A game with the name 'Metaphor' that tackles issues such as culture diversity, democracy, and classism isn't exactly subtle in its delivery, but is just as poignant in 2026 as it was when the game first released in 2024.

Atlus has brought its critically acclaimed turn-based role-playing to Switch 2, and in doing so, reminded everyone of two things: That Atlus are absolute masters at delivering striking stories, endearing characters, and engaging combat through the lens of an incredibly unique art style, and that optimisation for handheld consoles is not their strong suit.

Metaphor: ReFantazio is simultaneously the story of a young boy yearning to reconnect with his dear friend, the prince of the kingdom of Euchronia who had been struck with a curse that left him in a comatose state, a story of prejudice and social manipulation through the kingdom itself, started by the assassination of the king at the hands of Louis Guiabarn, a common-born army officer wanting to challenge the status quo through true meritocracy, AND the story of the parallels between fantasy and reality, using real-life situations as elements of idealistic fantasy within Metaphor's world, things that could never happen for the residents of Euchronia.

The way that Metaphor deftly handles so many threads of varying sizes and scopes is nothing short of extraordinary, especially when the themes of anxiety, willpower, and hope are so striking in the real world.

The individual characters in Metaphor are largely brilliantly written, with their own struggles and demons to battle, even if they aren't party members or sometimes even less important to the overarching plot. Characters like the bat-like Eugief, Heismay, battles prejudice for his race whilst trying to mourn the loss of a family member, but displays his own prejudice against the rabbit-like Papirus for their part in his grief. The stoic Brigitta, owner of the capital's magic igniter shop, casts an icy exterior, only to show her true colours through a puppy she can't resist but take in.

Even the game's main antagonist, Louis, is incredibly compelling, bringing an immediate presence to the screen through his striking design and charismatic dialogue, but as is par for the course, there is far more than meets the eye with Louis. There are a lot of plates to spin in Metaphor, but almost all of them are tantalising events to keep returning to.

It's difficult not to make comparisons between Studio Zero's Metaphor and the Persona series, as they share a lot of DNA: a calendar-based system that has you not only exploring dungeons for treasure and boss fights, but also balancing improvement of social stats, or virtues as they're known here, and bonds with party members and other important NPCs to learn more of their personal stories and gain benefits to the more traditional JRPG aspects of the game in the process.

But Metaphor stands alone in Atlus' repertoire by not only drawing from Persona, but the core Shin Megami Tensei franchise as well, while infusing its own flair in its combat mechanics through the Archetype system.

Archetypes in Metaphor are much closer to the Final Fantasy series' job system than they are to Persona, with each character gaining skills and masteries through use of interchangeable classes gained through the social parts of the game, and combat-earned AP gained to level them up. MAG, a currency gained through both combat and socialisation, can be used to transfer skills from one archetype to another, giving you plenty of ways to experiment with your own builds between the seven party members and the 30 different Archetypes alone.

Combat itself utilises the Turn Icon system resembling core Shin Megami Tensei games, with extra actions gained by striking a critical hit or weakness, or serious losses by missing an attack or hitting an absorbed element. You can also strike at an advantage by attacking enemies in the overworld in real-time, or take them out entirely if you're high enough above them in level (a feature I wish all future JRPGs would carry!), but if an enemy gets the jump on you, it can be devastating. All of these elements combine to make arguably the best combat Atlus has ever put out in a JRPG.

It's also impossible to discuss the game without mentioning its frankly stellar soundtrack. Composer Shoji Meguro's unique flavour is felt throughout the game, with one of the best battle themes to ever grace a JRPG, drawing from Buddhist sutra inspirations with priest Keisuke Honryo's unforgettable chanting.

All of this is to say that Metaphor: ReFantazio is an incredible JRPG, and one that will keep you coming back over and over for well over 80 hours. However, on Switch 2, the experience hasn't come across without a few hiccups along the way.

After releasing Persona 3 Reload on Switch 2 last year, which itself suffered greatly from frame rate issues and muddy visuals, and experiencing inconsistencies with Metaphor: ReFantazio itself in its original release, I was sceptical, to say the least, and that scepticism ended up having merit, as I'm not sure I've seen a game look quite so beautiful and hideous at the same time!

From an artistic standpoint, Metaphor is sumptuous, taking the 'more is more' approach from Persona and applying a much wider colour palette; the UI and menus are stunning, of that there's no doubt. But technically speaking, Metaphor is a bit of a mess.

There are options to run in performance, balanced, or graphics modes both handheld and docked, but regardless of which mode you pick, there were inconsistencies throughout. One moment in combat could look stunning AND run well, and the next cutscene you'd encounter the strangest case of anti-aliasing and fuzzy textures, despite there only being two characters in the room.

Frame rate issues also persist regardless of performance or graphics settings, never enough to overtake the other amazing qualities of the game, but always enough to notice and occasionally distract. Persona 3 Reload did eventually get a performance update that fixed a lot of issues; suffice it to say, I truly hope Metaphor gets one as well!

Additionally, while so much of Metaphor's main dungeons and set pieces are a sight to behold, Atlus's dungeon designs have often left something to be desired, and that's apparent in Metaphor's side dungeons. When on a side quest, it's fairly easy to get turned around in the sea of brown tunnels and foggy forest areas, simply on the back of them all looking identical! It's a stark difference to the Regalith Cathedral, Sandworm's Belly, or Skyrunner main dungeons, for sure.