Metaphor: ReFantazio has been a very long time within the making. It was introduced in 2017 as Undertaking re Fantasy by way of a bizarre lengthy video that stated little or no. Since then, Atlus has swapped the Undertaking for Metaphor and scoured Google Translate to discover a cool option 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 sport, Hashino is answerable 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 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 overlaying 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 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 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 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 help on your entry into the royal event. Every city within the sport has a tavern the place you possibly can seize a chunk and collect data, a recruitment heart the place you possibly can settle for quests, varied retailers and an inn the place you possibly can relaxation. Finishing quests and making pals alongside the best way will achieve you supporters among the many varied 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 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 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 intently 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 completely over-the-top British accent. Because the proprietor of an English accent, I discovered the characters past theatrical however nonetheless satisfying. 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 taking pictures for a typical fantasy vibe. Personally, I can’t think about enjoying this sport in something apart from English at this level.
Not the whole lot is voiced — as in quite a lot of JRPGs, key strains and conversations play out in full, however many interactions can be confined to textual content, with the voice actors emoting a little bit alongside the best way for taste. As a pace reader, that is completely fantastic by me.
Section two was all about dungeon-crawling fight — time for the Persona comparisons! The setup right here can 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 component to get together composition, with a back and front row enjoying an element in fight, and Synthesis strikes that assist you to mix your get together’s Archetypes for stronger assaults. Every little thing has a little bit Persona and SMT to it — you handle Archetypes in an Akademeia (just like a Velvet Room), they’ll evolve by way of 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. While you come throughout an enemy, you’ll be capable to gauge their power earlier than initiating fight. The Quick system allows you to goal a specific enemy and strike them; this may 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 if you happen to mess up this engagement you could possibly begin the turn-based fight in your ass. Different Atlus video games have the same risk-reward system to permit gamers to realize 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 suggests 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 an entire, the fight system appears 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 house, extra submarine than tremendous yacht, however crammed 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 possible received’t be capable to do the whole lot 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 most important character’s 5 traits — braveness, knowledge, tolerance, eloquence and creativeness — or maybe concentrate on combating monsters or incomes money. I performed to kind and browse a guide, which was sadly not sufficient to lift my braveness from “craven.”
My cozy guide session led instantly into the primary present: a face-off towards a large human. This started with an anime sequence, which gave option to basic 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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Prime 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 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 crew if you happen to don’t come correctly ready.
Of all of the issues Atlus squeezed into the quick Summer season Recreation Fest, the human battle was probably 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 quite a lot 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 mainly been given a clean examine. 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 components borrowed from virtually each Atlus RPG you possibly can consider, but it surely’s all been remixed and refined. I left my temporary time with ReFantazio crammed with this glorious 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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