As of today, players can finally enjoy Metaphor: ReFantazio on Switch 2. The game, originally released on PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC in October 2024, is one of the biggest projects from Atlus to date, and one of the few serious projects to not fall within its popular Persona and Shin Megami Tensei franchises.
Metaphor: ReFantazio begins with the murder of a somewhat respected king, who returns with god-like powers, as a floating entity in the sky who overseas the ensuing battle for succession. Working as a candidate for the throne, you'll wander the land in search of allies, stopping evil and growing support from the populace before things get dire enough that you endure a final showdown with evil.
It's a long, frequently fascinating adventure, one that feels quite a bit like Persona while offering enough differences to surprise and delight. I mostly enjoyed it, though not as much as many others who reviewed it and recognized it with wins at The Game Awards.
"A mostly brilliant and tense fantasy with a compelling message," I wrote in my review here at HonestGamers, "marred by unexpected bloat at the eleventh hour..."
On Switch 2, Metaphor: ReFantazio has fewer hardware resources than usual, so it will be interesting to see how it looks during some of the more spectacular moments the lengthy campaign contains. I suspect that if you've already played it on PlayStation 5 or PC, you won't find much cause to go through it again, but plenty of Nintendo players are likely to finally enjoy it for the first time.
Credit: Atlus/SEGA
According to a press release issued to mark the occasion, the standard edition of Metaphor: ReFantazio will now retail for $39.99 USD on all platforms. A digital guidebook edition retails for $49.99, and a $69.99 digital edition offers all sorts of exciting 1s and 0s that come together to form a history book, costumes, a soundtrack, and artwork. There's also a physical SteelBook edition, which I believe does not include the actual game on the cartridge. Alas.
For more information, check out the official Metaphor: ReFantazio web site and maybe learn what so many other critics loved about the game even more than I did.
