Game Journal # 118.5 - Metaphor Re:Fantazio Review

Hey everyone! Welcome back to my game journal series... kinda! This time I'm going to be doing a game review. It's been a while since I've done a proper one, so I figured, why not? I started writing this a while ago but never got around to finishing it. Since my game development is no longer on hiatus, I figured, why not?

The game I played was Metaphor Re:Fantazio. It's a JRPG (of course.) Did I see any mechanics that I wanted to put in my own game? ...Not really! But it was still educational. So I'll tell you my thoughts on it!

First, as usual, guess my favorite character from the party members you can get.

You DID guess, right? Don't scroll down until you do.

Did you guess the guy with brown hair? Well guess what, that's not it! My favorite character is actually... the guy with white hair, Strohl! Ha!

Strohl, my beloved...

Strohl is the embodiment of everything that I love about this game. Similar to Persona, you can switch your moveset/weaknesses by choosing a class. However, each character has a predetermined class that they were made to have. Strohl is the Swordsman. And as you can guess, he's TANKY!! He's just so amazing. He has high attack, high defense, okay agility (which you can completely ignore later since he gets an ability that halves damage but makes you unable to dodge,) support skills, aoe skills, and a decent amount of MP. Literally my favorite archetype in JRPGS everywhere. He can do anything!

Something I found interesting is that my favorite character in a JRPG is usually the first party member that you get. And you guessed it, Strohl joins the party right in the first dungeon. Because of that, I felt really close to him by the end of the game, because he experienced everything that I did. I always had him in the party no matter what. Of course, it also helps that he's handsome. When there was a friendship event and I could choose which character to be with, I chose Strohl every single time.

My first mainstay female in a JRPG.

What may surprise you is that my second favorite character is Hulkenberg. Usually in JRPGS, my party is entirely male by the end of the game. It's not that I don't like having women in my party, it's just that women usually get classes that I hate. Think mages with low health, dancers that mostly afflict status affects, that sort of thing. The ideal party in a JRPG has a tank, a mage, and a healer. Oftentimes it's better to have someone that can do multiple roles than just one. For example, a dedicated mage with 100 magic stat vs a technical mage with 70 magic stat but can also heal. Guys usually get the multiroles where girls get singular ones. I don't know why. But for my party, I have a "two-hit-test." If you can't take more than two regular hits in a single turn without dying or being close to dead, get out. I have no use for weaklings in my party (unless they're just THAT good, which is rare.)

Anyway, that's all to say that Hulkenberg has my second favorite class archetype, which is the Knight. She has the highest defense, and can take hits for everyone else in the party. I can't count how many times Hulkenberg saved my life by jumping out in front of my character. Not only that, but she has an amazing healing move that heals everyone for cheap as long as they're in the same line as her. So not only does she protect the party, she can also support via healing. Needless to say, I never removed her from my party, either.

It definitely helps that the first third of the game is only with Strohl and Hulkenberg. By the time you get a fourth party member, you've pretty much already gotten the holy tank/mage/healer trifecta, so it feels unnatural to have either of them missing. Honestly, you could've gotten through the entire game with just that party. Lol. Also, since we're talking about characters, let's talk about the game's villain.

Louis.

I just want to say that I love everything about Louis. His motives, his design, his boss fights, everything. To have a villain that's evil, but can justify everything that he does and continues anyway, is so cool. And speaking of design, do you remember how in my last review I was bemoaning how all the men in Atlus games were becoming too feminine looking? Louis is the antithesis of that. He's basically Akechi's design if they locked in. He's absurdly pretty, but you wouldn't mistake him for a woman. It almost hurts to look at him because he's so gorgeous. Also, it didn't escape me that he shares a name with Louis Cypher (Lucifer) in SMT. Similar to Satan, he's both beautiful and evil. I just thought that was amazing!

Okay, with the characters out of the way, let's talk about the gameplay. Is it good?

Yes.

I've played a lot of RPGs from Atlus, particularly Shin Megami Tensei and Persona games. Metaphor felt like Persona, but with more player expression in what moves/weaknesses you have. Instead of fusing demons, you have an Archetype, which has a predetermined set of moves that you can learn. However, you also have additional skill slots where you can put the skill of your choice as long as you've learned it previously. For me, this was so awesome. I was able to make my entire party tanky. Haha.

Ui-wise, the game's really nice, too. I'm still not the biggest fan of the "press a button to do an action" in battles because I accidentally mispressed a few times. But everything else is good. I'm a big fan of the health bar, too. Compare to Persona 5, where it was almost impossible to tell how much health an enemy had left. In Metaphor, you can actually see the exact amount if you look at the analyze screen. It only doesn't work on bosses, but I'm fine with that.

Speaking of, while you are free to learn whatever Archetypes you want, there are predetermined Archetypes for each character. For example, Strohl is the Swordsman. As a game developer, I knew from the beginning that sticking to the path the character was built for was the best move. Because think about it; if you're making a game with classes, the character's base stats will reflect that. So for example, Hulkenburg naturally has high endurance because she's a knight. So, I diligently stuck to each character's path. If I ever needed to venture out a little and get a certain skill, I always used the main character to switch to something outside of his path (because the main character's stats are not predetermined.) And amazingly, I was rewarded at the end of the game by doing this. I'm not going to spoil what happens, but you unlock something really cool if you stick to each character's path. It felt good to be right!

I also really love the game's monster designs. I was an art major in college and took a few art history classes. So naturally, I noticed that pretty much all of the enemies in the game came from Hieronymus Bosch's Hell paintings from the 1400s!

As you know, I'm a huge medieval times buff (after all, Joe Maverick is set in medieval times) so this really set the vibe of the game for me. But I was really surprised that Japanese developers took inspiration from a European artist, especially one from so long ago! Either way, it was awesome to fight them. I think Bosch himself would appreciate his monster designs being used in this way, too.

That's about all from me! I guess there's still the story/music to talk about. But all I can really say is that they're amazing. I'm more of a visual person, so other than that I don't have much to offer. Overall, is the game fun? Yes. Recommended purchase? Absolutely. Rating? Hmm... I'd say 9/10. I'm hesitant to rate it any higher because I like Shin Megami Tensei 1 more, which is about a 9.5/10 for me. But if you like JRPGs and medieval times, this game is for you.

I'll have the next game journal out soon! I've already coded a new functionality that I'm sure people will enjoy. I'll see you next time!