Metaphor: Refantazio

Fantasy is a powerful thing. It can unite cultures, or divide the world. It can cause emotions of various levels, each of which more different and complicated than the last. Fantasy invites us to believe in a world that never existed, except in the mind of the creatives themselves. It is the authors job to sell the world to us, and make it convincing enough to truly care. The game invites you in at its initial opening with a question. "Do you believe that fantasy has the power to change the world?". I answered yes, but then I got to thinking "Why would the developers choose to even ask me this question in the first place?". With the narrator setting this tone for the game, before even moving into a cutscene or anything of the life, with this one simple question, it brought much more enjoyment to my experience of this game.

From the first hour of this game, it is clear that the game has one central theme. Discrimination. Now I don't know if I believe that Atlus is the best company to be telling this story, but they do a fine enough job that it is believable in the world we are given. Discrimination by race, religion, and status are all big parts of the game, and almost no character in the story is excempt from this treatment. The main character is an Elda, this worlds most detested race, said to bring calamity whereever they go.

This theme permeates throughout the games story. As you progress, you collect a full party of individuals, all residing from different backgrounds, and each offering a different and unique world view. Now I've said nothing about the actual story for this game, and that's because I believe the story is just about the most simple part of this game. Your goal is to kill the guy who killed the prince and the king, Count Louis Guiabern, the prettiest boy at the ball.. During an assassination attempt, however, you learn it is impossible to assassinate him due to him being a candidate for the throne. It all gets a lil confusing, but to sum it up, you gotta get close to him and hopefully find a way to assassinate him. Best way to do this? Try and impress him by becoming a relavent candidate to take the throne.

And that is what I believe to be the most relevant topics in this game. There's much more to it, but I believe this game should be experienced by anyone who loves a good rpg. I refuse to say any specifics about the story simply because I dont believe theres much to say. The story isn't what got me through this game at all. It was it's world, the music, the characters, the combat, and everything in between.

When the credits rolled, I cried. Which I will add, this game does not have a sad ending, but it came out before the 2024 American election. Tensions were high. The narrator, who you only heard once when starting the game, comes back in one last time. He thanks you for playing, and truly just drops a message that brought me to tears. Not often do we get to hear the words from the developers on their games, but this message came across as personal, and truly hoping for everyone playing to be better off after finishing it. It dares to dream of a world where everyone gets along, and I believe that this world brought me strength going into the real world, which still fails to accept one another because of differences that are entirely inconcequential.

Thank you for reading.