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I’d love more Metaphor: ReFantazio, but I hope Atlus leaves its stale trend of re-releases in the past

Umito November 4, 2024

I adore Metaphor: ReFantazio. Studio Zero’s first fantasy JRPG took me 87 glorious hours, and even after absorbing about two weeks of my life with non-stop gaming, I immediately wanted to boot up New Game+ and relive it all again.

And so I did, but there was a little thought in the back of my mind as I dove back into Euchronia. “Will I regret playing this whole thing again if I end up having to come back a third time too?” It seems like this could well happen if Atlus decides to follow the same path they did with Persona 3 to 5, with an expanded re-release akin to Persona 5 Royal, and I just hope that’s not the case.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m very happy that games like Persona 5 Royal and Persona 4 Golden exist, and I’m sure any Persona fan would tell you the same thing. However, it’s much easier for me to say this as a new fan of the franchise. I begin with Persona 5 Royal, so I never experienced “Vanilla” 5 before its expansion and improvements, which also meant I had the benefit of not having to play a 100 hour JRPG twice to see everything.

Take your time

Persona 5 Royale

(Image credit: Atlus)

The way the new Royal content is integrated means that even those who completed the original can’t just skip to the new stuff, as many improvements and additions – including new Confidant characters – are integrated into the set. Not only that, but the third half of a completely new story starts right after the base game’s plot ends, so even if you skipped all the text to get to that point as quickly as possible, it won’t be not a quick process. . At the very least, Royal came out three years after the original, so it’s not like fans were asked to jump right back into it. But the fact remains that 100 hours represents a long lastingand even if you love these games, it’s a big ask of players to do it twice, especially when so much of it will be as they remember it.

It’s also hard to deny how outdated this approach now seems, especially when DLC expansions seem increasingly common elsewhere. Just look at the Pokémon series: Game Freak has released “the best version” of every mainline generation of its RPGs since the ’90s, with games like Yellow, Crystal, Emerald, and Platinum sometimes arriving just a year after their previous counterparts. . But since the Nintendo Switch games Sword and Shield, it seems like this formula is a thing of the past for the developer, with the last two generations instead benefiting from additional story and Pokémon added with DLC. Not only does this save players’ free time, but also their wallets.

Based on Atlus’ results this year, it’s hard to say whether the developer is heading in the same direction. On the one hand, we saw the release of Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance – for now another expanded re-release, but which offers a completely separate narrative path to choose from at the start of the JRPG, as well as launching on platforms outside of the Switch. Then on the other hand we have Persona 3 Reload, a remake of the original Persona 3, which has now received a DLC expansion to include the additional epilogue content added in its own old re-release, Persona 3 FES.

Strohl, protagonist and Hulkenberg from Metaphor: ReFantazio

(Image credit: Atlus / Sega)

It’s a funny position to be in, because right now I’d love nothing more than to get my hands on even more Metaphor: ReFantazio content, and I can already see places where that’s happening. could be expanded if developers choose to do so. Those magnificent monuments you pass on your journey that don’t have their own dungeons? Hell, why not add them? Besides, without getting into spoilers, there’s one particularly important location in the second half of the game that isn’t attached to a dungeon at all – it certainly wouldn’t be made worse by a little more meat on it. There are also a handful of NPCs who would have made excellent followers with their own Bond conversations, like Fabienne and Batlin. It’s not that the game seems to be lacking not have these things, but they would be easy expansion gains.

I also can’t deny that I would play this version if that ever happened, but how much is Metaphor: ReFantazio too much? Would I quickly get burned out playing a re-release if I’ve already played the original more than once? Would I ruin this experience by spending so much time with the JRPG as it currently stands? This is clearly a concern shared by some Atlus fans, as I’ve seen many people say that they wait for what they consider an inevitable re-release before even playing, which is a shame since the likelihood of being spoiled will continue to increase over time.

“I would much rather Atlus go for a DLC story expansion for Metaphor: ReFantazio, if possible”

It is for these reasons that I would much prefer that Atlus opt for a DLC story extension for Metaphor: ReFantazio, if indeed it is a prologue to deepen the history of certain characters, an epilogue to see what happens beyond the credits, or even a completely separate story storyline that runs parallel to part of the main plot. Not only would this be a much more engaging and accessible way to offer additional content, but it would ultimately help the developer completely leave the old trend in the past so that fans wouldn’t hesitate to purchase the JRPGs from the studio to launch just in case. they quickly become obsolete. That said, though, I’m not-so-secretly hoping that Metaphor gets the same treatment as its Persona predecessors when it comes to spinoffs. I’ll be there on the first day for a metaphorical dance game, just saying.

Don’t forget to check out our Metaphor: ReFantazio review to find out why it’s one of this year’s events best JRPGs.

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I’d love more Metaphor: ReFantazio, but I hope Atlus leaves its stale trend of re-releases in the past

Umito

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I’d love more Metaphor: ReFantazio, but I hope Atlus leaves its stale trend of re-releases in the past

Umito

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