Metaphor: ReFantazio and The Fate of Fantasy
Alternative Title: The RPG Story I’d Recommend In These Trying Times!
What is the boundary between fantasy and reality? Is it a border, a strict definition of what is real and what isn’t? Or is it something more abstract and complex? Sonic the Hedgehog isn’t real, but he still exists, inspiring countless creatives worldwide. Though fantasy can be as distant to us as dragons flying above the sky, it can be as close as affordable healthcare or a world without multiple concurrent pandemics.
But what if the relationship between reality and fantasy isn’t a boundary, but a link? What if fantasy isn’t just an out-of-reach dream but a future we haven’t reached yet? A future we can make through the power of uniting with those around us? Especially in these unprecedented times we live in?
Metaphor: ReFantazio is Studio Zero’s debut fantasy role-playing game (RPG) published by Atlus (best known for the Persona and SMT game series). It stresses the importance of both fantasy and reality in times of chaos; though we need fantasy to show us a better future we can visualize, we cannot idolize it to the point of believing our real world is beyond saving. Though it isn’t perfect, Metaphor is excellent, and it reminded me of why I love playing RPGs. Exploring vivid lands, living and evolving with your charming party members, every step building up to a legendary final battle - Metaphor is so good that I almost hesitate to recommend it as your first RPG game.
(Note: Metaphor is beginner-friendly, but playing it first is like eating your dessert before dinner. It’s hard to appreciate how good it is until you’ve seen how it avoids pitfalls other RPGs are stuck in. A personal example is after playing Metaphor, I’m both excited and dreading returning to my Persona 5 playthrough because Metaphor flows significantly better.)
The game occurs in the Kingdom of Euchronia, opening with the assassination of the King by Louis Guiabern (which is one hell of a villain introduction, by the way)! Louis is also responsible for killing the Prince of Euchronia with a curse years prior, now seeking to take the throne by any means necessary. Enter the protagonist/player, the traveling boy (named Will in the official manga). A childhood friend of the prince, he has one goal - to kill Louis, who almost killed the prince, so the curse can be broken and the rightful heir can take the throne. His epic quest begins, but things aren't exactly what they seem, and many others are vying for the throne.
To summarize: Do you like RPGs, particularly story-driven ones? Do you enjoy the Fire Emblem Games? Do you want a Persona game where you can actually kill your enemies? (I should have been allowed to throw Kamoshida off a building, but that’s a rant for a different day.) Do you have time for an 80-hour game? If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, you should check out Metaphor ReFantazio. (It has FREE demos for Steam, Xbox, and Playstation - so if you don’t want to take my word for it, try it out!)
From here, I will discuss the writing and narrative design of Metaphor: ReFantazio, including major spoilers! If you are interested in playing, I highly recommend coming back after completing the game so you can enjoy its twists!
The writing and narrative design of Metaphor are great but not perfect. There are many high notes (elevated even higher by the stellar voice acting), but it makes the low points all the more glaring. Overall, the writing is solid and important; the game embraces and encourages diversity in a time when ‘DEI’ and ‘wokeness’ are seen to be poisoning the games industry (instead of layoffs, abuse of games companies employees, or AI being used to replace hard-working developers. But god forbid a game have a black person in it!)
One highlight of the game’s writing is the characters, including those outside the party. Each ally is from a different tribe in Euchronia, clearly distinguishing them in looks and voice. Though everyone is focused on the mission at hand, they’re all allowed to be human - Hulkenberg, the determined and dutiful knight, is equal parts serious and determined to cook and consume any moving creature the party encounters. Heismay, a mature and adept shadow knight, makes it abundantly clear he hates bugs (and loves baking). The standout moments of characters take place in their character bonds - mini arcs each party member (and some NPCs) go through as their relationship with the protagonist grows. These bonds showcase a nuance to both the characters and the fantasy tropes they embody; Heismay (the party’s rogue) lost a son before joining the party. Though an obvious questline would be to find his killer and avenge him, you instead assist Heismay in finding a proper resting place for him so Heismay can create a better world his son would have loved. Brigitta, a powerful merchant allied with the party, struggles to balance protecting her spot in the rigid class system she’s in or risking the livelihood she’s worked for to make the world a better place. Even Neuras, the quirky mechanic for the party’s vehicle, embraces art and technology, emphasizing that failure is a key step to success. The party is such a joy that despite the game’s 80-hour runtime, I’d welcome another dungeon or two if it allowed for more inter-party interactions.
Additionally, each party member adds a class (called an “Archetype”) to the party as a whole - once unlocked, any party member can switch to any Archetype. Though this is excellent narrative design that echoes the “anyone can be anything” narrative of Metaphor, I wish it was utilized outside of battle, even if it was as simple as characters trading techniques or studying spells together.
Though the game highlights the importance of diversity (and the dangers of homogeneity), its depiction of discrimination is surface level and rarely engages with its deeper implications. Take the protagonist - he is an Elda, one of the stereotypical “bad” races that NPCs call a curse and disgusting. Though this prejudice, like real racism, is founded on nothing, there is little the protagonist can do besides a one-line response and continue. The Eldan village was burned down before the game, and with few other Elda to communicate with leaves much to be desired - they are little besides their bias, victims to the cruelty around them. Another aspect is that though multiple types of discrimination are highlighted (especially religious discrimination!), there are few, if any, moments that highlight how discrimination can change depending on the multiple marginalizations a person can have (such as financial status). Considering Louis’s popularity with the public hinges on his twisted equality focused on strength and loyalty alone, he is a symptom of a much larger societal issue. This issue is pushed by the other villain of Metaphor - the Church of Sanctism.
Sanctism is the prevailing religion of Euchronia, led by the Sanctist Church and Sanctifex Forden. Though originally the only major opposition to Louis’s claim to the throne, Forden is then revealed to have not only framed Louis for cursing the prince but also behind the destruction of the Elda village (and is murdered by Louis swiftly after that reveal). The church has some good members (like Rella, the saint who heals people regardless of race or class) how can it truly function without sinners to cast out, without examples to show what the wrath of a god can do? When, if ever, does the good of a church’s followers balance out the evil of its leaders?
Though I enjoy Metaphor’s “kill fascists before they kill you and stop tolerating intolerance” message, I wish the entity of the church was challenged more. Though Forden is killed rather quickly, there are little comments on the others within the church that supported his heinous crimes. (Granted, this is a tall ask in an already 80-hour game; “How do we balance religious freedom and the political power of the church?” could be another Metaphor game in itself.)
However, Metaphor’s greatest narrative flaw is its tonal pacing. Because of Metaphor’s day-by-day calendar system and its steady growth of character bonds, the bonds can be experienced gradually, allowing the player to reflect on them as they play. On the other hand, Metaphor fiercely controls the tone and pacing of critical story moments. When these align with the player’s goals and emotions, it feels amazing. An example of this would be the Opera arc, which slowly builds tension as your party dwindles to a strike team to ambush Louis - only for the tension to ricochet when Louis survives and openly challenges you to duel, still bleeding from his wound. You and Metaphor share the same goal: eliminate Louis Guiabern, here and now.
When the player and Metaphor aren’t in sync, it leads to what every narrative designer dreads: ludonarrative dissonance, a disconnect between the values of the player and the values of the game. With Metaphor and the player’s values being so closely linked, these disconnects are even more exacerbated when they happen, leaving the player confused and tuned-out of the story.
An early example of this is the arc in the town of Matira. To summarize, the party travels there to defeat a bandit kidnapping the local children. However, the bandit, Heismay, has been framed, and the real culprit is Joanna, the leader of Matira, who hired you in the first place. Though the first half of this arc does an excellent portrayal of bias (Heismay is presumed to be human but is an eugief, a bat-like creature that excels in the shadows and must work to prove his innocence), the following confrontation with Joanna is much weaker. Joanna lost her infant son to a hate crime due to him being mixed-race and is now feeding the local children to a monster as penance. Though this is tragic, the game extends Joanna plenty of sympathy from you and the party. Heismay lost his son to similar discriminatory violence, but he didn’t start killing random children!
Though this section of the game has been criticized frequently (my colleague Jeffrey Rousseau wrote an excellent analysis of it here), one of the greatest problems is how little we see of Joanna leading to her villain reveal. The driving villain force of the arc is one of her soldiers, Morris, who sells some kidnapped children as slaves to cover his gambling debts. He is who the party pursues, Joanna being unseen until the end of the arc where Morris is brutally killed, her backstory is revealed, and she tells her demon baby to murder you. Fun! Even after everything, despite all her abhorrent acts, Joanna is given the privilege of mercy (and is even released temporarily)! We see little of how her victims are impacted besides a few whisperings of non-playable characters, and even though she is brought to justice, she dies in peace and on her terms, another privilege she stole from her victims.
Another example would be the character Rella, a saint of the church and ally of the party. Right after the opera arc, it is revealed that she was the one who cursed the prince, not Louis. Though this revelation would seem to lead to a greater narrative effect, you fight Rella immediately after, and she sacrifices herself to end the prince’s curse. You’re barely given time to process that before returning to focusing on killing Louis, despite Rella being related to one of the party members. Louis doesn’t even get to interact that much with the person who framed him and started his path to villainy in the first place!
Lastly is Metaphor’s big twist - that you, the player character, are the prince. (Or his Archetype who became a real boy - it’s confusing, but the white hair transformation is cool.) Though this showcases Metaphor’s thesis of fantasy impacting reality by the Prince’s will becoming a person to create a united world, it sadly weakens the entire narrative. An integral part of the protagonist is that he isn’t the prince - he’s the nobody of nobodies, an Eldan boy trying to create change in the world. He traveled the kingdom, found allies, and forged their path as a nobody, making the world a better place one step at a time. There’s also little time to reflect on the new entity that is the true prince/Will, as Louis plans to commit some fun social Darwinism and turn everyone into monsters to separate the weak from the strong permanently. The party doesn’t even call you anything different. Even though the changes in UI are pretty, it doesn’t have any impact besides tying together some other narrative threads.
(I was hoping the Prince would pass on his crown to the protagonist since he knows what the people need from his travels and experiencing the world instead of waiting and wishing for change, but that’s just me.)
Despite some rough patches, playing Metaphor: ReFantazio did make me feel like a kid again. I’d stay up late after work trying to do one more mission or bond before I would stop playing, only to see the sun rising. I wanted to explore every nook and cranny of Euchronia and see how the party evolved alongside me on my quest, defeating once-difficult bosses in a handful of turns. I could see my party and Will evolve through their bonds and embrace their differences while Louis stood above everyone but alone, stagnating in his hatred. But playing Metaphor is more than childlike nostalgia - it’s hope, too. Hope that the good guys will win and things will get better. Hope that the world of the past will be a memory while we look forward to a bright and jubilant new dawn on the horizon.
SPECIAL THANKS TO THE HOMIES JEFFREY, LEYLA, SPENCER, SHERVEEN, AND IRENAE FOR LOOKING THIS OVER AND LETTING ME RAMBLE ABOUT HEISMAY FOR HOURS 🥳
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