Metaphor ReFantazio Difficulty

Metaphor: ReFantazio, the upcoming RPG from key Persona developers, is starting to sound like it could be quite hardcore. The game's latest information dump — with arrives via a lengthy press release stuffed with new screenshots — specifically mentions difficulty when outlining the title's turn-based combat system.

It reads: "During command battles, players can make various choices, such as handing over their turn to the next member, switching between front and back rows, and switching party members. Players are required to assess the battle situation and use a variety of tactics to fight."

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It continues: "The difficulty level of battles in this game is intentionally made to be high, designed to emphasize the tension of deliberating and selecting commands to earn a great sense of accomplishment that comes with victory."

The reason this stands out is because the Persona games make a point of providing a range of difficulty settings — some of which make battles far easier for players who may just want to enjoy the story. We would have assumed Metaphor would follow that same blueprint, but with high difficulty combat being mentioned specifically, we're now wondering whether it's going to be a hard game by design.

Of course, Atlus is no stranger to making difficult RPGs. Many of the older Shin Megami Tensei titles are brutal at times, and even the early Persona games have their moments. It could be that Metaphor is a callback to those less forgiving adventures.

That said, we've still got another five months to go before Metaphor drops, and so there's plenty of time for Atlus to make clarifications. We'll no doubt be seeing much more of the game over the summer.

How would you feel about Metaphor being hard by design? Are difficulty options necessarily a bad thing? Use your turns wisely in the comments section below.