[h1] A Good Game With Ambitious Writing [/h1]
I'm starving. I've played all of the modern Persona games to polish my turn-based combat management. I've created the best Persona fusion with the best build. I have hangout with many kinds of people either a dog, a kid, an old lady, a cat, a fox, a nurse, a bear, Tanaka, and bestfriend'd all of them. I have read many books, answered school quiz, do a big burger challenge, fishing, and many more. ATLUS, I WANT MORE! Bring me a nice JRPG fantasy with medieval settings, good story, and beautiful females like Eupha! Oh look, Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Metaphor: ReFantazio really went all out with the story. The story really compliments the JRPG genre where the premise is about becoming a King through the voices of the people. You will start as a nobody that ranks at the bottom to climb yourself up as the well-known candidate. All of the quest, hangouts, and the bounty hunting are the process of overcoming hardship to become the best king known. Although it goes deeper than that because there's socio-politics and systems that held back the Protagonist because he's a minority and also not being a part of the church. The attempt to tackle diversity, discrimination, and injustice really set the realistic approach while remaining a fantasy that pushes boundaries. Despite that, there's a personal conflict around Protagonist that stirs up drama. The prologue will get you excited with the purpose of the game, deadlines, villains, and the adventure you've been waiting for.
When I said ambitious, the game really won't miss a beat with the pacing. The serious tone and the urgency of the game really creates an adventure with meaningful purpose. The friends you met, the activity you do, and the hangouts are circling around the premise where all of them are about supporting you to the very end. I will say, the game is really generous with giving you a lot of times to savour every hangouts experience. If this is your first Atlus game, the hangouts are where you will spend your time with your Supporters for in-depth side-character development and unlocking combat/adventure perks. There's so many beautiful friends you'll meet like your day-1, Leon, a countryside noble that has the same purpose with Protagonist because his village was destroyed. The story goes deeper as you get to know him better. And then you'll meet sugar-glider, Heismay, and then Hulkenberg, and then Eupha, many more and the stories of them are circled around the conflict of the game.
Although there's some problem with ambitious writing and tight deadline is that, the game rarely let you catch a breath with organic development of the team. Some may be fine with this, but I really love to see them hanging out more because in every moment they're always on a life-and-death situation. That's why there's some wholesome moment that I appreciate the most where you get to spend with someone on a celebration of your main-quest and I ended up hanging out with Gallica because she doesn't have a hangout-system like any other do. Despite ambitious writing, there aren't any visualizations of discrimination and fleshed out diversity that brings urgency to unite the people as one. I'm just saying that the people are not united because of the diversity, but because the throne is empty and they want an intellectual person to rule the kingdom. It's not about race. The only thing the game do that let you know you're a minority is mockery. While i'm gliding around the city, these people live together, they're in the street side-by-side, and no fleshed out inferiority or superiority of race, there are no segregation neighborhood or "These race will never be a part of the system". The setting is not immersive enough. But enough of that, because I want to talk about the combat. The combat is amazing.
Dare I say one of the best content of the game is at the late game. The late game unlocked everything with some of the hardest challenge, complicated dungeon exploration, coolest looking Archetypes, golden weapon, and many more. I wasn't familiar at first because in Persona games combat is about baton passing and all-out attack, but there aren't any here. When you understand them, you can create the craziest set up and dealing a crazy amount of damage in only a round. I would say the combat can be harsh because one enemy could attack multiple times and i'm not talking about hitting weaknesses. But with smart build where I put dodge-ornament on Heismay, it could skip the enemy round despite them having seven turn. You got unlucky with your hit? No problem, start over. No, not loading the save, the combat will let you restart the combat with no consequences. If you're lucky, you'll be in advantage with Gallica support. I was so proud I could try every combat challenge with how generous the game is. I tried Coliseum, Towers, Catacombs, Caves, etc. There's some turning point of the gameplay where it gets harder because you don't have time to prepare and later on with how difficult it is, it invites you to grind, but I say it's worth it. Don't get me started talking about how cool the Archetypes and inheriting skills are.
Metaphor: ReFantazio is a good attempt to create a serious story that brought up diversity and emotional warfare. The gameplay is well crafted with good combat and immersive JRPG. The characters are loveable and unique with their distinct appearance, story, and races like Junah, Basilio, and Eupha. The VA performances are also amazing. I love Gallica and protagonist voice, the dialogue choices are immersive where it can be funny, sarcastic, sad, and cool, preferred to your liking. If you enjoyed Persona games, this one is definitely a refreshing experience because it takes you away with typical highschool settings that have lengthy-grounded timeline. If this might be your first ever JRPG/turn-based combat experience, this one is definitely a new one. Grab it during sales, Atlus is generous enough to give discount to their product unlike any other. I give Metaphor: ReFantazio 8,7/10.
