Metaphor: ReFantazio’s distinct musical mix of conventional JRPG vibes and up to date circulate continues to reside in my head rent-free practically a yr later

I have been a Last Fantasy diehard for many of my life, however even I’ve to confess no person does a JRPG soundtrack fairly like Atlus. The Persona sequence has turn into as well-known for its music because it has for its storyline, characters, and gigantic penis monsters—weaving trendy sounds into dynamic dungeon themes and toned-down city hub tunes, whereas centering the id of every recreation round music genres like J-Pop, jazz, and hip-hop.

However what about when Atlus makes a recreation that is not set in modern-day Japan? Metaphor: ReFantazio got here out swinging nearly a yr in the past and completely floored me in each potential approach. A gripping excessive fantasy storyline set in a medieval kingdom, a solid of grownup characters who really feel just like the pure evolution of Persona’s teenage ensembles, and a genuinely implausible soundtrack to again up the complete factor.

I’ve turn into so used to composer Shoji Meguro—who labored in-house at Atlus for over 25 years—dealing in additional up to date beats that I hadn’t thought of what he would do when tasked with a much more antiquated setting. The outcome? Delicate pianos, epic orchestral moments, mystical choirs, and a freaking Buddhist priest chanting absolute bars in the midst of battle.

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It is a soundtrack that feels extra classical JRPG however nonetheless very distinctly Atlus, one thing which Meguro was apparently stunned by. In any case, in keeping with an interview with Famitsu final yr, his strategy to Metaphor was a lot totally different to Persona. The place the latter has a much more intertwined visible and auditory imaginative and prescient with a lot of hard-hitting tunes, Meguro needed the previous recreation to be slightly extra separated, with the music quietly doing its job within the background.

“Nevertheless, after I checked out individuals’s reactions to the soundtrack, it was actually stunning to me that some individuals kindly commented issues like ‘it is very Atlus-like’ and ‘it is fairly an aggressive soundtrack this time too,'” an Automaton West translation revealed.

A lot of that aggression comes from what is definitely my two favorite tracks in the complete recreation: Warriors in Arms and Warriors in Valour. They’re the 2 primary battle themes heard all through Metaphor: ReFantazio, and so they’re additionally two of probably the most distinctive songs I’ve heard in a videogame.

That is partly due to the completely unbelievable vocals courtesy of monk Keisuke Honryo and his distinctive chanting, with Meguro penning lyrics impressed by Esperanto to create a completely distinctive language for Metaphor. It is a pleasant juxtaposition between what I would think about a extra conventional battle theme layered with a really modernised vocal presentation—Honryo chants the lyrics with a cadence you’d count on in a rap music.

Mixed with the truth that, canonically, the music is being heard by the protagonist slightly than the viewers, and the uncooked aggression behind Honryo’s phrases coupled with fast strings makes even the small fry battles really feel like a battle to your life.

Metaphor has its calmer moments too, although. Tracks like Ode to Heroes—which performs whereas the protagonist is housed inside the cosy library partitions of Akademia—or the comforting night time theme of Port Brilehaven break up the tempo and throw me again to JRPGs I performed rising up like Last Fantasy 12.

The sport’s total soundtrack is a superb marriage of the previous and the brand new, the west and the east, a sound that evokes an odd sense of nostalgia inside me whereas additionally being like nothing I’ve heard earlier than. It is an ideal match for Metaphor’s personal storyline, which makes use of an archaic race for the throne to discover pertinent current-day themes like racism, politics, and non secular corruption.

I am completely dying to listen to extra of these things from Meguro sooner or later. He isn’t been with Atlus full-time since 2021 however continues to be busy freelancing for the developer on the common in addition to different tasks like his upcoming recreation Weapons Undarkness. With the potential for a Metaphor sequel positively there, it would be the proper alternative to listen to Meguro leaning extra on conventional style tropes whereas including his personal distinct twist into the combination, which in some way leaves me extra excited than the prospect of the sequel itself.