“for those who love Nier or old school turn based final fantasy games"
PC | PS5 | XBOX SERIES
HOW I PLAYED: I purchased the standard edition on Steam. Played on my R7 7800X3D , RTX 3080, 32GB DDR5 RAM, 4TB m.2 ssd Gaming PC. I played on max settings at 1440p and was easily always around my monitors max refresh rate of 165hz.
STORY — 17/20
INTRO 4
Metaphor: ReFantazio opens with a classic premise: a nameless protagonist and their companion, Gallica, embark on a quest to cure the Prince, who was gravely injured in a mysterious attack years ago. As you journey through the United Kingdom of Euchronia, your wagon is ambushed by bandits, leading to a dramatic fall into the Grand Trad desert. From there, the narrative begins to unfold.
This intro has excellent animation and if I was 13 years old again I would have been STOKED to play a game like this. All of the anime characters look incredible and the animation is top quality. It really reminded me of this PS2 game "Orphan: Scion Of Sorcery" I played as a kid, and wished that game was more like this!
CUTSCENES 5
Metaphor: ReFantazio has 2 types of "Cutscenes" , there is the main type which is pre recorded "Anime" clips of all the characters. These are very high quality and extremely well done. Again, the anime loving child in me would have loved these back in the day.
And the 2nd type of cutscene is more dialogue back and forth where instead of animating the NPC's mouth, the game instead has animated heads by the dialogue text.
WORLD BUILDING 4
There is tons of world building in Metaphor, through main quests and side NPC "Companion" quests. There is a lot you can discover about the United Kingdom Of Euchronia and its diversity through the vast amount of side quests you can complete. Each side quest teaches you something different about the characters touching on many topics ranging anywhere from organized religion, corruption in politics and even racism and classism.
OVERALL STORY 4
I was immediately intrigued by Metaphor: ReFantazio's story. Its opening promise of a classic tale of revenge and redemption in a fantasy setting felt fresh and exciting. However, as the narrative unfolded, I found that the game attempted to tackle too many heavy themes—racism, organized religion, and government corruption, among others. While these topics are undeniably relevant and important, their presentation often felt overly simplistic and heavy-handed.
This might be a localization issue, or perhaps it was an intentional choice to make the story accessible to a "broader audience". For players less experienced with nuanced storytelling, the straightforward approach could make these themes easier to grasp. However, for those who appreciate more layered and subtle narratives, the dialogue and storytelling might feel overly on-the-nose, even to the point of feeling pandering at times.
Overall, the story is good! especially in the earlier acts when it focuses on its core themes. However, by the third act, the attempt to layer in too many complex ideas and expectations detracted from the impact of the conclusion. If Metaphor had stuck to its original, simpler themes, it might have delivered a more cohesive and satisfying story experience.
GRAPHICS — 12/15
CHARACTER MODELS 4
All of the character models are very stylish and have immense amounts of polish. Atlas did a great job with the variety of different characters and there are many diverse design choices being made while at the same time all of the characters look like the fit in the world of Metaphor: ReFantazio.
ENVIRONMENTS 3
There are definitely some amazing set pieces in some of the environments in Metaphor: ReFantazio. But I was slightly let down in some areas of the game. Grand Trad and some of the major cities definitely have a lot of attention paid to them and look amazing. But a lot of the "Open field" areas are very generic barren landscapes with little flare or extra detail. Many of the games dungeons are basically bare rooms with a bunch of hallways and a lot look "same samey". Some of the best looking areas in the game are just animated cutscenes that become "paintings" that you can give one of the NPC's in the game.
Metaphor: ReFantazio felt a LOT like Nier Replicant in a lot of ways but instead of its dated world design it was the same thing with a fresh coat of paint and stylized graphics. But it's easy to tell that a lot of the environments were very basic and un-interactable but just have a very nice graphic overlay on top.
If it wasn't for Metaphor: ReFantazio's art style this score would probably be lower.
SPECIAL FX 5
This game OOOZES taste and style! Everything from the start menu to battle menu's all have insane levels of art direction and design. I really loved the varied color pallet used in all the designs, and it really gave Metaphor: ReFantazio a level up in its overall design. All of the games effects look amazing and suit the very stylized vision of the game.
The art direction and style definitely carry the game in a lot of ways.
AUDIO — 12/15
AMBIENCE 4
The game's title track and opening music is definitely something different and not heard much in modern games. I did really like the music in Metaphor: ReFantazio, but very quickly did I start to get tired of some the most repeated tracks.
I thought a lot of the music was good in the game but nothing really hit a super amazing height for me. But again... think of amazing operatic epics like the ones found in Final Fantasy games or FromSoftware games.
BOSS MUSIC 4
The boss music was good but not great. I felt it helped push the momentum during the boss fights, but I was still just wishing there was that outstanding boss track that really drives you!
SOUND DESIGN 4
All of the voice acting was done well, I never felt like anyone stood out or was over acting in parts. English voice acting has a bad rap for being campy and terrible. I also felt the overall sound design and mixing was done well, just nothing exceptional in my opinion.
PERFORMANCE — 9/10
FRAME RATE 4
Playing on PC I was easily in the 170fps range on max settings. I was genuinely surprised to see that the game struggled to hit 60fps on consoles. I know with the brand new PS5 Pro Metaphor: ReFantazio has a pro patch where I think it is now hitting a solid 60fps.
(Console Performance taken from Digital Foundry review of Metaphor HERE)
But there is nothing in this game that makes me think it should not be able to hit a solid 60fps on current generation or even previous generation consoles.
STABILITY 5
I never ran into a single game breaking or progression breaking bug or glitch, and I didn't even notice any cosmetic glitches throughout my entire playthrough!
This is a true rarity in today's gaming environment (Bethesda... cough cough). So great work Atlas!
GAMEPLAY — 28 /40
CONTROLS 4
The controls are great, again very reminiscent of a game like Nier Replicant or Nier Automata. This game felt more like an action game to me than a turn based RPG game. But the turn based combat still felt good. I also really appreciated the faster movement mechanic so your character can ride on their sword for fast movement through cities. I always appreciate a game that allows me to move faster!
MECHANICS 4
I liked the RPG mechanics and the different Archetypes that you discover and level up. I felt very "at home" being a late 90's / early 00's era Square Enix player. But I did find myself min maxing and just using the same OP Archetypes skills during my playthrough. I am not a fan of having a set "healer" or "tank", I wish you could have more of a "jack of all trades" with the different magic attacks. I know you can copy over some attacks with the games options when you learn more than one Archetype. But I didn't like this as much as just being able to move different magic around.
In late game I found myself just running past a lot of enemies to conserve MP for boss fights. Or I would just farm using action game melee attacks and not engaging in any turn based combat.
PACING 3
Not ever having played a Persona game, I was not a fan of the whole calendar / time mechanic. I found this really had a negative impact on game pacing for me. I felt forced to engage in side content as I literally had to grind out days / weeks in certain parts of the game. I really hate when a game forces me to do anything, so telling me "You cannot progress the story for blank amount of time" is a really trash mechanic in my opinion. If I am underleveled and will get completely destroyed if I progress too fast, I should discover that by myself and have the option to do so. This forced pacing mechanic just taught me how to mash the dialogue button and speed run day/night cycles to progress the calendar.
Which really degraded the amount of fun I had during my playthrough.
UI/UE 5
The stylized graphics and designs really made the UI/UE stand out in Metaphor: ReFantazio I felt like everything moved fluently and was easy to navigate. I will admit it wasn't until late game that I figured out you could just hit Triangle or Y to pull up Gallica to ask about the different companions and she would take you right to where they were if they wanted to connect with you. The many hours I wasted running around trying to find some of these NPC's ... brutal.
BOSS QUALITY 3
The "Human" bosses in Metaphor: ReFantazio are a huge letdown. I really felt like their designs were laughably bad and did not fit the overall style of the game. There are some other bosses that are main NPC's in the game which are decent, but there are a lot of reskin big enemy bosses that just felt generic and uninspired.
ENEMY VARIETY 3
Just like the bosses there are plenty of reskins for enemies in Metaphor: ReFantazio. There was a decent amount of enemy variety but I just felt like some are reused way too often (dogs, ground. worms, Skeletons). I just felt like there wasn't enough variety for how great the art design was for this game.
GAMEPLAY VARIETY 4
There is a LOT you can do in this game. And you have plenty of time to do a lot of these side options. You can fish, you can cook, you can do laundry, you can go cliff diving, you can hang out and listen to NPC stories. There is just a ton of stuff you can do, so if you get fatigued from the core gameplay there is plenty you can go do.
REPLAYABILITY 2
Metaphor: ReFantazio is a good game, but with a lot of the forced pacing I just couldn't replay this game from start ever again. This is on the same level as unskippable cutscenes, being stuck for 7 days to just run around and burn out NPC's dialogue is a chore. Huge shame for this game and this really hurts the score for me.
BONUS — 1/4
You can change the button layout. I was honestly surprised at how little accessibility settings there are in Metaphor: ReFantazio. There isn't even a menu option for "accessibility" 😬
OVERALL — 79/100
Metaphor: ReFantazio is another good game for those who love Nier or old school turn based final fantasy games. Very pleasing on the eyes and a lot of good ideas but the final delivery left me wanting just a little bit more. A game so close to amazing it is frustrating, but amongst a ton of games that are crushing it in 2024, Metaphor: ReFantazio gets close but just quite doesn't hit the incredible game mark for me. Maybe I missed something? Or maybe I need to play Persona, but I just don't see why so many people think this is Game Of The Year.
TLDR: 79/100 (GOOD) Metaphor: ReFantazio is a visually stunning RPG with a lot to offer fans of Nier and classic Final Fantasy games. It delivers strong anime-style cutscenes, stylish character models, and a unique art direction that elevates its aesthetic appeal. However, the gameplay is held back by uneven pacing, repetitive enemy design, and overly simplistic storytelling, especially in the third act. While it features engaging side activities and smooth performance on PC, the forced calendar mechanics and limited accessibility options detract from the experience. Despite its potential, Metaphor falls short of greatness, leaving me impressed but not fully convinced it deserves Game of the Year praise.
PICK UP Metaphor: ReFantazio HERE:
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