Metaphor: ReFantazio is more than just Persona in fantasy gear, it could be setting a new high bar for the genre

The battle music in Metaphor: ReFantazio is incredible. Urgent, insistent chants build tension over dramatic string strokes before a glorious brass fanfare emerges with choral harmonies. It’s as grand and operatic as the game as a whole. It’s also diegetic – not just a background soundtrack, but summoned into the game world by the player character’s fairy companion to inspire them. The music is – literally – magical.

Fans of Atlus’ previous RPGs won’t be surprised by the soundtrack featuring hits: Persona games are known for their jazzy funk tunes. Here, the switch to rich classical orchestration presents a new style but a familiar reliance on catchy songs.

And it’s emblematic of Metaphor as a whole. In terms of structure and gameplay, it’s fairly familiar, but clever changes and a shift to fantasy ensure that this is a fresh experience and the next step in Atlus’ RPGs. This is much more than just Persona in fantasy garb.

Despite launching the first Megami Tensei game in 1987, it wasn’t until 2006’s Persona 3 that Atlus truly found success in the West. That success grew further with Persona 4 (2008), and then exploded with Persona 5 (2016). Since the latter’s release, aside from Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance, Atlus has mostly been looking back with spin-offs and re-releases of its existing catalog. Metaphor, then, marks the future—a brand new, standalone world and a story built on recognizable mechanics, what it calls a “culmination of our RPGs.” It’s an exciting prospect.

Perhaps the biggest change for Atlus is that the game is based in a fantasy universe, rather than the modern Japan of its most popular games. I got to experience this for myself in a full preview. It begins at the beginning of the game, describing the events in the United Kingdom of Euchronia: the king has been assassinated and left no heir, meaning the royal scepter and its world-destroying magic power are up for grabs. Embark on a journey to become the next ruler through a fantasy election.

The story is told through spectacular animated cutscenes that, more than ever, feel like a playable movie. This is no longer an intimate high school drama, but a grand epic adventure and the beginning of a new saga that represents Atlus’ vision of a traditional RPG universe.

Despite its election theme, Atlus seems keen to distance itself from strong political overtones. In a video message released during the preview, director Katsura Hashino said the team “really didn’t realize that this title could overlap with specific real-world elections,” adding that they “continue to be surprised by the uncanny similarities between our real world and the world of Metaphor.”

While an election can spark rivalries, it also allows “citizens to put a lot of effort and resources into building a better future. We really wanted to focus on the power that we can potentially bring to making the world a better place,” as Yuichirō Tanaka, who led the story planning, explained during a Q&A. “We don’t have a political agenda or a message to convey. (The election) is more of a tool, if you will, that we decided to use to convey the story.”

Still, Hashino has said that anxiety and finding common ground with others are at the heart of the narrative. Indeed, prejudice in a multicultural society is clearly a key theme. The world is filled with diverse races—elves, catfolk, and horned people—but the game’s protagonist is an elda, or what appears to be a human (confusingly, the monsters in this world are known as “humans”). It’s immediately clear that he’s an outcast, but any inner anxiety he feels can bring him strength through acceptance.

Tanaka explained that the game explores the different ways people deal with anxiety when faced with it. “With that idea in mind, we decided to separate these tribes from the actual races that we see in real life,” he said. “We took away all of those existing ideas of race and created these new tribes with this game based on that. We think that’s a very original concept for this game and something that we’re proud of.”

While the Persona games blur the real world with fantastical nightmares and political parallels, Metaphor does the same thing but in reverse (hence its symbolic title). The protagonist carries with him a fantasy novel, which seems to be a fantasized, utopian version of our world – a world in which all people live in equality – in contrast to the clear divisions of the game world. Can this fantasy really become a reality for the inhabitants of Euchronia – or for us?

Additionally, while some of the Persona games’ depictions feel dated and stereotypical by Western standards (elements that have been changed in re-releases), it seems that Atlus is more aware of its global audience with Metaphor. In particular, the fantasy setting offers a more universal – and relevant – thematic experience where previous games eschewed classic concepts by subverting modern-day Japan.

Metaphor has many obvious counterparts to previous Atlus games. The turn-based combat system builds on SMT3’s with its exploitation of weaknesses. The Akademeia is the new Velvet Room where archetypes are managed and evolved; the archetypes themselves are the new Personas, providing elemental abilities. Social stats are now royal attributes to ensure the protagonist is worthy of a vote. And it all feels fresh, with a sleek UI and extravagant cutscenes.

So far, it’s been Persona, right? But Metaphor then expands on those elements for an experience that feels modern, expansive, and complex. Take relationships: the protagonist will gain new followers, and as they strengthen their bonds, they can unlock new abilities and archetypes, tying into the main narrative to bolster their claim to be the next king. Or take the archetypes themselves, which evolve individually and can be assigned to any character, allowing for deep customization of party composition.

This will impact Synthesis, a key new element of combat where characters’ abilities combine to form new powers. This turns simple attacks into multi-hit versions, or other powerful moves with elaborate animations. It reminded me of Chrono Trigger’s techniques, which reward experimentation with party members and archetypes – there are over 40 archetypes, which act as a job or class system and reflect each character’s inner hero. Yes, that means a typically gruesome scene when characters awaken to their power.

Elsewhere, the turn-based combat feels a lot like Persona or SMT: you switch between characters and attack, defend, or use archetype powers; enemies have key weaknesses to exploit, which earn players an extra turn; and there are options to auto-target weaknesses or auto-heal them after the battle. The fact that little has changed shows just how complex combat in these games has become.

There is one major new feature, however: the inclusion of real-time combat. Seemingly an extension of pre-fight attacks, the player character can not only hit enemies in advance for a preemptive strike, but also kill them outright, with attacks depending on the assigned archetype. This turns Metaphor into a hack and slash of sorts and reduces the need for grinding as low-level enemies can be taken down with ease (higher-level enemies and bosses, of course, still require tactical turn-based combat to defeat). Combined with the speed of normal combat, Metaphor feels streamlined and snappy – even if it does mean you hear less of that amazing music.

Dungeons are no longer randomly generated, Atlus confirmed during the preview. That means there will be no more Tartarus or Mementos, just hand-crafted dungeons to explore with their own puzzles. The first part of the preview featured a typical medieval castle, with a terrifying “human” boss at its peak: a truly grotesque nightmare of limbs, wings, fruit on vines, and a giant tongue. Later, I played through an underground stream with a water-level puzzle and a giant shadowy baby stalking the corridors. The metaphor is often incredibly twisted.

Persona’s calendar system also makes a return, though it feels a little less rigid in Metaphor. Players are once again free to choose how to spend their days, but rather than simply picking between various activities and friendships in town, you choose which quests and side stories you want to focus on, each of which can take several days to complete. The second half of the preview, for example, began in a walled city with various characters offering multiple directions – one led to the waterway, while another led to a quest for treasure in a hidden tomb. As a result, the world feels vast, as players have to figure out where to prioritize time – and not everything is achievable. While Persona games have become formulaic, Metaphor feels like a sprawling journey where players are encouraged to be proactive, rather than simply filling time.

With Metaphor, Atlus seems to have succeeded not only in changing its own universe, but in changing high fantasy RPGs as a whole. This is especially true of the visuals: the main city is an intriguing mix of Parisian elegance and futuristic skyscrapers, while elsewhere, swords and magic mix with steampunk technology – the Gauntlet Runner walking vehicles the party travels in, for example. The visuals are grainy and a bit busy at times, but they also have a rustic charm.

Fans of SMT and Persona will find Metaphor easy to get excited about. But more importantly, it’s a fresh start for both Atlus and new fans. This vast, detailed, and complex (both structurally and thematically) RPG is incredibly ambitious. Yet even from this preview, it’s clear that it’s going to set the bar high for Atlus and, if the final game plays out as planned, perhaps even for the RPG genre itself.