Metaphor: ReFantazio has been a very long time within the making. It was introduced in 2017 as Mission re Fantasy via a bizarre lengthy video that mentioned little or no. Since then, Atlus has swapped the Mission for Metaphor and scoured Google Translate to discover a cool solution to say ‘fantasy.’ It’s additionally made a large fantasy JRPG — and after rolling via a demo at Summer time Sport Fest final weekend, I’m dying to play it.
ReFantazio is the primary unique 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 accountable for the Persona collection’ pivot in the direction of social simulation parts. After ending up Persona 5, Hashino left P-Studio to work on all-new titles unrelated to Atlus’ Shin Megami Tensei and Persona collection.
Atlus and Hashino are each identified extra for (-) grounded city fantasy than wizards and elves, and ReFantazio in that sense represents a giant departure. That is an epic, sprawling story protecting an entire 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 dwelling 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 useless, a royal match for the throne in six months and monsters in all places. To make issues worse, Euchronia is being invaded by hideous, Hieronymus Bosch-inspired creatures referred to as people, which perform 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. Finest to simply 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 assist in your entry into the royal match. Every city within the recreation has a tavern the place you may seize a chew and collect info, a recruitment middle the place you may settle for quests, varied retailers and an inn the place you may relaxation. Finishing quests and making pals alongside the way in which will acquire you supporters among the many varied tribes, which is essential to each the overarching story and the fight.
Atlus’ Summer time Sport Fest demo was segmented into three 15-minute chunks. The primary was a coaching sequence of kinds, story-heavy and light-weight on fight. This felt principally like a showcase for ReFantazio’s cinematics, which have been attractive, regardless of the TVs within the demo space being set to interpolate frames. Atlus has a practice of showcasing top-quality anime in its video games, and the demo clips have 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 severely, as everybody I bumped into had a very over-the-top British accent. Because the proprietor of an English accent, I discovered the characters past theatrical however nonetheless fulfilling. At one level within the demo I met a hyper-cockney cat woman that would’ve been auditioning for Oliver.
In one other section, I fought alongside an lovable floppy-eared fellow from fantasy Liverpool who appeared 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 taking part in this recreation in something aside from English at this level.
Not every little thing is voiced — as in quite a lot of JRPGs, key strains and conversations play out in full, however many interactions shall be confined to textual content, with the voice actors emoting just a little alongside the way in which for taste. As a pace reader, that is completely tremendous by me.
Phase 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 varied sorts 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 factor to social gathering composition, with a back and front row taking part in an element in fight, and Synthesis strikes that assist you to mix your social gathering’s Archetypes for stronger assaults. Every little thing has just a little Persona and SMT to it — you handle Archetypes in an Akademeia (just like a Velvet Room), they’ll evolve via expertise, and their proficiency in battle is linked to your bond along with your supporters.
A twist on the basic turn-based components — and one I’m very happy about — is the Quick battle system. If you come throughout an enemy, you’ll be capable of gauge their power earlier than initiating fight. The Quick system permits you to goal a specific 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 in the event you mess up this engagement you might begin the turn-based fight in your ass. Different Atlus video games have the same risk-reward system to permit gamers to achieve a bonus, however that is extra nuanced and satisfying.
The interface for all of it is a sometimes 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 the direction of the top of my brief demo I used to be already dashing via the turn-based fight with out questioning what button did what. Taken as an entire, the fight system seems like a pure evolution to the basic components Atlus is thought for.
The ultimate demo part begins contained in the Gauntlet Runner. It’s a claustrophobic area, 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. Just like Persona, the sport occuring over a hard and fast interval means you seemingly gained’t be capable of do every little thing you need to, and as an alternative must resolve how greatest to spend your time every day. You may attempt to degree up one of many predominant character’s 5 traits — braveness, knowledge, tolerance, eloquence and creativeness — or maybe deal with preventing monsters or incomes money. I performed to kind and skim a ebook, which was sadly not sufficient to boost my braveness from “craven.”
My cozy ebook session led instantly into the primary present: a face-off towards a large human. This started with an anime sequence, which gave solution 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:
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Lengthy violet beard and eyebrows.
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One yellow eye, one white eye, each glowing.
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12 ears organized in two rows? Edgy piercings.
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Crown of thorns. Truly, make that two crowns of thorns.
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Prime half of head has been scalped. There appears to be a human coronary heart protruding.
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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 quite a lot of enjoyable to struggle. There was no main problem: Take out the tentacles, wail on the physique, tentacles regenerate, repeat. However he hit onerous, and the demo clearly set me up for fulfillment. It’s straightforward to see this man wiping your group in the event you don’t come correctly ready.
Of all of the issues Atlus squeezed into the brief Summer time Sport Fest, the human battle was probably the most memorable. From the lore being drip-fed to followers, it looks like the people are literally from our world, and are being Isekai’d into Euchronia as these messed-up monsters. Right here’s hoping quite a lot of them made it over.
At first blush ReFantazio seems like an actual auteur second for Hashino — as if, after the worldwide success of Persona 5, he’s mainly been given a clean examine. Hashino’s Persona titles bend over backwards to point out you the way cool and edgy they’re, however the one concern for ReFantazio is how loud, assured and distinctive it may be.
Sure, there are parts borrowed from virtually each Atlus RPG you may consider, nevertheless it’s all been remixed and refined. I left my transient time with ReFantazio stuffed with this excellent milieu of nostalgia and shock, a heat familiarity from one thing in contrast to something I’d performed earlier than.
Metaphor: ReFantazio involves PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbox Collection consoles on October 11.
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