Metaphor: ReFantazio is as Long as Persona 5, Post-Story Content Teased by Director

Studio Zero’s Metaphor: ReFantazio is out in a little over two weeks, and thus far, we’ve seen everything from combat, dungeons, and exploration to optional activities (like Bounties), the story, and even some new allies like Eupha. However, one question remains: How long is the experience?

After all, director Katsura Hashino’s last title, Persona 5, has a long runtime – HowLongToBeat estimates 97.5 hours to finish the story on average. Completionists will need 173 hours to mop up everything. Speaking to Vandal, Hashino said that Metaphor: ReFantazio will be able to “catch up to that.”

“Persona 5 was a very bulky game, a very robust game, and this Metaphor: ReFantazio will be able to catch up to that and reach [its length] as well.” Furthermore, there will be some post-story content to entice players to return.

“There’s a lot of fun stuff we’ve added to the game after you play through it that will hopefully make you come back and continue to enjoy it after completing it. We’ve also done our best to create a very well-paced game. We’ve done things like adding action elements to the turn-based gameplay.”

Interestingly, Hashino thought the experience would be a “little bit shorter.” However, “We’ve added so much content, and there’s so much stuff in here that it definitely has a length like Persona 5.” Players can also look forward to a “lot” of animated cinematics, with the team aiming for the same amount as in Persona 5.

Metaphor: ReFantazio launches on October 11th for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Stay tuned for more details and gameplay en route to its launch, and check out the opening here.