Metaphor: ReFantazio has been a very long time within the making. It was introduced in 2017 as Venture re Fantasy by way of 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 approach to say ‘fantasy.’ It’s additionally made a large fantasy JRPG — and after rolling by way of a demo at Summer season Recreation 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 recreation, Hashino is liable for the Persona sequence’ 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 sequence.
Atlus and Hashino are each recognized extra for (-) grounded city fantasy than wizards and elves, and ReFantazio in that sense represents a giant departure. That is an epic, sprawling story overlaying 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 house 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 every single place. To make issues worse, Euchronia is being invaded by hideous, Hieronymus Bosch-inspired creatures referred to as people, which operate as the sport’s bosses. People, huh? Marvel if it’s a… metaphor?
Given Atlus’ storytelling historical past, the broad strokes of ReFantazio will in all probability make extra sense than the moment-to-moment beats. Greatest 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 to your entry into the royal event. Every city within the recreation has a tavern the place you’ll be able to seize a chew and collect data, a recruitment heart the place you’ll be able to settle for quests, numerous retailers and an inn the place you’ll be able to relaxation. Finishing quests and making buddies alongside the best way will achieve you supporters among the many numerous tribes, which is vital to each the overarching story and the fight.
Atlus’ Summer season Recreation Fest demo was segmented into three 15-minute chunks. The primary was a coaching sequence of types, story-heavy and lightweight on fight. This felt largely like a showcase for ReFantazio’s cinematics, which had been attractive, 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 greatest I’ve seen. What I appreciated greater than the standard of the animation was how carefully the character designs and vibe of the sport matched the cinematics.
Additionally memorable is the voice appearing. For the English-speaking solid, Atlus is taking the “United Kingdom” of Euchronia very significantly, 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 pleasant. At one level within the demo I met a hyper-cockney cat woman that might’ve been auditioning for Oliver.
In one other section, I fought alongside an cute floppy-eared fellow from fantasy Liverpool who seemed like he was . If none of this excites you, the Japanese voice solid appears to be capturing for a typical fantasy vibe. Personally, I can’t think about enjoying this recreation in something aside from English at this level.
Not all the pieces is voiced — as in plenty of JRPGs, key traces and conversations play out in full, however many interactions shall be confined to textual content, with the voice actors emoting slightly alongside the best way for taste. As a pace reader, that is completely high quality by me.
Section two was all about dungeon-crawling fight — time for the Persona comparisons! The setup right here shall be acquainted to followers of Atlus video games: It’s a turn-based JRPG, with numerous kinds of bodily and magical assaults, standing results and illnesses. ReFantazio’s model of the basic 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 a component in fight, and Synthesis strikes that assist you to mix your occasion’s Archetypes for stronger assaults. All the pieces has slightly Persona and SMT to it — you handle Archetypes in an Akademeia (just like a Velvet Room), they will evolve by way of expertise, and their proficiency in battle is linked to your bond together with your supporters.
A twist on the basic turn-based method — and one I’m very happy about — is the Quick battle system. If you come throughout an enemy, you’ll have the ability to gauge their energy earlier than initiating fight. The Quick system permits you to goal a selected enemy and strike them; this could insta-kill underpowered foes, which lets you keep away from turn-based battling fully when grinding low-level enemies. For stronger foes, you should utilize Quick to butter them up and begin a squad battle with benefit, however should you mess up this engagement you would begin the turn-based fight in your ass. Different Atlus video games have an identical risk-reward system to permit gamers to realize a bonus, however that is extra nuanced and satisfying.
The interface for all of this can be a usually attractive 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 quick demo I used to be already dashing by way of the turn-based fight with out questioning what button did what. Taken as a complete, the fight system appears like a pure evolution to the basic method Atlus is thought for.
The ultimate demo part begins contained in the Gauntlet Runner. It’s a claustrophobic house, extra submarine than tremendous yacht, however stuffed with issues to do. There are folks to speak to, actions to partake in, and routes to decide on. Much like Persona, the sport occuring over a hard and fast interval means you probably received’t have the ability to do all the pieces you need to, and as an alternative have to determine how greatest to spend your time every day. You would possibly attempt to degree up one of many essential character’s 5 traits — braveness, knowledge, tolerance, eloquence and creativeness — or maybe deal with combating monsters or incomes money. I performed to kind and skim a e-book, which was sadly not sufficient to lift my braveness from “craven.”
My cozy e-book session led instantly into the primary present: a face-off in opposition to a large human. This started with an anime sequence, which gave approach to basic four-on-one fight. The human designs on this recreation are buckwild. This one was referred to 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.
-
Prime 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 plenty of enjoyable to combat. There was no main problem: Take out the tentacles, wail on the physique, tentacles regenerate, repeat. However he hit laborious, and the demo clearly set me up for fulfillment. It’s simple to see this man wiping your workforce should you don’t come correctly ready.
Of all of the issues Atlus squeezed into the quick Summer season Recreation Fest, the human battle was essentially the most memorable. From the lore being drip-fed to followers, it looks as if the people are literally from our world, and are being Isekai’d into Euchronia as these messed-up monsters. Right here’s hoping plenty of them made it over.
At first blush ReFantazio appears like an actual auteur second for Hashino — as if, after the worldwide success of Persona 5, he’s principally been given a clean examine. Hashino’s Persona titles bend over backwards to point out 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’ll be able to consider, however it’s all been remixed and refined. I left my transient time with ReFantazio stuffed 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.
Make amends for all the information from Summer season Recreation Fest 2024 right here!
Trending Merchandise
