technology
A Fantasy RPG That Oozes Cool
Fans of Atlus’ long-running RPG relationship sim series won’t stop asking when Persona 6 will arrive, but the truth is that Metaphor: ReFantazio seems like it covers an awful lot of the same bases, from flashy turn-based fights to friendship meters, while also evolving on the formula in some exciting ways. It’s also a visual feast that, if anything, might actually look too cool.
I had a chance to play a decent chunk of it at Summer Game Fest earlier this month, and my time with Metaphor: ReFantazio convinced me of two things: it feels like a creative but surprisingly familiar spin on the existing Persona games, and also every screen is oozing with so much flair it almost got a little overwhelming at times. It’s shaping up to be more of an evolution than a revolution, but what’s there definitely seems like a deep, meaty RPG experience that could rival anything Atlus’ internal teams have made in the past.
Metaphor, out October 11 on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC, ditches the contemporary urban setting of the Persona series for a mirror medieval fantasy realm complete with castles, monsters, and magic. The United Kingdom of Euchronia is in the midst of a succession crisis following the assassination of its king. The resulting turmoil proves to be perfect fodder for a squad of warriors to road trip between different villages, explore dungeons, and learn each other’s fears, dreams, and personal quirks as they rack up relationship points.
My demo was limited mostly to combat, so I didn’t get a clear sense of Metaphor’s progression or what the ebb and flow of exploration will feel like. There’s still a daily calendar system that suggests every place explored and decision made will come at the cost of something else. And while there won’t be romance, using social interactions to build up your character’s underlying stats will still be a pillar of the game. One thing we have seen from trailers is that you’ll be skating down cobblestone roads with what looks like much more open travel compared to the siloed areas of other Atlus RPGs.
What I did get to experience first-hand was the feel of Metaphor’s real-time action and the structure of its turn-based combat. Players can now engage in combos on the map to wipe out weaker enemies with a sequence of sword strokes just as they would in an action game, while striking stronger enemies transports characters into a turn-based encounter. It wasn’t quite the hybrid revelation I was hoping for, but it’s a smart way to move the interactivity of the dungeons forward. Now instead of just searching for treasure chests and grinding through fights to get to objectives, you can get the satisfaction of slashing through lower-level mobs with ease.
Turn-based combat, meanwhile, swaps out Personas for Archetypes, which are essentially class-based medieval mechs. In addition to magic abilities, characters can select attacks from their equipped Archetypes to buff allies, debuff enemies, and perform joint attacks that dish out much more damage. A skill tree for the Archetypes also looks like a much more streamlined level-up system for the abilities versus the card-based alchemy for customization found in the Persona games. Most of the time, though, I was still in the usual loop of trying to exploit enemy weaknesses to launch bonus attacks while monitoring magic points so they didn’t run out too quickly.
Metaphor is being made by Studio Zero, a more recently formed team within Atlus led by Persona series director Katsura Hashino. While diving deep into fantasy RPG territory, Hashino told Game Informer and others that the goal of Metaphor was to take on universal themes around human imagination and idealism vs. reality. It also seems like a much more open-ended game, from where on the map players decide to explore to who they choose to bring into battle with them out of a total of seven different party members. The Archetype-oriented job system also seems like it has the potential to make Metaphor feel more like an exercise in freeform experimentation than calendar management and stat optimization.
But one place the game doesn’t deviate from the Persona formula is in its electrifying art and presentation, down to every individual UI element you’re likely to encounter during the game. Party menus crackle, dialogue boxes vibrate, and at least two or three things appear to be moving on-screen at all times, even when the scene is otherwise completely still. To get away from the anime feel of the Persona art style, a lot of these elements seem modeled after the scratchy pen and ink scribblings of medieval scrolls. Yet despite moving into a world of gray rocks, brown wood, and dingy armor, there’s color popping everywhere. At times Metaphor feels like playing an animated movie in the best ways.
Speaking recently with Gamesradar, Hashino seemed to conjure the image of great RPG UI being a vehicle that makes the mundane exciting, like a sportscar that turns a work commute into something much less boring. “RPGs are focused so heavily on equipment and party setup and skills and using all these menus, so because you spend so much time in an RPG focusing on these aspects of the game, you want to make sure that they’re as polished and as pretty as possible,” he said. “It’s so much of a core element. That’s one thing that inspired us to put so much effort into the UI.”
As pumped as I am for Persona 6, I came away from my hands-on time with Metaphor even more excited that Atlus is experimenting with something new. It’s not a radical departure, but it is a bold-looking one with plenty of design choices to distinguish it from its predecessor and provide a more classic-feeling D&D-inspired campaign that just happens to come with many of Persona’s bells, whistles, and hyper-confident style. The current field for new and old RPGs has never been more crowded, but Metaphor is doing more than enough to establish its own place in it.
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Akinwumi Ajadi
Akinwumi Ajadi is a passionate blogger and technology enthusiast specializing in the information technology niche. With a keen eye for the latest trends and innovations, Akinwumi delivers insightful, engaging, and practical content to help readers navigate the ever-evolving world of tech. From software development to cybersecurity, Akinwumi's expertise spans a wide range of topics, making complex concepts accessible to both novice and experienced tech enthusiasts alike.
technology
Here’s an alleged Pixel 9 in a vibrant pink [Video]
Google is releasing the Pixel 9 series very early, and right on cue the leaks are coming. In a first leaked video, we’re getting a look at a surprisingly vibrant Pixel 9 in a pink color.
It’s almost inevitable for every Pixel to leak in a hands-on video ahead of its launch, and that’s what it seems we’re now seeing for the Pixel 9.
A leaked video posted by @hanibioud on Twitter/X supposedly shows the Pixel 9 in a bright pink color. The device is supposedly from Algeria and is claimed to have 256GB of storage.
Focusing in on the color, it’s way brighter than any color we’ve seen in recent years outside of the A-Series, but matches the leaked “Peony” color that first surfaced back in May. The color is unusually vibrant for Google’s flagship lineup. As mentioned, we’ve not seen a color this vibrant on a Pixel outside of the A-Series since 2019’s Pixel 4 (with its delightful “Oh So Orange”).
The design, of course, lines up perfectly with past leaks, with the device having flat edges and a glossy back, just like we’ve seen previously. This model also has two cameras, unlike what the similarly-sized Pixel 9 Pro is expected to have.
We’re taking this video with a grain of salt, but the user posting images claims we’ll hear more details tomorrow.
More on Pixel 9:
H/T Mishaal, Brandon
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Update: Removed speculation over date.
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About the Author
Akinwumi Ajadi
Akinwumi Ajadi is a passionate blogger and technology enthusiast specializing in the information technology niche. With a keen eye for the latest trends and innovations, Akinwumi delivers insightful, engaging, and practical content to help readers navigate the ever-evolving world of tech. From software development to cybersecurity, Akinwumi's expertise spans a wide range of topics, making complex concepts accessible to both novice and experienced tech enthusiasts alike.
technology
The first Thunderbolt 5 cables are here, but there’s barely anything to plug in
Available today from Amazon in 1-foot (0.3m), 1.6-foot (0.5m), and 3.3-foot (1m) lengths for $23, $27, and $33, respectively, the new cables obviously don’t do anything on their own — you’d need a computer with a Thunderbolt 5 port and a dock or accessory of some sort to get some real use out of it.
But as of today, the only laptop we’ve heard of with a Thunderbolt 5 port is the Razer Blade 18, and even there, it’s not guaranteed. You’d have to buy the $4,500 Mercury edition of the laptop to get that port. (You do also get an Intel i9 and a mobile RTX 4090 for the money.)
And unless you own two of those laptops, there’s still probably nothing special you can do with a Thunderbolt 5 cable as of today because the peripherals we saw at CES aren’t yet ready: Belkin, J5Create, OWC, and Sabrent do not yet list any of those Thunderbolt 5 products on their websites, and Hyper still shows its $400 dock as being out of stock with a “Sign up to be notified” button.
But if you do have two of the exact same $4,500 Razer laptops, could you use Thunderbolt Share to transfer files between them at ludicrous speed? Inquiring minds want to know. If not, I suppose you could use it as a USB4 / Thunderbolt 4 cable for now.
According to Cable Matters’ press release, its cable is manufactured by Lintes, the same company that provided the prototype cable we saw at CES.
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About the Author
Akinwumi Ajadi
Akinwumi Ajadi is a passionate blogger and technology enthusiast specializing in the information technology niche. With a keen eye for the latest trends and innovations, Akinwumi delivers insightful, engaging, and practical content to help readers navigate the ever-evolving world of tech. From software development to cybersecurity, Akinwumi's expertise spans a wide range of topics, making complex concepts accessible to both novice and experienced tech enthusiasts alike.
technology
Instagram’s ‘Made with AI’ label swapped out for ‘AI info’ after photographers’ complaints
On Monday, Meta announced that it is “updating the ‘Made with AI’ label to ‘AI info’ across our apps, which people can click for more information,” after people complained that their pictures had the tag applied incorrectly. Former White House photographer Pete Souza pointed out the tag popping up on an upload of a photo originally taken on film during a basketball game 40 years ago, speculating that using Adobe’s cropping tool and flattening images might have triggered it.
“As we’ve said from the beginning, we’re consistently improving our AI products, and we are working closely with our industry partners on our approach to AI labeling,” said Meta spokesperson Kate McLaughlin. The new label is supposed to more accurately represent that the content may simply be modified rather than making it seem like it is entirely AI-generated.
The problem seems to be the metadata tools like Adobe Photoshop apply to images and how platforms interpret that. After Meta expanded its policies around labeling AI content, real-life pictures posted to platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Threads were tagged “Made with AI.”
You may see the new labeling first on mobile apps and then the web view later, as McLaughlin tells The Verge it is starting to roll out across all surfaces.
Once you click the tag, it will still show the same message as the old label, which has a more detailed explanation of why it might have been applied and that it could cover images fully generated by AI or edited with tools that include AI tech, like Generative Fill. Metadata tagging tech like C2PA was supposed to make telling the difference between AI-generated and real images simpler and easier, but that future isn’t here yet.
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About the Author
Akinwumi Ajadi
Akinwumi Ajadi is a passionate blogger and technology enthusiast specializing in the information technology niche. With a keen eye for the latest trends and innovations, Akinwumi delivers insightful, engaging, and practical content to help readers navigate the ever-evolving world of tech. From software development to cybersecurity, Akinwumi's expertise spans a wide range of topics, making complex concepts accessible to both novice and experienced tech enthusiasts alike.
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