Metaphor: The ReFantazio manga is a slapstick comedy version of the game

When I saw Metaphor: ReFantasia got a manga adaptation, I think this would be a good choice for those who don’t have the time or patience to play an RPG that can take 80 hours to complete (or in my case, well over 100 hours, what with all the side quests I’ve started doing). But as the first issue, which you can read for free Manga Plusthis change would be much… sillier.

It’s not that the manga makes many changes to the story, but there is that. All the voices of the book are different. After the start of the sense of whiplash, I decided that I liked it, but it required a mental adjustment. In the game, the main character often speaks with a strange manner of design and distant thoughts; it’s one of the least developed characters in the game, which makes sense, since it’s a cypher that players can easily create themselves. That’s pretty classic for a video game.

In the manga, I was surprised to see the main character saying “shut up” to his beautiful friend Gallica right out of the gate. Difficult! He turns out to be more of a goofball than a jerk, however, with tons of funny faces and little quips that the protagonist of the game never had.

The biggest change in the book is to Strohl’s character. In the game, it is almost as understated and withdrawn as the protagonist; he is an important person who has lost his country and family, but still believes in the idea of ​​politics and living. The manga turns this idea into a comedy, having Strohl repeatedly yelling at people that his blood pressure requires him to help “the public” at all costs. He repeatedly flings himself into near-death situations, mostly invented purely for the manga, in order to prove he is the noblest noble ever.

The manga’s first issue meanders through some details that didn’t appear in the game and then suddenly ends with the king’s funeral, an event that happened in-action si and is a big change in the original story. I’m kind of surprised the manga got it so quickly. (For comparison, the funeral took place about two hours in This 20-hour cutscene compilation of the game.) But others still, the manga did not show Hulkenberg, instead giving his biggest moment to Strohl; In the game, Hulkenberg was there from the start, way before Strohl appeared. I don’t think the manga made these changes in the interest of simplifying the RPG plot, and having fewer characters out of the gate no doubt helps with that, but It’s still strange to see so many important events unfold without Hulkenberg present.

But it was really the decision to make all the characters into emotional goofballs that bothered me, and ultimately made me wonder if the game could be improved with something on this subject. I don’t want Strohl and the main character to be overdone in their show as they are in the manga, where the character is clearly done for the sake of a brief explanation short. But it would have been nice to see a little personality between the two of them, especially in the early stages of the game before you get some more fun participants (eg as Heismay). It’s really fun to see an unexpected twist on the story and I’ll be curious to see how the rest of the issue changes in the next adventures.