Metaphor: ReFantazio has proven a massive hit for developers Atlus, having sold over one million copies in less than 24 hours, becoming the studio's fastest-selling game in the process. It's also a critical darling, holding an average score of 92 on OpenCritic, marking it as one of the highest-rated releases of 2024 so far.
This success is in no small part due to Katsura Hashino, director of Persona 3, Persona 4, Persona 5 and now, Metaphor: ReFantazio. In an interview with IGN, Hashino spoke about his philosophy towards writing characters and creating games.
"I want something - even if it's not complete, even if it's really rough, even if it's something unfinished - to give me a glimpse of the humanity behind it," Hashino says. "[I want to know] who created it and for it to give me a glimpse of the emotion that inspired it."
In a world where everything tends to be profit-driven, the vision of creative individuals is sometimes discarded in favour of driving the maximum amount of profitability. Of course, most of the IPs that people love were initially born out of the creativity of these individuals. If you don't let people express themselves,...
