Metaphor: ReFantazio brings back the confidants or social links of the Persona series and replaces them with followers but as ever, players need to avoid missable content and weigh who to focus on.
The Persona games are notorious for their sheer volume of missable content. While this is built directly into the calendar-based story cycle, it makes it so players need to be extremely methodical throughout their playthrough. Metaphor: ReFantazio is more forgiving in that regard. This doesn’t mean that there aren’t major benefits to some strategy, though.
Players will find their playthrough much easier if they know how to handle their followers, how they fit into the archetype landscape, and who to focus on.
Which followers to focus on in Metaphor: ReFantazio
Players should actively focus on raising their follower ranks with Maria and the party members.
In Persona 5, the wisest approach was to befriend Kawakami and Chihaya and focus on them. These two were particularly valuable as they allowed players to save blocks of time. In Metaphor: ReFantazio, Maria fits that niche.
At rank four, Maria gives players four uniquely strong boosts. Purpose gives a passive boost to EXP earned through fighting, and Speed Cooking makes it so cooking on the Gauntlet Runner doesn’t take time. Higher ranks confer similar benefits; boosting EXP yields further and giving players a chance of cooking multiple dishes with one batch of ingredients.
Behind Maria, the various Metaphor: ReFantazio party members are the most important to focus on. While raising an archetype to rank 20 sounds daunting, it’s quite easy. Most party members offer access to a new archetype after hitting rank 3. Making sure Strohl can pivot from warrior to swordmaster and Heismay can go from thief to assassin instantly.
Which followers are missable in Metaphor: ReFantazio?
Followers such as Neuras and Alonzo are technically missable in Metaphor: ReFantazio. However, players have to make an effort to not at least make their acquaintance.
The majority of followers are unlocked automatically during the course of the story. Some of them, like Catherina, have arbitrary requests attached as prerequisites but are effectively unlocked during the story. However, Neuras, Alonzo, Bardon, and others require players to go out of their way to get them.
Because players have comprehensive fast-traveling and these requests don’t have an end date, these followers are extremely easy to get. While Metaphor: ReFantazio has missable followers, players have to make an effort to not get the full crew.
All Metaphor: ReFantazio followers and the archetypes they unlock
Metaphor: ReFantazio has a total of 14 followers to recruit, each one of which unlocks an archetype that can be used in battle. Here is the full list of followers, their corresponding archetype, and how they’re unlocked:
Archetype | Follower |
Seeker | More |
Warrior | Strohl |
Mage | Gallica |
Knight | Hulkenberg |
Healer | Maria |
Thief | Heismay |
Merchant | Brigitta |
Brawler | Catherina |
Gunner | Neuras |
Faker | Alonzo |
Commander | Bardon |
Masked Dancer | Junah |
Summoner | Eupha |
Berserker | Basilio |
While followers are so easy to get in Metaphor: ReFantazio that it’s hard to label any as “missable,” players should really focus on unlocking them as quickly as possible. That’s because archetypes work differently from the personas of the Persona series. In Persona, players unlocked the strongest personas of a social link’s arcana by maxing out their confidants and social links. Metaphor: ReFantazio doesn’t give players access to archetypes at all until they befriend the corresponding follower.
Resistance and weaknesses to specific types of physical damage is a huge part of combat. Because of that, players need to make sure they have access to as many archetypes as possible.
After players lock in that epic handshake, they instantly gain access to a new archetype. Then, as players improve their relationship by increasing their follower’s rank, they unlock “adept” versions of these archetypes.