Fantasy is one of the most popular genres in any medium, but it's especially dominant in literature. This is because fantasy allows an author to ignore the constraints of the real world, enabling them to craft their own worlds with unique rules and societies. However, Metaphor: ReFantazio director Katsura Hashino had to reacquaint himself with the genre after spending so long creating games set within the real world.
The legendary director is known for Persona 3, Persona 4, Persona 5 and Catherine. These games have fantastical elements, but the core setting is the modern world, while Metaphor: ReFantazio is a full-fledged fantasy world complete with races, politics and societies. To shift his creative perspective for Metaphor, Hashino began to read famous fantasy novels like Lord of the Rings (thanks, The Verge). This isn't surprising, as J.R.R. Tolkien's work is foundational for much of modern fantasy.
With Persona, Hashino was able to gather inspiration from his immediate surroundings. However, creating his own world from scratch required some deeper introspection. Hashino soon realised that he couldn't just copy existing works like Lord of the Rings because then his game would just be an imitation.
"I realised that if we tried to...