Racism, classism, poverty, religious fundamentalism. Public execution. The opening hours of Metaphor ReFantazio say it all. This is a statement of intent. According to producer Junichi Yoshizawa, the theme of this game is “anxiety.” The game text within the first 90 minutes tries to explain this thoroughly. “Anxiety breeds the world’s cruelest monsters,” one text box reads. One early NPC explained, “Anxiety breeds divisions in the tribe.” This is the quiet part spoken out loud, there is no room for subtext here.
But I absolutely love this sledgehammer approach to storytelling. It leaves no room for interpretation. We live in a fraught world at the moment, with the US holding a major election in November (just weeks after Metahphor finally launches) and political conflict literally tearing the world apart – just look at the war in Ukraine and the genocide in Gaza .
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Some games don’t want you to think about it, but rather make you consume it blindly and uncritically, an aptly named metaphor that seems to draw comparisons to our world left, right, and centre. The big monster boss you fight is called “Human” for God’s sake. This reminds me of an old saying from Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace: “I know some writers who use subtext, and they’re cowards.”
But why the anxiety? Why is this a theme here? Well, it’s not that different, is it – past Persona games have focused on depression (Persona 3), pressure from the media (Persona 4), and The modern world’s suffocation and erosion of personal freedom (“Persona 5”)). Anxiety and our place in the political landscape does feel like a natural progression.
“When developing this game, we considered the causes of conflict in the real world,” said Yuichiro Tanaka, lead scenario planner for Metaphor at Atlus. “So what do we conclude? It’s the anxiety in people’s minds and hearts that causes conflict. No one is perfect. Different people deal with anxiety in very different ways, right? We created different tribes with different ways to cope with anxiety who interact with it in different ways. […] We’re proud of this idea and think it’s very original for the game.
But just because the Atlus team focused on the various ways anxiety can wreak havoc on your life, that doesn’t mean the game is doom and gloom. “When we talk about elections, there are serious competition issues,” Yuichiro Tanaka, chief scenario planner at Atlus, said in a roundtable interview. “A better future is a very strong idea.” As a celebration, we wanted to portray the reality of politics and how we incorporate it into the game from the start.
So, let’s recap. Why are elections an important part of the game? In a nutshell, without spoiling anything, the metaphorical world consists of eight tribes, ruled by a single ruling king. At the start of the game, the king is killed, leaving a rather long-term power vacuum in the center of the dubious peace that keeps the world united. As the protagonist, you and many other potential rulers appear, who must win over the public and gain votes to become the next king.
From a story and gameplay standpoint, it’s pretty genius. The main quest will convince the public that you’re a good egg and can be counted on to do things in their interest, while the side quests will bang that drum even more forcefully. Everything you do to help an NPC will “boost the numbers” and earn you more votes. The world operates on a day-night cycle, and you can only do so much in a day – will you go out on an adventure, or deal with gangsters? It takes the high school melodrama of Persona and translates it into a more adult setting. nice one.
“We acknowledge that there are many similarities between the Persona games and the Persona games,” said Azusa Kido, lead daily system planner at Metaphor. “But the difference with Persona is that the protagonist of this series is a Japanese high school student. But this time, we chose a little boy in an unknown world. We wanted to make this character more relatable to you, We looked at this very thoroughly and in detail during development.
In Persona, your protagonist is mute, usually an avatar from a specific place and time. In Metaphor, there are no silent protagonists, and there is no Japan. Your character is designed to be a blank canvas for you to project onto, and you have a lot more choices to make – choices that, according to the development team, will affect the narrative in quite significant ways.
But even though you can see real-world parallels in this game, Atlus wants you to know that it’s not actually trying to come up with ideas about specific real-world problems.
“We made this game without any political agenda or message,” producer Junichi Yoshizawa said (a little unconvincingly, I think). “We wanted to use politics as a tool to think about what an election would look like and how people would react. It’s a tool, it’s a theme. By separating the game from any specific message, we hope people can enjoy the fantasy setting without Need to worry. [any effect].
“Again, the release date being so close to the US election is really serendipitous. It really wasn’t our intention.
Hmm. Guys, the jury is still out on this one. Still, the metaphor looks great. I think I’d like it more than Persona 5 and Persona 4. The story and setting have such potential that it seems to be learning from all the missteps and twists of all of Atlas’s work to date in order to deliver something truly unique to our gaping mouths. The art style, music, and combat system all help to solidify the foundation of a game that will enter the curious and interesting realm of JRPGs (if you still want to use that term) in 2024.
Makes me excited. I think this will be one of the best games of 2024 if enough people give it a chance. Anxiety be damned.
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.
