After the success of Persona 3 Reload and Unicorn Overlord, the next big release from Atlus this year is Metaphor: ReFantazio. Developed by Studio Zero and helmed by Katsura Hashino of Persona 5 fame, it sees players in the United Kingdom of Euchronia participating in a tournament to become king.
Some elements are like Persona, like building bonds with other characters and planning your day. You can even choose when to tackle its various dungeons. However, Hashino confirmed to GameSpot that players shouldn’t expect to see all of its dungeons in a single playthrough.
“Imagine if you go on vacation. You go to a city, and you have ten places listed on your travel log. Some of these might take two days to enjoy, whereas others might take half a day. Some might require a guide or more preparations, others might be a bit more safe. But you can’t do it all.
“In this game, you travel a lot, and when you get to your destinations, you have a choice of multiple dungeons you can do. All these dungeons have different difficulty levels as well, so it’s kind of up to you how you choose to spend your time. In this way, there’s a lot more freedom.”
It’s an interesting departure from its previous games, where its dungeons are mandatory and part of the story. How the dungeon design will pan out, since Studio Zero offers several at a time instead of one highly-focused Palace, remains to be seen, so stay tuned.
Metaphor: ReFantazio launches on October 11th for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Check out gameplay of the opening section and combat here. You can also learn more about the various Archetypes and their Lineages here.