ReFantazio’s distinct musical blend of traditional JRPG vibes and contemporary flow continues to live in my head rent-free nearly a year later

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Credit: Atlus

I’ve been a Final Fantasy diehard for most of my life, but even I have to admit nobody does a JRPG soundtrack quite like Atlus. The Persona series has become as well known for its music as it has for its storyline, characters, and gigantic penis monsters—weaving modern sounds into dynamic dungeon themes and toned-down town hub tunes, while centering the identity of each game around music genres like J-Pop, jazz, and hip-hop.

Welcome to Soundtrack Sunday, where a member of the PC Gamer team takes a look at a soundtrack from one of their favourite games—or a broader look at videogame music as a whole—offering a little backstory and recommendations for tracks you should be adding to your playlist.

But what about when Atlus makes a game that isn’t set in modern-day Japan? Metaphor: ReFantazio came out swinging almost a year ago and absolutely floored me in every possible way. A gripping high fantasy storyline set in a medieval kingdom, a cast of adult characters who feel like the natural evolution of Persona’s teenage ensembles, and a genuinely fantastic soundtrack to back up the entire thing.

I’ve become so used to composer Shoji Meguro—who worked in-house at Atlus for over 25 years—dealing in more contemporary beats that I hadn’t thought about what he would do when tasked with a far more antiquated setting. The result? Delicate pianos, epic orchestral moments, mystical choirs, and a freaking Buddhist priest chanting absolute bars in the middle of battle.

It’s a soundtrack that feels more classical JRPG but still very distinctly Atlus, something which Meguro was apparently surprised by. After all, according to an interview with Famitsu last year, his approach to Metaphor was much different to Persona. Where the latter has a far more intertwined visual and auditory vision with lots of hard-hitting tunes, Meguro wanted the former game to be a little more separated, with the music quietly doing its job in the background.

“However, when I looked at people’s reactions to the soundtrack, it was really surprising to me that some people kindly commented things like ‘it’s very Atlus-like’ and ‘it’s quite an aggressive soundtrack this time too,'” an Automaton West translation revealed.

Much of that aggression comes from what is easily my two favourite tracks in the entire game: Warriors in Arms and Warriors in Valour. They’re the two main battle themes heard throughout Metaphor: ReFantazio, and they’re also two of the most unique songs I’ve heard in a videogame.

That’s partly thanks to the absolutely incredible vocals courtesy of monk Keisuke Honryo and his unique chanting, with Meguro penning lyrics inspired by Esperanto to create a wholly unique language for Metaphor. It’s a delightful juxtaposition between what I’d consider a more traditional battle theme layered with a very modernised vocal presentation—Honryo chants the lyrics with a cadence you’d expect in a rap song.

Combined with the fact that, canonically, the music is being heard by the protagonist rather than the audience, and the raw aggression behind Honryo’s words coupled with quick strings makes even the small fry battles feel like a fight for your life.

Metaphor has its calmer moments too, though. Tracks like Ode to Heroes—which plays while the protagonist is housed within the cosy library walls of Akademia—or the comforting night theme of Port Brilehaven break up the pace and throw me back to JRPGs I played growing up like Final Fantasy 12.

The game’s entire soundtrack is an excellent marriage of the old and the new, the west and the east, a sound that evokes a strange sense of nostalgia within me while also being like nothing I’ve heard before. It’s a perfect fit for Metaphor’s own storyline, which uses an archaic race for the throne to explore pertinent current-day themes like racism, politics, and religious corruption.

I’m absolutely dying to hear more of this stuff from Meguro in the future. He’s not been with Atlus full-time since 2021 but is still busy freelancing for the developer on the regular as well as other projects like his upcoming game Guns Undarkness. With the potential for a Metaphor sequel definitely there, it’d be the perfect opportunity to hear Meguro leaning more on traditional genre tropes while adding his own distinct twist into the mix, which somehow leaves me more excited than the prospect of the sequel itself.