Summary
Metaphor: ReFantaziowas one of 2024’s best games. Itwon more than a dozen awards during the awards season, including Best Narrative, Best Art Direction, and Best Role-Playing Game atlast year’s Game Awards, as well as Best Narrative at the BAFTAs, Best Role-Playing Game at the D.I.C.E. Awards, andthe coveted Sam Woods Game of the Year 2024.
Things could have turned out differently for the title, though, as the game’s director, Katsura Hashino, revealed that it was ready much, much earlier than its October 2024 release.
Metaphor: ReFantazio Was Ready “Around The Fall Of 2023”
In a new interview with4Gamer, Hashino revealed that despite so many nominations, he wasn’t “that busy being called here and there” during awards season. Instead, the developer said that much of his time is, and has been, “already devoted to the next project,” which is exciting, if not unsurprising, news for fans of both Metaphor and Persona, which Hashino has directed.
Of Metaphor: ReFantazio, Hashino revealed the frustrations he faced during the anxious wait for the game to be released. “Development was almost completed around the fall of 2023, a year before the release,” he said. “It was released simultaneously worldwide on each platform, so there were adjustments to be made, but I had more of a waiting feeling like ‘Is it still a year until the release?’ or ‘Is it still not coming?'”
Development was almost completed around the fall of 2023, a year before the release,
The director said that he “felt sorry for everyone who was waiting,” but it took longer for the team to finish the final adjustments than they had planned.
Given that this was the first time in Hashino’s storied history as a developer that he had worked on a game released simultaneously worldwide, hiccups were to be expected, but ultimately it was worth it. “It was difficult to support multiple platforms with a simultaneous global release, but I feel that it is very meaningful that players in every country can have the same experience at the same time,” Hashino said, adding, “I am happy that we have been able to make this a reality.”
