Think ‘JRPG’ and you probably imagine a row of characters taking their turns as you scroll menus to decide your next move. For many, it can feel like a slow and antiquated system, especially when you’re expected to engage in these battles numerous times over the course of tens of hours. It’sa perception more JRPGs have been trying to modernise, as is the case withMetaphor: ReFantazio.
Not that this is strictly just JRPGs - after all,Dragon Age: The Veilguardalsoditches the more tactical options previous entries had- but it’s certainly where the change has become more pronounced.Final Fantasy 7 Remakeopted for real-time action for a modern audience, withFinal Fantasy 16controversially nixing a party system altogether, while the latest Trails games have adopted a hybrid system where you’re able to switch between real-time and turn-based battles as you fancy most of the time.
Metaphor doesn’t actually go to the same extent as the above examples and iis still primarily a command-based RPG, and yet it feels as slick as any action-based experience without compromising what makes a fundamental hardcore Atlus game.
Metaphor Builds On Persona 5’s Button-Based Commands
In truth, Metaphor’s mechanics are a continuation of what had been implemented inPersona 5, a game that was originally going to be action-based, which we then also got the Musou spinoff/sequelPersona 5 Strikers. You hear a lot about how cool and stylish Persona 5’s UI is but not nearly enough about its function of mapping its commands to buttons, such as attacking, guarding, using abilities or items, and so on. It’s much more immediate and intuitive, especially when playing with a gamepad, instead of having to scroll through a menu (of course, using items and spells does still require opening up a menu to make a selection), and unsurprisingly adopted in other JRPGs since, including Trails,Like A Dragon, andPersona 3 Reload.
In a way, it’s very familiar coming from Persona 5, but a giant leap if you’ve been playing Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance, which still has old-fashioned scrolling commands, but a closer comparison since Metaphor uses a similar ‘press turn’ battle system. Perhaps the one notable tactical addition in battle is formation - basically switching party members to the front or the back, which affects your physical damage output but also how much damage you receive. In other words, it keeps your tanky heavy hitters in front and your ranged and magic users at the back. But even here there’s a dynamism since everyone is capable of using different skills learned from different archetypes. Compared to more rigid examples of formation changes, which might cost you a turn, Metaphor just lets you move back and forth with up and down on the D-pad.
More importantly is the real-time element, which I confess I had concerns when I first played the demo during this year’sSummer Game Fest. At the time it felt a tad simplistic, where you could just bat away weak enemies in a dungeon in one hit, and is getting a preemptive hit on an enemy that launches into a battle with an advantage really not just the same system in the Persona games? Yet the more I played, the more I appreciated what developers Studio Zero had done.
The tension that exists between action and turn-based games is that if the latter is known for being tactical, as you have to think about the best attack to exploit an enemy’s weakness or when you need to catch a breather to heal or buff your allies, the danger is in action form those mechanics get watered down and you’re ultimately left with a mindless hack-and-slasher. Of course the other end of the spectrum is an unforgiving Soulslike, but as much as I loveFromSoftware, not every action-focused RPG needs to be like that.
Metaphor’s real-time combat is neither one or the other but really there to even out the pacing of dungeons. Whereas I was initially apprehensive about how this works, in practice there’s something inherently satisfying when you discover an enemy type you’ve spent the past hour fighting has dropped from yellow to blue on a scan, indicating how much stronger you’ve become that you can now swat them to one side, although they can still hurt you if you get complacent. It may still be a single button to attack but your protagonist’s weapon also changes depending on the archetype you’ve equipped, so I’d find myself taking on Gunner so I can snipe enemies from a distance. It even allows you to go out anddo some very low-stakes grinding without spending MP.
But there also turns out to be a depth to taking on enemies at a similar or even higher level. Whereas Persona only gives you a starting advantage in party battles if you land an attack before the onscreen enemy notices you, the enemies in Metaphor all have an armour gauge that leaves them stunned on the first turn if you break it and then trigger squad battles. Granted, you can take that armour off with a surprise back attack, but even facing them head on, it means taking a few more swings while also making use of dodge rolls to evade. There’s an element of risk here, since it only takes one hit from them for you to start a battle wih a one-turn disadvantage, which is sometimes enough to be catastrophic. But even though you can opt to activate squad battles with the tap of a button, there’s always an incentive to get the preemptive strike - it means you have a chance to finish off the enemy within the first turn to get a no damage bonus. With careful use of each turn to exploit weaknesses, it’s even possible to eliminate dangerous enemies highlighted in red like this.
In other words, Metaphor real-time combat doesn’t replace nor does it diminish its turn-based command battles, which remains as devilishly hardcore as SMT (albeit with the convenience of frequent autosaves or the ability to instantly restart), but instead complements and smoothes out the experience. Coming from the folks behind the hip Persona series that’s now reimagined fantasy, you’d expect no less, in contrast to say the stubbornly ultra-conservativeDragon Quest. But it’s also from a team confident of its direction, unlike say the identity crisis of Final Fantasy 16, which felt like it wanted to be more likeGod of War, only to alienate its core fans and still not reach the mainstream audienceSquare Enixhad hoped.
The success of Metaphor,the fastest selling title in Atlus history, shows there’s still very much an appetite for turn-based RPGs that still find ways to make it more approachable, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that feeds into P Studio’s plans for Persona 6.
