Metaphor: ReFantazio

Originally announced a year ago, a new concept trailer has been shown off recently:

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Just from a first look, I'd say it's about a LARP session gone wrong but it looks interesting.

Wake me up at your own risk.

They actually hired non-Japanese actors for this.

Mileena Madness

...

Okay, the LARP bit was weird already, but then we have a guy from medieval times essentially talking about a 21st century city?

Whaaaaat?

There's another video showing the knight guy eating. That's it. Your guess is as good as mine.

Based on the trailer in the first trailer, I'm assuming the premise is something along the lines of: people of the fantasy world, or at least the author of that book, have dreams of escaping the constant violence and war that tends to exist in the fantasy genre, which is seemingly endless. In this case, there seems be an "other tribe", and that tribe's existence is seen as some sort of cause for war (I'm guessing this tribe somehow allowed magic to exist and that's the cause of a lot of strife). The author proposes a world that where everyone is "one tribe", and envisions that world without any need for magic. That world would be free of war, and people would grow in a way that we, here in reality, consider mundane: humanity gains knowledge and builds cultures and societies based on that alone.

Then, we're suddenly shown a bunch of actual people in various fantasy costumes. However, the details we're shown for each are pretty... well, negative, in my opinion. Other than their class, we are also given their nature and aspirations. But both of these are written as if they're describing the players as much as they could be considered background info for the character roles the people are playing. I mean, a cleric who's described as "Ressimental", and desires the banishment of all species? A apathetic, mute warrior who wants to stop existing? A Lord who's actually an attention-seeking loner who dreams of being part of the elite?

I don't LARP, and I don't even play DnD, or any RPG where you can create backstories for your characters, but while I can believe that these details really could just be describing roleplay characters, the way that trailer is presented makes me think that there's more to it than that, particularly because their natures and aspirations are so gloomy and fit each other so well. The way I see it, the Fantasy World author wants a unified world without war and magic, and where knowledge and ingenuity are what guides people into a better life (and coincidentally, this leads to our modern society, albeit idealized, which could also be the point). While the LARPers can all be inferred, in various ways, to dislike and/or not want to live in the world that they're in (basically, reality) and want to escape into a fantasy.

I think the ending text says enough about what kind of game, or at least what kind of narrative, to anticipate: an RPG designed to have us rethink fantasy.

All that said, this sounds like a pretty ambitious project if I'm assuming all that's anywhere near correct. Another idea for a game designed more to be an experience rather than as a game, like say, Spec Ops or Undertale? Or perhaps just a game with a narrative that covers uncomfortable themes, leaving an impression on gamers well after it's over, like both of the Nier games?

I'm interested to see where this leads. There's a few ways this project can turn out after that last couple of trailers, and hell, it may even go as far as Never Trust a Trailer territory, where the final product is nothing grand or ambitious at all. But I'll be keeping my eyes on this project, for now.

...Oh, and the fact that this is being called a project in the first place makes me wonder if there's more than just a game on the way (and before anyone says it, I'm aware that singular works with no other side materials planned can be called "projects" too).

Guy talking about hope gave me Dangan Ronpa vibes.

Kazutaka Kodaka was one of the guys on the livesteam to the reveal of the project last year alongside yoko taro, afterall.

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Well, to be quite honest, I think that trailer was still way too vague to really tell us anything. "Rethinking fantasy" is a really nebulous conceit; it could be a great ambitious game, or it could just mean that regardless of their aims the sum of the game's parts will make for a fairly conventional (if still solid) JRPG anyways.

edited 23rd Dec '17 10:40:38 PM by Draghinazzo

the knight eating the pigeon was a pretty amusing shitpost styled vid, though.

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Where did they even get the pigeon? It's not like they were at a local Medieval Times...

The New Age of Awesome is here! Not even the sky is the limit!

That trailer was rather poorly translated. For example, the warrior's aspiration was translated as "cease to exist" when it was more "vanish into the night." I would interpret that as "desertion." Fighting a war sucks.

With that in mind, I don't see this as having anything even remotely to do with LARPers. The people being profiled were the residents of the fantasy world. The warrior is a coward drafted into a battle they have no stake in. The cleric is a religious extremist who wants to exterminate all other races. Which, incidentally, is what they mean by "tribe" throughout the trailer. Orcs and elves and kobolds and whatever, the classic "fantasy races" thing. Although I guess translating it as "race" in this context would also be misleading.

The one and only theme here is that life in a fantasy world, as commonly imagined, kind of sucks. And that to such a person, our modern world where everyone is equally human and treated equally by the law must seem like a fantasy. IEL Fiction. The narrator is writing his fanciful story of a world with none of the problems he sees in his own, and it resembles ours. I have no insights into how this way of reexamining fantasy would translate into a good game, but I have some faith in Atlus.

edited 24th Dec '17 2:00:44 AM by Clarste

Its Alive, with a new name, Metaphore Re Fantazio:

2024 release, probably later in the year then Persona 3 reload.

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Changed the title to Metaphor: ReFantazio

Edited by MacronNotes on Jun 11th 2023 at 3:40:18 PM

Macron's notes

Man, this game will have had 8 years in development overall, thats nuts for an Atlus Title.

Thats even more then SMTV did with its 4 years.

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Is the pigeon-eating knight still in this that's what I want to know.

Bleye knows Sabers.

Oh hey some guys that look like the Five Elders from One Piece, I wonder if they're the baddies?

The pig of Hufflepuff pulsed like a large bullfrog. Dumbledore smiled at it, and placed his hand on its head: "You are Hagrid now."

Game has a page now, btw.

Does anyone mind if I add a WMG page? I have a theory or two myself, not to mention all the backlog of speculation from the 6 years after the initial tease.

It's time to face your fears

I don't see why you can't.

Ok then

It's time to face your fears

Developer Interview with some extended segments of game footage:

Since this will be later in 2024, I hope Studio Zero is able to optimize the game better, because you can tell the development is still earlier with how much it chugs (I could see it skipping the Switch and moving to Nintendo's next Console).

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The Game Awards trailer from last night.

It already looks so much more optimized then in the Summer trailers.

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This trailer makes it even more clear than ever that Humans are likely monsters in the game. Since one human razed a place during the old Kings reign, and there’s more enemy monsters labeled with the genus Homo.

Every accusation by the GOP is ALWAYS a confession.

Showcase stream starting up.

Need to watch it later, I hope its weird

Humans truly are the real monsters.

Every accusation by the GOP is ALWAYS a confession.