5/5 ★ – asoola's review of Metaphor: ReFantazio.

Metaphor: ReFantazio is a tale about heroes, facing your fear and anxiety, and most importantly hope and dreams. And what an unforgettable tale it is! I finally experienced and finished the game today and not enough words will explain how much I love this game seriously. The story and the storytelling is spectacular! The characters, the protagonist and antagonist were all likable and written extraordinarily well. The world of Metaphor and its lore is something that I loved learning about and I loved exploring the world. The gameplay is very enjoyable and engaging from the game’s combat to the daily life gameplay everything is enjoyable and fun to play, the music in the game is easily one of the best composed soundtracks I heard in a game! Am I exaggerating about how well done this game is? I don’t think so because every time I played more of the game I fell in love with it more and more. I said the story is spectacular but I’ll talk a bit more in detail about it so major spoilers will be included! It’s so well done and each plot twist is unexpected but at the same time it’s written well. Like who would’ve thought Will is The Prince’s soul given form? Not me! It wasn’t just this plot twist that was unexpected there’s lots of unexpected and well written twists and turns in the plot and they all made sense with the foreshadowing that was present from the moment I controlled Will (the protagonist). Even stuff like More being The King or him invoking the royal magic when he died, when Will arrive at Grand Trad a message will appear in archaic text yeah that was the royal magic that More invoked. Plot twists aside the story itself is very good and it ended on a good note the overall theme of the game is definitely facing one’s fear and anxiety, and how a random fantasy you thought would never come true have the power to become a powerful dream to change the world around you and I love that message personally! Will is king now and while not everything is magically fine now (I love how realistic it was) things got better and they’ll only continue on getting better when Will second journey that he started at the end ends. One of the best story in gaming that’s for sure. The ending especially when More comes back to talk to me made me feel emotional that I teared up I don’t remember a game making me cry that much because the character thanked the player (me) for guiding the protagonist but here I am. It’s just such an extraordinarily powerful and well written ending. All of the characters as I said are written extraordinarily well but what I loved the most is their storyline is expanded upon with the Followers mechanic. For example I’ll use Hulkenberg as an example in the main story we obviously get to know more about her and how she came to Grand Trad again but in her Follower storyline we get to know more about her backstory, insecurities, and fear. And all of the characters are like that they’re all given extra storyline thanks to the Followers mechanic to expand more on the character! Don’t get me wrong though all of the main characters are handled well in the main story and I loved how each character story is introduced and how they join the quest but it’s nice to have them tackle their fears and anxieties over things that weren’t mentioned in the main story and overcome them! I think that’s why I love the Follower mechanic even more. All characters as I said are likable and to be honest I loved all of the 14 characters that ended up being followers that I can’t pick one favorite because I love all of them and all of them are memorable. Followers aside the world of Metaphor is filled with rich and memorable characters which is fantastic! Special mention to More I know he’s a Follower but I love that guy so much I always was intrigued by his character to the point where I theorized correctly that he’s the King and even though I guessed it seeing it confirmed seeing more act like a father made me jump out of my seat with excitement that’s for sure. He’s such a well written character and I think he was the catalyst that started this game’s journey. Protagonist talk time, I absolutely love Will. Before I start that’s what I named him because I heard that’s his canon name and after knowing his entire backstory it’s fitting isn’t it! That aside I genuinely think he’s a fantastic protagonist his ideals is one of the many reasons that I love him as protagonist despite being royalty he still wanted the people to choose him because of what he does not who he is! He cares deeply about everyone that he truly means it when he says he wants to change the world. And I had a blast guiding him through his journey and to be honest I may have guided him a bit but there’s times when I don’t have a choice to make and he still is an idealist and good guy. When he became king yeah I felt like a proud mom to be honest. In conclusion he’s a fantastic protagonist and I love him. Antagonist talk time because this review won’t be complete if I didn’t talk about Louis Guiabern! He’s a well written, complex, and fantastic antagonist I think! Do I feel bad for him for the things he endured as a child? Yes, he watched his home being burned down and was blamed for things he didn’t do and I’m sad that he lost the ability to be hopeful and dream and instead he drowned in his own anxieties and fear but I don’t think that justifies the things he did. He and Will are two sides of the same coin really both of them dealt with many hardships as children but while Will prevailed and decided to continue dreaming and connect with people, Louis gave up and disconnected from the people around him he decided to believe in power above all else because from how I see it he didn’t want to feel powerless again. He had a great end I think he believed in his world and vision above all else and he at the end he became a Human. It’s ironic really because he said it’s natural selection to those who don’t overcome their overwhelming magla but it ended up happening to him. His tale is a tragic one really and I think it completes Metaphor story and how the world needs to be better not worse. Gameplay & soundtrack talk time, I did mention how enjoyable the game is and I mean that there’s so much to do and the game is extremely generous with the free time to complete everything you can and as I said the combat is so fun to play! That aside I love the UI and how well designed the game is! The game itself looks appealing and pleasing to the eye! I said the soundtrack is the best composed soundtrack in gaming and let me tell you there’s some tracks that elevated the scenes and made them more emotional and there’s times where I just wanted to take time and relax with the music without moving for example when I reached Virga Island. Not only is the story, world, lore and characters are well done but so is the gameplay and soundtrack. That’s all I wanted to say but not enough words are enough to describe how much I love this game and how much this story will always be with me and always be remembered by me, and maybe that’s what More meant when he told me “I hope that fantasy gives you strength” because I do feel more like a dreamer and my dreams aren’t out of reach. Until next time, Metaphor: ReFantazio and when Will needs me I shall come back as The Great Seeker, Aseel. 🤍