Atlus Metaphor: ReFantazio Thread - Atlus JRPG by Persona Veterans

[Amurada]

This game looks fuckin sick. Haven't been excited for a game purely off the visuals alone in ages.

Looking at that trailer, I’m guessing this game went through some major changes from when they were first showing stuff off to today, because that trailer doesn’t really look anything like the traditional high fantasy looking stuff they were showing off back in 2016 and 2017.

It would be a shame if all the art produced for the initial setting is just being tossed, love it when the Japs do a proper take on traditional western fantasy motifs. Wishful thinking, but it would be nice if they reappropriated it into a different title later on.

 

[d1r]

They butchered the character designs.

 

[Readher]

Six years of development and the game is just a Persona reskin with PS3 graphics. Two nukes were not enough.

 

[Falksi]

Agree that the Fantasy-Persona direction feels like a bit of a cop-out, but it's still the best thing to come out of the past few days gaming previews. Every time I watch the trailer I like it more.

 

[d1r]

Six years of development and the game is just a Persona reskin with PS3 graphics. Two nukes were not enough.

Especially funny because they advertised the game like that:

No Persona
No Megami Tensei
A completely new story!

 

[Readher]

Six years of development and the game is just a Persona reskin with PS3 graphics. Two nukes were not enough.

Especially funny because they advertised the game like that:

No Persona
No Megami Tensei
A completely new story!

Here's another good one.
Atlus Promises A Brand New Experience With Metaphor: ReFantazio

Images

Yeah, those reskinned Persona menus literally ooze new experience. Fuck Fatlus and fuck Hackshino. I'd have no problem with their output if their games took like 1–2 years to develop, like RGG's Yakuza games do, but they always take forever with development even though the games are just copy-paste and the graphics are 2 generations behind.

 

[Abu Antar]

As has been said earlier, game was most likely in development hell. This was probably the way to get something out.

 

[Readher]

As has been said earlier, game was most likely in development hell. This was probably the way to get something out.

Japs trying to deviate from what they're comfortable with challange (impossible).

Hackshino probably had all kind of wild ideas about what the game will be, but then realized he can't do anything but generic japslop, so this is what we've got in the end. Guy literally left the Persona team and built a new one, only to end up making another Persona. I refuse to believe this was the plan from the start.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

As has been said earlier, game was most likely in development hell. This was probably the way to get something out.

I wonder how much changed as far as gameplay ideas go? The old art, the group on the wagon, does seem to imply going on some long journey was part of the old idea for the game...and your Persona looking version of Howl’s Moving Castle would seem to feed into that same idea.

From a gameplay standpoint it’s possible nothing really changed from the version they were showing off back in 2016 and 2017 to today. You do have Persona looking things, but these could also just functionally be your Class. Knight, Fighter, Seeker; those just sound like classes. I’m just kind of disappointed the aesthetic of it all that Project Re Fantasy was wrapped in when they showing off concept art years ago has seemingly been discarded.

 

[Readher]

Courtesy of 4chan

Spoiler

 

[Hobo Elf]

As has been said earlier, game was most likely in development hell. This was probably the way to get something out.

I wonder how much changed as far as gameplay ideas go? The old art, the group on the wagon, does seem to imply going on some long journey was part of the old idea for the game...and your Persona looking version of Howl’s Moving Castle would seem to feed into that same idea.

From a gameplay standpoint it’s possible nothing really changed from the version they were showing off back in 2016 and 2017 to today. You do have Persona looking things, but these could also just functionally be your Class. Knight, Fighter, Seeker; those just sound like classes. I’m just kind of disappointed the aesthetic of it all that Project Re Fantasy was wrapped in when they showing off concept art years ago has seemingly been discarded.

Could be that the class name (or Archetype, as it seems to be what they are called in this game) corresponds to something that is the equivalent of Arcana.

 

[Readher]

Brand new IP. Totally new experience.

 

[oddech_wymarlych_swiatow]

Courtesy of 4chan

Spoiler

Remember when we were all waiting for SMT x Fire Emblem?

 

[karoliner]

I missed that it even has social links... Mr President please drop a third nuke.

 

[Readher]

Some translated comments from Japs about the game:

Spoiler

You said in the initial report that you were making a medieval royal fantasy.
Abachu Megaten style, human parameters, calendar, comic, P5 UI as it is.
To be frank, you're going to be very disappointed.

A "royal road fantasy RPG" that will be the third pillar of the game, different from Megaten Persona.
That was the concept, so why are you making something that looks like P6?

Stunned that it's not at all what I was expecting...
After showing a female knight in armour for so long, the persona variant is as good as it gets.

It feels like a lot of baked goods from various past productions.
I wonder if it's been in production for too long and got lost.

An old man in armour eating a single chicken.
I thought this looked promising when I saw the video.
You could have tried something a bit more adventurous.

A manufacturer that can only make personas anymore.
It's appalling that there's even a calendar.
What's with the royal fantasy?
It's just a fantasy version of Persona.

Sorry to those who lift Hashino.
That's all Hashino knows how to do.

After much hesitation, they decided that a fantasy version of Persona would be the best way to catch Persona fans.

I was excited about the illustrations in the first report.
Atlas hasn't been adventurous at all.

Hashino is no more...

That's because nobody would expect a Persona with only a different skin to come out with that PV and key bijou claims.

You can feel the sense that Atlus couldn't have an adventure because Persona is a dollar box.

Well, this PV creation itself is not in good taste.

I guess it's useless to look for novelty in new Atlus games anymore, like Soul Hackers 2.

In the end, Atlus couldn't make a royal fantasy.
It's really nothing more than P6.

Ideal
https://i.imgur.com/V6kQxk2.jpg (embed)
https://i.imgur.com/aEkRFoh.jpg (embed)
Reality
https://i.imgur.com/hbr5OoV.jpg (embed)
https://i.imgur.com/2XbI8KD.jpg (embed)

On the surface, it's a new IP, but they're using the same magic names and stuff...
I wonder if the normal monsters are the usual demons too.

Stella Deus, which was done in its own world, was buried without even being recognised, so they decided it would sell better to make it smell like a Persona derivative.

I liked the atmosphere better with the armoured elves and the concept art.
What came out was some kind of Naro fantasy otaku anime charade.
It's like they got tired of having to release it, so they just threw in a bunch of elements from past games.

The concept of the Re Fantasy project was something like "Creating a new fantasy world that has never existed before!" I thought it was something like
But from what I've seen, it looks like a typical Atlas RPG, which I can't say for certain.
I wondered if that's what it was going to end up being.

(Megaten + Persona) / 2 = Metaphor
Feels like this.
I don't feel anything new at all.

It's a Megaten series after all.
You should have said so from the start.

I guess they just fit it into P5's system to complete it in order to shape it and sell it anyway...
Atlus games have become so similar that I was expecting a new one, but I'm also disappointed.

If they said they were going to release Persona Gaiden, which is a fantasy-flavoured version of the usual Persona, and this is what they came out with, I can understand.
If you can't have adventures, don't start talking big from the beginning.

Couldn't they at least change the name of the magic?
It's too land-locked.

It's a different worldview than I expected, the system is almost persona and I'm already feeling very disappointed.
I was looking forward to it...

Didn't you say you were going to take the high road? It looks like the usual Atlas game.

And it's not what we said it would be, and I've seen the calendar and I'm deflated.

Interview at the time of the launch.
>The theme of the game is "a return to a true fantasy world".
>One of Atlus' long-standing challenges was the need to create new titles.
>Studio Zero is exactly what the name implies: starting from "zero".
Various things
With this statement, I don't think it's going to be a fantasy game that mixes a bit of modern flavour with the system from P5 and Mahatarkaja...

I'm glad to see they're not all lapping this bullshit up.

 

[frajaq]

this actually looks good

 

[Drowed]

I'll be honest, I played Persona 5 and it was one of the few games I've played to completion in the last 5 years, so... I will definitely play it, to say anything else would be a lie. And I imagine I'll enjoy it.

That said, it's a gigantic waste of an opportunity. From the initial art and what they said, everything indicated that they were trying to go in a completely new direction - all to be Persona 5 with a new skin, just a bit more confusing and "

".

It's kind of sad to see the direction the project has taken, even if the game ultimately ends up being good.

 

[lightbane]

It must be sad, to try so hard to get away from Persona and end up here back again.

 

[Elttharion]

Still no news saying if this is also coming to PS5 and Switch. Did Microsoft actually managed to make this a real exclusive?

 

[LarryTyphoid]

Not a big surprise that it turned into Persona. Anything touched by Persona devs is transmogrified into Persona, like the Midas touch. Just look at Catherine, which was completely devoid of the demonic supernatural elements before Atlus and Persona devs were brought on-board, even adding the Law/Chaos alignment system from SMT. And when they did a Catherine re-release, it was even more Persona with an additional love interest, as if it were a dating sim instead of a horror puzzle game.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

Not a big surprise that it turned into Persona. Anything touched by Persona devs is transmogrified into Persona, like the Midas touch. Just look at Catherine, which was completely devoid of the demonic supernatural elements before Atlus and Persona devs were brought on-board, even adding the Law/Chaos alignment system from SMT. And when they did a Catherine re-release, it was even more Persona with an additional love interest, as if it were a dating sim instead of a horror puzzle game.

There was never a point in the development of Catherine where the Persona developers weren’t on board. It’s a Persona spinoff, starring a character from Persona 3, and the whole reason they made it was to test the engine for Persona 5.

 

[LarryTyphoid]

There was never a point in the development of Catherine where the Persona developers weren’t on board.

Mmm, you're right, I heard before that the Persona devs were brought on later but I was wrong; the Persona 3 director was the original writer of the story, with his original story lacking the demonic, more SMT-like elements of the final game, but the other devs wanted to add that stuff to make Vincent more sympathetic, since the whole succubus thing meant that he never actually cheated on Katherine.

You're wrong in saying that it's a Persona spinoff, though, because Vincent was only added to Persona 3 Portable after the release of Catherine as a reference to that game. As far as I can tell, it was intended as a standalone story from the start, despite being helmed by the P3 director.

Regardless, it sure does seem like these guys are really dedicated to the same style and couple of mechanics for all their games. It was still novel to me when I played Catherine, but the reception this game's getting so far shows that a lot of people are sick of it by now.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

Persona 3 Portable came out a while before Catherine. Catherine came out in Japan February 2011, with P3P coming out in November 2009. I never played Persona 3, but I remember seeing screenshots of Vincent in the game before Catherine ever came out.

That’s not to say he wasn’t created for Catherine first, but being in Persona like that does still make it a spin-off of Persona just like backdoor pilot shows are still spin-offs of the thing they first showed up in.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

The weird thing about this game is at one point they were clearly going for a totally different style. I wonder what happened. It could be all kinds of things, from the team itself wanting to shift things into a less traditional fantasy vibe, (like it originally was) to some higher up wanting them to change it...when this game started development, (when it was in planning stage) Persona 5 wasn’t the hit it would become. Persona 5 didn’t even have it’s world wide release yet when they first started showing off the old concept art.


The concept art was always Shigenori Soejima too, so it’s not even like there was some artist change that brought on a shift in direction. There even was design stuff you could say fell more in line with Persona design wise, but they still had more of a traditional looking high fantasy element to them too.

I don’t know. Given some of the jackets people are wearing in the new trailer, maybe they just decided it should take place in a early 19th century setting as opposed to what they were doing before.

Even as far as 2018 they were still seemingly in the original art style. With the elf girl showing up in this Etrian Odyssey game.

 

[Elttharion]

Still no news saying if this is also coming to PS5 and Switch. Did Microsoft actually managed to make this a real exclusive?