What is in a name? One's very first glimpse into anything can be as ephemeral as a glance at the colour make-up of a banner ad, too quick to ascertain content or words, spotted for a millisecond as one scrolls through their life. This is the challenge of advertising that I always find so oddly wonderous- breaking down the very elements of catching the corner of someone's scrolling eye- it's a matter of split-second baiting. That means nailing a colour composition that is eye-catching and not overdone, a banner image that can be identified from distance yet is complex enough to inspire imagination and finally a name that is pithy enough to stick in your head after you've moved on for the day. Halo. Starfield. Fallout. Persona. Of course, you could chuck all of that away and just slap a name so bizarre I couldn't forget it if I paid the Men in Black to slap the Neuralyzer on me.
'Metaphor ReFantazio' who comes up with this crap? I mean that in the nicest possible way of course, because the team behind one of my favourite franchises of all time are making it. ATLUS and Studio Zero, formed after the success of Persona 5 by it's director, are preparing to release a more 'fantasy typical' take on the ATLUS RPG genre. Gone are the school children learning to become more full people as they take on threats both mystical and psychological that threaten to undermine society. Here we have a mirror of our real world beset by your typical fantastical happenings- a murdered king, a cursed child and a quest to uncover the truth about oneself whilst maybe, potential, earn the right to seize the monarchy. Okay, the game description doesn't explicitly claim that is the goal but if this is a true RPG- I expect an evil path!
Perhaps the most striking building upon the Persona formula that ReFantazio promises is the idea of gathering individual support across the land in order to win the vote to become King, essentially creating a narrative reason to go off the beaten path and grind out enemy drops for the materials to recreate someone's missing toupee- at least if we're going to keeping to side quests of the level of typical Persona. This actually expands the interpersonal relationship building key to ATLUS's flagship brand and creates a game-wide popularity contest with the world, which I'm sure is going to present some real world parallels to political campaigning and that brand of 'fame' in the way that these developers typically do. Although I'm not sure how that pursuit lines up with finding a way to release a curse from your childhood friend, the Crown Prince. How do 'Crown Princes' even work in a system of voted monarchy? Questions for the game, I suppose.
Now the very reason that Studio Zero was formed in the first place was because Persona 5's director left the Persona franchise behind after declaring a shift in creative direction in the process of that game. Lacking any personal insight to the man's mind I can only speculate as to what that could be because thematically I found Persona 5 to be largely consistent with 4 and 3. Perhaps the team leaned rather heavily into the 'stylish' nature of the Phantom Thieves, to such a degree that Persona 5 became something of a fashion statement all of it's own, but I find no reason to hold that against the game at all, rather the opposite! Either way, something about ReFantaszio must be a departure from the direction that Persona is headed down- and I'm curious to put a pin on exactly what.
Of course, one of the biggest and most horrifying announcements regarding the actual contents of ReFantazio has already been made and it's ramifications have reverberated around the player base. Because yes, this game will not feature romance of any kind. (Oh, the humanity!) But, of course, those aspects of roleplay have pretty much always been exclusively the domain of the Persona franchise, I'm pretty sure SMT never delved such ways, thus it's absence here is no great shock. Besides, I get the feeling from the premise that our player character is more of a 'vibes vampire' that absorbs the adoration and love of those around him and offers nothing back. A totally callously and unloving politician. The scariest of gods rejects.
Perhaps the most striking thing I can't help but remark on everytime I look up anything about the game is it's graphical design, an aspect of development always worthy of commenting on with ATLUS games. Persona 5 really started their bold and striking push into stark but effective UI design that really worked in an industry that too often overlooks innovation in this area. Persona 3 Reload was kind of a victory lab, interpreting the stylisation in a manner unique to that style of story without losing the striking colouration of it all. This game is going for more of a colour-drained sketch-pad style which evokes an almost concept-esque sensation whilst standing out heavily thanks to it's heavy lined finishing strokes. It leans into the storybook and the creative, flowing back into the theming of this new budding franchise.
Of course I've spent all this time rabbiting on about the Persona influence touching this game when in all honesty I think Metaphor seems to carry more DNA originated within SMT. Not least of all for those monster designs which, like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy before it, are borrowed and remixed from previous titles in a manner that dubs these games almost pseudo anthological. Most systematically significant is the inclusion of the Press Turn gameplay system originated in SMT 3: Nocturne which evolves typical Turn Based combat into a resource consumption affair somewhat similar to how Divinity Original Sin works. The DNA of the franchise still very much rests on the sleeve of this title for all to see.
Metaphor ReFantazio is a messy title for what could very well be the missing third to the SMT franchise that we didn't even know we wanted. Full fantasy RPG exploration borrowing all the sleekness of modern ATLUS with the pedigree of multiple decades perfecting this genre, distilled down into a special brew of something different. That will always be what draws me to this long running franchise developers in the East like RGG and ATLUS- they know how to touch on and preserve the soul of a property, whilst changing up just enough to keep newer titles feeling interesting and unique. As opposed to some other Western Franchise lovers who are up to their eyes with middle of the road sub-improvements to their titles that drag more and more with each passing day. Thank you ATLUS, I can't wait to lose another 100 hours to your work!
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