Though the name may not be as immediately recognizable as its lineage, Metaphor: ReFantazio has quite the lineup of Persona talent working on it. That alone, plus a hefty helping of art and style, may have been reason enough to pay attention. But after going hands-on, I walked away impressed with another aspect: Metaphor is blending act??ion and turn-based combat, and it works.

I got to play roughly an hour of Metaphor at Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles, running through three cordoned-off sections of the role-playing game. The first was fairly straightforward, introducing me to the main character and their fairy helper Gallica, as well as an early party member, Strohl. Then, I got to jump ahead to a dungeon and another party member, and one more jump-forward showed me what one of Metaphor's massive boss fights looks like.

To get it out of the way early, Metaphor: ReFantazio might be one of the most stylish games I've seen in some time. Having previous Persona leads like director Katsura Hashino and character designer Shigenori Soejima on board, it shouldn't have surprised me to see Metaphor look so distinct ?from every other big game at the show. But it does genu??inely feel like the art team just got to run wild with the game. Even the menus are gorgeous. And thankfully, the style doesn't get in the way of the usability, either.

A lot of this is also something I could've told you from just the trailers. It's nice to know that they look great, and still function well, when you're actually holding a controller. And when you're holding that controller, there are definitely moments where Metaphor feels like Persona: the way your party runs around dungeons, the dramatic camera angles, even the dialogue cut-ins and pacing feels warmly ??familiar.

It's all good news, for people who already love Persona and are into the idea of a fantasy adventure, Record of Lodoss War-esque take on it. What really surprised me while I was playing, th?ough, was how well its blend of action and turn-based combat actually works.

Squad strike

When you're running around the world of Metaphor, control??ling the player character—Travelling Boy??, in my case—you can scan the environment with your fairy vision to spot enemies. These foes will glow red, yellow, or blue. And then you can hit them.

Yes, in the running-around bits, Metaphor lets you attack and dodge-roll like an actual action game. Don't expect lengthy combos or in-depth strings, but you can indeed slice enemies with your sword. This is where the color-coding comes into play: if an enemy is red, you can "defeat" them without e?ver entering full-on combat. Just slash 'em a few times? and collect your rewards. No post-battle results screen, no turn-based fighting.

If an enemy is yellow or blue, however, striking them will build up a bar. You can initiate a Squad assault at any time, which will launch you into the turn-based combat that, again, is fairly Persona in practice. Fill the bar with attacks before you launch the Squad strike, and you'll ?get a free opening hit an?d turn.

Atlus has been slowly experimenting with ideas like this, including a Confidant skill in Persona 5 Royal that let you auto-wipe an enemy if it was weak enough. And of course, role-playing games have classically pit action and turn-based against each other, as opposing contrasts. The question of whether a game will be turn-based or not comes up pretty often, and can be a hot-button topic around certain series.

Metaphor: ReFantazio feels like the best of?? both worlds. Hack-and-slash through the small mobs like it's a musou, and then initiate a full-on team attack for the big guys. What's fun, too, is that enemies can also catch you off-guard. These moments make for surprising little instances of action and surprise in the middle of dungeons, where you might otherwise just auto-pilot through the corridors.

Synch up

As for other battle mechanics, the short three sections I played didn't give me?? a great sense for the breadth of what's available. Each character can take on an archetype, embodying a fighting style similar to a typical Job system. In one slice, I acquired a new arch??etype by completing a quest, earning my protagonist the ability to become a Brawler and fight with their fists.

These archetypes c??omplement each team member's move set, adding some additional elemental attacks and physical attack types to your repertoire. Though you won't see a "Maragi" or "Zionga" here, it's still what you'd expect to see: different types of attacks can target weaknesses, and gain you additional moves before you have to cede your turn to the enemy.

A really nice touch, though, is that swapping these roles also changed my on-the-field attack. So rather than slashing my sword to hit enemies in the field, I was swinging my fists. Sabin would be proud. It's a nice bit of attention to detail, a??mid all the beauty and splendor of the World's Sickest? Menus.

I'm definitely still curious to see what the broad strokes of Metaphor look like, because the framing is one of the most important ingredients in the Persona-inspired pi?e. Sure, style gets you?? pretty far, but the calendar system and social links bring it home, and I only saw hints and glimpses of here in this demo.

That said, if the combat is intriguing me this much, that's a promising start. Persona combat has always been solid, but Metaphor could've easily felt like a retread. By building up new ideas around it, Metaphor's?? action already feels like a new step forward. Hopefully the rest of it shakes out that way, too.

Metaphor: ReFantazio is set to arrive on PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on October 11, ??2024.

The post Metaphor: ReFantazio isn’t just incredibly stylish – it’s also got a neat spin on RPG combat appeared first on Destructoid.

It's Sunday, and Microsoft is taking the?? stage to unveil everything it's got for the future of Xbox. It's one of the largest showcases this weekend at Summer ?Game Fest in Los Angeles, and it's certainly going to set the tone for Xbox moving forward into late 2024 and beyond.

This showcase arrives amid a tumultuous time for Xbox as a whole. Though it's finally secured its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Xbox has also gone through a streak of layoffs and studio closures in the last few months. And on top of that, the Xbox brand is looking to expand beyond its own box, ??moving some of its games to other platforms.

Today's show is a unified showcase, almost e??asy to see as a solidification of the new face of Xbox. So what happened today? Here's every game shown during the Xbox Games Showcase 2024.

• We start with a teaser for Call of Duty Black Ops 6, tackling clandestine operations and warfare once again. We'll hear more about that later, during the CoD portion of the stream.
• Phil Spencer appears for the first time, to introduce the world premiere of Doom: The Dark Ages, a medieval-style Doom arriving in 2025. It's got dragons! Honestly, Doomguy in the dark ages really works.

• Next up, Undead Labs shows a cinematic look at State of Decay 3. It looks to still prioritize the "surviving together" community aspects, as well as the little stories of survivors in the zombie apocalypse. No date, but day one with Game Pass.
• BioWare arrives with a look at the freshly renamed Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Formerly known as Dreadwolf, this look showed off a bunch of the companions we can expect to see, and likely romance. Plus, it's got a Fall 2024 release window now.
• Starfield is getting its Shattered Space expansion sometime this year, and we got a little tease for that. But there's also some additional content coming tonight, for those eager to explore new sights and sounds in space ASAP.
• Bethesda keeps the ball rolling with Fallout 76's Skyline Valley update on June 12. Love the rendition of "Oh Shenandoah".

• It's world premiere time once again. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 from Sandfall and Kepler might have just stolen the show for me, a fascinating new RPG with an intriguing style, combat system, and more. Plus, that was definitely Shadowheart VA Jennifer English. It's planned for 2025, and I'm keeping an eye on it.
• Back to the Xbox studios, Compulsion Games is showing off a look at South of Midnight, its next game after We Happy Few. The southern folklore vibes are really something cool to see play out. It's definitely a third-person action-adventure game, but I think the style and concept are really going to be what makes or breaks this, and I dig it so far. Its arriving sometime in 2025.
• Time for Blizzard, to talk about World of Warcraft. August 26 is when The War Within. It's a big moment for WoW and the first expansion since the takeover. WoW-heads will certainly be looking to see what the MMO looks like under Microsoft.
• The Metal Gear Solid 3 remake shows up and shows off some gameplay. It looks decent, and though I think the original is still an incredibly playable game in the modern age, I'm curious to see how a remake approaches it. No date for that.

• Sea of Thieves shows off some of its 13th season, going live on July 25. Honestly, good for Rare. It's nice to see this game still thriving.
• Flintlock The Siege of Dawn arrives on July 18, 2024. It's an interesting-looking setting, and I'm curious to see how it's received.
• Age of Mythology is an underrated part of the Age series, and its getting retold on September 4, 2024 for both Xbox Series and PC.
• Oh, it's Perfect Dark, and we're not just getting a cinematic. We've got a surprisingly in-depth look at the gameplay of this new entry in the series, from free-running to gadgets, and of course some guns too. It's got a great spy-thriller vibe to it, almost reminding me of the modern Mission: Impossible run. No date, but it looks great.
• Head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty takes the stage to recap what we've seen so far, and then introduce Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred. We get to see the intro cinematic, which is frankly haunting. It arrives October 8, 2024.
• Here's Playground Games, with a look at Fable. It's looking pretty good so far, as the team shows off adventuring and a little bit of combat. It's aiming for 2025.

• Fragpunk looks like a competitive shooter with some card-based world-shifting abilities. Seems neat? It's a crowded market out there for shooters, but maybe the cards can be an X-factor. It's aiming for 2025.
• Aw, a little mouse game! It looks adventurous but cozy, and is probably activating the neurons of anyone who ever read Redwall growing up. Winter Burrow is coming 2025 and looks delightful.
• Another tonal shift, to an adventure game with some summer vacation coming-of-age vibes. This feels like an attack on a generation, personally, with a host of incredible artists locked in. Mixtape is arriving in 2025.
• Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 arrives on November 19, 2024 and sure looks gorgeous. I'm happy for all the aircraft aficionados who are getting to live out their beautiful airborne dreams.
• Bethesda is back, with some Elder Scrolls Online news. All DLC is going to be free for a limited time. Neat!
• Oh hey, it's Life is Strange! Double Exposure is a new Max Caulfield adventure arriving on October 29, 2024, where she solves the murder of her friend across two realities. It looks incredible, and I'm really curious to see how they handle returning to a protagonist like this.

• It's Indy time. We're getting a new look at Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, the MachineGames first-person adventure. It looks and sounds gorgeous, and they're really nailing the feel of the movies. Still no date, but it is aimed for sometime in 2024.
• Here's Mecha Break from Amazing Seasun Games, a mecha battler with tons of high-octane goodness. It's arriving in 2025, though a beta is set for August 2024.
• Wuchang Fallen Feathers is a dark fantasy, Souls-y looking game. We've got a variety of looks and inspirations, and seems to be all about killing monsters. You can hunt some of your own monsters in 2025.
• Still hungry for more fantasy adventure? Obsidian's Avowed is looking pretty good, and it's still targeting 2024. Honestly, this was a much better showing than previous ones, and I'm starting to get drawn into this world.
• I'm not sure exactly how to describe Atomfall. Destructoid's own Zoey Handley says of it: "it looks like absolutely everything." It's first-person, with a smattering of different visuals and ideas. It'll hit in 2025, if you want to see what everything looks like.
• Here's a teaser for Assassin's Creed Shadows, which we'll doubtless be hearing more about tomorrow at the Ubisoft Forward. I'm enjoying the dual protagonist concept though, and AC really feels at home in this Japanese setting. It's set for November 15, and I'm down for it.
• STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl is showcasing some gameplay and looks excellent. This game has had a long and troubled development to the real-life situation in Ukraine, and it's heartwarming to see them bring this project to life. It's set for September 5, 2024.
• Xbox president Sarah Bond is here to announce new digital-only Xbox Series X, as well as expanded colorways for the Xbox Series line.

• It's time for one more thing, and surprise, it's Gears of War: E-Day. Seems like a prequel entry in the series.

That's it for the Xbox portion, though the Call of Duty portion of the showcase is going li??ve as I type this. Honestly,? a solid showing, and I wouldn't be surprised to see this touted as Xbox trying to right the ship after making so many cuts.

We'll see how these games pan out as we head into 2025, but there are at least some big banner-bearing titles on t??he horizon for Xbox.

The post Everything shown at the Xbox Games Showcase 2024?, from Doom to Gears appeared first on Destructoid.

Xbox Games Showcase is just around the corner, set to take place on Sunday, June 9. The event will be immediately followed by the Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Direct where Activision will give fans the first look at this year’s Call of Duty game.

During the X??box Games Showcase, fans can expect to see anno??uncements and more information about already announced titles from Activision, Blizzard, Bethesda and Xbox Game Studios, as well as games from third-party studios.

When will Xbox Games Showcase begin

If you??’re planning on watching the events live on June 9, 2024, here is when the Xbox Games Showcase will kick off, depending on various t?imezones:

• PT: 10 a.m.
• ET: 1 p.m.
• BST: 6 p.m.
• CET: 7 p.m.
• JST: 2 a.m. (June 10)
• AEST: 3 a.m. (June 10)

Right after the Xbox Games Showcase ends, the Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Direct will start. The Call of Duty game is set to become the first-ever Call of Duty title to la??unch day-one on the Xbox Game Pass, following Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

Where to watch Xbox Games Showcase and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Direct

You can watch the showcase live on the official Xbox, Bethesda and Activision Blizzard social channels across YouTube, Twitch and Facebook. For convenience, we’ve listed out the links fo??r all offici?al live streams below:

• Xbox: YouTube, Twitch, and Facebook
• Bethesda: YouTube, and Twitch
• Activision: YouTube

The live streams available on YouTube will offer up to 4K resolution at 60 frame rate, whereas t??he live streams on Twitch and Facebook will be available in 1080p at 60 FPS.

The post Where and when to ??watch the Xbox Games Showcase 2024 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Direct appeared first on Destructoid.