Metaphor ReFantazio Is a Brilliant Evolution of Persona And SMT
From each character’s magical awakening and all the RPG mechanics it opens, to the social sim elements that feed into how you interact with the world, Metaphor ReFantazio is clearly adopting the Persona formula – but it’s doing so for something seemingly bigger in scope from both a gameplay and storytelling perspective. After playing about five hours of Atlus’ upcoming RPG, it’s extremely apparent how it’s leveraging the strengths of its previous games to think outside the confines of traditional fantasy and create something wholly unique. And as much as I love Persona, it’s about damn time we’ve had a game of this style that goes beyond the classroom walls and halls of high school.
No matter which way you cut it, Metaphor is a politically charged story – not just in the concept of being the main character who is striving to win an election to be the next king. Having played the opening hours, it boldly establishes the social dynamics of its medieval fantasy setting, the Kingdom of Euchronia. The story opens up with the protagonist in a carriage with a group of wanderers getting ambushed by bandits, where he witnesses a red-haired elven girl slice down the bandits before he gets kicked off a cliff to fend for himself. It’s a grim, hostile world outside of the towns and city walls where outlaws and monsters always seeking prey. And even within its capital, its society rife with classism and discrimination shows that nowhere is truly safe. Metaphor makes this clear as soon as you reach the Royal Capital in the opening hours, showcasing how poverty, racism, and militarism dictate life across the kingdom.
The protagonist is an “elda,” a tribe (or race) that presents as regularly human – they’re a rare sight in Euchronia and are treated with disdain. The elven “roussainte” and horned “clemar” are more commonly accepted while the hedonistic cat-like “paripus” live on the fringes of society. The tribal dynamics set the tone for a story that seems to wield social injustice as
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