ReFantazio is a persona without all the ugly baggage

Over the years personathe high school social sim RPG series from Atlus, captured my heart as the epitome of the power of friendship games. The games say a lot about human relationships as they follow high school students trying to save the world while still studying for their final exams. But even as the series promotes progressive ideals like accepting one's true self and destroying corrupt systems, it has always found a way to attack the people it should champion. That worried me Metaphor: ReFantaziothe new fantasy role-playing game about a high-risk choice, would fall into the same trap. I'm happy to report that it doesn't, and in fact goes out of its way to subvert the tropes its predecessors were fed into.

Mild non-story spoilers for Metaphor: ReFantazio consequences.

The persona The series has a history of degrading queer people and women, even as it spends large portions of its running time speaking out against the systems that oppress these people. Persona 5 Gay men were notoriously portrayed as predators while most of the game was spent standing up for those in power. It also happened that a young girl was sexually abused by her teacher just for the game Men keep staring at her during the remaining 100 hour running time. Persona 3 had an unnecessary trans panic scene. Persona 4 begins to engage in meaningful discussions about gender roles before moving on to homophobic jokes and gender absolutism. Catherinea puzzle/dating sim detour, has its own chaotic trans plot that the team tried to interrogate in the Full body Re-release, but made it Hop on multiple rakes along the way.

In recent years, persona has started to compensate for these problems in games Persona 5 Tactical And Reload Persona 3. tactics allows the player express romantic interest in men without it becoming a joke. Reload complete retools the trans panic scene leaving out the part where three high school kids run in fear from a woman with stubble, and making some relationships explicitly queer. Even though it still worked within the framework of the original story and therefore didn't really offer gay romance options, I at least felt like it could be the case with Atlus friendlier for queer people Persona 6. This game hasn't happened yet, but Metaphor: ReFantazio is here, and at least it doesn't exert the same derailing queerphobia.

Apart from that, metaphor is a pretty genderless game, and there isn't much romance to speak of. There's a strongly implied romance at the end of one of his followers' stories, but even that can be played off as one-sided if you want. So the game isn't making any progress in the way Atlus represents queer people in its world, it's just not about making weird left turns to hurt them. On the other hand, the move away from romance in its social sim elements means that the women you befriend in the role-playing game won't be drawn into the same dehumanizing, lewd, and reductive friendship paths persona has become known for. Actually, metaphor does everything possible to undermine this expectation early on.

The scene that best captures this was in the early hours of the game, when Neuras, the group's pilot, can be seen clearly excited in the background as the group meets a famous singer named Junah. She's clearly loved by everyone in the world of Euchronia, and since fans can't give celebrities personal space, I was expecting the older man to be a creep towards her. However, I immediately relaxed my temper when Neuras ran not to her but to her ship to tell her how advanced it was compared to the average model. To my surprise and delight, it was Hulkenberg, the game's mostly stoic knight, who instead (respectfully) fangirled over Junah. The scene was clearly based on the expectation that it would fall into the same skeevy tropes as games persona only to come out the other side and endear myself to two characters I've already grown fond of.

In total, metaphor feels like a more sophisticated and mature take on the themes Atlus has explored persona Without the asterisks I usually have to add at the end of a recommendation. Omitting these storylines isn't as forward-thinking as thoughtfully including them, but I'm glad Atlus is learning lessons from the years this crap has plagued otherwise great games.