Persona studio realized it “didn’t need to be so strict” about medieval conventions when making its new fantasy JRPG
Metáfora: ReFantasia marks a big departure for its veteran developers. Rather than layering supernatural elements underneath a modern setting we’re all familiar with – as is the case in Persona and Shin Megami Tensei – developer Atlus is creating an entirely new high fantasy world, but the team quickly realized it didn’t need to be so strict about sticking to medieval traditions.
“When considering what a medieval world needs, what the components of that setting are, we reach the conclusion that we actually didn’t need to be so strict about this and that,” director Katsura Hashino said in an interview with Gamer Braves. “The more important thing was about telling the story of Metaphor: ReFantazio.”
Hashino elaborates that the team initially sweated the small details, and had several discussions around things like, “how much glass should there be in the town, considering if it’s medieval times, glass would have been a precious commodity.” Pero, ultimately, the fantasy genre opens the door to practically anything being possible, so Atlus developers settled on creating a world that’s best suited to host its narrative, rather than one that’s realistically depicting a historical era.
“One of the reasons we create this kind of fantasy world and stories is to confirm that the reality we live in does not have to always be the same,” he continued. “The reason we don’t create fantasy is because reality will never change. We create it because it will change.”
That’s in line with the Persona director’s previous comments, where he said that creating a totally new fantasy setting gave the developers a “lot of freedom to explore.”