Atlus’ Metaphor: ReFantazio was initially inspired by classic fantasy like Lords of the Rings, but the developer “threw out” this research to focus on a more original world.
Speaking on the Official Xbox Podcast, director Katsura Hashino discussed the influence of traditional fantasy and how that ultimately hindered the creativity of the development team.
“At the very beginning of the development of Metaphor: ReFantazio, we looked into traditional fantasy culture,” said Hashino, such as Tolkien and Lords of the Rings. “We researched not just what traditional fantasy was, but why it was written the way it was, what inspired it to be written in the way it was.
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“While we were trying to bring this aspect into our game, we threw out all of our ideas of it and we realised we couldn’t really make a game that was in the traditional fantasy mode
“It wouldn’t really feel original to us. It would lack that originality that defines us. We’re also finding that it would be hard for us to bring out the creativity that we wanted to in this more traditional fantasy world.”