A Metaphor for our times
Metaphor: ReFantazio hits too close to home for those grappling with the outcome of the US election
Starting Metaphor: ReFantazio the weekend before the US presidential election earlier this month was certainly an experience. I had gone into this turn-based RPG from the creators of the Persona videogame series blind, without any spoilers beyond the obvious fantasy setting.
Well, one of the main plot drivers in Metaphor: ReFantazio is a tournament to pick the next king, with candidates trying to win the hearts of the people — with magical shenanigans, literally giant rocks with the faces of the top candidates floating in major cities — used to track the popularity of each candidate instead of an actual voting day, of course.
In some ways, the game felt like a fantastical parallel of the US election in an alternate world. You get candidates advocating for everything from giving everyone free booze to eliminating taxes to killing rich folks and redistributing their wealth. One of the top candidates, and the antagonist Louis Guiabern is a blue-eyed, blonde-haired charismatic army officer. He is a wannabe populist strongman who promises to protect the kingdom from strange gigantic monsters (dubbed as humans in the game) that look like twisted amalgamations of human body parts.
Oh, and Louis is the one who murdered the previous king, who he felt was under the sway of the kingdom’s elites, like the head of the church. He’s not one to shy away from lying to the populace when convenient, though he talks about meritocracy as the way forward. There’s even an assassination attempt on Louis early in the game. But he remains the second-most popular candidate for most of the game.
Meanwhile, the main character is assembling a diverse party of companions that hail from each of the eight different tribes in the land. As the protagonist, you’ll be wandering around the kingdom trying to win support by helping people with their requests, while learning about the prejudice, class divisions, and inequality in this place. The ultimate goal here is to stop Louis, who is believed to be responsible for cursing the rightful heir and prince with a deadly spell.
Metaphor: ReFantazio is an extremely political game that sometimes verges on being preachy and heavy-handed, but tries manfully to convey its utopian ideas and solutions about the problems plaguing its fantasy world, and also our own world. If the story can seem a bit too heavy for a game, the gameplay itself is a refinement of the Persona and Megami Tensei games, with familiar elements that have been streamlined and improved, resulting in an addictive RPG that fully deserves its recent Game of the Year nomination. Metaphor: ReFantazio probably hits too close to home for those who are still grappling with the US election result, but at least you get a hopeful ending in the game.
This week, we tested two smartphones from Honor and Xiaomi, as well as yet another AI-capable Windows laptop from Acer.
Marketed as an “ultra tough” smartphone despite having only an IP65 rating (splash resistant), the Honor X9c does come with a 365-day screen protection coverage. But you’ll still have to pay S$78 (for labour cost) to change any damaged screen. Nevertheless, the Honor X9c is a solid mid-range Android device with great battery life, a nice OLED screen, and decent cameras.
The Acer Swift 14 AI is one of several Windows Copilot+ laptops sporting Intel’s latest Core Ultra 2 processors that have launched in recent weeks. This new chip improves significantly over Intel’s previous processors, especially in the battery life department. The Acer laptop is also competitive with other Copilot+ PCs that use Qualcomm Snapdragon processors in both performance and pricing.
The new Xiaomi 14T Pro is a more affordable version of the Chinese smartphone maker’s Leica-branded Xiaomi 14 series, and comes with AI features that can be hit or miss, depending on your usage. The phone itself looks premium, and performs solidly in benchmarks. Good value in the upper mid-range segment.