In my humble opinion, the sign of a good game is one that makes you addicted to food. If I could wander into a fantasy RPG and start salivating over the food, what would be in my head when I go and sit with the locals at a cafe of their choice for some delicious looking brunch to Anthony Boden’s Phantom Voice , where I’ll be more patient with the hours of grinding I may need to do to get to the meat of the experience.
So good news. Metaphor ReFantazio is obsessed with food. Maybe he was fascinated by it. In a recent demo hosted by Sega and Atlus, I played the first few hours of the game and then another portion of the game that lasted about 20 hours (more or less). Yes, food attracts me the most.
Manage cookie settings
Metaphor doesn’t just treat eating as an excuse to pass the time, or as a cheap mechanic to level up your team; it seems to be a truly fleshed-out, fleshed-out part of the game. This is Atlus’ first fantasy world to use the SMT/Persona formula, and the developer even sent a staff member to make sure the immediate feel of the world was up to par.
Daily chief system planner Azusa Kido appears. She’s really good at making the world of Atlus RPG feel real and believable. She was the Game Director and Scenario Writer for Persona 3: Reloaded, the Social Links Curator for Persona 4 (and Golden), and the Close Friends Curator for Persona 5 writers and scene planners.
Here she is, front and center in the metaphorical world. The game has a lot of crossovers with the Persona series, but perhaps the most obvious is that interacting with friends and crew members in the world will increase the power and level of your archetypes (categories you can switch between battles) , and the elements of the open world will increase your five “kingly virtues”: courage, wisdom, tolerance, eloquence and imagination.
It works slightly differently than upgrading social links and traits in the mainstream series, but not by much. This is the food that stands out the most to me. Cooking is an important part of the game. Once you have your hub (a walking ship called the “Gauntlet Runner”) and gather your crew, you’ll start to see how it all fits together. The red-haired, stoic elf Hulkenberg just wants to eat everything she kills.
There are some traces in the game – like those from Final Fantasy 12 – that I spent some demo time cleaning up. After hunting one, Hulkenberg chose to go to bed at night, ending the day-night cycle. can not wait Tuck in the weird parasite I killed earlier in the day. Other party members commented on how strange and offensive this was. It reminds me of Dungeon Meshi (or Delicious in Dungeon in the West).
If you’re in one of the world’s hub towns and want to go to a nearby village or outpost, you’ll have to spend part of your day traveling. It’s not just dead time; You can choose to do one of many activities during this limited time; read a book by the window, play games with your crew, or cook a meal. Obviously I choose to cook every time. You can collect ingredients during missions and exploration, and use these ingredients to cook dishes while moving.
My favorite example is cooking with the rabbit-like companion Hesme (remind yourself: not a rabbit, but a very important former knight of the Yugiev tribe). He talks in detail about a special type of bread that his tribe enjoys and why it’s important to their culture. As he explains, you do it together – and he rubs it with his little feet that are definitely not rabbits! He rolled it up with his little hands! The animation is great and so is the world building. Finally, I got my hands on a rare food item that gives quite surprising bonuses and buffs during combat. They say the dirt of any fantasy world is under the nails – and Metaphor seems to take this in stride and act on it. It combines gorgeous narrative with actual combat mechanics – the proverbial icing on the cake.
Why am I writing this article? Because I think a lot of RPG worlds these days don’t have the same depth and sense of life that they had when I was a kid. Can’t you tell me Forspoken has as successful and complete world-building as Final Fantasy VIII? But in Metaphor, I think Atlus left no stone unturned when exploring how to create the feel of a fantasy world. appropriate. It’s a premium experience, built by a team with a strong vision and ample budget. I think that’s a rare three-game winning streak these days.
Food is just one aspect of it all. There’s also Gauntlet Runner itself (which I imagine could be compared to Normandy in Mass Effect as a homey hub), the various bars and taverns you’ll visit, and the overall atmosphere of the overworld. It does remind me of RPGs from the ’90s and ’00s, for all the best reasons, but with all the creature comforts of RPGs launched decades later.
I haven’t even touched on the combat aspect of the game yet. But if you’ve read me talking about how shocking the “Press Turn” system is before, then you know how I feel about it. Metaphor takes what SMT3:Nocturne built and extends it, similar to SMT5, but with a built-in “working” system.
The metaphor is appetizing, appetizing, and satisfying. Just like a good meal should be. I think this will be more than the sum of its parts MegaTen and Persona, and I pray it appeals to a wide range of gamers. I’m just worried it might have a hard time getting out the door without a recognizable IP attached. This would be a heartbreaking shame.
Metaphor: ReFantazio will launch on October 11, 2024 for Xbox Series X/S, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4/5, and Steam.
This article is based on gameplay and demos presented at the game’s special preview event in New York, USA. During the event, Sega provided travel and accommodation for VG247.
