Metaphor: ReFantasia was one of the most successful Japanese role-playing games of recent years and one of the best-selling Atlus titles ever. With these premises, many are already taking the arrival of a new chapter for granted, but apparently Katsura Hashino has no intention of immediately getting to work on a sequeldirect or indirect.
Interviewed by Game Informer, the director of Persona and ReFantazio explained that he didn’t want to hastily create a second chapter just to exploit the moment, preferring instead take all the time you need to create a game that is truly up to the fans’ standards.
There’s no rush: the goal is to create something of value for the fans
“When we started creating Metaphor: ReFantazio, we had the ambition to turn it into one of our key brands within Atlus” alongside Shin Megami Tensei and Persona, Hashino told Game Informer. An objective which, as we know, was achieved: in July the game exceeded 2 million copies sold, well beyond the Japanese company’s expectations, and in general an excellent result for a completely new IP aimed at a niche audience.
The director of Metaphor and Persona wants to create a JRPG 3.0 “that changes the structure” of the genre
“That said, just because we have achieved a certain level of success we don’t want to quickly release a sequel. We want to really think about it and make sure that if we’re able to continue this series, it’s an experience that’s built on the values that we’ve instilled in this game and is something that’s worthwhile for the fans who are waiting for it.”
Hashino added that for now the developers need to try “to confirm that we are going in the right direction” before growing the brand further. “So we’re looking forward, evaluating what we can do with this series, but we don’t want to create a sequel just because we’ve had a certain level of success.”
Patience is a virtue that all fans of Atlus games should have in common. Suffice it to say that almost ten years have now passed since the launch of the last main game in the Persona series. In this case, fortunately it seems that important news should arrive soon on Persona 6.
