Metaphor: ReFantazio ‘ATLUS Exclusive’ introduces locations, traveling on the gauntlet runner, quest dungeons, and Eupha

Publisher ATLUS and developer Studio Zero have released the fifth “ATLUS Exclusive” showcase video for Metaphor: ReFantazio, which introduces several locations players will visit, traveling on the gauntlet runner, quest dungeons, and new party member Eupha.

Metaphor: ReFantazio is due out for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PlayStation 4, and PC via Steam and Microsoft Store on October 11.

Watch the footage below, including a full transcript.

Extended Travel Beyond Fantasy Trailer

English

Japanese

ATLUS Exclusive 5 Showcase

English

Japanese

■ Introduction

Hello everyone, I’m Katsura Hashino, the director of Metaphor: ReFantazio. My representative works include Shin Megami Tensei III, Persona 3, 4, and 5.

In previous showcases, we’ve revealed the general flow of the game, as well as the combat and story elements. In this ATLUS-exclusive showcase, World Tour Edition, we will be going over the “journey” aspects, a wonderful hallmark of fantasy RPGs.

The journey gameplay is what uniquely sets this game apart from the Persona and Shin Megami Tensei series. I’m extremely excited to share the details with you all. For today’s Exclusive Showcase, World Tour Edition, I’ll be sharing brand new, never-before-seen content. For RPG fans as well as those who are first learning about Metaphor through this showcase, I hope you see the fun adventure you can experience through this game.

Without further ado, let us depart to the world of Metaphor: ReFantazio. I hope you stick with us until the very end.

■ The Start of the Journey

First, let us start by reviewing the beginning of the game: the story is set in the United Kingdom of Euchronia. The protagonist is on a mission with his fairy companion, Galica, to save his friend, the prince, from a curse. During his journey, he awakens an Archetype, The Seeker. In order to save the prince, he has to defeat the person who cast it. And not only did they curse the prince, the culprit also assassinated the king. The protagonist travels to the Royal Capital to take him down.

However, upon the king’s death, the king evoked royal magic, which began the Royal Tournament, where the people’s faith is the key to select the next king. As a result, the entire kingdom is thrown into chaos. In all the turmoil, the protagonist makes the decision to participate in the Royal Tournament for the throne, to catch the culprit, Louis. This is how they begin their battle—a journey that takes them all across the kingdom, traveling on a mechanical carriage called the Gauntlet Runner.

■ Old Castle Town Martira

This is a town out in the countryside that the party visits in the beginning of the story. While we designed the game to incrementally increase freedoms for the player, obtaining a Gauntlet Runner after the story prologue increases the player’s ability to travel around.

Let’s explore the town. At each destination are activities unique to that area. In this town, there’s a test of courage where you bungee jump up a cliff. You can also do things like milk cows. Through these activities, you can increase your virtues as a traveler. Increasing these virtues enables you to take on new requests.

It’s up to you, the player, on how you want to spend every single day of your journey before encountering your main quest. Leading up to your main quests, you can strengthen your forces by completing side quests, increase your bonds with your followers, or do activities that increase the protagonist’s virtues. You have the freedom to choose what you want to do each day, much like real life.

If you want to improve your fighting abilities, you can visit the recruitment center to accept side requests called bounties to exterminate monsters. We took on a request to exterminate a monster called Valmo. You get information on its whereabouts, but there’s no need to head out immediately if you’re not prepared for the fight.

This person standing outside looks like he has a request for us. We’ve been asked to buy something from a nearby town. There’s a stop on the way to the labyrinth where the Valmo is, for the extermination request we took on. There’s a lot of people in town that have information. There’s some who will talk to you about the main quest, but in this town, you can also ask about the town’s specialties. Among these people, the informant is particularly valuable for getting intel. They’re useful resources, as you can learn more about rumors as well as the habits of monsters that you might come across. But the information costs money. If you’re confident in your fighting abilities, you could choose to tackle enemies without buying the information beforehand.

Here’s someone who can tell us about how the Royal Tournament is going. The protagonist’s goal is to get closer to Louis, who also has the ability to become king himself because of the royal magic. Let’s see what our current standing is. Looks like we’re quite a ways from being in the public eye. This ranking changes through story development, but it also increases through completing quests.

As you can see, the player has a lot of options on how they want to spend each day of their journey. You can use the online feature, Traveler’s Voices, to see how other players spent that day. You can also use it to reference the party formations of other players who beat the quest you’re tackling. Each player will have their own day-to-day way of progressing through their journey as they move through the story, which is one of the true charms Metaphor offers.

Let’s move on and see how it’s like to travel on a Gauntlet Runner.

■ Traveling on the Gauntlet Runner

Expeditions on the Gauntlet Runner

When you open the map, your allies will give advice on destinations and tell you what the schedule will be. We have two requests to do in Komero, so let’s head there.

It’s dangerous outside of town, so traveling is done by Gauntlet Runner. While on the road, you can do things you might do in real life when on a camper van, such as reading or cooking. How you perform in battle can vary greatly depending on how you decide to prepare yourself while en route somewhere.

Passing Time in the Gauntlet Runner

Your allies have their own things they do while on the Gauntlet Runner. Let’s try talking to Strohl to see what he’s up to. He invited us to do weapon maintenance with him. It looks like maintaining your weapon hones your Courage. By improving your virtues like this, others’ perception of the protagonist changes. It’s particularly indispensable for gaining cooperation from your Followers, so we should do what we can to raise these virtues.

Players are free to choose how they spend their time while on the gauntlet runner. You can make special items in the kitchen, or even do laundry with your allies. Looks like we found an item from the laundry; someone must have been hiding it.

Like how you spend time in town, players can choose what to do and enjoy their journey at a smooth pace. You can also stop by a nearby village if there is one. We got something; let’s go hand it to our ally right away.

We’ve finished our request from Neuras, the gauntlet runner engineer. Thanks to that, we awakened the Gunner Archetype. Completing quests like this is an important factor for deepening your bonds with your followers.

Let’s go buy the eggs that someone requested we get for them. They’re also selling bath salts that you can’t find in town. You can buy valuable items like this on your travels, so you should try visiting as many places as you can.

■ Quest Dungeons

Looks like the gauntlet runner arrived at the labyrinth called “Man-Eater’s Grotto.” Let’s try channeling that Gunner Archetype we just got. The Gunner can attack quickly from afar in Fast Battle, so it’s relatively easy to get an advantage and move to a Squad Battle, even for those who aren’t that good with real-time action.

In Squad Battle, the Gunner shoots ranged physical attacks and also maintains its attack power from the back row. One of the benefits of improving your bonds with your followers is that you can obtain new Archetypes, which gives you more strategies to use in battle in addition to unlocking all kinds of useful abilities you can use in battle.

By the way, you can always return to your base town from the dungeon in an instant, so if you feel underleveled, you can always retreat. If you can’t complete a dungeon within a day, you can set up camp in front of the dungeon and go back to tackling it the next day. However, don’t get too distracted on tackling dungeons that you forget the time limit for your main mission.

In the Belly of the Worm

What we just looked at were dungeons for the mini side quests we have in store for you, but let’s take a look at another kind of dungeon as well. Here’s a first look at a main quest dungeon: it’s the belly of a giant worm, believe it or not! It’s a dungeon with a special time limit since you have to escape before you get digested and dissolve.

There are a lot of creative fantasy dungeons that await you on your journey in Metaphor. We’ve prepared a lot of dungeons, big and small, and we hope you look forward to them. Now then, let’s continue on with the main quest.

Now then, let’s continue on with our journey!

■ Port Brilehaven

Here’s a first look at the town, Port Brilehaven. It’s a lively port town where sailors come and go. First, let’s head towards the port itself. You can see a lot of street stalls lined up.

Let’s take a look at the armor shop. Thanks to one of my followers’ abilities, I can get a discount here. And after talking to the owner, it seems like there’ll be a sale soon.

Here’s the port area. There’s some strange balls of water. There are a lot of strange sights throughout the area of Brilehaven. There’s also a coliseum further inside the city. Can you tell how many things are in store for you to do?

Let’s keep walking. Now we’re in the area where the tavern is. There are a lot of inns, too. Business is booming from people coming in for the Royal Tournament for the throne.

Here is a seafood restaurant, which you might expect from an ocean town.

The more you progress through the story, the more there is for you to do. If you’re unsure about what to do, you can always press teh Ask Gallica button to ask your fairy companion for advice. She’ll always help show you around, like a concierge for your travels.

■ Travel Routines

Planning Your Travel Route

Your travel map will slowly get more and more complex. As you can see on this screen, there are multiple routes you can take to get to the same location. If you visit multiple places in one stretch, the number of days you use will decrease proportionally, but you may end up needing to tackle battle after battle, so you’ll need the power to match. Planning your travel route is another area of the game where you’ll have to strategize carefully.

Campsites

Despite how tough gauntlet runners are, it’s still dangerous to go around at night because of the monsters running free. So at night, the party pause their travels and rest up at a campsite. Here, you can take your pick of nighttime activities, such as having a relaxed conversation with your allies, or taking a bath.

Let’s try taking a soak in the cask tub at the back of the deck. While we’re at it, let’s use the bath salt that we bought at one of the villages before. It has a relaxing effect, which increased the protagonist’s stats. By the way, there are different kinds of bath salts available, which you can find as you travel throughout the land.

Encountering the Scenic Sights

Looks like we came across something. Another pleasure of traveling is coming across scenic sights you’d only see in another world. An ally will draw you a commemoration sketch. If you give it to one of your Followers, a young girl who’s awaiting your return in Grand Trad, will be happy.

■ The Uncharted Isle: Virga Island

Here’s another location reveal: a place called Virga Island. On this island, you can enjoy unique tracks themed after religious music composed by Shoji Meguro, who is well known for his work on the Persona series.

Here, the protagonist makes yet another new encounter. Her name is Eupha, a new ally that’s only now being revealed in this showcase. I wonder what role she plays in the protagonist’s journey. I hope you look forward to learning more about her in the future.

■ Review

So, what do you think? If you had to actually go on a long journey in real life, it wouldn’t be a simple endeavor. Taking that into account, we hope that you enjoy the journey of Metaphor, where you can travel as you please in the comfort of your own home.

Though we’ve largely focused on the profound fantasy elements Metaphor, simply, it is also a game filled with the joys of traveling from town to town, an element we hope for in fantasy RPGs.

Though this title is a rare attempt from us at the fantasy genre, we aim to make this a culmination of the efforts in our previous RPGs.

We hope everyone, including fans familiar with Persona and Shin Megami Tensei, as well as those who love fantasy RPGs, enjoys playing Metaphor.

We’ve shared information on Metaphor‘s world setting and story, battle system, and other aspects of the game in other Showcases. Please feel free to take a look at those if you haven’t already.

The next Exclusive Showcase coming out this fall will reveal exciting new information. Please look forward to it. In addition, Tokyo Game Show 2024 is taking place this fall, and we will be having a large exhibit where we’ll offer a hands-on game experience of Metaphor: ReFantazio. On top of being able to experience the journey gameplay like we introduced today, there will also be another special demo available to play at the event. We’ll release more details related to the event in the future. We look forward to seeing you at Tokyo Game Show.

Once again, Metaphor is scheduled for release this fall on October 11, 2024. Both the physical and digital editions are available for pre-orders, so please pre-order your copy or add it to your wishlist. Along with the standard edition, a Digital Deluxe Edition commemorating the 35th anniversary of the ATLUS brand is also available.

See you at the next ATLUS Exclusive Showcase. Thank you very much for your time today.