A standout feature of Metaphor: ReFantazio is its real-time action combat, which allows players to stun or even defeat lower-tier foes without entering the usual turn-based battles. This was a strategic move to tackle the grinding issues commonly associated with the genre. However, during development, Atlus found themselves straying from their original vision.
At the Game Developer’s Conference 2025, Kenichi Goto, a seasoned developer at Atlus, shared insights about the game’s combat system. Goto, who has crafted battle systems for popular titles like Persona and Shin Megami Tensei, highlighted the team’s objective of “reducing battles with predictable outcomes” in their latest fantasy title, Metaphor: ReFantazio.
The action combat was born out of this ambition. “One of the main reasons turn-based combat has waned in popularity is that these encounters can feel tedious,” Goto explained. “Our solution to this monotony was the Fast and Squad battle system.” This approach allows players to engage enemies directly in the field rather than through traditional turn-based mechanics, addressing the grinding problem “not as action merely for action’s sake.”
However, as development progressed, the team found themselves deviating from their initial goals. Goto remarked that they had let the interactivity of action combat lead them astray, noting that players could defeat enemies at or above their level with enough time. “For even us developers, the engaging nature of action was undeniable, and it generated a wealth of fresh ideas,” he shared. Unfortunately, playtesting revealed that many participants viewed reverting to turn-based combat as conceding defeat, a significant concern for a studio that values this gameplay style. “Players expressed confusion over whether to engage in turn-based battles or defeat enemies in real time,” Goto noted, labeling this feedback a “critical problem.”
Metaphor: ReFantazio dev once thought turn-based JRPG combat “was starting to get outdated,” but now thinks the format has a “long future ahead”