When it got here time to make Metaphor: ReFantazio, developer Atlus had a guideline: make a online game that was a fruits of all of the beloved RPGs the corporate had made earlier than it. “We determined to problem the fantasy style,” director Katsura Hashino stated this week throughout a web-based demo of the sport. Atlus has been making video games for some 35 years, and it needed to tug collectively an all-star crew to commemorate the anniversary.
Hashino has been instrumental all through the Persona collection; following Persona 5’s launch, he moved away from P-Studio—the crew engaged on Persona video games—to start out Studio Zero, one other inside Atlus group. For Metaphor, Studio Zero introduced in Persona character artist Shigenori Soejima and longtime composer Shoji Meguro. In addition they introduced in visitor builders Koda Kazuma, idea artist for NieR:Automata, and Ikuto Yamashita, one of many artists behind the beloved anime Neon Genesis Evangelion.
Metaphor: ReFantazio, scheduled to hit PlayStation 5 and Xbox Collection X on October 11, will mix lots of the social parts of the Persona collection with a sooner fight system and new fantasy setting.
In Metaphor, a king’s assassination kicks off an election that may enable anybody to be the following sovereign, as long as they get sufficient backing. Which means the protagonist, who’s on a mission of his personal, might want to kind bonds with potential followers, earn monster-slaying bounties, discover dungeons, full aspect jobs, and usually rally help.
Just like the Persona video games, there’s a social aspect at play, whether or not it’s constructing relationships with followers or hanging out with the sport’s solid. There’s no fast-travel between locations; as an alternative, gamers get round on cell bases geared up with every part from haunt rooms to libraries to spots to cook dinner or get your laundry carried out. It’s paying homage to Persona’s extremely satisfying, completely mundane duties that make the sport really feel extra alive.
Hashino says that Metaphor lets gamers construct their squads utilizing a job system based mostly round powers known as archetypes. “By confronting their nervousness, the protagonists purchase these archetypes, a particular energy,” he famous throughout Tuesday’s demo. “Their powers manifest in varied varieties all through the sport.” They might sound just like Persona video games’ eponymous enemies, however they’re extra like conventional battle types. A seeker is a well-rounded fighter, for instance, whereas a mage fights with magic. Gamers can combine and match their events nevertheless they need, together with creating squads totally of the identical job.
Atlus is presently having fun with a renaissance due to the breakout recognition of video games like Persona 5 in 2016 and Persona 3 Reload, launched in March. Reload, a remake of a PS2 title, turned the fastest-selling recreation in Atlus’ historical past inside its first week. Metaphor retains a lot of the collection’ eye-catching fashion and slick fight. It’s an enormous recreation, Hashino says, one which “questions the ability of fantasy, an influence all of us possess.”
