Metaphor: ReFantazio feels more familiar than I expected

Heading into my demo of Metaphor: ReFantazio at Summer Game Fest Play Days, I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to glean much from 45 minutes of playtime. While all of its trailers have been visually striking, I hadn’t really gotten a sense of how it played and wondered if Atlus and Studio Zero had gone too far with visual flair following the positive response to Persona 5’s user interface. Thankfully, Metaphor: ReFantazio felt more familiar than I’d expected.

Metaphor: ReFantazio feels like an unadulterated look at the kind of RPGs Atlus’ best developers would make if they weren’t restricted to the demon-collecting features ingrained into the core of Shin Megami Tensei and Persona. It has all the visual flair, as well as the in-depth RPG systems, of those games, but puts the gameplay focus more on Archetypes, which are essentially character classes, party member positioning, and Synergy abilities. It’s shaping up to be well worth the time of any Atlus RPG fan.

The first part of Metaphor: ReFantazio that I played was an early game slice that familiarized me with the basics of its story and gameplay. The wider narrative is about players competing in something called the Royal Tournament, but these early game exchanges were more thematically driven, hinting that Metaphor: ReFantazio will delve into the anxieties we all feel about our own identities and how societies that often like to portray themselves as utopias are often still filled with political corruption and prejudice against those thought of as different.

As an adventure that will likely last upward of 100 hours, I wasn’t able to glean more than that. I did get a good feel for the gameplay, though. Dungeons make their grand return here and feel a bit more expansive and interactive than what’s typical in Atlus RPGs. Players can actually attack enemies and deal some damage before even entering a fight. If the enemies are weak enough, battles can