ReFantazio looks like a JRPG free of restraint and common sense

Metaphor: ReFantazitook a lot of time to prepare. It was announced in 2017 as Project concerning Fantasy through a long, strange video that said very little. Since then, Atlus has swapped the project for Metaphor and scoured Google Translate for a cool way to say “fantastic.” It’s also a giant fantasy JRPG – and after watching a demo at Summer game Fest last weekend, I’m dying to play it.

RéFantasia is the first original title from Studio Zero, a relatively new Atlus division led by Katsura Hashino. As director of the third, fourth, and fifth Persona games, Hashino is responsible for the Persona series‘ pivot toward social simulation elements. After finishing Character 5Hashino left P-Studio to work on brand new titles unrelated to Atlus’ Shin Megami Tensei and Persona series.

Both Atlus and Hashino are best known for (-) an urban fantasy grounded as wizards and elves, and RéFantasia in this sense, it represents a big departure. This is an epic, sprawling story spanning an entire nation, the United Kingdom of Euchronia. The Euchronian king has been assassinated and the people of the country must elect (!?) a new one.

Euchronia is home to eight “tribes” (fantasy races) and our hero tries to unite them. There’s also a cursed prince everyone thinks is dead, a royal tournament for the throne in six months, and monsters everywhere. To make matters worse, Euchronia is invaded by hideous Hieronymus Bosch-inspired creatures called humans, who function as the game‘s bosses. Humans, huh? I wonder if that’s a…metaphor?

Given Atlus’ narrative history, the broad outlines of RéFantasia will probably make more sense than instantaneous beats. Best to just let it wash over you.

The game takes place over a six-month period and you’ll travel across Euchronia aboard a Gauntlet Runner (a cool ship designed by Evangelion’s mech) to try to rally support for your entry into the royal tournament. Each town in the game has a tavern where you can grab a bite to eat and gather information, a recruitment center where you can accept quests, various shops, and an inn where you can rest. By completing quests and making friends along the way, you’ll gain followers among the different tribes, which is key to both the overall story and combat.

Atlus’ Summer game Fest demo was segmented into three 15-minute chunks. The first was a training sequence of sorts, heavy on story and light on combat. It seemed above all like a showcase for RéFantasiaThe cutscenes, which looked beautiful, despite the fact that the TVs in the demo area were set to interpolate the images. Atlus has a tradition of showcasing top-quality anime in its games, and the demo clips were some of the best I’ve seen. What I appreciated more than the quality of the animation was how well the character designs and feel of the game matched the cutscenes.

The voice acting is also memorable. For the English cast, Atlus takes over the “United Kingdom” from Euchronia very seriously, because everyone I met had a totally exaggerated British accent. As the owner of an English accent, I found the characters beyond theatrical but enjoyable nonetheless. At one point in the demo, I met a hyper-cockney cat girl who could have auditioned for Olivier.

In another segment, I fought alongside a cute lop-eared guy from Fantasy Liverpool who looked like he was game;cpos:2;pos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas” class=”link “>. If none of that excites you, the Japanese voice cast seems to be aiming for a typical fantasy vibe. Personally, I can’t imagine playing this game in anything other than English at this point.

Not All is voiced – as in many JRPGs, key lines and conversations play out in full, but many interactions will be limited to text, with the voice actors emoting a bit along the way for added flavor. As a fast reader, this suits me just fine.

The second segment was all about dungeon crawling combat – time for the Persona comparisons! The setup here will be familiar to fans of Atlus games: it’s a turn-based JRPG, with different types of physical and magical attacks, status effects, and diseases. RéFantasiaThe JRPG’s version of the classic class system is archetypes: there are 14 bloodlines containing over 40 unique archetypes, including familiar roles like mage, thief, knight, and healer.

There’s also a tactical element to party composition, with a front and back row playing a role in combat, and synthesis moves that allow you to combine your party’s archetypes for more powerful attacks. Everything has a bit of Persona and SMT: you manage archetypes in an Akademeia (similar to a Velvet Room), they can evolve through experience, and their combat mastery is tied to your bond with your followers.

A twist on the classic turn-based formula – and one that I’m very happy with – is the quick combat system. When you encounter an enemy, you will be able to assess their strength before starting combat. The Fast system allows you to target a particular enemy and strike them; this can instantly kill underpowered enemies, allowing you to completely avoid turn-based combat when crushing low-level enemies. For stronger enemies, you can use Quick to butter them up and start a team battle with advantage, but if you miss this engagement, you can start turn-based combat on your ass. Other Atlus games have a similar risk-reward system to allow players to gain an advantage, but this one is more nuanced and satisfying.

The interface for all of this is a typically beautiful menu system and user interface that looks more polished than ever. Simple actions are assigned a face button on the controller, meaning less time spent in menus. Everything is pretty intuitive, and towards the end of my short demo I was already going through the turn-based combat without wondering which button did what. Taken as a whole, the combat system seems like a natural evolution of the classic formula Atlus is known for.

The final demo section begins inside the Gauntlet Runner. It’s a claustrophobic space, more underwater than superyacht, but filled with things to do. There are people to talk to, activities to participate in, and routes to choose. Similar to Persona, the game taking place over a fixed time period means you probably won’t be able to do everything you want and will instead have to decide how best to spend your time each day. You might try to improve one of the main character’s five traits (courage, wisdom, tolerance, eloquence, and imagination) or perhaps focus on fighting monsters or making money. I played typing and read a book, which unfortunately was not enough to raise my “cowardly” courage.

My cozy reading session immediately led to the main spectacle: a showdown against a giant human. It started with an animated sequence, which gave way to a classic four-on-one fight. The human designs in this game are crazy. This one was called “Sea Horror Homo Sabara” and here are the Cliff Notes:

• Long beard and purple eyebrows.

• One yellow eye, one white eye, both shiny.

• 12 ears of corn arranged in two rows? Bold piercings.

• Crown of thorns. In fact, make them two crowns of thorns.

• The upper half of the head was scalped. There seems to be a human heart sticking out.

• Also, eight giant bejeweled tentacles as weapons.

It’s not like I’ve never seen crazy bosses in a JRPG before, but this octodad was a lot of fun to fight. There was not major challenge: Remove tentacles, moan on body, tentacles regenerate, repeat. But it hit hard, and the demo clearly set me up for success. It’s easy to see this guy wiping out your team if you’re not well prepared.

Of all the things Atlus incorporated into the short Summer game Fest, the human battle was the most memorable. From the story dribbled out to fans, it seems that humans actually come from our world and are introduced into Euchronia as messed up monsters. I hope many of them make it through this.

At first glance RéFantasia feels like a real auteur moment for Hashino – as if, after the worldwide success of Character 5, he received a blank check. Hashino’s Persona titles go out of their way to show you how cool and edgy they are, but the only concern for RéFantasia that’s how loud, confident and unique he can be.

Yes, there are elements borrowed from almost every Atlus RPG you can think of, but everything has been remixed and refined. I left my brief time with RéFantasia filled with that wonderful milieu of nostalgia and surprise, a warm familiarity with something unlike anything I’d played before.

Metaphor: ReFantazio arrives on PC, PlayStation 4 and 5 and Xbox series consoles on October 11.

Keep up to date with all the news from Summer game Fest 2024 here!