Persona vs Metaphor Refantazio: Social Links

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While some may call it a spin-off, Atlus’ 2024 JRPG Metaphor: Refantazio is a sequel to the Persona series in all but name. While Metaphor puts its eggs in slightly different baskets, it’s pretty quickly apparent that all the same systems that made Persona 5 an instant classic are still very much intact here.

Being itself a spin-off of the Megami Tensei series, Persona is perhaps most known for the way it balances its social systems with its dungeon crawling mechanics. 

In Persona, our protagonist is uniquely blessed with the ability to inspire people. By day, the player plots out their social calendar and develops bonds with their allies. By night, the crew uses the power of friendship to defeat demons and free the world from despair. It’s exactly as anime as it sounds. 

Metaphor is no different in this regard, and while the “Social Link” system seems unchanged on the surface, the way that the player interacts with it has actually evolved quite a lot - for the better, and perhaps also for the worse…

So let’s dig in!

Choosing the right dialogue options increases the player’s bond with their ally

The whole conceit of the Social Link system is that by spending time with your allies, your bonds will deepen, and the player gains gameplay benefits as a result. 

But everything in Persona is tied to the calendar. The player has limited time to spend, and some activities are only available at certain times. Hanging out comes at the cost of any number of other potential activities: working a part-time job, reading a book, hitting the gym, etc. 

Time management is one of Persona’s main mechanics, and so it’s important to get the most out of every in-game day. As time inexorably marches forward, it feels important to learn about the game world, and what activities are available on which days. If your best bud is only available on Tuesdays and Thursdays, then it feels important to prioritize spending time with them on those days. As a result, you start to learn not only your friends’ schedules, but also where their haunts are.

It really gives the game world that “lived-in” feeling.

In Persona, allies are a part of the game world. We don’t always know where they are, but we can learn their habits.

But Metaphor is a different game, and so they do things a bit differently.

Perhaps the biggest change is just how much access to information the player has. In Metaphor, the player is told exactly which allies are ready to advance in their storylines, and so there is never a question of whether or not spending time with them will be “worth it”. Not only that, but the player can also now teleport directly to them, no matter where they are in the world. Very convenient!

One of the challenges unique to Metaphor is the fact that it has several hub cities, while Persona games tend to be centered on one area. With so many more places for allies to be hiding, it certainly makes sense to give the player a teleport, rather than having to scour the ever-expanding world looking for your buddy’s latest spot. 

But however convenient as it may be, I can’t help but feel like something has been lost in the process here, in part because of this new freedom.

Without the need to learn where my friends hang out, I stopped paying attention. Instead it feels like they just pop up in random places, and I feel like I know a little bit less about them as a result. It’s hard to become immersed in the world, when there’s no need to learn about it.

In Metaphor, we have unfettered access to our allies. We always know where they are, and can even teleport to them!

Combine all of this with the fact that our allies don’t seem to really follow much of a schedule in Metaphor, and I think it pushes the Social Link system towards feeling more like a “to-do” list.

Another nail in that coffin, is the changes made to how dialogue options work during your allies’ story scenes.

In Persona, hanging with your friends can push their personal storylines forward, but generally you have to earn their trust before digging into all their juicy drama. Selecting the right dialogue options will cause them to warm up to you faster, thus unlocking the next story scene sooner. In a world with limited time, this serves as a powerful incentive to learn what makes your allies tick, and how to talk to them.

I find that deliberating over what to say to my allies makes me feel closer to them personally, and much more involved in their storyline as a whole. But in Metaphor, there effectively is no “right” dialogue option - the next story scene will unlock at the same pace regardless of what the player says. 

It’s still satisfying to see the little affinity icons pop up when a character responds positively to you - and it’s nice to not feel the pressure to look up a guide, or to reload your save if you chose “bad” options. But without any stakes behind my choices, I feel disengaged from the story.

The moment I realised this lack of gameplay weight, was the moment when the Social Link system started to feel like a “to-do” list to me. Less a set of objectives to work towards, and more a list of content to work through.

The storylines in Metaphor tend to be much more adult than the highschool antics of Persona

Let’s put this all in context, though. As similar as the two games are, Metaphor is ultimately its own product, and it made some clear choices about where to focus its energies.

The Persona games tie themselves very closely to the aesthetic of highschool life. Hanging out with your friends is a pretty core part of the highschool experience, and so I think all of the additional attention paid to the social systems is really appreciated here. Sometimes the goal isn’t to tick off objectives, sometimes you’re just supposed to loiter and enjoy the company.

In Metaphor’s case though, the focus is clearly moreso on the RPG combat and progression systems. Not only that, but the highschool vibe is nowhere to be seen in this gritty fantasy setting. The cast is more adult, and they tend to have more adult problems. We’re still saving the world through the power of friendship, but we’re not really a flock of buzzing teenagers this time.

So it feels kind of appropriate that in Metaphor, the focus is a bit less on the social systems. Streamlining has made the content a lot easier to interact with, and that quality of life gain seems to be a big hit with the fanbase.

But let’s also be cognisant of what was lost in the process. You can streamline too much - and while it feels like Metaphor hit a decent balance for itself, one would hope that Persona 6 doesn’t go quite so far.