Metaphor: ReFantazio review

What is it? A social simulator first and a turn-based RPG second
Expect to pay: £60/$70
Developer: Studio Zero
Publisher: Atlus
Reviewed on: Ryzen 7 7700X, RTX 4080, 64GB RAM
Steam Deck: Playable
Multiplayer? No, but has some limited online functions
Link: Official site

For the past couple of weeks, I've done nothing except live and breathe Metaphor: ReFantazio. At first this was so I could complete it in time for review: According to the game’s director, Metaphor is as long as Persona 5, a game that took some people 170 hours to complete. Unfortunately, Metaphor is not 170 hours long. According to my total play time it’s more like 110 hours if you do every last sidequest, major battle, and optional distraction.

I say unfortunately because I wish I could have stayed in Metaphor’s world for even longer than that.

When I reviewed Persona 5 Tactica for PC Gamer last year I said that its story overtook Persona 5 to become my favourite in the series. I’m now going to have to bump Tactica down to second place.

The overarching focus of Metaphor’s story is inequality. In the world of Euchronia, your race defines your class. As a result, racism isn’t just prevalent; it’s encouraged. The protagonist is an Elda, considered the lowest of the low, who vies to help a fair ruler take over as king and help oust those who've perpetuated the status quo.

I initially thought this was a heavy-handed allegory, but it gets away with it for one reason. In the first hour of the game, you discover that the protagonist owns a forbidden book that describes a fantasy world—our reality—where everything is supposedly fair and equal. Although the book inspires the people you meet on your travels, I immediately understood that the version of our world they see as a beautiful ideal is intentionally inaccurate. Only you understand that the real world is a fantasy within a fantasy. It’s a clever bit of meta storytelling that both hooked me and filled me with dread from the offset: How can the protagonist