Key foods
- Metaphor: Refantazio features unique enemy designs inspired by surrealism, different from the usual Persona and Shin Megami Tensei creatures.
- Known as the “Fishman”, Homo Fios frustrates players with high agility and evasive abilities, making combat challenging.
- Players find the Homo Fios encounter in Metaphor: Refantazio frustrating, and some suggest that preparation is crucial to effectively countering the enemy.
Metaphor: Refantazio has some of the coolest enemy designs in recent gaming history. Moving away from the usual creatures found in the Persona and Shin Megami Tensei games, Metaphor relies heavily on surrealism for its monsters.
A lot of the human enemies that are inspired by them were inspired by the 15th century Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch who had some really interesting ideas if you look at his work.
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A game should always be a reflection of the people who made it.
One enemy in particular, Homo Fios, is pulled straight out of Bosch's work and doesn't hurt the metaphorical players.
“Fandango the fish pissed me off”
Affectionately known as “fish man”, Homo fius is found in the belly of a giant sandworm. It's a creature that doesn't seem very threatening on paper. It is a fish with a pair of human legs wearing a boot. But Atlus likes to subvert expectations.
On the first turn, Homo Fuus chooses Fishy Fandango, which maxes out its agility, meaning its accuracy and evasion are very, very high. It then casts Masukonda and lowers the party's agility, which often means you take a lot of hits without landing too many of your own. This song and dance has disappointed the players.
Since the game's release last week, several threads have appeared on Reddit lamenting Fishy, with players sharing that “Fishy Fandango pissed me off” and “Funny Fish Man hasn't been messing around “
Funny fish man is not sabotaging.
The encounter looks so desperate that it's been called the “absolute worst fight to go blind,” suggesting that some preparation is needed beforehand. Our official guide for this section agreed with players' sentiments, saying, “If you don't deal with it, it can get very boring, very quickly.” Frustrations compounded as there were no save points near the minibus.
Homo fius aside, we loved metaphor: refantasio. We gave the game a 5/5 in our official review, saying “Metaphor: ReFantazio is a new high for Atlus. This game takes what's so great about Persona and refines it.”
Metaphor: ReFantazio is a brand new fantasy RPG from Persona 5 director Katsura Hashino. In it, you must fight for the throne and save the world in the process.
