Metaphor: ReFantazio is a turn-based RPG from Studio Zero, a development team of Atlus (the company behind the Shin Megami Tensei series and sub-series including Persona). Available on PlayStation 4 (digital only in the west), PlayStation 5, Windows (Steam) and Xbox Series X/S.

 

 

The story tells a fantasy realm involving magic and the protagonist journeying to save the prince from a curse.

 

I played the demo of this. At the very least I definitely felt the similarities to Persona 5 (lengthy script, schedule mechanics, controls and turn-based gameplay), but otherwise has zero connection to it or any other Atlus games. It's gonna be fun when I get to play in full (don't know when exactly but I am interested).

Edited October 10, 2024Oct 10 by All★bySmashMouth

Started this today after playing the demo, put about 9 hours into the demo and have played a good few hours today so have just made it out of the starting city. Liking it a lot so far! The story is less my thing than Persona and I am not finding the characters as intriguing thus far, but the combat and mechanics are really impressing me.

 

Persona is my favourite series of all time and P5 Royal is my favourite game of all time full stop so this has a lot to live up to. It is very Persona, but honestly I think the combat system has the *potential* to outpace Persona. The way you can mix archetypes to form what is like a mixed class character is really interesting to me, and I think at higher levels that will get more interesting as you can experiment a lot with skills and builds. Some of them are the obvious RPG tropes but done well, and there’s a couple of decently fun gimmicky ones I’ve already seen. I hope it’s easy to level up Archetypes and “respect” as you get further in as it would be fun to experiment a lot with different ones a lot, the skill inheritance I feel is a better way to diversify skills than the Persona series’ fusion mechanics, and I like that all the party members can be built with a class any way you like. I don’t think the first 10 hours I’ve played has really explored that fully, but like I said I can see a hell of a lot of potential there. I am finding it a lot more difficult than Persona too but that may be because I know that series inside out whereas I’m still getting to grips with this and figuring out what works for me.

 

I think this is going to be a game that starts comparatively slow and gets better, as a lot of JRPGs do really. The social link aspect I am finding far far less intriguing than Persona’s so far, but that may build up too. The scope and worldbuilding are huge and that’s another thing they have over Persona thus far for me. I have seen in the reviews the game takes a while to get going and hit its heights, the reviews are insane so I know I am probably going to adore this as much as Persona in the end :lol:

God this game is absolutely incredible once the story picks up steam!! The world building is just lush and some of the plot twists have me floored, one of those where you think you know what’s happening and then it just gives you whiplash with something completely different. I don’t find many of the characters particularly compelling by themselves but the world they’ve built and the way that they all intertwine and play a part in the story makes them all essential.

 

The class system is so so much fun, with the protag and Hulkenberg in particular I’ve had so much fun with the protagonist and Hulkenberg in particular having a few different builds on the go for them and you do need to switch it up for certain bosses as they need a certain approach.

 

Ended up having my protag get very magic based which I found worked as Hulkenberg and Strohl were more physical and you don’t get a decent mage until mid game, I thought I’d boxed myself in a bit but there still has been a few great options to use. I think this will be fun to replay and use totally different classes and change up how you play.