Die presentation by Las Night Metaphor: ReFantazio gave us a good insight into what we can expect from character creation in the game, as well as the relationship between the protagonist and the supporting characters (both friends and enemies) and how this will affect the game’s narrative.
Katsura Hashino, the game’s director and the main person in charge of presenting each new feature in these livestreams, began by giving a brief overview of the story in the opening moments of Metaphor: ReFantazio, setting our protagonist on a mission to defeat Louis, the murderer of the monarch of Euchronia who had planned a coup. Suddenly, a giant face, presumably of the deceased king, appears in the sky and tasks all citizens with the task of gaining enough support to become the next king. To ensure that all candidates are eligible to participate without chaos spreading across the continent, the tournament for the throne is announced.
To keep track of progress, the popularity rank of the protagonist in his race for the throne will always be visible at the touch of a button in the game, although it does not fluctuate in real time. It is just a detail to keep track of where we are in the story. Popularity will naturally increase as the population feels the impact of our actions, either through speeches or through concrete actions and side quests.
In the tournament for the throne, the main opponents for us, the protagonist, are Forben and Louis. Both have great support, either through experience or through the strategy of terror, and they will be antagonists in the game, but they will not be the only ones. We also meet here Gideaux, who is not a candidate for the throne but wants to overthrow the protagonist over a racial issue, as well as many other secondary “villains” and pretenders to the throne. Glodell, Milo, Loveless, Rudolph, Lina, Goddard, Roger, Jin, Julian… It goes without saying that in Metaphor: ReFantazio, social themes such as class struggle and racism are an integral part of the game’s story, and the protagonist will have a diverse group of companions from all these different species. At the presentation, it was confirmed that some of these characters, who were enemies at first, could eventually become important allies for our cause, so it’s best not to judge too much for now.
In addition to these rivals, we have the possibility of gaining followers, characters who will not be companions when we form the group to fight and explore the world, but whose social bonds allow us to unlock new archetypes that we can use in combat. And don’t forget that certain enemies are only affected by one or a few of the 40 types of archetypes that appear in the game, so the better we get along with everyone, the better.
In any case, the introduction of so many relevant characters can only mean one thing: we’re going to have a very, very long story ahead of us when the game releases on October 11th.
