Metaphor ReFantazio: Our best tips for getting started on THE JRPG of the moment!

Fights

As surprising as it may seem, Metaphor ReFantazio’s first dungeon is surely its longest and most difficult. This may be due to the lack of skills at the start of the adventure, but the exploration nonetheless remains particularly long. Quickly, you will find yourself short of magic points (MP), which will radically complicate the fights. Beyond the tip for recovering MP which we will tell you about later, we advise you to do the dungeon over several days.

This may come as a shock to Persona fans who are used to doing Palaces in a single day, but for Metaphor’s first dungeon it becomes difficult. Instead of burning all your MP recovery items from the start of the adventure, it is better to take several days to see the end of the first dungeon. In any case, you don’t have as much to do during these first hours of play as later, so you might as well take advantage of it to make your life easier.

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If you attack the dungeon on your first free days, you will quickly encounter difficulties. So, once you have your three characters, we invite you to take a trip to the desert outside the city to do a little farming. If the sandworms will give rise to turn-based combat at the beginning, you will have to quickly level up to succeed in defeating them directly in real time. SO, you just have to do laps of the desert, running in all directions and hitting everything that comes your way to quickly gain experience. This is even more effective on bad weather days because it rewards more experience, but enemies become resistant to their weak point.

Once all enemies are defeated, they will respawn, but it takes a while. Rather than waiting, we advise you to go see the cat statue which allows you to save in the middle of the desert to go see More. Beyond modifying your archetypes, you will above all make all the enemies reappear when you leave Akademia. This method is very practical for quickly gaining the first levels of a new archetype. Once this is done, you can always use incense that you collect during the adventure to directly increase the level of an archetype.

Which archetypes should you choose at the start of your adventure?

At the start of the adventure, the choice of archetypes is quite decisive. Obviously, we advise you to use the Archetypes awakened by the characters to get started: Strohl as a Warrior and Hulkenberg as a Knight therefore. However, the question arises especially for the protagonist. If the Explorer is very practical due to its versatility, you will quickly realize that its magic is not sufficient to exploit the elemental weaknesses of your enemies. Quite instinctively, we would advise you to choose the Mage class for the hero at the start of the game for several reasons.

First of all, with his fire, ice and lightning spells, the Mage can cover a wide range of elemental weaknesses that other Archetypes cannot touch. Next, he fights with a stick, which causes blunt damage: thus, with a Warrior and a Knight you can exploit all physical weaknesses. And above all, the Mage has a passive skill which allows him to recover MP each time he hits an enemy in real time during the operational phases. So you can have fun hitting enemies in a loop, without ever entering turn-based combat, to quickly gain MP without using items. All this makes this Archetype particularly practical at the start of an adventure.

However, do not neglect the transfer of skills from the start of your game. If Hulkenberg is handy as a Knight, i.e. Tank, you can also give her the Explorer or Healer healing spell so that she also plays the role of Healer. And then, why not give Sthrol a spell that you couldn’t give to your Mage? It’s up to you to make the most of the ingenious Archetype system.

Free time

What to do in your free time?

Apart from the dungeon and exploration phases, you are free to evolve within the major cities of Metahor ReFantazio. As a priority, what we advise you to do is to quickly build your social links. The different characters you can get close to give you access to different advantages, whether new archetypes, an increase in the limit of transferable skills or even passive bonuses. Among all your relationships, your playable companions are obviously the ones to prioritize. You will quickly have access to improved versions of their archetype and they will be able to benefit from certain additional advantages.

However, we advise you not to neglect the other NPCs who also give access to more than interesting and above all diverse advantages. If you don’t have a quest to do, or a need to farm, that’s what you should focus on. As for increasing your royal virtues, this can be done during your travels where you only have to do that if no interaction is available with your allies. This therefore takes a back seat at the start of the adventure, before obviously it becomes obligatory to improve a relationship obviously. And then, if you don’t have anyone to talk to, you can take advantage of these times to increase one of your royal virtues thanks to the activities indicated in each city.

In Metaphor ReFantazio, The most important thing before going to a dungeon or doing a quest is to go and buy information from the informant present in each tavern in the game. This will reveal to you the weak points of the enemies in the dungeon and especially those of bosses, in addition to its attacks. This is the best way to prepare properly, even if it means changing archetypes and equipment to prepare for the situation. Speaking of equipment, We advise you to go buy Pazaudi, the equivalent of Sunday in the world of gaming. On this day, there are promotions because it is a sacred day. So rather than spending the rest of the week, it’s better to wait.

Which royal virtues to ascend first?

As in a Persona, Metaphor ReFantazio offers social statistics for your character which take the name of “royal virtues” here. There are five: Courage, Wisdom, Eloquence, Tolerance and Imagination. As a priority, we advise you to mount wisdom first for two reasons. First of all, this will allow you to unlock the quest linked to Brigitta which later becomes a relationship that you can improve, giving access to an archetype and various very interesting bonuses. In addition, mounting wisdom will allow you to enter the church to purify your equipment, that is to say strengthen it. A very practical mechanism therefore.

Beyond that, we would tend to recommend that you increase your different virtues in a balanced way. In other words, make sure that they are all at level 2, then 3 at the same time, rather than having one at 5 from the start of the adventure. In reality, Metaphor asks you for a certain level of royal virtues by level, that is to say that at a certain moment in the game, you will be asked for level 2, then 3 etc… You therefore do not have to no interest in just one at a time. Besides, We advise you not to waste your time increasing the Imagination. You will have time to bring it up on your own during your travels, as it is often the only activity available in the evening.