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 stated 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 via a demo at Summer time 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 sport, Hashino is answerable 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 recognized extra for (-) grounded city fantasy than wizards and elves, and ReFantazio in that sense represents a giant departure. That is an epic, sprawling story masking 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 attempting 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 operate as the sport’s bosses. People, huh? Marvel 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) attempting to rally help on 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 retailers and an inn the place you possibly can relaxation. Finishing quests and making mates 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 types, story-heavy and light-weight 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 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 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 gratifying. At one level within the demo I met a hyper-cockney cat lady 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 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 all the things is voiced — as in a whole lot of JRPGs, key traces and conversations play out in full, however many interactions shall be confined to textual content, with the voice actors emoting a bit alongside the way in which for taste. As a velocity reader, that is completely positive 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 kinds 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 aspect to occasion composition, with a back and front row enjoying a component in fight, and Synthesis strikes that will let you mix your occasion’s Archetypes for stronger assaults. The whole lot has a bit Persona and SMT to it — you handle Archetypes in an Akademeia (much like a Velvet Room), they will evolve via expertise, and their proficiency in battle is linked to your bond together with your supporters.
A twist on the basic turn-based system — and one I’m more than happy about — is the Quick battle system. Once you come throughout an enemy, you’ll have the ability to 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 totally when grinding low-level enemies. For stronger foes, you should utilize Quick to butter them up and begin a squad battle with benefit, however for those who mess up this engagement you might 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 usually 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 brief demo I used to be already rushing via the turn-based fight with out questioning what button did what. Taken as an entire, the fight system looks like a pure evolution to the basic system Atlus is understood for.
The ultimate demo part begins contained in the Gauntlet Runner. It’s a claustrophobic area, 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. Much like Persona, the sport occuring over a hard and fast interval means you possible received’t have the ability to do all the things you need to, and as an alternative must determine how greatest to spend your time every day. You would possibly attempt to stage up one of many primary character’s 5 traits — braveness, knowledge, tolerance, eloquence and creativeness — or maybe concentrate on combating monsters or incomes money. I performed to kind and skim a e book, which was sadly not sufficient to lift 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 method 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 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 big bejeweled tentacles as weapons.
It’s not like I haven’t seen loopy bosses in a JRPG earlier than, however this octodad was a whole lot of enjoyable to struggle. There was no main problem: Take out the tentacles, wail on the physique, tentacles regenerate, repeat. However he hit exhausting, and the demo clearly set me up for fulfillment. It’s straightforward to see this man wiping your group for those who don’t come correctly ready.
Of all of the issues Atlus squeezed into the brief Summer time 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 whole lot of them made it over.
At first blush ReFantazio looks 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 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 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 in contrast to 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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