With only a few months left before Atlus releases its highly anticipated new JRPG , the mastermind director behind Shin Megami Tensei and its successful spin-off series Persona discusses what sets the upcoming game apart from its predecessors. Metaphor: ReFantazio arrives this fall, marking its monumental spot as the Persona and Shin Megami Tensei team's first original title since Atlus' Studio Zero was formed in 2016. It isn't a spin-off nor is it officially related to either JRPG series, and despite similarities, it features a plethora of new mechanics - including challenges that even hardened Persona stans may find difficult.
Speaking to GamesRadar+ during the , director Katsura Hashino reveals more on Metaphor: ReFantazio's crucial challenges and how its difficulty compares to the developer's other iconic JRPGs. "I think the setting of the game, the type of game you're making, and the difficulty are not separate things," Hashino explains. "They're completely intertwined.
There are games you play that are way too easy and it's not fun, and there are games that you also play that are so hard that they're just brutal and not fun either. When you're making the game concept, the difficulty you want to have in that game is part of that concept." Looking back at the Shin Megami Tensei games, Hashino says that the series was "quite hard" - with good reason.
"Unless it's challenging, unless it's really meaty, it wouldn't be rewarding enough," the dev says, recounting how . As for .
