Metaphor: ReFantazio has been a very long time within the making. It was introduced in 2017 as Mission re Fantasy by 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 method 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 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 recreation, Hashino is accountable for the Persona collection’ 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 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 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 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 lifeless, a royal event for the throne in six months and monsters in every single 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? 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. 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 assist on your entry into the royal event. Every city within the recreation has a tavern the place you possibly can seize a chew and collect data, a recruitment middle the place you possibly can settle for quests, varied retailers and an inn the place you possibly can relaxation. Finishing quests and making associates 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 types, story-heavy and lightweight on fight. This felt largely like a showcase for ReFantazio’s cinematics, which have been beautiful, 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 finest 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 forged, 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 might’ve been auditioning for Oliver.
In one other section, I fought alongside an lovely floppy-eared fellow from fantasy Liverpool who gave the impression of he was . If none of this excites you, the Japanese voice forged appears to be taking pictures for a typical fantasy vibe. Personally, I can’t think about enjoying this recreation in something aside from English at this level.
Not every part is voiced — as in a number of JRPGs, key strains and conversations play out in full, however many interactions might be confined to textual content, with the voice actors emoting somewhat alongside the best way for taste. As a velocity reader, that is completely nice by me.
Section two was all about dungeon-crawling fight — time for the Persona comparisons! The setup right here might be acquainted to followers of Atlus video games: It’s a turn-based JRPG, with varied forms 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 celebration composition, with a back and front row enjoying a component in fight, and Synthesis strikes that can help you mix your celebration’s Archetypes for stronger assaults. All the things has somewhat Persona and SMT to it — you handle Archetypes in an Akademeia (much like a Velvet Room), they will evolve by expertise, and their proficiency in battle is linked to your bond along with your supporters.
A twist on the basic turn-based formulation — and one I’m more than happy about — is the Quick battle system. Whenever you come throughout an enemy, you’ll be capable of gauge their energy earlier than initiating fight. The Quick system enables you to goal a selected enemy and strike them; this will insta-kill underpowered foes, which lets you keep away from turn-based battling solely 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 case you mess up this engagement you possibly can begin the turn-based fight in your ass. Different Atlus video games have an identical 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 beautiful 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 direction of the tip of my quick demo I used to be already rushing by 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 formulation 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 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 possible gained’t be capable of do every part you need to, and as a substitute must resolve how finest to spend your time every day. You would possibly attempt to degree up one of many most important character’s 5 traits — braveness, knowledge, tolerance, eloquence and creativeness — or maybe deal with preventing monsters or incomes money. I performed to sort and skim a guide, which was sadly not sufficient to boost 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 method 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 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 large bejeweled tentacles as weapons.
It’s not like I haven’t seen loopy bosses in a JRPG earlier than, however this octodad was a number of enjoyable to struggle. 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 straightforward to see this man wiping your group in case you don’t come correctly ready.
Of all of the issues Atlus squeezed into the quick Summer season Sport Fest, the human battle was essentially 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 a number 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 test. Hashino’s Persona titles bend over backwards to point out you ways 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 nearly each Atlus RPG you possibly can consider, but it surely’s all been remixed and refined. I left my temporary time with ReFantazio stuffed with this excellent 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 Collection consoles on October 11.
Compensate for the entire information from Summer season Sport Fest 2024 proper right here!
