inside the pause menu, I found that I could also use other characters as there were more than four available. Switching seemed easy enough, and then I noticed that I could explore some sort of skill tree. I opened that menu and was completely shocked to see what would be the basis of creating any sort of party formation I wanted.

Making a custom party means having a job system that makes that required flexibility possible. And in this title, it’s called the Archetypes. Characters can freely switch their archetype at any time, and even hybrid the abilities they get with their previously learned ones. This quick description is already letting my imagination run wild, especially when you consider that more role variants will be unlocked as you play the game.

From here, I tried switching some archetypes around but realized I needed a lot more time to figure out what I actually wanted to run with, so I put them back to their default types. And went on to waste time trying to figure out how to get to the boss battle.

Again, it wasn’t obvious to me what to do, and the 15-minute time limit was playing a part in me trying to rush to what I could find. I did get to the boss battle eventually, and from here we can see what feels like a rudimentary encounter. Figuring out how to weaken it, figuring out the best approach, while trying to survive whatever it chucks at you. Unfortunately, I wasn’t fast enough to finish this fight either, where putting some of my precious time into cooking may have been a factor. Still, once you figure out your approach, it shouldn’t take too long to finish off the boss.

And there you have it, the setting, The system, and the amazing style of the game are pretty much enough to get me on board. When you review the people leading the production of Metaphor, the impressive work in front of us is hardly a surprise. 

I mean, check out this battle theme, I never knew that hearing some sort of sutra chanting mixed with your usual battle orchestra would hit this hard. Now it’s become the latest resident earworm for me in my collection of game soundtracks. Despite how many RPGs they’ve made in the past, they always seem to have new ideas they’re cooking up that I would be pleasantly surprised to enjoy. 

If any of my babbling about Metaphor ReFantazio has gotten you interested, October isn’t too far off. Metaphor ReFantazio will be available on the PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S and PC on October 11.