Metaphor: Refantazio Playtime Is Probably Shorter Than Persona 5

We now have an idea on how long it will take to finish Metaphor: Refantazio.

As reported by Gematsu, Famitsu’s latest batches of video game reviews are out. If you are curious, they gave Metaphor: Refantazio a very strong score of 37/40. That breaks down to four reviewer scores of 9/10, 9/10, 10/10, and 9/10.

But Famitsu’s reviewers also revealed that it took them about 80 hours to finish the game. If you add in all the side missions and extra content, it takes 100 hours.

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As expected, Atlus has given fans another gargantuan game to play from start to finish. That playtime does not reflect how old the players could possibly be getting. Instead, it stems from the increasingly epic turn based battle encounters, which may take players precious minutes to get through, but would probably take second in the context of the world itself.

Now, we know that you are already imagining these comparisons, so we’ll make them for you. The aggregator website How Long To Beat states that Persona 5’s main story campaign takes 97 and a half hours to complete. If you add the side missions, it takes 113 hours. How Long To Beat also notes that a completionist run can take nearly twice as the main story, at 173 hours.

If you have never played Atlus’ RPGs before, yes, these are gigantic games in terms of playtime. Atlus survived as a core RPG game developer, where many of their peers have not, because of the style and strong characterizations found in their Persona games. Their formula leans on the repeating motifs of teens and young adults coming of age, paired with the power fantasy of being able to defeat and control demigods and mythical creatures.

Now, the veteran Persona team promises a different story and experience with Metaphor: Refantazio. That this new game is only a little bit shorter than their Persona games shows that they have not compromised on scale.

Yesterday, we reported on some fans expressing concern about Metaphor: Refantazio’s marketing. No doubt, these developers have an established fanbase already on PlayStation, and PlayStation loyalists in particular would be more eager to buy the game if the marketing was made for that platform.

However, we need to recognize the changing winds of the industry that compelled Atlus to take a bet on Xbox. Square Enix learned firsthand that they do not have enough PlayStation fans to make their high budget games feasible. That forced them to change strategy to make all their games multiplatform moving forward.

Subsequently, Atlus was gobsmacked learning that there were gamers eager to buy their games outside PlayStation, on PC, Nintendo, and yes, also Xbox. Atlus knows Metaphor: Refantazio and their other games will still sell most on PlayStation, but they also have very belated FOMO on gamers on other platforms.

Atlus and Square Enix are definitely going to push their games on Xbox, and sell them on Xbox in Japan, too. They need to, because if they don’t find new ways to find newer players to increase their base, than it won’t even be worth the effort to keep making games.