Summary
- Customize character abilities with archetypes to balance attack and defense effectively in Metaphor.
- Choose the Knight archetype for early game protection from enemies' attacks in ReFantazio.
- The Mage's spells & Magic Recovery ability make it a versatile and valuable archetype at the start.
Metaphor: ReFantazio, the new title from Atlus, brings the successful formula of the Persona series to a medieval fantasy world. The game introduces archetypes, which function as classes, allowing players to equip them on different characters. These archetypes offer new abilities and versatility in combat, making them essential for facing early game challenges.
The best archetypes in Metaphor: ReFantazio for the early game provide a balance between attack and defense, making progress easier in the initial stages. They allow customization of playstyle, adapting characters' abilities to specific needs. This strategic flexibility ensures an engaging experience, especially for those looking to explore powerful party compositions from the start of the adventure.
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6 Brawler
Deals Massive Damage, But With A Drawback
- How to unlock: Form a bond with Catherina.
This archetype can inflict massive amounts of damage on enemies. The Brawler offers significant offensive power, but needs to be used cautiously. This is because its abilities, instead of consuming Magic Points, use the character's own HP as a cost. Therefore, if not managed properly, characters can easily become weak targets for enemy attacks.
However, there are ways to mitigate this issue. Equipping an archetype capable of using healing abilities, such as the Healer, is fundamental for the Brawler's survivability. Even the Knight can be useful, as it has access to First Aid, which helps allies remain standing after each battle.
5 Knight
A Way To Protect The Team From Enemy Attacks
- How to unlock: Form a bond with Hulkenberg.
The early hours of Metaphor ReFantazio, especially in hard mode, are tough. Enemies tend to deal enormous amounts of damage and even have extra attacks. Therefore, finding ways to protect allies during these moments is fundamental. Fortunately, the game provides some means to achieve this.
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One of the best defensive archetypes in the early game is the Knight, which is unlocked as the story progresses with Hulkenberg. The ability Knight's Proclamation forces enemies to focus their attacks only on the character who uses it, leaving others safe to perform their actions without worrying about defensive abilities.
4 Warrior
An Excellent Option For Strohl At The Beginning
- How to unlock: Form a bond with Strohl.
Heat Up, learned at the third level of Warrior, is already an excellent ability. It increases all physical damage caused by the character's abilities by 10%, which that perfectly matches Strohl's concept, being even the character's initial archetype.
Moreover, investing in its evolution is quite useful during the early game. This is because higher levels of Warrior grant some powerful abilities that can deal significant damage to enemies and facilitate combat for allies, such as increasing critical hit chance or even area damage, a useful way to handle many opponents at once. Additionally, evolving this archetype while also increasing the bond with Strohl unlocks the Swordmaster, another great class option for the game.
3 Mage
Versatility Of Spells Makes It Great For The Early Game
- How to unlock: Form a bond with Gallica.
Those aiming to optimize their time and spend longer periods in dungeons without needing to exit and retry will find the Mage to be one of the best archetypes in the early game of Metaphor: ReFantazio. In addition to possessing spells of three different elements, excellent for exploring and discovering enemies' weaknesses, the Mage also has an excellent passive ability.
Although limited to the protagonist, Magic Recovery is one of the strongest abilities at the beginning of the game, as it always recovers a bit of MP for the entire group whenever an enemy is defeated in overworld combat. Given the number of enemies that can occasionally be faced this way, a few rounds on the map are more than enough to recover all characters' Magic Points without spending items.
2 Healer
Essential In The First Dungeon Of The Game
- How to unlock: Form a bond with Maria.
Before the first major dungeon begins, More, the guardian of the Akademia responsible for teaching about archetypes, gives the protagonist a mission to bring the Healer to level 10. This is already a significant indicator of this archetype's importance during this phase, helping the entire party with great utility.
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This is because the Healer has access to Hama spells, which cause Light Damage to enemies. Many monsters in the Grand Cathedral (the game's first dungeon) are weak to this element, making it one of the best archetypes for the early game of Metaphor: ReFantazio. Moreover, this class has additional utility, such as the ability to heal all party members at once and other support-focused abilities.
1 Merchant
Opportunity To Earn Easy Money
- How to unlock: Form a bond with Brigitta.
Given the gameplay loop of Metaphor: ReFantazio, one of the best archetypes in the game is the Merchant, which can be unlocked after completing Brigitta's quest. Thanks to its passive ability, when equipped on the protagonist, this class proves to be an easy way to acquire decent amounts of gold coins without much effort.
Alchemy, as it is known, gives players the chance to earn a small amount of gold whenever an enemy is stunned or defeated without the need to enter turn-based combat. Considering that, throughout dungeons, many weak enemies can be dealt with via overworld combat, the Merchant becomes an excellent source of easy gold for acquiring the best items in the game.
Metaphor: ReFantazio
- Released
- October 11, 2024
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Studio Zero
- Publisher(s)
- Atlus
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
