Metaphor ReFantazio became an instant sensation back when it was released in 2024. The turn-based action RPG is made by Altus, who also made the popular Shin Megami Tensei and Persona series.
Although the game’s combat is focused exclusively on turn-based battles, the developers were fixated on implementing a new system that would have taken away the frustration of grinding in the game. This new combat system, however, blew up in their faces and broke the game’s fighting mechanics.
Let’s delve deeper into how the developers managed to mess up the fighting structure by trying to improve the experience of the players.
Metaphor ReFantazio‘s new combat technique backfired
It is no surprise that Metaphor ReFantazio uses a similar combat system to Altus’s other games like the Shin Megami Tensei franchise and its spin-off, the Persona series. Both role-playing games follow a turn-based fighting mechanic, and while it is fun to play like in any other RPG, leveling up using this system is always a hassle.
However, in Metaphor ReFantazio, Altus decided to change things up a bit and make their combat system a bit more dynamic. Instead of getting into the time-wasting turn-based arenas, players can just attack lower-level enemies in real-time and gain experience by killing them or avoiding them completely by stunning them.
Although this newer battling system seemed fun at first, it later became a nightmare for the developers because players avoided using the turn-based battling arena altogether. Players would use this combat technique to fight enemies who are on the same or even higher level, completely breaking the point of why this system was made.
In GamesRadar’s report of the Game Developers Conference 2025, the lead battle planner for Metaphor ReFantazio, Kenichi Goto, revealed how this real-time action combat was supposed to be a solution to the game’s grinding problem, which felt like a chore. He mentioned how this mechanic backfired and later players were confused whether to defeat the enemies in real-time or get into the turn-based arena.
Players complained that it was hard to decide whether they should go into turn based battle or put in the effort and defeat the enemies on the field alone, they couldn’t figure out which was correct.
According to Goto, this was “a critical problem,” and he later told his team to scale the action combat mechanic where the players can only defeat low-level enemies using the system.
Players exploited the new combat mechanic to kill higher-level enemies
Metaphor ReFantazio‘s new combat system was made so that players could easily get through the monotonous and tedious work of leveling up, but the whole thing boomeranged and threw up their original turn-based combat system. It became a loophole for players to avoid the core combat mechanics entirely.
Although the developers have now fixed the balance issues, it really shows how players would go above and beyond to steer clear of boring and monotonous mechanics in any game.
While it is still unknown what other combat mechanics players will abuse in Metaphor ReFantazio, one thing we are sure of is that the game is one of the most ambitious RPGs that have recently been released.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
