My Game of the Year for 2024 is Metaphor: ReFantazio

Metaphor: ReFantazio's developers have shown that they are still brimming with ideas on how to innovate.

Metaphor: ReFantazio is another incredible Atlus and Sega collaberation / Atlus, Sega

All of last year, people kept calling 2023 the best year ever in gaming. Even I was doing it, and there were only a handful of games that really hooked me. This year is far more enticing to me with more 10/10 RPGs in a single year than I have seen in my lifetime. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Dragon’s Dogma 2, Unicorn Overlord, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, and Black Myth: Wukong, are just a handful of RPGs that launched this year that many would call the best game this year. But there’s one game that blew all of these away for me.

As a long-time fan of the Persona franchise, the tarot told me that I was going to love Metaphor: ReFantazio before it was first shown to the public. I love the strategy that can go into Persona’s battles, I love the focus on narrative and character development, and I love the mix of gameplay styles between strengthening your bonds and crawling dungeons. However, Persona has always been too strict. I’ve finished different versions of Persona 3 multiple times, and I’ve never maxed out my social ranks. I never get things together in time and it always feels bad. I’ve always wanted more freedom, and the opportunity to experience something other than the life of a Japanese high schooler.

Metaphor: ReFantazio / Atlus

Metaphor: ReFantazio refines everything that fans love about the Persona series. It gives you the freedom to decide how to spend your time, without the crippling anxiety of a crushing deadline. Not only do you have more room to breathe in your daily schedule, but there is more variety in how each day plays out. Instead of being restricted to one city, you can travel the world and discover new locations on the way. Time is spent not only with people or in dungeons, but you can also use the time to improve your virtues, craft items, or hang out with others.

Read more: Metaphor: ReFantazio review – Fantastic fantasy that makes the most of what came before

It’s hard not to make comparisons to the Persona series when discussing Metaphor: ReFantazio, particularly when it was created by many of the same developers. However, it’s so much more than Persona in a high-fantasy world. Yes, the setting is very different from the team’s previous work, but it’s the smaller changes that set it apart. The biggest improvements are made in the daily planning, but the way battles operate is familiar but polished. You have complete control over the Archetypes your companions use, and you can assign them the ones that best suit their stats or whatever synergizes best with your team's abilities. Above all else, what Metaphor gives the player is freedom, and it’s not just more freedom than Persona has ever afforded us, but RPGs in general.

Metaphor: ReFantazio / Atlus

Almost two decades after they started working together on Persona 3, the developers of Metaphor: ReFantazio have shown that they are still brimming with ideas on how to innovate. Persona felt like a whole new type of RPG that mixed battling with a friendship simulator, and Metaphor adds all of that to the open world. Great game design isn’t about reinventing the wheel, but perfecting what is already there, and the team behind Metaphor is the best to ever do it.