You may be thinking that Atlus’ newest game, Metaphor: ReFantazio, is likely to have romance options. Unfortunately, we have bad news for you.
Romance in video games has been around for a while. Recent titles like Rise of the Ronin and Dragon’s Dogma 2 continue to feature it. Atlus, the developers behind the Persona series, typically allows players to romance its various side characters, including in the recent Persona 3 Reload. So, naturally, as it has included it in its previous games, fans are likely expecting it to appear in its upcoming game, Metaphor: ReFantazio. However, we are stunned to discover that romance is, in fact, not in the game.
Can You Romance Characters in Metaphor: ReFantazio?
No, you cannot romance any of the characters in Metaphor: ReFantazio. While you can build bonds, the option to romance any of your companions is not present. Atlus revealed the details during a recent Q&A session for the game (which is entirely in Japanese). It confirmed that you cannot romance any of the game’s characters, regardless of whether it is a party member, side character, or random NPC.
This is a shock as Atlus usually has the option featured in its games. As mentioned above, the Persona series allows players to romance various characters. Furthermore, the Shin Megami Tensei titles also have romance options for players to pursue. It seems that Atlus wanted to shake things up a bit by choosing to take the feature out and substitute it for something similar but not one-to-one.
What Romance Options Are There in Metaphor: ReFantazio?
While players can not romance characters, Metaphor: ReFantazio does feature a bonding system. The bonding system works like other RPGs, where having certain party members join you will increase your bond with them. A neat feature in Metaphor: ReFantazio is that when bonds increase with characters, new Archetypes are unlocked to use. The Archetypes are various classes that players can play as. Atlus discussed the details of the bonding system during the same Q&A session mentioned above.
It is doubtful that romance options will be added to the game later on. Atlus seems to want players to focus on platonic bonds with their characters throughout the game rather than romancing them. When it comes to why Atlus chose not to include romance, it is unknown. However, we suspect they wanted to avoid feature bloat as Metaphor: ReFantazio is adding a lot of new gameplay mechanics that are absent in Atlus’ other games.
That is everything we know about whether romance options appear in Metaphor: ReFantazio. For more articles just like this one, be sure to check out our Guide Hub.