Metaphor: ReFantazio director wants to make it “Atlus’ third RPG series after Shin Megami Tensei and Persona”

Metaphor: ReFantazio was developer Atlus’ first original game since 2011’s twisted love triangle Catherine, but its world could expand beyond a single game as director Katsura Hashino hopes it can become a series.

Shin Megami Tensei and its now more popular offshoot Persona have been going on for decades, but Atlus decided to take its JRPG chops and apply it to an entirely new setting in this year’s acclaimed Metaphor: ReFantazio, which stir up a high fantasy. world, a politically charged plot, and the developer’s signature in-game calendar system – a mix that has turned it into the studio’s fastest-selling game of all time.

While Metaphor: ReFantazio’s standalone story is now complete — and while a sequel isn’t in active development — its director isn’t ruling anything out.

In an interview with Famitsu magazine, with translations from Automaticdirector Katsura Hashino says that “we’d better make a sequel” because the team “started Metaphor ReFantazio with the plan to develop it into Atlus’ third RPG series after Shin Megami Tensei and Persona, so we’d like to we develop Metaphor. ReFantazio in a signature IP that represents our company.”

Metaphor: ReFantazio doesn’t roll the credits in a way that begs for a sequel, but we don’t necessarily need to see these characters again. Persona and Shin Megami Tensei might exist in the same worlds, but the casts, settings, and villains are changed in almost every entry. So there’s nothing stopping Metaphor from becoming a Final Fantasy-like anthology series.

“If they decide that the best setting for a future title is the Sengoku period, it could turn into a JRPG with a world like the Basara series,” Hashino joked.

See where Metaphor: ReFantazio lands on us the best games of 2024 and the best RPGs of the year lists.