Metaphor: ReFantazio developer explains why ATLUS games are hard

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The Persona series by ATLUS is recognized for its captivating characters as well as challenging combat, and this trend carried over to Atlus Studio Zero’s RPG, Metaphor: ReFantazio. In a talk at GDC, a designer from the battle team of Metaphor revealed that ATLUS purposefully makes battles tough, and went on to explain their reasoning behind it.

At GDC 2025, Kenichi Goto, chief battle strategist at ATLUS, moderated a discussion focusing on the battle system in Metaphor: ReFantazio. In one part of the talk, he addressed the challenging combat found in many games developed by his team. Fundamentally, ATLUS aims to encourage players to participate actively in the game’s daily routines.

In online gaming circles, some critics might label us as ‘sadists’ or even ‘the devil’, given ATLUS RPGs’ notorious reputation. On a presentation, he emphasized that battles should be so challenging that players can’t progress without the incentives from daily activities; otherwise they’ll overlook other aspects of the game. He further stated that if players don’t need to strategize or think about their actions, it essentially kills the game.

Gameplay in both Persona and Metaphor: ReFantazio centers around social activities; players earn rewards by interacting with companions and completing tasks. In our opinion, these systems created an engaging experience that earned Metaphor: ReFantazio a perfect 10/10 in our review last year.

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2025-03-20 21:57