| Hi everyone. Today we're diving into a brilliant new game from the makers of Persona, but first... This week's top gaming news: Fantasy elections The new video game Metaphor: ReFantazio seeks to answer a question that many people are asking right now: Can voting for the right person help stave off catastrophe? Metaphor: ReFantazio, released Oct. 11, is the latest role-playing game from Atlus, a division of Japanese gamemaker Sega Sammy Holdings Inc. Atlus is best known for the popular Persona series, which has sold more than 22 million copies. This new game takes the structure of Persona, in which you play as a band of high school students who moonlight as demon slayers, but ditches the classroom lectures in favor of the racial politics of a bleak fantasy world. I've played around 40 hours of Metaphor: ReFantazio. It's huge — I suspect I might only be halfway through — and delightful, despite the clunky title. Metaphor blends the satisfying game loops of Persona with the addictive job system of Final Fantasy in a world that feels fresh and trope-free. Metaphor: ReFantazio takes place in a fantasy kingdom called Euchronia, a loose collection of states made up of eight races with distinct characteristics. Some are considered high-class and treated like royalty; others are spat on and left to die in the streets. Unlike many contemporary video games, Metaphor: ReFantazio is unafraid to take on politics, regularly throwing themes of fascism and income inequality in the player's face and pushing you to tackle them. Towns in Euchronia are also regularly terrorized by abominable creatures called, er, humans, that you have to battle. It's a dreary society whose characters are frequently asking: Can't we all just work together to make things better? At the beginning of the game, the king of Euchronia is murdered with no clear successor. Shortly afterward, a massive castle bearing his face appears in the sky and demands that the next ruler be chosen by the people through a popularity contest. Whoever wins the most votes — plucked from people's minds by the power of King Magic — will take the throne. It's democracy via telepathy. Your hero, a blue-haired humanoid (but not a human), decides to run for king as a proxy for the real heir, a prince who has been cursed and hidden away from the public until you and your buddies can find a way to save him. Other top candidates include Forden, the fascistic leader of Euchronia's oppressive, extremely racist church, and Louis, a military general who also happens to be the guy who killed the king and cursed the prince. To win the contest, you must travel around the kingdom and boost your popularity by completing various tasks, such as saving a town from a child kidnapper or acquiring a valuable relic from a nation of pagans. (You don't have to stick solely to swing states — in Euchronia, every vote matters.) The gameplay unfolds over a calendar, like in the Persona games. Each time you arrive at a new city, you'll be given a task to complete by a certain date, and you can choose how to spend your days: dungeon-spelunking, hanging out with friends, or doing side quests and mundane activities to improve your stats. Inside the dungeons, you'll fight monsters in snappy turn-based combat, using skills based on the class, or "Archetype," of your gang of motley characters. It all adds up to a rich, satisfying experience that's arriving with perfect timing. As much of the world waits to see what will happen as the US votes in a new president on Nov. 5, it's nice to play out an election where you can be certain that the right person will win. If lengthy turn-based roleplaying games aren't your thing, check out the new Diablo IV expansion, Vessel of Hatred, which has received positive reviews since its release earlier this week. (Ironically, it came out on the same day as my book about the history of Blizzard, which makes for a perfect pairing… you can listen to the audiobook while slaying monsters!) | 
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