Metaphor ReFantazio is good and fantasy racism is still silly

Metaphor: ReFantazio, developed by Atlus’ Studio Zero, a good RPG, is a medieval European fantasy about oppression, idealism, and people facing anxieties to move forward.

The United Kingdom of Euchronia is a country with multiple tribes of people and numerous issues. Among those is that it’s racist. The fantasy racism trope within the game is an integral part of its larger overarching story — because it’s an integral part of society.

Metaphor’s writing is competent, but it also can’t escape the narrative shortcomings of fantasy racism. The trope’s missteps can range from shallow commentaries to half-baked analyses of ethnic oppression. However, within this Atlus title, they were minor, a tad confusing, and at times unintentionally comedic.

The RPG’s larger narrative presented a few moments that required some critical analysis. Before proceeding further, it should be noted that the title’s narrative is also about an idealistic brown boy (the captain) and his multiethnic comrades actively addressing their social, economic, and political realities.

For background, the captain is an Elda. They visually look like real human beings. They are a tiny tribe, hold no societal power, are considered a curse, and some believe that they aren’t real. As such, they are incredibly discriminated against.

It’s normal during the game’s early hours to read NPCs say you don’t belong in Grand Trad. When enlisting into the army, an official is quite welcome to the child joining. The officer recognizes him as literal canon fodder; he’s from a “lesser tribe” and an 18-year-old orphan — “The army can always use more of those,” he says.

This sets up what we, the players, should expect from society within one of Euchronia’s nations. Eventually, the narrative moves to what I’d argue is one of its missteps with fantasy racism.

The party crosses paths with former shadowguard Heismay, a middle-aged man of the Eugief tribe. The people are physically small, bat-like humanoids. As per Heismay, they are small in population, and mostly nocturnal. For these reasons they hardly hold power socially and politically within the country. Like the captain, his people are also highly discriminated against.

Shortly after teaming up with him, you pursue the culprit of children’s kidnappings in Marita, the second nation. The villain is revealed to be Sanctoress Joanna, the leader of the town.

You learn that she has been feeding children to a human (monster), whom she believes to be her child’s replacement, as a response to tragedy. She was in love with a man from a different tribe, and they had a mixed-race child. Within this racist, oppressive society, mixed-race children are viewed as a curse. Thus, the baby is murdered.

As the rainbow coalition learns these details, the narrative displays great compassion for Joanna — I remain unsure and very confused as to why. Heismay shares the intimate details of the great burden he carries. He abandoned his previous post and lived as a recluse because his son was also killed.

However, in his case, he proceeds to tell everyone present the child was effectively lynched during a Paripus (the tribe with cat, dog, rabbit, etc, like ears) riot. Heismay shares these excruciating details (they are not mentioned again) to better understand Joanna, her actions, her feelings, and trauma.

I’m sure some people assessed this narrative point as good. I was mostly confused by the story at this point in Metaphor. The lives of two youths were stolen by incredibly racist violence — showing that it’s a cruel reality for the people within the country.

These racial transgressions were severe. However, they were used to understand and sympathize with a governor who schemed, kidnapped, and fed children to a monster. This reminded me that fantasy racism can be comical in its execution and delivery. Still, the writing throughout the game is solid overall.

The other times the fantasy racism trope raised an eyebrow involved the game’s major antagonist, Louis Guiabern. Throughout the RPG, he is shown to be a man who holds a great deal of social, political, and martial power within Euchronia. The archmage is established from the start to be the singular threat to society’s highest institution, the Sanctist Church.

He also represents an RPG tradition: a blonde-haired, blue-eyed white man in an antagonist role. Louis is also the kickstarter of events taking place in Metaphor, as he murdered the previous king. The white-clothed villain speaks of true equality born from a world where the weak deserve to die and the strong rule.

What exactly drives him to be king is answered towards the final stretch of the story. Louis is actually an Elda. The Elda, we learn, is the tribe closest to humans of the previous age. He witnesses the genocide of his people by the Sanctist Church, an operation orchestrated by Sanctifex Forden, the head of the church, for political machinations.

This society allows for an ethnic group to be murdered by this institution, as it faces no repercussions. I would say imagine what these dynamics look like. However, if you’ve opened your eyes, any device, and read news within the past year and a half, we know exactly what dehumanization on a grand scale looks like. Like so many you met throughout the game, Louis is responding to tragedy and his personal anxieties.

Louis says that the correct response to the genocide of his people is simple. He must create a kingdom where that can never happen again. His kingdom is one where institutions can’t simply crush people because its leaders determine so.

He would create a reality where the weak don’t exist. Louis would have magla forcibly returned to everyone. This would trigger country-wide transformations into humans among the people. Those who aren’t physically strong enough would die, and those not strong enough would fall prey to stronger monsters.

Metaphor’s main villain is, in a sense, responding to being a victim of severe racial transgressions in this work of fiction. This reveal is rather ironic, considering what the king slayer looks like, his actions, and place within society. The great irony continues, as his ideal utopia would also result in massive events of death and violence — something he supposedly wanted to end.

Louis’ contradiction of his convictions appears well before the game’s end. He asks the party to retrieve the Drakodios spear. The artifact resides in the land of the Mustari tribe. These are people who you learn early on culturally have different beliefs, customs, and practices. They adore helmets, possess three eyes, and mostly live on an island not easily reached by the two other nations. Within Sanctist society, they are considered “savages.” — The title thoroughly explains this discriminatory labeling.

While retrieving the holy spear, the cohort gains a new ally in Eupha, whom is Mustari. After reporting their success to Louis, he makes a bold statement. If the captain’s party failed to secure the ancient weapon, the tactician would have used his skyrunner to burn the island nation and ancient tower to get the weapon himself.

Louis confirms he’s quite serious, looking directly at Eupha while answering her question. I would be remiss not to mention what is happening visually. This blonde-haired, blue-eyed, pale-skinned tyrant tells a young brown child he would have razed her homeland to ashes to continue his grand scheme.

We again see the villain contradict himself. In his own words, he’s driven to stop forces/institutions from harming people and creating genocides altogether. He embraces being an oppressor of marginalized people. It’s too easy to say, but laughably, Louis operates much like the forefathers, whom he resembles.

As a friend explained, Louis and the captain could be seen as two sides of the same coin. Two people from an incredibly discriminated group with different responses to oppression. Two extremes: hope (in others and the self) and trusting only the self.

If you enjoy playing RPGs, Studio Zero’s Metaphor is a highly competent title. This essay was a mere critical exercise examining some of the racial dynamics that feel flat. They are far from highly offensive, without depth and lacking real-world understanding.

Fantasy racism as a trope is something that may be doomed to fall short when used. I am constantly reminded of this as my racially and culturally diverse peers share these thoughts and feelings with media. There are probably works that have Tungsten-like (I doubt that) nuances of real-world racial and ethnic oppression and its logical failures.

This is a game that’s won a lot of people’s favor and awards. But all its writing wasn’t without some misses. But that’s bound to happen. The title has other themes that could be critically analyzed as well, such as liberation, class solidarity, taking real political action, etc. I’m sure those analyses would also have some mixed results.

To quote a peer of mine, Metaphor ReFantazio is certainly a RPG that speaks to players about progressive and idealistic beliefs about society and politics. However, as a consumer and entertainment product for the public, it can only go so far with those goals.

Still, it’s a solid story about a young brown boy and his multiethnic allies working towards a future where governance doesn’t oppress everyone and people live in a more equitable country. They just happen to have to stop a pale, evil guy along the way.

The truth is, however, that the oppressed are not “marginals,” are not people living “outside” society. They have always been “inside” — inside the structure which made them “beings for others.” The solution is not to “integrate” them in to the structure of oppression, but to transform that structure so that they can become beings for themselves.” — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed