Tails by the Foxfire

Metaphor ReFantazio Review

The October 2024 release of Metaphor ReFantazio seems to have taken the world by storm, and as a long-time Persona fan, I’m incredibly happy to see an Atlus title nominated for several categories for Game of the Year. Anyone who’s seen my Twitch streams or my YouTube channel likely knows what the Persona series means to me, so my love for Atlus titles certainly isn’t in question; heck, part of the reason I started streaming in the first place was to share my excitement for the years-awaited Persona 3 remake.

So, I figure it’s maybe a bit weird that I haven’t had a blog ready to go on Metaphor ReFantazio. After all, plenty of people are loving it. A lot of the creators I’m following are certainly streaming it and having a blast, but I’m yet to say a word about it. What gives?

Well…

I can’t freaking play it.

First Impressions

Let’s rewind a sec.

It’s the night of Mike Tyson’s match vs. whichever Paul brother and I feel like booting up a game while I wait for my husband to tell me who won, because trying to watch sports with me is like trying to explain long division to a toddler in a toy store.

As with many Atlus games, the first thing I noticed about Metaphor was its distinct, visual style. It is a beautiful game–a veritable feast for the eyes, actually, with all of its fine details and dramatic uses of colour. That is to say, it looks absolutely incredible, and boasts a powerfully memorable soundtrack with one of the most intense battle themes I’ve ever heard.

_{I am so serious.}

In my opinion, the promotional material really did not do it justice in the run-up to release. But then, I’m not entirely sure what could have. This is a story best experienced first hand, as its excitement and emotion are at their peak when you’re feeling them alongside your character. Maybe it’s because my eyes were too focused on the promotional train for Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth this year, but something distracted me enough from Metaphor that I went in expecting this to be quite a generic experience, especially since the name told me absolutely nothing in a way that was reminiscent enough of Various Daylife. As well, the protagonist looked too much like the one from Persona 3, so I was under the impression that not much effort had been put into the design, and the trailers I’d seen hadn’t shown me a lot that drew my interest in terms of combat or gameplay either.

And in my limited experience with Metaphor so far, I have adored being wrong.

To be fair, I was right in thinking it was going to be a different experience from Persona, but ‘different’ definitely doesn’t mean ‘bad’ here; just that you have to go in treating it like its own entity rather than comparing it to its cousins. There is a quite unforgiving difficulty curve at the start, but the work is worth it, because so far I feel invested in the characters, the combat is fun, the archetype system is exactly the kind of strategy-building I can lose myself in, and the story has me HOOKED. Add on top of that the visually fascinating menus and overlays and the lived-in environments, and well… so far, with what little I’ve been able to play?

If it were a driver for Uber Eats, I would definitely tip well, because it delivers.

Issues Re: Accessibility

Now for the down-side, and you’ll probably be surprised to hear that my issues lie with exactly the things I was praising: the menus and the overlays.

Gasp, right?

It was a problem that snuck up on me, too. Let’s go back to that night of the legendary Mike Tyson vs. whatever his name is. I boot up the game, and somehow lose like seven hours or something. I’m learning the mechanics, the world, the story. I’m outraged by the world’s atrocities, and I am invested in saving the prince so we can pursue the utopia he dreams of. As it always does, midnight rolls around and it’s time for bed. No biggie, I think; I’ll just pick it up tomorrow.

Except tomorrow, unfortunately, I’m hit with such intense eye strain after only like an hour of playing that I can’t see worth a damn. The same thing happens the next day, too. That’s about the time I find some Reddit threads that tell me I’m not alone, and that there are plenty of other people out there for whom Metaphor’s menus and UI trigger hypersensitivity issues.

As you can imagine, I’m pretty disappointed, but it all clicks into place: around the time I ended up suffering my eye strain, I had entered the gameplay proper where you start seeing a lot more town navigation, where text is popping up all over the screen and details like crowds can be overwhelming, and combat. With increased amounts of combat comes an increased amount of particles in constant motion, and increased need to navigate the in-battle menus. Specifically, the item menu where text is not only tiny, but shunted off to the side.

I also noticed that my stress levels spiked more than usual when I’m learning (and subsequently sucking at) a new game.

And all because of this tiny, noisy idiot right here.

_{shut up shut up shut up}

Now, I’ve played the Persona games. The concept of a navigator is nothing new to me. I’ve been able to tune them out successfully and have a great time. But there’s something about this little nag that gets my blood pressure up to unhealthy levels. Add that to the particles, tiny text, and arguably overly-artistic menus in combat and on the overworld, and people with sensory issues are going to have a really hard time. For me, it resulted in either adverse physical effects or just an inability to be mentally resilient when the battles were difficult, as I couldn’t take the cavalcade of just lights, situation-based stress, and NOISE happening at any given time, so I always ended up just turning it off.

So, I figured I’d write this blog in solidarity with people like me, and advise who haven’t tried it yet (or who have and been unsuccessful) to perhaps give it a shot on PC rather than on console. At the very least, I know that PC gamers have the option to mod Gallica to be quiet during combat, which helps at least somewhat towards relieving some of the stressors that make this game a challenge.

As for Atlus, if ever anyone there sees this humble little blog, I hope that it raises your awareness of the difference in tolerance and ability across the wide diaspora of gamers. Your designs are beautiful, and I’m not disputing that, nor discouraging your art department from expressing themselves and being creative in future games. Please, by all means, more unique designs! More love and individuality! But for those of us who can’t quite keep up, please include a setting to disable certain sounds and animations individually. By considering various needs and accessible options, we can strive for gaming that is innovative without negatively impacting the health and comfort of those who desperately want to know what the hype is about. Especially when your stories include such impactful messages as this one.

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