Metaphor: ReFantazio – Ghost of the Armored Persona. Review and Analysis. Text and video.

Today we will discuss Metaphor – a new game from the creators of Persona 3-5, works that are widely known and even cult in certain circles. Let’s see where the studio’s creative experiments have taken them and whether the 93 points on metacritic and the nomination for game of the year are justified.

I offer a video version for those who are more comfortable with the video format, and for those – enjoy watching.

For those who are more comfortable or familiar with the text format, I wish you a pleasant reading. I warn you right away, MANY BUKAF.

Estimated reading time: 40 minutes.

Table of contents

Introduction and brief history of creation

The history of Metaphor: ReFantazio is inseparable from the Persona series, one of the iconic series in the JRPG genre, which spun off from another franchise – Shin Megami Tensei. The first three parts (the first and the second duology) did not differ too strikingly from their ancestor and were made by the same team of developers.

Starting from the third part, the series was transferred to the hands of a new team, which created the now canonical image of Persona – a simulator of an ordinary Japanese schoolboy planning his time, attending school, developing relationships with friends and in his free time fighting shadow monsters in the grotesque world of the human unconscious.

The third part found popularity not only in Japan, but also in the West. The story of schoolchildren cosplaying Kurt Cobain, who are faced with the embodiment of death, living in the 25th darkest hour of the day, hooked many players and received several re-releases, the last of which, Reload, which is already striving for a full-fledged remake, was released in early 2024. There is a detailed review of it on my blog.

The fourth part, which told a surprisingly illuminating story of a group of schoolchildren’s investigation into serial murders in a provincial town, further strengthened the studio’s position and was one of the main reasons to buy a PS Vita. Well, the five became the crown of the new trilogy, taking the storytelling, gameplay and art design to a new level. And at the same time, it collected very solid sales and fame, thanks to which the series ceased to be a niche and moved into the echelon of the most notable and expensive JRPGs. Reviews (both in number and in video format) for the fourth and fifth parts are also on my blog.

And what is important for our conversation is that after the release of the fifth Persona, almost all key developers from P-Studio, responsible for its creation, said: “We have said everything about Persona and have nothing to add,” transferred work on the series to another studio (responsible for the Royal re-release of the five), created a new team Studio Zero and set off to create a new original project, a JRPG in a fantasy style. As you already understood, this project was Metaphor: ReFantazio (first shown under the name Project Re:Fantasy).

The game was announced in December 2016. The development took about 8 years, I did not find information about any dramatic turns in its course. Critics’ ratings fluctuate around 93 points, players rated it only slightly weaker (91 point).

Well, let’s see if the excitement is deserved, if this is really a nominee for game of the year and one of the best JRPGs of recent years, especially when the competition is Persona 3 Reload. We’ll also see how far the creators’ experiments have taken the game from the famous series. There will be comparisons with the person SO MANY, warned immediately.

I ask you to love and favor: Metaphor Re Fantazio.

Plot

Let’s start, as usual, with the plot. The game takes place in a fantasy world, located approximately at the stage of our modern times – active colonization of neighboring lands, a church gradually losing its influence, clothing and architecture similar to the Victorian era. One could even call the local setting, full of outlandish machines, steampunk, if not for magic and related technologies that replaced steam, gunpowder and coal.

The United Kingdom of Uchronia is inhabited by a number of intelligent races trying to get along together. There are no typical elves and gnomes here, although the prototypes of eared rusents or horned clemars are easily guessed. There are also exotic ones, like agefs – upright flying fennec foxes. Well, fury-quadrobers paripas with ears and tails are in the same place as Japanese fantasy without cat girls and boys. Interestingly, ordinary people, devoid of any strange signs for us, are Elds – one of the rarest and most despised races.

The story begins with the murder of the king at the hands of one of his generals – the ambitious and charismatic Louis. And our main character, an unknown young man, arrives in the capital of the kingdom on the eve of the royal funeral. He is accompanied by the fairy Gallica, who supports him with magic and advice.

In the hands of a young man is a fantastic book about a utopian state, suspiciously similar to our real world, on his belt is a sword that once belonged to a king, and in his heart is the hope of saving his best friend – an orphaned prince, the son of a recently deceased monarch, struck by a deadly curse and considered dead.

The hero joins the royal army, where he barely survives a meeting with a terrible monster that destroyed the entire garrison and is called “man”, in a battle with which he discovers the mysterious magical powers of ancient archetypes, and then finds allies, with whom he plans to kill Louis during the royal funeral, because it was he who not only killed the king, but also put a curse on the prince and only his will or death can remove it.

But the heroes’ plan is disrupted when it turns out that the old king, before his death, created powerful royal magic, the purpose of which is to prevent power and the royal scepter, a powerful artifact, from falling into the hands of the unworthy.

The palace soars into the sky, and the stone face of the late monarch announces a competition for the throne, in which anyone can take part, and only the sympathy of the people will determine who gets the crown. And the most supported contenders are protected by royal magic, which makes it impossible to simply kill Louis, on whose side so many.

And now the heroes will have to participate in the tournament, travel throughout the kingdom and beyond its borders, meet the most terrible monsters and strongest competitors, unravel the mysteries of ancient civilizations, survive many dangers and adventures, defeat Louis, lift the curse, and return the throne to the rightful heir.

The plot develops rather slowly. For the first 15-20 hours, he almost without letting go leads the player by the hand, immersing him in context, telling who all these people are and what’s going on. And only at the end of this solid prologue the plot enters its main line, and the player is released from the capital, given a personal runner – a mixture of Howl’s Moving Castle and Eve.

In the main plot, the player will find many events, intrigues, characters and twists. The balance of power and understanding of what is happening will change more than once. The story may pull you in slowly, but once it gets hooked, it doesn’t let go until the very end.

It contains moments of loss and sadness, almost thriller-like suspense-tension, inspiration and bright hope, epic confrontations and large-scale events. A couple of moments brought me dangerously close to a stingy male tear, and a couple naturally gave me goosebumps. There were even naturally horror episodes that could create horror.

What I really liked – the plot of the game is a real journey with friends, almost a road movie. Despite the personal structure of the plot, when each chapter is a separate adventure in a unique dungeon, for the completion of which a certain number of game days are given, we no longer sit in one city, but constantly move around the world.

The heroes visit various cities and attractions, meet new acquaintances and get involved in different stories along the way. This sets the pace and mood very coolly, adding dynamics to what is happening and variety to the environment.

However, I can’t say that the plot was a complete success. Events often lack scale; confrontations with villains always take the form of very local duels, albeit sometimes in incredibly large-scale settings. And the whole world and all the characters outside the fighting party act as observers at best. Oddly enough, the local epic story does not reach in its epic either the final battles of the fifth Person, or the final battle in some Dragon Age Origins.

All the main plot twists and turns have virtually no impact other than the “wow” effect of surprise. They do not turn our perception of the events that have taken place, do not change our further goals, and they do not have obvious and logical prerequisites for the player to realize these turns and slap himself on the forehead with the words “But it’s true.”! How did I not notice this!” and looked at everything that happened from a new angle.

In addition, most of the plot twists are very predictable. I foresaw all but literally two in advance. And the answers to the most mysterious questions in history are rather disappointing in their banality. But perhaps the fact is that I played through the studio’s previous games and had already learned the style of their writers well, easily predicting where and in what direction they would throw feints.

Most "what-is-twists" turn out to be exactly what comes to mind first when you try to predict events.

The characters lack disclosure and development, interaction with the world, the hero and each other. The same antagonist has undeniable charisma and a seemingly serious story, but it is revealed so poorly that it would be better for his past to continue to remain a mystery.

And in this game there is a great (and more than ever in Personas) lack of a well-written and charismatic protagonist. When, according to the plot, a character participates in a competition for the throne and popular popularity, and should, in good terms, be a powerful charismatic, voluntarily leading an entire country with him in the finale, a dummy-stub character feels very out of place. And there would be much more chemistry in dialogues with companions. Still, it would be much easier for mirror neurons to empathize with the relationship between two living characters, rather than interactive monologues.

The fact that the hero doesn’t just say lines, we just don’t seem to hear him (as in an RPG with an unvoiced protagonist), but is silent and his friends do everything for him, makes the situation even stupider. Why aren’t they participating in the race for the throne instead of this silent man??

And this, I note, is in a Japanese anime game, whose camp certainly cannot complain about the lack of charismatic heroes – remember the series Devil May Cry, Metal Gear, Final Fantasy, etc. And this is from the writers of Persona 3-5, the characters in which won millions of hearts around the world. I’m sure these guys can write a good protagonist and this game really needed one.

The dialogues and texts in the magazine themselves turned out to be interesting and lively; reading them is easy, pleasant and not tiring. I’ve seen a lot of jokes about almost identical lines of dialogue and the absence of even the illusion of choice. But in JRPGs in general, and Persona in particular, there has never been non-linearity. So you shouldn’t expect any influence from decisions at all, all events in the game are absolutely linear, and the choice of lines here is rather intended to dilute the reading of dialogues and increase the immersion and involvement of the player in what is happening.

Issues

On the one hand, the theme and problems of the game pleased me. Despite the fact that we can confidently say that the game has an “agenda” and the hackneyed inequality and xenophobia are one of the central ideas, the game turns them around in a very interesting way.

For example, the main declared antagonist is not some kind of stiff, world-phobic conservative, but a charismatic populist who skillfully plays on the problems of society and uses the propaganda of the ideas of equality and justice as a cover for personal goals and ambitions.

And one of the central themes is the conflict between equality and justice. People are different, nothing can be done about this, and they can only be completely equal under the most severe external terror, a Procrustean bed that forcibly coerces and limits everyone.

But a free meritocracy, which gives everyone only according to their personal merits, leads to a world where the strongest is always right, a world of endless chaos and unrest, because for any strong person there is always a stronger one. And finding a balance between fair rewards and equality of opportunity is both one of the main tasks of the state and an interesting topic for the plot.

The game is not at all shy about serious topics and situations. Deaths occur frequently, not Game of Thrones, of course, but it well emphasizes the cruel morals and laws of the world. Many heroes have lost or are even losing loved ones before our eyes. We even help one of them survive the death of a child and choose a place to bury the urn with his ashes.

But on the other hand, the range of topics and social and personal problems addressed in the game is much narrower than in the same latter persons. And in the end it all comes down to the idea “people shift their fears and anxieties onto someone, for example, a king, instead of fighting them themselves,” which almost directly repeats the criticism of society and religion from the fifth person, only it makes it much simpler and more straightforward.

It is sad to realize that people cannot fully achieve utopian, but seemingly quite real things for us, such as free elections, rotation of power and freedom of speech, even in our world and society, which seems to be far ahead of the gaming world.

And although, in my opinion, the plot did not turn out to be truly outstanding and catchy (after completing the game, I did not even feel the characteristic emptiness inside, as after the completion of all the same persons, which is generally sad), the problems and characters did not turn out to be too deep, and the subtle metaphorical and symbolic character characteristic of the studio’s past works was lost, the story turned out to be good. In general, despite all my criticism, the plot is interesting, holds well and evokes a lot of emotions. And this is perhaps the main thing.

Visual component

The visuals of the game turned out, in my opinion, ambiguous. On the one hand, the artists did a very serious job. The cities look impressive, each with unique and eye-catching attractions. Just look at the huge cathedral in the middle of the capital, or the view from the city on top of the mountain.

The interiors are designed with attention and love. Some backgrounds evoke associations with the works of the legendary Studio Ghibli. The characters have bright and memorable images, which are worth only the big-eared redhead Hulkenberg or the local villain with his golden curls, thoughtful gaze, knightly military uniform and horns similar to Caesar’s laurel wreath.

The change in scenery is also nice. A deserted, arid and quiet city, after completing the story quest, is washed by refreshing rain, becoming more crowded, noisy and lively. The musical theme also changes, turning from threatening to lyrical and thoughtful.

And at the moment of a riot, the streets of the city are filled with guards and bandits, the walls are covered with inscriptions, the streets are filled with rubbish, a devoted dog sits next to the dead owner, the executioner, who was always chatting something to us, lies killed by the hands of the friends of his recent victims. Amazing attention to detail that makes the world feel alive and that’s very cool.

Clothing, technology and armor look very distinctive. Among the interesting things I would like to note are mechanical runners that combine both mechanical and anatomical elements. Associations with Evangelion are not born in vain, because Ikuto Yamashita, who had a hand in the remake of the legendary series, worked on the design of the mechanisms. Like concept artist Kazuma Koda, who worked on Nier: Automata, he clearly brought with him the familiar vibes of 2B’s adventures to the art style in general, and location design in particular.

But on the other hand… Firstly, technically the game looks frankly archaic. The old engine that Metaphor inherited from the fifth Persona (which also didn’t show any miracles) has noticeably aged and become decrepit. A person who doesn’t know the game can easily mistake its screenshots and footage for a project of the second half of the 2000s and the PS3 era.

Blurry textures, mediocre lighting and effects, characters’ faces never knew the emotions and hands of the animator. Of course, I’m exaggerating a little, but it’s very difficult to recognize facial expressions in the futile attempts of plastic dolls. And here is one of the most terrible incarnations of water in games that I have seen in the last 15-20 years, more like frozen jelly. It seems that even in Vice-City the sea looked more natural and pleasant.

Compared to its cousin Persona 3 Reload, which moved to the fourth Unreal Engine, Metaphor looks downright ugly. And the fact that it leans much more towards realism, compared to the stylized Persona, makes the situation even worse, because the shortcomings of realistic graphics are much more noticeable.

The production also suffers from the same ailments. Most of even the most emotional moments are presented simply by a pair of idols standing opposite each other with an extremely meager set of oak animations, among which there are no facial ones at all. Also, most of the dialogues are still not voiced.

There is no talk of any serious camera work. Even a truly creepy and impressive episode is conveyed by stopping the characters, a question mark over their head and a simple turn of the camera. The few castzenes, with extremely rare exceptions, are completely unimpressive and also seem to have come from the distant past. The same goes for anime scenes with low frame rates and very cheap 3D elements.

I understand, old school, traditions, small budget, everything. But by God, a million copies sold on the first day. Far from being the poorest publisher. And very toothy competitors who, even for pennies, make impressive staging, animation and full voice acting for very verbose projects.

I almost dropped bricks from this scene, even despite all the technical weakness of the game. She would like a normal production.

It’s time, gentlemen, publishers from Atlus, it’s https://wickedjackpotscasino.co.uk/bonus/ time to catch up with the times and make a game according to the standards of at least the tenth, if not the twenties. Give the guys a normal budget, hire a staff of developers, technical artists, animators and cinematic artists, change the engine and record a full voice-over! Help the average player not to shy away from the game like a leper, but to become interested in one type of it.

Secondly, the picture turned out to be very overloaded and seemed screaming. All the colors of the rainbow in the interface, constantly flickering UI elements, magical particles sparkling in the air – over time you get used to it and stop experiencing discomfort, but it all looks, perhaps, too tacky and is more of a nuisance than really immersive and aesthetically pleasing.

In addition, the game uses far from the best color scheme – all colors are muted and as if faded, a greenish cold filter is often used, which was so popular in the mid-2000s, which is why in the game even sunny days look cloudy and dark.

The ill-fated piss filter, seemingly buried in the early 2010s, has risen from the grave and found a new victim.

The interface, whose impressive style has already become an expected feature of the studio, also fell victim to this overload. He is beautiful, the artists worked hard to paint him. But literally everything about it is super detailed and flashy. And as we were taught in art school: “When everything stands out, nothing stands out.”.

The interface was not as stylish and sophisticated as in the fifth Persona, and not nearly as convenient and pleasant as in the Reload three. Although, compared to the vast majority of other games, it is undoubtedly very impressive.

Thirdly, I believe that the artists still failed to create a truly unique and memorable world. Apart from the Eva-runners and the main cathedral in the capital, which amazes with its scale and geometry of the structure, there are almost no memorable images in the game.

All the cities except near the Hawaiian village look extremely similar architecturally, as if they were all one city, and quite mundane. The races, despite the fact that they were all original, turned out to be somehow default and boring. Unless bats – agefs stand out.

It would be hard to call the population of Uchronia and its way of life original. But at least they drew beer. It’s terribly flat and lazy, of course, but I immediately like it for the representation of skufs.

There is very little that is truly unusual among the game’s landscapes, except for the floating balls of water over the sea in Brilhaven. Otherwise, completely ordinary forests, fields, deserts.

The game surprisingly boringly showed gigantic balls of water hanging over the ocean. The picture also makes you worry about the safety of the video card.

Only special stops during travel stand out – here is a gigantic mahogany tree in the desert, and a mystical cavity without water in the middle of the sea, going to the very bottom, and a glass desert with a colossal skeleton on the horizon – here the creators’ imagination ran wild. But these are all JUST JPEG BACKGROUNDS! Why are such cool things just 2D pictures, but in the game itself we run through typical forests, fields and deserts?

Combat locations are represented by fairly ordinary crypts-mausoleums, catacombs, castles, forests, caves. Nothing really out of the ordinary. Of the unique locations, only the stomach of a giant sandworm with an interesting exit comes to mind. Although this already happened in Gears of War 2 and I liked the evacuation method there better. In general, it’s sad, especially if you remember the artsy metaverse from Persona that contrasts with reality.

Hostile living creatures are also, for the most part, completely default. Goblins, cyclops, huge angry flies and roosters, underground worms, skeletons. Among indie games on an RPG maker, I’ve come across much more interesting bestiaries. Here, only “humans” catch the eye – the rarest and most dangerous enemies, made in the grotesque style familiar from the bosses of Persona, balancing between creepiness and absurdity. Well, the eggbeard snake was impressive, for some reason, but I didn’t expect an homage to the “men in black”.)

Music

What about the music, which has always been one of the strongest aspects of the studio’s games?? She’s good. No, even so – she’s great. Among the tracks there are a number of very cool ones that give you goosebumps with just the sound, even if you listen to them separately from the game. Epic orchestral compositions, powerful female vocals, evoking memories of Nier Automata and the third Witcher, and very colorful male vocals in a number of compositions – all this is very cool.

But at the same time, almost all tracks sound just as good in the game as without it. No better. They don’t synergize with what’s happening on screen or become an integral part of the game space and experience. The music is good, it’s catchy, but even after finishing the playthrough, I have to make an effort to remember how it generally sounds, what melodies at what moments. Obviously not the same flashbacks and goosebumps from two notes as in previous projects.

Is it that the musical theme of traveling on a runner, as if setting the rhythm of his mighty steps with powerful drums, changing at a certain moment to a light and airy synthesizer, hit the bull’s eye, fitting perfectly. Moreover, the musical theme of the academy and one of the battle themes sounded in my head sometimes even after leaving the game, but there is no such ideal connection with the location and the action on the screen.

The way Gallica sits on the hero’s shoulder if you stop is simply touching. In general, the game has a lot of small details like this.

And at the same time, the music in the gameplay itself lacks variety. Almost all of it is pathetic, sublime, calling for action. Every ordinary fight with a pack of wild dogs sounds like we are fighting the last battle for the fate of the universe, seconds before the apocalypse.

There are practically no calm and relaxing tracks. And compositions designed to be personal, sad and lyrical often fail to achieve their goal. The first 20 hours in the capital, filled with an endless chorus of pathos designed to emphasize the scale and grandeur of the city, are almost physically exhausting and tiring, not allowing you to rest and retreat into yourself reflecting on what is happening. The music generally crushes with pathos, giving almost no respite.

My relationship with music Metaphors is similar to the relationship between Stroll and Hulkenberg in this screenshot. It seems nice, but it’s still somehow oppressive.)

So it turns out that despite the great and worthy work of artists and composers, the game looks and sounds archaic and, the saddest thing, somehow default and insipid. She didn’t have a confident, unique, catchy image and atmosphere. Again, comparing with Personas – the unique urban fantasy and magical realism with Jungian images have been replaced by a much more typical and faceless epic fantasy.

Peaceful gameplay

The gameplay is also quite conservative. The gameplay is divided into days, in each of which we can perform two actions – one during the day, one in the evening. This can include exploring story dungeons or side dungeons (which take two actions per day to complete), completing small side quests, meeting companions and friends outside of the group to develop relationships, and various activities to level up your character’s stats, such as bungee jumping, giving a speech, or talking to NPCs.

The hero has five characteristics – courage, wisdom, generosity (tolerance in the original), eloquence and imagination. All their influence is limited to the discovery of new levels of development of relationships with friends. And they are pumped up by completing quests or various activities in cities and on the runner.

The runner, by the way, acts as a hub for our combat unit, like the Normandy from Mass Effect. And god, how good he is. A huge walking machine containing a command center, kitchen, recreation room and engine bay. Decks where we can go out and watch the landscape pass by, the appearance of which depends on the area in which we are located. The landscape, of course, is scary, but even despite this it took my breath away.

Here you can chat with friends on the go, cook, read books and do other things, including even battles, if enemies attack while traveling or spending the night. And during long journeys, the group also stops for the night. Sorry, Normandy, but it seems that Runner may well supplant you in the top of the best hubs in my heart.

They also put a barbecue on a moving castle. And I thought that this hub couldn’t get any more ideal.)

Leveling up relationships with characters consists of dialogue scenes in which their personal stories develop, and we simply watch, read and from time to time choose a response line. There is zero real influence here – at most, the next remark of the interlocutor will change. And a successful choice gives only a little magic currency, necessary for pumping, but not at all scarce. Each level of relationship development provides useful abilities, passives, or opens up new archetype classes.

Peaceful locations are various cities, consisting of several small areas, each of which is represented by a couple of streets, several houses and a lot of different establishments such as shops and taverns. They don’t look too varied, but nice, and some place similar to Venice, Brillhaven, produces very beautiful and cozy shots in the evening.

Although, of course, the old engine puts a damper on the experience – constant loading between small areas and into every tiny store looks very archaic and ridiculous. And in terms of entertainment, some Altissia similar in style to Brillhaven from the 15th finale, released 8 years ago, covers it like a bull covers a sheep.

By the way, you can move around locations not only on foot but also on horseback on a hoverboard sword. Convenient and effective, cool feature, I used it constantly and with pleasure. And considering the main character’s bangs and graphics, I almost felt like I was back in 2007. In short, give me a skate in Persona 6.)

And what can I say in terms of the peaceful layer of gameplay?? This is Persona. Basically everything. The differences are that confidential supporters have 8 levels of development, not 10. Filler non-leveling encounters for the sake of farming approval points have disappeared. As well as the need to perfectly select all answers in dialogues, so as not to end up with an unnecessary filler meeting.

The hero’s qualities now improve much faster – in just a few sessions of purposefully increasing them, and not in a couple of dozen. And the balance shifted from an unforgivingly tough one, which forced players to play according to strict daily guides if the player wanted to watch all the content at once, to a rather soft one that allowed them to complete everything with minimal careful planning.

And these are all great changes. For person. All these changes are not so much innovations as simply improving the quality of life. Honestly, they should have been in Persona 3 in 2007, I don’t see any real obstacles.

There is absolutely nothing really new in the social gameplay; even a few mini-games like fishing or baseball are gone. In general, this is clearly not development, and if not stagnation, then, at best, marking time while bringing to mind long-existing elements.

Dungeons and combat

Dungeon exploration is also very old school. All of them are cramped sets of gut corridors and rooms filled with enemies and chests. The only interesting thing is the hidden secrets and passages that can only be entered by crouching. Yes, the convenient structure of the locations, when passing through which you often open shortcut doors leading to the beginning of the dungeons, which makes moving through them much more convenient.

All locations are made and filled by hand. Hallelujah! They were able! Finally, the studio managed to resist and not add procedurally generated content gruel to the game. Goodbye to the 300 floors of Tartarus, goodbye to the dungeons of the TV world, the dull sight and sound of which made me want to turn off the game and never return. This is a plus, definitely, this is a step, no THIS IS A FORWARD FLIP for the team.

The downside is that this achievement was worthy of public boasting 20-30 years ago. The locations are very simple and archaic. The entire gameplay on them is based on finding the right passage and battles. Stealth and grappling hook from the five are missing. Small interesting gimmicks are present literally twice in the form of super simplified stealth and riding on our hoverboard sword.

We find and clear dungeons for a reason, but always during simple tasks with some minimal context, like hunting a monster with a bounty on its head, or helping an NPC find a missing relative. A moderate plus for this.

It’s nice that the quests are not a completely single-cell excuse to just do something for the sake of a fun challenge, like most of the tasks in the Reload troika, or the schizophrenic knocking out of three boards for desktops from demons in the quartet. But it’s a pity that the game doesn’t even try to make some kind of emotional stories, like the sides in the five.

Elements of real-time combat have been added to the combat system. If the enemy is much inferior to the group in level, you can kill him without entering turn-based mode. The player has access to several types of weapons, each with one combo, plus you can dodge with rolls.

This is, of course, not DMC, but it’s quite possible to take a katana and throw an enemy with a blow, giving him “I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROACHING”.)

There is practically no complexity, depth and interest too, but it allows you to save a lot of time, for which thank you. Although, in fact, such an opportunity was in the same fifth person, but it did not open immediately and killed the enemy in a small scene, and not in the simplest bitmap.

Well, if the enemy is not inferior to us in level, then real-time combat allows us to inflict damage on him even before the turn-based battle begins and get the opportunity to spend one full round of battle without allowing the enemy to respond.

The main combat system will be clear to any player familiar with the genre. Battles take place in a step-by-step mode. Each side has a certain number of moves, usually equal to the number of its participants. On their turn, heroes can attack with a basic attack, defend, use an ability or item, and wait, spending as if half a turn and moving to the end of the queue.

There are three types of physical damage (piercing-cutting-crushing), four main elements (air-fire-ice-lightning) and additional all-destructive magic. Plus, various effects such as increased damage, poisoning or “forgetfulness”, which prevents you from using abilities (I also don’t understand why not “silence” or “muteness”, but rather “forgetfulness”, kek).

Most enemies are resistant to some types of damage and vulnerable to others. By hitting an enemy’s vulnerability, the character not only deals more damage, but also spends only half of his turn. That is, in an ideal case, by striking only at enemy vulnerabilities, the team will be able to do twice as many actions.

At the same time, if the target blocks the damage or dodges, the attacker will spend twice as many turn points. And if the damage is reflected, it will immediately transfer the move to the enemy. Such a system always encourages you to think through your actions at least minimally and severely punishes rash attempts to stupidly bombard with auto-attacks or simply the most powerful techniques.

Even autoboy has now stopped spamming auto attacks, because they are equal to death here. Very early and very stupid.

The set of equipment, abilities, characteristics and resistance-vulnerabilities available to a character determines the equipped archetype. These are local classes, very similar in their mechanics to personas, with the only difference being that they do not need to be caught or crafted and all heroes in the squad can use any archetype (except for the final ones, unique to each hero).

Among the archetypes there are both the usual warriors-magicians-paladins, as well as more interesting options like the merchant, which greatly increases the character’s luck and the amount of money and loot dropped from enemies. You can switch archetypes at any time outside of combat.

Archetypes are revealed gradually as the game progresses and social connections are upgraded, and all that is needed to master them is a certain amount of magic currency and compliance with the necessary requirements. For example, to learn the archetype of a knight-mage you need to upgrade the archetype of an ordinary knight to level 20, the archetype of a magician to level 10 and raise your relationship with the redhead Hulkenberg to level 3.

Archetypes are evoked, by the way, in an extremely brutal way. Ripping your heart out of your own chest. So in the line of harsh invocations of inner strength through the firearms Roskomnadzor and tearing off the mask along with the meat arrived.

In addition to the usual abilities of archetypes, such as various attacks, buffs and debuffs, heroes also have synthesis abilities – powerful ult moves that are determined by the combination of archetypes present in the battle team.

For example, a knight, if there is a healer in the party, can impose a protective barrier on an ally, completely protecting them from the next physical attack. In this case, a larger number of move points are used – 2 or 3, and both characters involved spend mana. It all looks just great, sometimes turning into a real anime extravaganza.

Archetypes are upgraded regardless of the character’s level. When leveled up, they give increasingly greater bonuses to characteristics when used and open up new abilities. When fully upgraded, each archetype gives a bonus to characteristics that is permanent, even if you equip another archetype.

Also, during the game, it becomes possible to learn active and passive abilities for archetypes that are open to any other archetypes, which allows you to customize them quite flexibly.

Another interesting thing is that each character in battle can stand in the first or second row, switching at least every turn. This affects damage – characters deal and receive more melee damage when in the first row, and less when in the second. Some abilities like buffs and attacks only affect one row. And some attacks, like archer shots, only work from the second row. Otherwise, the construction does not affect too much, although keeping an eye on it is very useful.

Enemies also sometimes set unique conditions. For example, when goblins see mages or clerics in a squad, they fall into a permanent rage, inflicting powerful AoE attacks on the entire group every turn.

All together, this creates an interesting and flexible system that encourages the player to plan actions, select a synergizing squad and constantly monitor enemy characteristics, choosing the desired types of attacks and changing the formation of the squad. And I want to pump up archetypes, improving the characteristics of heroes and discovering more and more powerful classes and their abilities in order to assemble my ultimate fighters.

Of course, I will grumble that I would like more experiments and changes in combat. Deeper real-time combat. Greater influence of the formation, so that the placement of the characters greatly changes their abilities and, for example, the paladin in the first row protected allies from attacks, in the second he healed, and in the third (if there was one) he strengthened the entire squad with a buff. And the horns in the first row were hit with a dagger and blinded, and in the second row he shot with a bow. If you like this idea, you can play the desktop Pixel Tactics, where the entire combat system is built on this. But overall, the metaphor combat is exciting and interesting.

In general, I would recommend that designers of combat systems often look towards board games, there is a whole field of extremely interesting and unnoticed ideas.

Unfortunately, there was a place for objective disadvantages. There are very few interesting combat situations and battles with unique conditions. The balance is not always perfect, most battles are easy, but some bosses (mostly optional) in the final stages can cause a lot of problems.

Moreover, they are often made difficult in the most boring and banal way – a ton of lives, powerful AoE and the ability to give yourself 4 or more additional action points every turn, which, in my opinion, is close to cheating in this combat system. They are not shy about giving them excellent attacks, inflicting 9999 damage to the entire squad. Class. I changed the difficulty to easy in the last third and I don’t regret anything.

I know that everything is not complicated there and you just need to tailor the entire squad to one specific enemy, coating yourself with resists, buffs and collecting consumables, but I don’t like this combat system so much that I’m so obsessed with it.

To simply complete the story you won’t have to grind at all. Most of the additional tasks can also be completed without problems, and only some in the second half are better to complete with a little pumping up beyond the simple passage.

But if you want to complete ALL additional quests and the most powerful additional bosses and, especially, level up all the archetypes of at least the main character (for which they give a reward and achievement), hours of furious masturbation of the same dungeons await you. One option is not to immediately destroy the crystals that endlessly spawn enemies and farm waves of three mobs each. But before the finals, I hacked the number of items that give experience to the archetype with my grandfather’s ArtMoney, and upgraded them just like that. I don’t regret anything, I recommend it to anyone who is not a fan of the harsh grind.

Do you know what madness is?? Leveling up 35 classes to level 20 without tricks fits this word perfectly.

Completing the game with all additional tasks took me about 90 hours. If you complete the entire game on medium difficulty or higher and grind decently on all archetypes, you can safely raise this number to 100 hours or more.

Characters

Well, according to the tradition that has developed in my videos by person, let’s talk about satellites and confidants – supporters, as they are called here.

First, let’s go through specific individuals, then summarize. The first part, if you want to get to know the characters yourself and not spoil the surprises for yourself, you can skip by going to the safety sign. I recommend this to everyone who has not passed, because the very presence of some characters in the group is a serious spoiler.

Gallika is a fairy who helps the main character with advice and magic. Closest friend and supporter, kind, loyal and emotional. In many ways she plays the role of Morgana from the five, being inseparable from the player, helping and advising in everything. Unlike the charismatic absolutely-definitely-not-cat, he does not suffer from off-scale emotional distress and a personal crisis due to uncertainty about his nature and origin, except perhaps a slight lack of confidence in his strengths and usefulness.

Stroll is an honest, principled and resourceful guy who joins us at the very beginning. Often voices the voice of reason and logic, and in general takes the role of “the guy-who-has-a-plan”. Very similar to Yusuke from the four in his evenness and intelligence, except that he does not have such a sense of humor and does not generate lulz with constant antics and blunts.

Hulkenberg is a former knight and royal guard who considers the prince’s killing curse a personal failure. A straightforward, principled and authoritative girl who strives to control everything and is ready to punish anyone who disagrees.

And also constantly hungry and ready to eat any food offered. Even the most dubious ones, on which many jokes are based. Perhaps the main cutie from the cover. Looking back at the previous games, it’s a mixture of Mitsuru from the three and Chie from the four.

I have a feeling the debate over whether Hulkenberg was hotter in flashbacks from her youth is going to be a tense one. I, of course, adhere to the point of view for which the article does not shine.

Esmer – elderly bat – ninja. Dad knows, Dad has lived, he set the poem to music. I’ve seen a lot of things and I’m already full of life. The owner of a powerful deep voice, worldly wisdom, a tragic story and shadow cloning techniques. Quite a pleasant, interesting and original character, especially for studio games. Unfortunately, it reveals itself poorly and does not act, for example, as a mentor for the hero, although the makings for this were powerful.

They added very cool animal habits to the Agefams, such as turning their heads, moving their ears, squinting, etc.

Juna is a singer famous throughout the kingdom. The owner of a beautiful voice, explosive temperament, powerful charisma and eloquence, capable of finding the key to any interlocutor, being soft and compliant when necessary, and formidable and stern when necessary. Interesting character, like a combination of Riza from the Four and Makoto from the Five.

Eifa is a priestess of the island tribe of Mustari, oppressed in the kingdom for following their religion, and not the general royal Sankitanism. The kindest, most merciful, naive and gentle soul in our company. Similar to Fuuka, Yukiko, Haru – take your pick, the archetype is one of the most common.

I would like to find out that the Mustari’s third eye looks like it’s glued on, without affecting the shape of the skull in any way. Although, if he also had a brow ridge, Eifa would probably not be so pretty anymore.)

Basilio – a fury cat with that name is already a joke, in itself worth creating such a hero. Hot-tempered, emotional, and perhaps not the smartest, but correct, fair and devoted comrade. Looks like Kanji under a sedative and without problems with his own masculinity and sexuality.

I must say, I was surprised when I realized that the last slot in the squad would be taken by the quadrober Basilio. I bet on another character.

End of spoilers

This is such a motley team that we gather during the game. The characters turned out to be diverse and charismatic. It’s nice to spend time with them, you get attached to them. But at the same time, they lack development, some striking quirks and weaknesses.

I also really missed their interaction with each other and with the player; there weren’t enough episodes in which the characters would simply spend time together, relax, do something routine or, on the contrary, unusual.

And perhaps you noticed this too from my descriptions – almost all the heroes are not only repetitions of something from the past, which, in fact, is not a problem at all, all writers and studios are guilty of this, but they are calmer and more even versions of their predecessors. Morgana, but without emergency situations and personal crisis. Yusuke, but without funny antics. Chie, but without problems with femininity.

It’s as if a squad of normies had gathered together without any serious missteps. And although this, of course, in some ways is more boring, it can, in part, be explained by the fact that for some centuries we had a group of adults, and not teenage schoolchildren (although, of course, I would not sell alcohol to half of them without a passport) and could easily be compensated for by interesting stories.

And with stories everything is also ambiguous. The makings and starting conditions of all the heroes are very interesting. But their development during the game itself is just… none. First, each of them talks about his life, then one turn happens, the character does not despair and finds a way to solve the problem that has arisen, closes his gestalt from the past and lives on. None of them go through any real character changes, well, except for literally 1-2 supporters outside the group.

They do not reveal any new features of their personality, they are not forced to struggle with their weaknesses, they remain approximately the same as they started, they simply calm down and gain more inner balance and confidence. And the hero in their stories is the most passive observer, doing nothing and not pushing anything, at most acting as a vest in which everyone can cry and speak out. It seems that most of the heroes would have gone exactly the same way without him.

Supporters not in the fireteam also turned out well. They represent the most different strata of society and often well-known images – an orphaned girl, a cunning swindler, a mysterious and powerful mentor who helps with advice and leveling up.

For my personal taste, there are no really outstanding and catchy personalities among them, but there are no downright boring ones either. Among my favorites, I can single out a stern lady who escaped from dirt and poverty into a successful entrepreneur, and the noble Robin Hood of a swindler. But the only thing that didn’t go too far was the stern guard, who tyrannized those around him in his attempt to protect.

Neuros is one of the most striking characters in the game. I especially love the story of how he became scared and was looking for something to grab onto for support, but there was only a bottle nearby. So the grandfather drank all night. 0% conviction. 100% understanding.

Romanov, by the way, says woe to all lovers of dating simulators! – No. Funny situations and hints happen, but it doesn’t go anywhere further. And I can’t say that this somehow spoils the impression. Even in comparison with the studio’s previous games. They were so minimalistic before and had such little effect on anything that I practically didn’t notice the difference.

Although, in general, I love novels in games, they can add depth to the story and additional emotions to the overall treasury of impressions. And I’m surprised that they decided not to have them in this game, although they would hardly have looked less appropriate here than among high school students.

Results

And, perhaps, all this brings us to conclusions. Is Metaphor: ReFantazio a good game?? Hell yeah! Definitely yes. This is a great game, it’s a suspenseful story, it’s charismatic characters, it’s a vibrant journey full of adventure and fierce battles. And even archaic graphics and game design, in my opinion, are not capable of seriously ruining the experience.

This is also the best entry point into the persona-like JRPG genre. Oddly enough, in an effort to create something other than a Persona, if you believe all the statements of the authors who promised a new experience, they created the most average Persona. Averaged not in the sense of bad, but rather taking the average values ​​of all parameters.

No element of Metaphor is as bad as the worst elements of Persona, like the procedurally generated dungeons. Not a single character, even the most boring, is as boring as the most boring ones previously seen. Nowhere does the narrative sag as much as it sagged before, for example in the troika, where the first six months of the plot were given a teaspoon once a month.

But nowhere does Metaphor reach the level of the best moments of previous games. Yes, all locations are made by hand, but even the most impressive of them cannot compete with the best palaces of Persona 5. Yes, the characters are well written and there are no outright bad ones, but one of them does not have the complexity, inconsistency and development that were, for example, in the four. Yes, the plot is interesting and well written, but even its most climactic and important moments do not touch, impress or bring to tears the way the best moments of Personas do.

This game will definitely appeal to all fans of the series, but I doubt many will call it their favorite. The studio’s games have always balanced between cringe and raffle, between hackwork and genius. And the metaphor seems to have found a balance between them and lost some of its charm.

She changed her unique urban fantasy style to a fairly typical epic fantasy, abandoned all the Jungian and tarot symbolism that gave her the aura and illusion of greater depth. She herself is like a normal Persona, more standard and calm, no longer the charismatic, eccentric and bewitching eccentric out of this world.

The Persona series has always been archaic and not without a lot of mistakes, and it has always been saved by its uniqueness. It provided an experience that no other game could offer. In a world without Persona 3-5, Metaphor would be a revelation.

But in our reality, having abandoned part of its heritage and not giving anything of equal value in return, the game entered the field of the rest of the genre. And it turned out to be an excellent, but in many ways archaic and not very impressive game from the past, unable to fully compete in a genre that has already seen the later parts of the Persona, Final Fantasy, Xenoblade Chronicles, Tales of… and many other excellent games.

So I will not agree with the critics and give the game not 93 points out of 100, but

This is definitely one of the best and most heartwarming games of this year, recommended to all non-allergic anime and JRPG players, and a must-have for fans of the genre and the Persona series. However, I think that for the latter the question “to play or not to play” was not raised anyway.)

Despite all my criticism, I spent most of the passage with something like this contented and dreamy face.

If rumors are to be believed, we will soon see the announcement of Persona 6, which is being made by the same team that was responsible for the Royal re-release of the fifth part. Who knows, maybe the new team will make more changes and experiments within the series itself than the old team outside it.

Well, I’ll be waiting for new Studio Zero projects. In any case, the guys are very talented and make excellent games. Yes, perhaps they took a shot with the person, put all of themselves into it, and will never again be able to hit the bull’s eye in the same way, never again will everything work out so perfectly, and they will remain the authors of one real breakthrough. But what.

In any case, it’s too early to draw conclusions, let’s look at their next projects. Especially if Atlus stops being greedy and gives out a more substantial budget. Let’s wait and see.

What do you think of the new creation of Japanese dreamers?? Tell us in the comments.

And that’s all I have. Remember that there are no simple answers to complex questions, and utopia is not built in one day.