Metaphor: ReFantazio did surprisingly well on PC, says director, and that the number of desktop-based JRPG enjoyers is on the rise: ‘The trend is evident’

Something I’ve really enjoyed over the last decade of PC gaming has been the shift in genres like JRPGs, going from console homebodies to multiplatform behemoths and even, in some cases, finding an even better home on our desktops.

We’ve even seen an increase in Japanese developers gunning for simultaneous console and PC releases—Capcom’s Monster Hunter Wilds was the first game in the series to do so, and Atlus blessed us with a simultaneous release for last year’s excellent Metaphor: ReFantazio. It’s a strategy the developer has only started dabbling in recently—firstly with spinoffs like Persona 5 Tactica, and then Persona 3 Reload—and it seems like it’s paying off mighty well.

As reported by 4Gamers (with a handy translation from Automaton Media), director Katsura Hashino said that the game was actually pretty well-received among PC players “although Atlus is generally associated with console games,” with the platform exceeding the publisher’s sales expectations. Apparently it’s seen a pretty noticeable uptick in PC players over the years too, with Hashino saying “Even if you look at long-term data from over the past five to 10 years, the trend is evident.”

I mean, hell yeah. There’s undoubtedly swathes of folk like me who grew up on all the weird and wonderful JRPGs that swarmed the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 who ended up graduating to PC gamers as adults and still hunger for a classic 100-hour teenagers-versus-god story to sink into.

That’s before even getting to the fact that Metaphor: ReFantazio is just a bloody good game. Our reviewer gave Metaphor a whopping 95% score—that’s only two points behind Baldur’s Gate 3, mind you—and as someone who sank 160 hours into the game myself last year, I couldn’t agree with the score more. It’s a game that takes everything good about Persona while swapping out high school for high fantasy, pulling the whole thing off excellently.

That’s why part of me isn’t totally surprised to know Metaphor did quite well on PC, but that doesn’t make me any less excited to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth. I hope it’s a continuing trend that leads to even more Japanese developers working on simultaneous releases, both in terms of regional launch and platform choice.