Metaphor ReFantazio Prologue

So I played the demo of the new game from the Persona team, Metaphor ReFantazio. Most of it anyway. I won’t be buying it. Normally I wouldn’t want to post a negative review of anything, but I think my reasons behind that decision are interesting and say something about my identity. So here we are.

I’m about 7 hours in. Many of my favorite games are not much longer than that. The opening 5 hours did not include much meaningful gameplay. A little bit of tutorial. A lot of exposition. I do play some long games too though, and I expected the big epic start.

I was very much on the fence about this game. Persona 5 is one of my favorite games of all time. And so I was excited to play a new story using the Persona style mechanics - building relationships, building character traits, living with a day-night cycle. But even the early trailers made it clear that this was not my usual kind of story. I wasn’t sure how I would deal the grim dark world of Metaphor.

I played Persona 5 in a very specific way. I lived it. One day at a time over months. One day in game for every day in real life. No fast travel. I synced my experience as close as I could to the experience of the main character. And I loved it.

Over the course of the better part of a year my life blended in with the lives of the Phantom Thieves. And I grew attached to even the smallest nooks and crannies of their particular corner of urban Japan. A place where I wanted to be and there was so much to do.

Persona 5 had a permanent impact on my life. I learned how to make priorities in my after work activities. I started taking public transit more. I tried out the local batting cages. I stopped by the local fishing pond. I wanted my life to be closer to the one in the game.

And that, for me, is where Metaphor falls apart. It’s world is hostile to everyone in general and to the main character specifically. You are not supposed to like this world. And therefore I can’t imagine voluntarily spending months of my life in it.

Virtually all of my favorite games fall into one of two categories: a box of toys to play with, or an amazing world to be in. Games like Quake, and Street Fighter are toy boxes - a set of fun rules to explore which stand on their own. Games like VA-11 Hall-A, and Jet Set Radio are the second type, where the world carries the game.

Few games manage both at the same time. I do believe Persona 5 is one of those games, but the Persona mechanics are too closely tied to the game world to carry a game on their own. But they might do so for others.

Of course the need for a world to be welcoming and happy says other things about me as well. Plenty of people loved Game of Thrones, but I couldn’t tolerate it. I often say it falls into the “horrible people being horrible to each other” genre. A genre which seems to be quite popular, but one which I have never enjoyed.

Perhaps my distaste means I’m hedonistic. Or maybe I’m dealing with enough problems already that I don’t need fictional ones. Or maybe I’m just getting old - although I’ve seen no evidence of age correlation with Game of Thrones fandom. But I think it means that I’m constantly seeking out new ways of being and these works very rarely offer a vision of life beyond stoicism.

In contrast, slice of life, my favorite genre, offers constant new experiences and ways of life to try. The characters show enormously varied ways of being that are often actionable for me personally. I learned how to swim after watching Free! and went camping after watching Laid Back Camp. And my favorite games reflect this, providing views into ways of being that I can translate to my real life.

Perhaps I should give Metaphor a better chance. I’m sure it has a message to send and characters to grow. But it is buried in a world that I just don’t want to live in, and it demonstrates a way of life that I feel like I’ve seen too many times before. So, for now, I’ll be playing other things.