ReFantazio Doesn’t Have Romance, But…

Metaphor: ReFantazio, the new fantasy RPG from Atlus’ Persona team, is out today. It’s an excellent game that builds upon its predecessor’s foundations and manages to correct some old mistakes, as well. But there is one thing Atlus said was going to be different in this game compared to Persona, and the team was upfront about it leading up to launch: Metaphor: ReFantazio doesn’t have romance routes for its various relationships.

This is mostly true, but now that the game is out, I can tell you that it’s a little more complicated than that. Given how people hate being surprised by romance, whether because they’re forced into a relationship or accidentally stumble into one, you should know Metaphor: ReFantazio does have some romantic storylines that sneak up on you.

For much of its run, Metaphor: ReFantazio is a pretty sexless game. Most of its relationships are platonic and built upon a shared cause, learning its many fantasy cultures, or helping folks through political turmoil. But there’s not a lot of smooching. In fact, I’m having trouble remembering if there are any scenes in Metaphor in which lips are locked. But that doesn’t mean love can’t bloom— whether you like it or not.

There are two follower bonds that gesture toward romantic interest between your protagonist and the woman involved. Junah, the songstress companion you’ll recruit around midway through the game, and Eupha, the summoner who you’ll meet shortly after. Junah’s is mostly flirtatious, whereas Eupha’s has a full-blown confession of love (albeit couched in the lore and culture of her people, the Mustari). To be clear, you don’t have to play into either relationship if that’s not how you want to roleplay. However, Eupha’s story specifically did end in a way that felt more forced, with an interaction between me and her protective brother nudging my protagonist as if there was a budding flame between me and the summoner despite my not leaning into it earlier in the game. Again, I played dumb to the best of my ability, having headcanoned that my hero had been holding a crush for the swordsman Strohl the whole game, but it does seem like Metaphor: ReFantazio has a relationship in mind, and doesn’t let you outright turn it down. You can still headcanon this as an awkward interaction between her brother who knows Eupha has feelings for you, whether you’ve reciprocated or not. But the implication remains.

If you don’t want to mess with that at all, you could always just not finish Eupha’s follower bond. This was how many people handled Persona 3’s relationships when the original game wouldn’t let you finish any social links with female characters without entering a romantic relationship with them. It’s not as overt as those, but it does harken back to that same weirdness that I thought we’d gotten past. Suppose you wanted to make Eupha or Junah the canon love interest, would it not have been easier to codify it somehow in the story, not shove it into optional relationships that can take a player by surprise? Do with this information what you will, I just didn’t want everyone to be ambushed by an unexpected romance like I was if they didn’t have to be.