Though the name may not be as immediately recognizable as its lineage, Metaphor: ReFantazio has quite the lineup of Persona talent working on it. That alone, plus a hefty helping of art and style, may have been reason enough to pay attention. But after going hands-on, I walked away impressed with another aspect: Metaphor is blending action and turn-based combat, and it works.
I got to play roughly an hour of Metaphor at Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles, running through three cordoned-off sections of the role-playing game. The first was fairly straightforward, introducing me to the main character and their fairy helper Gallica, as well as an early party member, Strohl. Then, I got to jump ahead to a dungeon and another party member, and one more jump-forward showed me what one of Metaphor‘s massive boss fights looks like.
To get it out of the way early, Metaphor: ReFantazio might be one of the most stylish games I’ve seen in some time. Having previous Persona leads like director Katsura Hashino and character designer Shigenori Soejima on board, it shouldn’t have surprised me to see Metaphor look so distinct from every other big game at the show. But it does genuinely feel like the art team just got to run wild with the game. Even the menus are gorgeous. And thankfully, the style doesn’t get in the way of the usability, either.
A lot of this is also something I could’ve told you from just the trailers. It’s nice to know that they look great, and still function well, when you’re actually holding a controller. And when you’re holding that controller, there are definitely moments where Metaphor feels like Persona: the way your party runs around dungeons, the dramatic camera angles, even the dialogue cut-ins and pacing feels warmly familiar.
It’s all good news, for people who already love Persona and are into the idea of a fantasy adventure, Record of Lodoss War-esque take on it. What really surprised me while I was playing, though, was how well its blend of action and turn-based combat actually works.
Squad strike
When you’re running around the world of Metaphor, controlling the player character—Travelling Boy, in my case—you can scan the environment with your fairy vision to spot enemies. These foes will glow red, yellow, or blue. And then you can hit them.
Yes, in the running-around bits, Metaphor lets you attack and dodge-roll like an actual action game. Don’t expect lengthy combos or in-depth strings, but you can indeed slice enemies with your sword. This is where the color-coding comes into play: if an enemy is red, you can “defeat” them without ever entering full-on combat. Just slash ’em a few times and collect your rewards. No post-battle results screen, no turn-based fighting.
If an enemy is yellow or blue, however, striking them will build up a bar. You can initiate a Squad assault at any time, which will launch you into the turn-based combat that, again, is fairly Persona in practice. Fill the bar with attacks before you launch the Squad strike, and you’ll get a free opening hit and turn.
Atlus has been slowly experimenting with ideas like this, including a Confidant skill in Persona 5 Royal that let you auto-wipe an enemy if it was weak enough. And of course, role-playing games have classically pit action and turn-based against each other, as opposing contrasts. The question of whether a game will be turn-based or not comes up pretty often, and can be a hot-button topic around certain series.
Metaphor: ReFantazio feels like the best of both worlds. Hack-and-slash through the small mobs like it’s a musou, and then initiate a full-on team attack for the big guys. What’s fun, too, is that enemies can also catch you off-guard. These moments make for surprising little instances of action and surprise in the middle of dungeons, where you might otherwise just auto-pilot through the corridors.
Synch up
As for other battle mechanics, the short three sections I played didn’t give me a great sense for the breadth of what’s available. Each character can take on an archetype, embodying a fighting style similar to a typical Job system. In one slice, I acquired a new archetype by completing a quest, earning my protagonist the ability to become a Brawler and fight with their fists.
These archetypes complement each team member’s move set, adding some additional elemental attacks and physical attack types to your repertoire. Though you won’t see a “Maragi” or “Zionga” here, it’s still what you’d expect to see: different types of attacks can target weaknesses, and gain you additional moves before you have to cede your turn to the enemy.
A really nice touch, though, is that swapping these roles also changed my on-the-field attack. So rather than slashing my sword to hit enemies in the field, I was swinging my fists. Sabin would be proud. It’s a nice bit of attention to detail, amid all the beauty and splendor of the World’s Sickest Menus.
I’m definitely still curious to see what the broad strokes of Metaphor look like, because the framing is one of the most important ingredients in the Persona-inspired pie. Sure, style gets you pretty far, but the calendar system and social links bring it home, and I only saw hints and glimpses of here in this demo.
That said, if the combat is intriguing me this much, that’s a promising start. Persona combat has always been solid, but Metaphor could’ve easily felt like a retread. By building up new ideas around it, Metaphor‘s action already feels like a new step forward. Hopefully the rest of it shakes out that way, too.
Metaphor: ReFantazio is set to arrive on PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on October 11, 2024.
