If there’s one thing the Persona series is known for, it’s that every game is exceptionally long. Atlus is well-known for making massive RPGs that can take well over 100 hours to complete, so can you expect the same from the studio’s new grand fantasy RPG? Well, the answer is a bit complicated. Metaphor: Refantazio is a massive game that you’ll likely need to clear a few weekends of freetime for, but it’s not quite as lengthy as the likes of Persona 5. Here’s every detail you need to know about exactly how long you’ll be spending with Metaphor.
How Long Does It Take to Beat Metaphor: ReFantazio?
Metaphor: Refantazio is a lengthy RPG that should take you at least roughly 60-65 hours to complete if you’re just looking to mainline the story. That’s obviously quite a bit under the 100-hour runtime of Persona 5, but Metaphor does have a substantial amount of side content to dig into as well.
Our own playthrough clocked in at 85 hours, playing at a leisurely pace and making sure to try and max Follower bonds, do almost every optional dungeon, and level a handful of jobs to max for each character.
So in general, expect you’ll be spending anywhere from 60-90 hours with Metaphor, and that time can fluctuate with how much you do and what difficulty you play on.
How Much Side Content is in Metaphor: ReFantazio?
The side content in Metaphor is a bit different from your typical RPG, as it’s all directly integrated into the main story, it all just depends on what you want to do. Just like the Persona games, the story of Metaphor plays out through a calendar system, where you go through each day across a handful of months. In between story dungeons and major moments you’ll get free time to do whatever you wants — spend time with followers, take down optional bounty monsters, explore extra dungeons, or raise the protagonist’s Virtue stats.
If you’re looking to do everything in Metaphor, make sure you’re fully exploring towns every time you’re given free time. Head to the Recruitment Center to check for new bounties, walk the streets to find quests, and check in with followers.
In our playthrough the final chunk of playtime provided three dungeons with super-bosses that we didn’t beat, so that could add even more playtime onto our number. We did nearly everything else you can do in a single playthrough with our 85 hours, outside of small collectibles and colosseum battles.
In general, though, if you’re diligently exploring you’ll be able to find all of Metaphor’s side content, so don’t worry about missing out on things. Metaphor also has a New Game Plus that lets you carry over the Archetypes you’ve unlocked, Virtues, Follower Bonds, and more. There are also some extra secret bosses that can only be fought in New Game Plus.
Can You Max Follower Bonds and Virtues in One Playthrough?
One of the major questions you likely have about Metaphor, is if you can complete all of the Followers bonds — this game’s equivalent of Persona’s Social Links. We’re please to say, yes it’s entirely possible to boost all of your Virtue stats and complete every single bond, we did it and here’s a few tips on how.
- Read books while travelling on the Gauntlet Runner. Each book takes three times to read, and you get stats for each read and an extra stat boos when finishing the book.
- Look for Podiums in each town. You can use free time to give speeches on these that will boost your Eloquence, but sometimes you’ll find another candidate you can debate. If you choose the right choices and win the debate you’ll get a boost for Eloquence as well as an extra stat.
- Later party members like Junah and Eupha will give you bigger Virtue bonuses if you spend time with them on the Gauntlet Runner.
- Raise Maria’s Follower bond and you can unlock an ability that lets you cook on the Gauntlet Runner without using free time. Wait to cook a lot until then.
