Summary
Metaphor: ReFantazio and Persona 3: Reload are both games developed by Atlus. Both of these games incorporated the Persona formula into their gameplay, while also introducing exciting new mechanics, but various factors come into play if one were to decide which one of these is a superior game.
While one game focuses on leveling up Archetypes, the other emphasizes on collecting and combining various Personas. Both of them had excellent dungeon exploration and turn-based combat mechanics which will cause you to lose a few hours. Other than gameplay, the writing plays a decisive role in deciding the winner.
1 Narrative
Metaphor: ReFantazio
Metaphor: ReFantazio had strong story-telling since the beginning of gameplay when Louis is shown murdering the King. Things escalate rapidly, and your character is in dire situations from the get-go. You even end up losing a party member during the early game. Near the ending, the game had some of the greatest plot-twists to catch you off-guard.
Compared to Metaphor: ReFantazio, Persona 3: Reload feels a bit slow in its pacing, which is one of the biggest problems in the game. Important story events take a long time to occur, and the game doesn’t have any significant story development till you have almost completed half of the in-game year.
2 World-Building
Metaphor: ReFantazio
Metaphor: ReFantazio has the largest world out of all Atlus games. The game feels like a journey as you move from one town to another to complete some important goals. You also take breaks in between to enjoy the beautiful views while traveling in your Gauntlet Runner.
You could also explore the town riding on your sword as if it were a Skateboard.
Compared to that, Persona 3: Reload was relatively short-scale as the game takes place in a single town. You can only travel to a few areas using a local train. However, some occasional trips like the one to the beach offered some fresh perspective to the game.
3 Characters
Metaphor: ReFantazio
One of the strongest points in Metaphor: ReFantazio was its excellent character writing. Other than your Followers, a lot of unplayable characters who you meet have an important role to play in the events of the main plot. Characters like Rella and Joanna were really impressive and Louis is a stern villain and one of the best Atlus has ever written.
Compared to just Louis alone, the antagonists in Persona 3: Reload weren’t as impressive, and their personalities weren’t as developed. Strega’s goals lacked backstory depth as barely anything was shown as motivation for their nihilistic goals. That said, Persona 3: Reload also features some great character development especially Shinji and Chidori’s characters were well-written.
4 Dungeon Designs
Tie
Both Metaphor: ReFantazio and Persona 3: Reload featured excellent Dungeons to explore. Although, the ones in Metaphor were much larger to explore. You also encounter new Dungeons and Bosses during Bounty Missions and Quests.
The enemies in Metaphor: ReFantazio are called Humans, while Persona 3: Reload had Shadows.
Persona 3: Reload featured Tartarus where you can do some Dungeon-Crawling to get much stronger. The design changes after you clear a few floors and gets more bizarre every time. The art-style of bosses in both games was equally unnerving.
5 Bonds
Persona 3: Reload
The Social Links with various characters felt much deeper with characters in Persona 3: Reload. Mostly because they were longer, and you would need to get r to them before ranking up to the next level. You could also romance your favourite female character in the game forming an unshakable bond.
Compared to that Metaphor: ReFantazio doesn’t require you to get r to the characters, and you will rank up when they are available for an interaction. It also lacks romance with other characters. The choices do not matter much, as they will just give you some extra Magla instead of building any significant relationship with them.
6 Combat
Tie
Atlus is known for experimenting with combat types and with each game they things up a notch. Persona 3: Reload’s combat is a significant improvement over the original game. The new Theurgy mechanics were introduced, and you could land powerful blows on opponents once they were charged.
Metaphor: ReFantazio also adopted the existing Persona combat features and added something new to it. Instead of Personas, you had Archetypes, and you could assign different Archetypes to each character for a much more immersive combat. Experimenting with Synthesis moves and Skill Inheritance was also a fun aspect.
7 The Winner
Metaphor: ReFantazio
After inspecting various gameplay elements, Metaphor: Refantazio emerges as a clear winner over Persona 3: Reload due to its excellent Narrative, Characters, and World-Building. In the game, we witnessed one of the most intricately written plots along with amazing character development.
That said, Persona 3: Reload also had strength in its Combat, Dungeons and Social Links. The exploration of Tartarus and defeating various shadows was engaging. However, the game had some issues with the pacing of the main plot and lacked depth in the development of a few characters.
