“Time marches on, and the age of a new king draws nearer…”
As some of you may know, I’m a huge fan of Atlus’ Persona series. When I got into the franchise back in 2007 with Persona 3, I didn’t expect to fall in love with a Japanese RPG series that focused on very relatable themes in a more modern setting after being stuck with Final Fantasy/Square Enix games for so long. Seeing Persona blow up into the video game mainstream scene with Persona 5 has been fun to see.
Because I loved Persona so much, when Atlus’ Studio Zero announced they were going to create a RPG focused on fantasy back in 2016-2017 called Project Re Fantasy, I was excited. At the time, I disliked what Final Fantasy became. Sure, there was Dragon Quest, but I never grew up with it the way Japanese audiences had.
When I finally got a PS4 during the COVID lockdown years, I was still anticipating a chance to play Re Fantasy because I really wanted to see Atlus make a Final Fantasy version of Persona. Last year, when it was revealed that the project was still alive after a lot of inactivity on the news front about it and with a new name (Metaphor: ReFantazio), I was excited to get a chance to play the game. Especially once I heard the game was about taking on anxiety.
I was not disappointed after going through nearly 80 hours of the game. Metaphor ReFantazio reminds me so much on how fantasy and fiction are so important in a world that feels like it despises everything related to both genres.
The general gist of the plot is that you play a traveling boy who is trying to break the curse of a prince to ensure his candidacy for the throne. The king of of a country called Euchronia has been assassinated and a huge race begins to see who takes the throne as the prince is incapacitated. Euchronia unfortunately is dealing with rampant prejudice and discrimination between the various tribes of the kingdom. The main character is part of a race that’s universally despised by almost everyone. At the same time, monsters are roaming around causing chaos. The story focuses on the main character’s attempts to bring people together to unify the kingdom and save it from potentially destroying itself in the process.
The first thing I will say about Metaphor: ReFantazio is that the game is very blunt in its depictions of racism. Every race is talked about in ways that aren’t pleasant. NPCs are quick to judge on stereotypes. The main character gets the huge brunt of discrimination and he tries to shrug off-hand comments as best he can. But Metaphor: ReFantazio shows the power of diversity and how racial bias can slowly go away due to every party member who joins the main character being of a different race.
The second point is the theme of anxiety. While the story does go all-in on discrimination and the politics that make it happen, anxiety becomes a huge focus at a certain point in the story. Anxiety impedes progress. Sometimes, we don’t know how to deal with it, so we pass it on to someone else (usually someone of power) and hope they can fix it for us. While people can definitely help, it also takes our efforts too. But the game reminds players that anxiety is often very collective. The point is that fighting anxiety is sometimes a solo journey and if you’re going to rely on people to face it, it’s best to do it with people who are willing to fight with/for you in an equal status that allows everyone to grow. The game’s Social Link/Follower system tells these kinds of stories in a compassionate way.
Lastly, and the best thing I appreciate about Metaphor: ReFantazio, is its focus on how fantasy can change lives. The main character carries a fantasy novel with him and it’s considered to be a major influence on how he wants the world to be. The novel depicts our modern world in a way that feels like a utopia. Throughout the game, we get page visuals from that novel and character reactions to it. I was reminded of how many fans like us got into Japanese pop culture. The fantasy of anime and manga continues to welcome new young fans into their wild and imaginative worlds. I still remember a young girl at a convention years ago who said Miku Hatsune, despite being a fictional idol, being real to them and how it drove her to love music. I think about all the manga I’ve read and how their worlds transported me even though I don’t travel a whole lot.
And right now, we’re facing ridiculous book bans threatening to take away certain kinds of fantasy (that can promote change and critical thought) from younger and future generations in favor of religious scribes that don’t always make sense (this is also a plot point in Metaphor: ReFantazio too).
We really need fantasy and the art that makes it happen. By god, I will try to promote fantasy as much as I can.
Metaphor: ReFantazio is a game for our time. It says something that I wish some mental health professionals would say – anxiety is normal. It is a warning sign that something in your life has to change for the better. The more we fear anxiety, the worse it gets. We also have to recognize the cause of anxiety is often very social and that the cure for it, most of the time, is not an individualized one. Another lesson the game provides is that while anxiety is a normal reaction that we need to accept and acknowledge, we can’t let anxiety totally define our entire identity.
We’re not going to get it 100% of the time and not everything’s to be perfect. Fantasies won’t lead us to some utopian-filled paradise. At the very least, embracing the ideals portrayed in fantasy can connect you to those who want to change something about themselves/others in a positive manner. I can speak to this firsthand. At the very least, Metaphor: ReFantazio is imploring us to gradually be the heroes of kings in our hearts to help those around us.