Metaphor: ReFantazio’s elaborate menus are designed to heighten your emotions

Video game menus tend to fade into the background — but that’s not the case with Metaphor: ReFantazio. Like the Persona games before it, the fantasy RPG has an interface that’s slick, aggressive, and certainly not the kind of thing you’ll forget. And according to lead interface designer Koji Ise, the intent was to create menus that matched and enhanced what players were feeling at any given moment. “As long as we’re able to identify ‘at this point the player should be feeling this,’ we’re able to match our UI and animations to act as emotional accelerators,” he says. Metaphor is developed by Atlus, and it’s a spiritual successor of sorts to the Persona series. Both are turn-based RPGs, but Metaphor shifts the setting from modern-day Japan to a new fantasy realm. That turn-based nature means the menus are integral to the experience. You don’t skip past them to get to the action; they are the action. Since Persona 3, the franchise has become highly regarded for its stylized menus, and t ... Read full article.