Which is better – Metaphor: ReFantazio or Persona 3 Reload

summary

• ReFantazio excels at story, character and world building, making it a superior game to Persona 3: Reload.

• The world of ReFantazio is vast and immersive, with deep and well-developed characters.

• Persona 3: Reload shines in combat, dungeons, and social links, offering engaging gameplay elements despite pacing issues.

Metaphor: ReFantazio and Persona 3: Reload are both games developed by Atlus. Both of these games incorporated the Persona formula into their gameplay, while also introducing exciting new mechanics, but different factors come into play when deciding which of these games is the best.

While one game focuses on leveling archetypes, the other emphasizes collecting and combining different personalities. Both of them had great dungeon exploration and turn-based combat mechanics that would keep you losing hours. Apart from the gameplay, the writing plays a decisive role in deciding the winner.

1

the story

Metaphor: ReFantazio

Metaphor: Refantazio had a strong storyline from the beginning of gameplay when Louis was shown murdering the king. Things escalate quickly, and your character is in dire situations from the get-go. You also lose party members during the early game. Near the end, the game had some great plot-twists to catch you off-guard.

Compared to Metaphor: ReFantazio, Persona 3: Reload feels a little slow in its pace, which is one of the game's biggest problems. Significant story events take a long time to occur, and the game doesn't have any significant story development until you're about halfway through the in-game year.

2

world-building

Metaphor: ReFantazio

Metaphor: ReFantazio has the largest world of all the Atlas games. The game feels like a journey as you go from one city to another to complete some important goals. Take breaks in between to enjoy the beautiful scenery as you travel on your gauntlet runner.

You can even explore the city riding your sword as if it were a skateboard.

In comparison, Persona 3: Reload was relatively short as the game takes place in a single city. You can only travel to certain areas using local trains. However, some occasional trips like the one to the beach gave the game some fresh perspective.

3

characters

Metaphor: ReFantazio

One of the strongest points in Metaphor: ReFantazio was its excellent character writing. In addition to your followers, many non-playable characters you meet have important roles to play in the events of the main plot. Characters like Rella and Joanna were really impressive and Lewis is a tough villain and one of the best Atlus has ever written.

Compared to Louis alone, the antagonists in Persona 3: Reload were not impressive, and their personalities were not as developed. Strega's goals lacked backstory depth as nothing was shown as motivation for their nihilistic goals. That said, Persona 3: Reload also features some great character development, with Shinji and Chidori's characters in particular being well written.

4

Dungeon designs

Tie

Both Metaphor: ReFantazio and Persona 3: Reload featured great dungeons to explore. However, those in Metaphor were too large to explore. You also encounter new dungeons and bosses during bounty missions and quests.

Enemies in Metaphor: ReFantazio are called humans, while Persona 3: Reload had shadows.

Personality 3: Reload special Tartarus where you can do some dungeon-crawling to get very strong. As you clear a few floors the design changes and gets more quirky each time. The art-style of the owners in both games was equally disappointing.

5

bond

Person 3: Reload

Personality 3: The social links with the characters in Reload felt much deeper. Mostly because they were long, and you needed to get close to them before ranking up to the next level. You can romance your favorite female character in the game forming an unshakable bond.

Compared to that metaphor: ReFantazio doesn't require you to get close to characters, and you'll level up when they're available to interact with. It also lacks romance with other characters. The choices don't really matter, because they'll just give you some extra magic instead of building a meaningful relationship with them.

6

fight

Tie

Atlus is known for experimenting with combat types and with each game they step things up a notch. Personality 3: Reload's combat is a significant improvement over the original game. New Theurgy mechanics are introduced, and you can powerfully hit opponents after charging up.

Metaphor: ReFantazio also adopted the existing Persona combat features and added something new to it. Instead of Personas, you had Archetypes, and you could assign different Archetypes to each character for more immersive combat. Experimenting with synthesis moves and skill inheritance was also a fun aspect.

7

winner

Metaphor: ReFantazio

After inspecting various gameplay elements, Metaphor: Refantazio emerged as the clear winner over Persona 3: Reload due to its excellent story, characters, and world-building. In the game, we saw one of the most intricately written plots with amazing character development.

That said, Persona 3: Reload also had strengths in its combat, dungeons, and social links. Exploring Tartarus and defeating the various shadows was fascinating. However, the game had some issues with the pacing of the main storyline and lacked depth in the development of some of the characters.