Huge JRPGs from Atlus are at their slowest and most basic at the very beginning, so playing the first hour of Metaphor: ReFantazio at Gamescom wasn't exactly the most impressive 60 minutes we've spent with the game pre-release. Full of tutorials and cutscenes, we wouldn't have encountered a single battle if we didn't start skipping dialogue in order to see more of the game before our time was up. Without its Persona pedigree and glowing impressions from previous expos, we would have come away from our hands on session a bit disappointed. Thankfully, that doesn't matter much because we already know it's set to be one of 2024's biggest highlights. This just wasn't the best demo for a noisy showfloor.
Probably the most meaningful detail we can report on from the opening stretch is the JRPG treats you, the player, and the in-game protagonist separately. Following the introductory cutscene where a king is slain in his bed, bringing you into the picture to avenge him, the game speaks directly to you. It asks what your name is, then does the same for the actual main character later, suggesting you yourself might have a role to play in the narrative. From there, the vast majority of our hands-on session was essentially a visual novel, buttoning through dialogue as the plot for a 100+ hour game is set up. The protagonist is voiced this time, providing him more depth and personality over a Joker in Persona 5 or Makoto of Persona 3 Reload.
When we did gain control, it was in a new city on the lookout for fresh guardsmen. A pixie-like character named Gallica stays by your side, and activating its Fae Sight reveals more enemy information in real time. Another ability she has guides you to objectives. Other tidbits we picked up on during the hands on session were the ability to assign your own upgrade points across strength, magic, endurance, agility, and luck, as well as Turn Icons that need to be used by your party members entirely before the enemy takes their go. Essentially, you queue up all your attacks, and then the enemy retaliates.
Metaphor: ReFantazio is almost certainly going to be one of the best RPGs of 2024, but this Gamescom demo felt like a misfire. Time is a premium at a video game expo, so it was never going to be realistic to gain three or so hours of access to the Atlus title. However, to simply start a new game and have to button through so much setup and basic tutorials meant we had little time to see how the game actually plays.
What we said having played the game at Summer Game Fest in June can pretty much be reiterated due to the confines of the demo: "Frankly, an hour isn’t enough time to grasp everything Metaphor: ReFantazio is trying to do. It’s brash, bold, and brilliant in many ways, but it’s also a lot to take in – overwhelmingly so. The visuals, while fantastic, can sometimes drown out some of the text during fights. And there are lots of new systems involved that it’ll definitely take a while to ease into combat. But even with all that, Metaphor is truly shaping up to be an incredibly addictive RPG."
Is Metaphor: ReFantazio your most anticipated game for the rest of 2024? Let us know in the comments below.
Comments 18
This is so dumb? The gameplay looks a lot like Persona's why not drop you 2-3 hours in and let you interact with world or a dungeon to check out the combat.
I'm looking forward to the game but with most JRPGs I know it'll only get good after the 7th or 8th hour.
The marketing for this has been awful. It feels like it's getting no traction. I don't know if they are relying on it being an Atlus game to get people to buy it, but most people don't care about Atlus outside of Persona. Like, how many Persona players have played Shin Megami Tensei?
I think it will do better than Soul Hackers 2 since it looks like a better game but I don't think it will be the moderate hit it could have been. Hope I'm wrong.
That's an odd design choice here, since Persona 5 handled this issue brilliantly. Persona 5 puts the player straight into the action, before going back and detailing the story up to that point.
@crimsontadpoles
Wasn't there only one tutorial fight that you can't lose and can't even choose the actions?
Yeah, Persona games are a kinda groggy in the beginning just as well, it really makes you appreciate what Square achieves with FF openings at times.
I fully expect this game to be amazing. Persona quality but more daring and less constrained by a formula. Bring it on!
"Full of tutorials and cutscenes, we wouldn't have encountered a single battle if we didn't start skipping dialogue in order to see more of the game before our time was up."
I'm curious if there's any JRPG devs that ever tried to make tutorial as it's own mode or separate from the campaign.
Looking at other games like Tenchu for example. It has a tutorial / training mode separate from the campaign where you can learn all mechanics without interupting the story. And when you already fully understand how the game works, you can start the campaign without NPC explain or any pop up windows showing tutorial every time you moved for 5 steps or when you already deep in the game like 20 hours but out of nowhere the game introduced a new mechanic that forced you to read the tutorial note.
@Lup depends on the version. Royal had an additional fight but I'm sure it was set up so you wouldn't be able to lose that fight either.
This game is going to be just fine. We need to stop looking for reasons this may fail. Be it marketing, slow tutorials, or enhanced editions in a year. This game has unique visuals, an interesting combat system, and an amazing pedigree. The developers are also being very upfront with us on what the game is with the slow drip feed of new details.
I really want this game to skate through its release cycle without becoming a battleground in the culture wars or game company hate fests.
I don’t know why, but I’ve got this wriggling feeling that this one may not hit the expectations many have of this title from a financial or critical standpoint. While it has a lot of hallmarks for what should be a cult classic, there’s also something that has seemed just a bit off in the way the game’s been presented by Atlus recently.
That said, it’s also impossible to say. As a non-Persona player, I actually find Metaphor to be the most interesting game to me personally that Atlus has done, but I’m just waiting on the reviews to see if it’s for me, as I’ve bought several Persona/SMT games and just can’t get deep into them.
@Yagami Sure. I hope I'm wrong but if SEGA said it sold below expectation I wouldn't be surprised. Nothing against the game itself, I just think the marketing's been bad.
Seems like an odd decision for a demo but this is how Persona games generally start so I won't worry about it too much.
@Lup That might be true. It's been a few years since I've played Persona 5, so I don't remember too well. But even so, getting the player to move around in a linear section of the map and having a battle was a good way to show off the gameplay from the get-go.
Isn't this typical for an Atlus game? The first few hours is always bored as hell and it gets more interesting the more you invest your time in. Either way I'm getting this game alongside Silent Hill 2 which pretty much covers my October gaming lol.
This is coming from the same person that gave most games i enjoyed (highly) questionable scores, so i would definitely take this opinion with a grain of salt as well. Can't wait to play this one!
@Leon_93 @jrt87 Yes, it is typical, which is why it's quite strange to use that opening section as a vertical slice of the game for me to write about. As I said in the article, Metaphor: ReFantazio is shaping up to be one of the best games of the year, but if you want to demonstrate that, you don't give someone the very first hour full of tutorials and on-screen pop-ups, do you?
It always annoys me when games are really slow to get going, that was my main problem with Black Myth Wukong also. I would have thought you'd want to hook the player straight away but unfortunately not in this case.
Problem is people simply have no patience in this TikTok era of instant gratification. I have confidence this game will be absolutely brilliant.
This seems to clash quite a bit with people's reports that went to the extended preview event in nyc.
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