Metaphor: ReFantazio has been a very long time within the making. It was introduced in 2017 as Venture re Fantasy by means of a bizarre lengthy video that stated little or no. Since then, Atlus has swapped the Venture for Metaphor and scoured Google Translate to discover a cool strategy to say ‘fantasy.’ It’s additionally made an enormous fantasy JRPG — and after rolling by means of a demo at Summer season Recreation Fest final weekend, I’m dying to play it.
ReFantazio is the primary unique 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 liable 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 protecting an entire nation, the UK of Euchronia. The Euchronian king has been assassinated, and the individuals 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 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? 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 only 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 in your entry into the royal event. Every city within the sport has a tavern the place you’ll be able to seize a chunk and collect data, a recruitment middle the place you’ll be able to settle for quests, numerous retailers and an inn the place you’ll be able to relaxation. Finishing quests and making buddies alongside the way in which will acquire you supporters among the many numerous 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 light-weight on fight. This felt principally like a showcase for ReFantazio’s cinematics, which had been beautiful, 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 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 appearing. For the English-speaking solid, Atlus is taking the “United Kingdom” of Euchronia very critically, 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 satisfying. At one level within the demo I met a hyper-cockney cat woman that would’ve been auditioning for Oliver.
In one other phase, I fought alongside an cute 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 a whole lot of JRPGs, key strains and conversations play out in full, however many interactions shall be confined to textual content, with the voice actors emoting just a little alongside the way in which for taste. As a velocity reader, that is completely fantastic 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 numerous 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 get together composition, with a back and front row enjoying a component in fight, and Synthesis strikes that let you mix your get together’s Archetypes for stronger assaults. All the pieces has just a little Persona and SMT to it — you handle Archetypes in an Akademeia (much like a Velvet Room), they will evolve by means of 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. While you come throughout an enemy, you’ll have the ability to gauge their power earlier than initiating fight. The Quick system enables you to goal a specific enemy and strike them; this could 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 should you mess up this engagement you can begin the turn-based fight in your ass. Different Atlus video games have an identical risk-reward system to permit gamers to realize a bonus, however that is extra nuanced and satisfying.
The interface for all of this can be a usually beautiful 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 brief demo I used to be already dashing by means 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 system Atlus is understood 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 individuals to speak to, actions to partake in, and routes to decide on. Much like Persona, the sport occuring over a set interval means you seemingly received’t have the ability to do the whole lot you wish to, and as an alternative must resolve how finest 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 give attention to preventing monsters or incomes money. I performed to kind and browse a e-book, which was sadly not sufficient to boost my braveness from “craven.”
My cozy e-book session led instantly into the primary present: a face-off towards an enormous human. This started with an anime sequence, which gave strategy 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. 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 a whole lot of enjoyable to battle. 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 simple to see this man wiping your workforce should you don’t come correctly ready.
Of all of the issues Atlus squeezed into the brief Summer season Recreation Fest, the human battle was essentially 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 a whole 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 test. Hashino’s Persona titles bend over backwards to point out 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 parts borrowed from virtually each Atlus RPG you’ll be able to consider, nevertheless it’s all been remixed and refined. I left my temporary time with ReFantazio stuffed 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.
Compensate for the entire information from Summer season Recreation Fest 2024 proper right here!