It takes about five hours until you can start to explore Metaphor: ReFantazio. As you meet up with Strohl, Grius, and then Hulkenberg in the early stages of the game, you’re making linear progression. While you can customise each character’s Archetype and choose from a limited selection of weaponry, it’s mostly on rails. And then you get a sick ass skateboard.
After recruiting Hulkenberg, you’re free to wander around the city. There are small fetch quests for small rewards, some worldbuilding you can take in by visiting (and being turned away from) various establishments, and people to listen to who will raise your in-game stats. There’s also a dungeon to complete, which is what you’re ‘supposed’ to do, but interacting with it limits your time around the city doing other things. Namely, riding a sick ass skateboard.
How did this never come up? I admit I have been mildly avoiding some Metaphor discussion due to having to delay playing it until after Dragon Age (a smart choice, in the end), but the skateboard is not a spoiler. And it’s extremely cool. And it’s extremely my thing, as a loser with a combined playtime of over a thousand hours across the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series.
THAW fans know where it’s at.
Yet I have heard no talk of the skateboard. If you haven’t either, then I’m actually underselling it. This is not just a regular skateboard which, cool as it may be, would probably look out of place in this pseudo-medieval setting. Instead, you hop on your sword and surf around town, Marty McFly-style. Super Fly-style. Alolan Rai-style. It’s not much quicker than running, and way less convenient with slightly weighty controls, but it’s a magic sword skateboard. Of course I’m riding it at every opportunity.
I had a similar moment with Tears of the Kingdom. While I admired the game for its technical prowess and creativity, I just didn’t fall for it the way everyone else seemed to. But for one magic moment, I did – and that was when you got to make a little skateboard and ride it around. The buzz didn’t last, and hopefully in the 60 or so hours it will take me from here to complete Metaphor, the skateboard won’t be my number one element, but it managed to grab me for just a little while.
The fact no one has mentioned it has me worried it will soon be taken away. Maybe it’s a limited time thing you only get for this first area. I’ve already seen the proof of that when meeting a character I had never heard mentioned, then quickly realising why. Should I be tricking out and getting my buddy to record me jumping over a helicopter ASAP before my wheels (or wheelless sword) is ripped out of my hands?
It might also be that it’s strangely limited. You can’t use this sword in the dungeons (except for its purpose of hitting enemies with it), which is likely where I’ll be spending most of my time. I understand why – it would look out of place to be skating around in these dark pits of despair, which I assume get darker and more despairy later on – but then why have it at all? It looks odd and vaguely immersion breaking in the city, but it’s cooler and faster so it’s there.
I’m only a few hours into Metaphor, and far be it from me to find fault with the feature of the game that has brought me the most joy thus far. But the fact nobody else, across all of its critical acclaim, seems to have made a big deal out of this skateboard has me worried that it’s not for keeps. Maybe I’ll never finish the first dungeon. Maybe I’ll just skate around the city forever. Or at least until they bring a new Tony Hawk’s game out.
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OpenCritic
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Top Critic Rating:
92/100
