Persona 5 director Katsura Hashino talks about his artistic approach for Metaphor: ReFantazio using Tolkien’s work as a primary source of inspiration.
The fantasy genre is experiencing a period of great popularity in all entertainment media. We also see it in the field of video games and in the world of RPGs. What most characterizes the so-called “classic” fantasy genre is the author’s ability to escape from certain constraints of the real world and allow him to create an alternative world with its own history, rules and society. Even if the famous director Katsura Hashino he is no stranger to fantasy elements in his stories at all, the other games directed by him such as Persona 3, Persona 4 and Persona 5 or Catherine are set in the real world, in modern times. Metaphor: ReFantazio it is instead a fantasy in the most canonical sense of the term, with its own races, politics and society. A change of tone was therefore necessary for his team, and to become familiar with this concept of world building, Hashino started looking for inspiration by reading fantasy novels, first of all The Lord of the Rings.
In his “intensive fantasy course”, thanks above all to reading Tolkien’s writings, the director realized that creating the game world would require deeper introspection. In the world of PersonHashino could take inspiration from real environments, we remember well the complete fidelity to the neighborhoods of Tokyo in Persona 5, but entering into the purest conception of the fantasy genre of the term, he understood that he had to change his approach. He couldn’t simply copy existing works like The Lord of the Rings, he had to create his own world totally from scratch.
I realized that if we tried to imitate it in any way, in characters, setting or world, we wouldn’t really reach the originals.
If we tried to copy it, it would just be a copy. So I thought: let’s try to make a fantasy game that only we can make.
In a reality where several clones of The Lord of the Rings are often found, Hashino’s statement is not to be underestimated at all.
The conceptual inspiration gained through the work of Tolkien it allowed the team to create a new world, with more “alive” characters who are born and take shape from the environment in which they find themselves. Hashino’s words seem to have fully captured the concept of creating a fantasy world. The result is a fantasy game that just Atlus could have created, starting from the foundations laid by the Persona saga, which made the public fall in love with gamers.
The JRPG received great approval from critics upon its debut, so much so that it can be considered, together with Astro Bot one of the most popular games of the year so far.
We also particularly loved playing Metaphor: ReFantazioif you want more details we invite you to read our review
Atlus remains a guarantee in terms of topics covered and narration. We are not at all surprised by the push on their part in wanting to give an authorial imprint to their creation and Tolkien’s influence seems to have given the right added value to the video game work.
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