Metaphor: ReFantazio Review: A Mix of Future and Foresight
Glory to Gaming: The Refreshing JRPG Experience
Metaphor encapsulates the idea of a story being lived out in reference to a world that may emerge one day, many centuries into the future. In some ways, it acts as an escape, much like the metaphoric fantasy it tries to establish, but in other ways, it ironically resembles the distant, dark, and dystopian world of ours to begin with.
Following a story about a boy who aims to save the dying prince, Metaphor ReFantazio mimics a medieval fantasy epic that aims to expand with a clever ensemble and heightened action combat within the JRPG formula. The quality of life upgrades made the game a much smoother experience compared to Persona’s more stressful intricacies of piecing together what timeline to follow.
In Metaphor, you can progress social links the moment they become active, and not waste time leveling them up to see if you have enough points to unlock the next progress sequence. This allows me to spend my time leveling up my royal virtues, which are the social stats in this game, and otherwise explore dungeons for quests and loot.
The combat is… interesting to say the least. I love how you can instantly kill any enemy that is 3 levels below you, so that helps with the pace of the game…
