Metaphor: ReFantazio has many different Archetypes to choose from, which let players take on the form of ancient heroes to cast spells and abilities on the battlefield. These Archetypes vary in their skill sets and what they excel at, and one of these categories is a focus on Magic.
Some of these archetypes are purely magic-focused, while some just use magic to supplement their skills. And, to clarify any possible confusion, these are Archetypes that make use of a high magic stat; most all skills besides the Brawler lineage use MP to cast their abilities, even if they are physical attacks. With that being said, these are the best Magic-focused Archetypes.
There are also final, hidden versions of every party member’s initial archetypes, called Royal versions. This list will not include them, as we want to talk about archetypes that every character can potentially use.
The first magic-focused Archetype you will unlock is the Mage, a classic of RPGs and fantasy settings since their inception. With the Mage, you will get access to weak versions of the three main elements; fire, ice, and electric, as well as a boost to your magic damage.
While it doesn’t feature anything too fancy, the Mage is the perfect starting Archetype to get your feet wet in the spell-casting world of Metaphor. You can also get a very strong synthesis skill early on if you have three Mages in your party, which allows you to deal heavy fire damage to one enemy. The Wizard is the same as the Mage, it just has the next level of damaging elemental spells.
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Once you reach max rank with Gallica, you will have two final options for the Mage lineage: Elemental Master and Warlock. Out of these two elite archetypes, the Warlock is the one that is the most different from the rest in its lineage.
Unlike the archetypes before it, this only has access to one offensive spell, a heavy-damage Dark attack. The main benefits of this archetype are in its passives, in which you get a larger mana pool and access to very solid mana recovery for defeating enemies. This can make dungeon crawls feel like less of a resource hog.
The Elemental Master is the ultimate version of the Mage and Wizard. You will get access to the highest levels of the elemental spells, as well as a nice deduction of the cost of your synthesis skills.
While it does not have the mana-sustaining power of the Warlock if you are going for pure elemental damage to exploit enemy weaknesses, this is a relatively easy one to build up to, and is worth the small amount of grinding it will take to get there. The only unfortunate part is that, by the time you reach rank eight with Gallica, you will have access to other archetypes that are even stronger in their elemental damage.
The Healer and Cleric are one of the best archetypes to use in the early game. Obtained from your bond with Maria, with these archetypes, you’ll get access to healing spells, offensive light spells, and strike-based melee attacks. These archetypes are so strong in the early game because the first major dungeon is all about the undead, including the first major boss you’ll have to face.
Not only will you be able to heal your party, but both your light spells and the strike melee attack are weaknesses of the undead. If that wasn’t enough, leveling these archetypes will also allow you to inherit their healing abilities on other archetypes of your choosing.
Junah’s elite archetype, the Persona Master is a great addition to your arsenal, should you choose to get it. This is the follow-up of the Masked Dancer, and provides the same benefits, with some changes in its leveling move-set.
While Persona Master is an improvement on Masked Dancer, it simply gives you the option to make enemies weaker to different types of damage. For example, Masked Dancer has a synthesis skill to make enemies weak to fire, while Persona Master can make enemies weak to electric. At the end of the day, it will come down to what weaknesses you prefer to give enemies, based on your party composition.
It may seem strange to have the initial archetype of Masked Dancer over its evolution, Persona Master. And that is fair. But we believe that Masked Dancer has all the same benefits as Persona Master, while not having to spend Magla on a whole new archetype to level.
As mentioned in the Persona Master entry, these archetypes are pretty similar, the main difference being overall stats and synthesis skills. Masked Dancer lets you make enemies weak to fire, and both archetypes come with heavy fire damage spells. What this means is you can wear whatever mask you want, while still keeping the fire spells that you can use after making enemies weak. So, overall, we believe Masked Dancer to be the better option if you have to choose between the two.
The Elite Archetype for the Healer lineage, the Savior is the pinnacle of the healer. This archetype will give you access to healing the entire party at once, as well as heavy light damage, and most importantly, healing every ally’s status ailment at once.
Status ailments are a big deal in this game, and in the late game, enemies will be inflicting them on multiple party members. The ability to heal them all at once in one turn is amazing. Plus, you can inherit the ability to revive party members from the Cleric, so you will have access to all of the most important supportive spells.
The Summoner comes alongside party member Eupha, and it is a powerful addition to your arsenal of archetypes. The Summoner allows you to, well, summon various entities to your side and cause devastating attacks. These can range from elemental attacks to physical attacks, and even some that apply statuses.
On top of the amazing variety of spells you can cast, even including healing spells, the ability to cast these summons is not limited to your archetype level; rather, it is based on using Special Experiments with More to craft the summons and add them to your spell pool. This means you aren’t limited by grinding levels, but just having the right materials, some of which you can even purchase from vendors.
What’s better than the Summoner? The Devil Summoner, of course. With this Elite Archetype of the Summoner, you will get some different skills, such as switching your wind damage spell with an electric damage spell and unlocking devastating new synthesis skills.
This is a direct upgrade to the Summoner, and if there are specific skills you liked on the Summoner, such as group healing, and you don’t have a dedicated healer in the group, you can just inherit that skill to the Devil Summoner. Whether you go all-out with the Devil Summoner or stick to the original Summoner, these are the strongest magic-based archetypes you can have on your team.
