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Lord of the Rings initially inspired Metaphor: ReFantazio, before Atlus 'threw out' all its fantasy research to preserve 'the originality that defines us'
Metaphor: ReFantazio, a new JRPG by Atlus, was initially inspired by traditional fantasy but ultimately broke free from those conventions to create an original world. The game's unique blend of old and new, inspired by the developers' personal preferences, has resulted in Atlus' fastest-selling title and biggest Steam launch ever.
While creating an entirely new fantasy world in Metaphor: ReFantazio, its developers supposedly looked to classic fantasy fiction for inspiration before quickly chucking all of that research out the window to pave their own path forward.
"At the very beginning of the development of Metaphor: ReFantazio, we looked into traditional fantasy culture," modern Persona director Katsura Hashino said in an interview with the Official Xbox Podcast, citing J.R.R. Tolkien and his Lord of the Rings book as a touchpoint. "We researched not just what traditional fantasy was, but why it was written the way it was, what inspired it to be written in the way it was. So we did a lot of research."
Atlus and Studio Zero have tons of experience threading supernatural themes underneath a modern world that's already familiar to us - Hashino even said previously that, in some ways, Persona's familiarity makes it "easier" to work with - but the studio had never made something as high fantasy at Metaphor: ReFantazio, and at some point decided it "didn't need to be so strict" about medieval conventions.
"While we were trying to bring this aspect into our game, we sort of threw out all of our ideas of it and we realized we couldn't really make a game that was in the traditional fantasy mode," Hashino explained. "It wouldn't really feel original to us. It would lack the originality that defines us. We're also finding that it would be hard for us to bring out the creativity that we wanted to in this more traditional fantasy world."
Metaphor's world is an odd mix of new and old, from the architecture to the weirdly forward-thinking tech involved. "Partway through we decided to just abandon all of the inspirations that we had and just kind of create something new," the director added. "Then we took things just that we personally like and we tried to find ways to bring it into the game. There was a stopping of research and a starting of this original creative endeavour."