Atlus made an appearance at the Summer Games Fest 2024 event as Katsura Hashino and Shigenori Soejima  went live on stage to present a new trailer for Metaphor: ReFantazio that primarily revolved around the upcoming RPG’s job system through Archetypes. Shortly after their appearance, Atlus premiered a 23-minute “Atlus Exclusive 2” Showcase that went into great detail on the title’s combat mechanics.

In the showcase, Hashino mentions that Metaphor: ReFantazio will have over 40 Archetype jobs, but players will need to unlock most of them through evolutions on different Archetype Lineage trees. An Akademeia facility with a character named More manages the Archetype system in the game.

Players will accrue a resource called Mag to awaken new Archetypes and learn their skills. Characters in Metaphor: ReFantazio’s battles can be positioned in the front or back row and some Archetype skills can only be done from a certain row position.

Some Archetype distinctions Hashino mentions are the Brawler that can break through defenses with their fists, the Warrior utilizing techniques with its sword, the Knight concentrating on defensive skills, the Commander that can employ formation-oriented abilities, the Gunner attacking from afar, and the Faker armed with “tricky moves.”

While several base Archetypes are unlocked in throughout progressing the main story, further evolutions and additional base Archetypes may need players to reach a certain Bond threshold with certain characters. Eventually, players will be able to transfer over some of an Archetype’s skills when switching to a new Archetype to truly add variety in their battle formation.

Yuji Himukai, best known for their work on Atlus’ long-running Etrian Odyssey series as a prominent character designer, assisted in designing several Archetypes in Metaphor: ReFantazio.

Plus, the action segments of Metaphor: ReFantazio will have players equip new weapons with different properties depending on the Archetype they have equipped.

Metaphor: ReFantazio releases on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (Steam) worldwide simultaneously.

Watch the new ‘Awaken’ trailer for Metaphor: ReFantazio down below, along with the Atlus Exclusive 2 Showcase.

English “Awaken” Metaphor: ReFantazio Trailer

Japanese “Awaken” Metaphor: ReFantazio Trailer

English “Atlus Exclusive 2” Metaphor: ReFantazio Showcase

Japanese “Atlus Exclusive 2” Metaphor: ReFantazio Showcase