Metaphor: ReFantazio has been a very long time within the making. It was introduced in 2017 as Challenge re Fantasy by a bizarre lengthy video that mentioned little or no. Since then, Atlus has swapped the Challenge 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 a demo at Summer season 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 sport, Hashino is accountable for the Persona sequence’ pivot in 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 sequence.
Atlus and Hashino are each identified extra for (-) grounded city fantasy than wizards and elves, and ReFantazio in that sense represents an enormous 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 match for the throne in six months and monsters all over the place. 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? Surprise if it’s a… metaphor?
Given Atlus’ storytelling historical past, the broad strokes of ReFantazio will most likely 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 in your entry into the royal match. Every city within the sport has a tavern the place you possibly can seize a chunk and collect data, a recruitment middle the place you possibly can settle for quests, varied outlets and an inn the place you possibly can relaxation. Finishing quests and making pals alongside the best way will acquire you supporters among the many varied tribes, which is vital to each the overarching story and the fight.
Atlus’ Summer season Sport Fest demo was segmented into three 15-minute chunks. The primary was a coaching sequence of kinds, 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 practice 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 performing. For the English-speaking solid, Atlus is taking the “United Kingdom” of Euchronia very critically, 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 pleasurable. At one level within the demo I met a hyper-cockney cat woman that might’ve been auditioning for Oliver.
In one other phase, 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 taking part in this sport in something aside from English at this level.
Not all the pieces is voiced — as in loads of JRPGs, key traces and conversations play out in full, however many interactions will probably be confined to textual content, with the voice actors emoting just a little alongside the best way for taste. As a velocity reader, that is completely fantastic by me.
Phase two was all about dungeon-crawling fight — time for the Persona comparisons! The setup right here will probably be acquainted to followers of Atlus video games: It’s a turn-based JRPG, with varied varieties of bodily and magical assaults, standing results and illnesses. ReFantazio’s model of the traditional 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 occasion composition, with a back and front row taking part in an element in fight, and Synthesis strikes that let you mix your occasion’s Archetypes for stronger assaults. All the things has just a little Persona and SMT to it — you handle Archetypes in an Akademeia (just like a Velvet Room), they will evolve by expertise, and their proficiency in battle is linked to your bond together with your supporters.
A twist on the traditional turn-based system — and one I’m more than happy about — is the Quick battle system. Whenever you come throughout an enemy, you’ll have the ability to gauge their power earlier than initiating fight. The Quick system enables you to goal a specific enemy and strike them; this may insta-kill underpowered foes, which lets you keep away from turn-based battling totally when grinding low-level enemies. For stronger foes, you need to use Quick to butter them up and begin a squad battle with benefit, however in the event you mess up this engagement you can begin the turn-based fight in your ass. Different Atlus video games have an analogous 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 usually attractive menu system and UI that feels extra refined than ever. Easy actions are assigned a face button on the controller, which suggests much less time spent in menus. It’s all fairly intuitive, and in direction of the top of my brief demo I used to be already dashing by the turn-based fight with out questioning what button did what. Taken as a complete, the fight system seems like a pure evolution to the traditional system 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 full of 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 set interval means you possible received’t have the ability to do all the pieces you wish to, and as an alternative have to resolve how greatest to spend your time every day. You may attempt to stage up one of many most important character’s 5 traits — braveness, knowledge, tolerance, eloquence and creativeness — or maybe deal with combating monsters or incomes money. I performed to kind and browse a e book, which was sadly not sufficient to boost my braveness from “craven.”
My cozy e book session led instantly into the principle present: a face-off towards a large human. This started with an anime sequence, which gave approach to traditional four-on-one fight. The human designs on this sport are buckwild. This one was referred to as, “Sea Horror Homo Sabara” and listed below 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. Really, make that two crowns of thorns.
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High half of head has been scalped. There appears to be a human coronary heart protruding.
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Additionally, eight big bejeweled tentacles as weapons.
It’s not like I haven’t seen loopy bosses in a JRPG earlier than, however this octodad was loads 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 in the event you don’t come correctly ready.
Of all of the issues Atlus squeezed into the brief Summer season 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 loads 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 test. Hashino’s Persona titles bend over backwards to indicate 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 possibly can consider, however it’s all been remixed and refined. I left my temporary time with ReFantazio full of 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 Sequence consoles on October 11.
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