Metaphor: ReFantazio, like many other Atlus JRPGs, is massive, with a story that, at its quickest, will take around 60 hours, and at longest up to 100 hours to complete. However, also like other Atlus JRPGs, your adventure can end prematurely if you fail some dialogue decisions.
Related
Metaphor: ReFantazio – 8 Things To Do After You Beat The Game
Don’t let your time in Metaphor: ReFantazio end without checking these things out.
As with any game of this type, you may stumble into these bad endings by accident, or may completely avoiud them but simply be curious about what they are. There are three of these alternate bad endings throughout Metaphor: ReFantazio and we look at what they are, where to find them and how to avoid them.
Heavy Spoilers Throughout For Metaphor: ReFantazio
Bad Ending 1
Fantasy Is Dead
You won’t reach a game-ending decision in Metaphor: ReFantazio until about two thirds of your way through the game, when the final act starts to kick in. You’ve played the whole game as the protagonist under the assumption that you’re an elda boy who is on a mission to revive his childhood friend, the Prince of Euchronia, who’s stuck in a comatose cursed state after a semi-failed assassination attempt a decade prior.
However, as you return to the elda village to check on the Prince’s body- after another assassin was sent after him by the game’s main antagonist, Louis – things start to turn in a strange direction for our hero. As he gets closer to the inner sanctum of the elda village, the protagonist starts to experience visions and hear voices that hint at a hidden truth that is on the brink of being uncovered.
Upon reaching the Prince’s body, which was attacked by Louis’ assassin Zorba, the protagonist sinks into a dreamlike state where the mysterious voice (the same one that speaks to party members once they unlock their archetype powers) starts to hint to the protagonist that they are actually an extension of the Prince’s conscience.
The protagonist was created as Gallica and headed off to start the game’s mission. Their creation not only formed fake memories that he is just a childhood friend of the Prince, but was even capable of implanting fake memories in Gallica that they already knew each other and were meant to go on the mission together.
With all these fake memories swirling around inside the protagonist, with him growing more and more aware of the fact that there are plenty of gaps when it comes to what he remembers of events from before the game started, he is stuck in a mental dilemma.
Staring down the corpse-like Prince, the game prompts the hero to move past his doubts, and reunite with his other half to carry on the adventure as the Prince. However, there are a couple of chances during this internal dialogue where you can deny this fate.
If you accept the Prince, the game continues towards the true ending, but if you reject this identity, you instead reach the Fantasy is Dead ending.
Since this is not the intended ending, and most players will likely glide right past it, that means that this ending is pretty abrupt, and you’ll be prompted to try again. The description of this ending tells you that without proper opposition, Louis was easily able to become King and ran Euchronia into the ground so thoroughly that the kingdom has been forgotten in history.
Bad Ending 2
Fantasy Is Ruined
If you accept the protagonist’s fate as the Prince, you’ll continue into the final arc of the game, working through the last dungeon and towards the final encounter with Louis. If you manage to reach him in time, you’ll get to hear the villains’ horrendous plan for Euchronia once he is able to use the Royal Sceptre without any outside interference, in a lengthy speech that seems to be his signature.
Unlike other villainous speeches you’ll hear throughout Metaphor: ReFantazio, this time you get a chance to agree with Louis’ mantra, and actually side with him. Of course, Louis’ plan is not seen as the correct fate for Euchronia by the powers that be, so this is seen as another bad ending.
This ending is described as Fantasy is Ruined, and while it is just as abrupt as the first bad ending, it doesn’t give you the same description, since the events are slightly different this time. Instead of Louis taking Kinghood without any opposition, this time the protagonist will side with him.
The pair become the joint rulers of Euchronia, but it doesn’t seem like the protagonist had any positive influence on Louis, and everything goes exactly to his plan. Euchronia is transformed into a country full of mutated humans, falling in line with Louis’ vision for ‘true equality’.
A testament to the party’s loyalty to the protagonist, while they are of course doubtful of his decision, they do end up falling in line with him.
Bad Ending 3
Fantasy Is Only Fiction
While there was quite a significant gap between the first and second bad endings of Metaphor: ReFantazio, the third comes incredibly soon after the second.
If you choose to defy Louis (at the same point where you can side with him), he will attack the protagonist, prompting him to attempt to summon his archetype, but instead of this happening, he falls into a comatose state and wakes up in Akademia.
Here More will tell the protagonist that the world he has been living in is just an illusion, and the world that he wrote in his fantasy novel is actually reality instead. The walls of the library fall down, and it’s revealed that the pair are standing in the middle of a contemporary-looking world resembling Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo.
More is sympathetic to Louis and the cycle of oppression taking place in Euchronia, and tells the protagonist that this world is free of discrimination, and he can choose to abandon life as he knows it and start living in this new world.
Related
The 7 Best Bond Storylines In Metaphor: ReFantazio
Who should you build your bonds with in Metaphor: ReFantazio?
If you choose to abandon the world you’ve been playing through for the whole game, you will reach the last bad ending; Fantasy Is Only Fiction, and everything will come to a halt following a short conversation with the supposed author.
Once again, this is quite easy to avoid if you stick to your guns, and if you pass the conversation, you can continue with the main story after More reveals that what he presented to the protagonist was just a test to prove that he has the mettle to finish his journey correctly. After this, you continue onwards to take on the final encounter with Louis.
True Ending
After passing More’s test, you will take on the tough final encounter against Louis, and if you’re prepared enough, you’ll be able to beat him.
Once you do this, you’ll achieve the true ending of Metaphor: ReFantazio. This includes the protagonist becoming King, the threat of Louis and the Royal Sceptre being out of the picture, and we even get a time-skip epilogue where we get to explore Grand Trad and chat with all the completed bonds to see how the first year of the protagonist’s reign has been.
Leave a Reply