When I first reviewed Metaphor Refantazio, I truly believed I’d stumbled upon a modern RPG masterpiece. My initial review even praised it as a 10/10 experience (you can check it out here). From the outset, it seemed like everything a fan of the genre could ask for—an immersive world rich in lore, challenging yet satisfying combat, and a story that actually keeps you invested from start to near-finish. But as the game drew closer to its finale, it became clear that Metaphor Refantazio was about to take a sharp, unwelcome turn.
For the majority of my playthrough, I loved this game. I wasn’t skipping battles or avoiding exploration; I actively sought out every encounter, explored every nook, and cleared entire dungeons. By all accounts, I was playing the game as it was meant to be played, grinding here and there but never feeling forced into it. This strategy felt rewarding as I advanced steadily, with each level gained and gear upgrade achieved feeling like a natural, well-earned part of the experience. I genuinely enjoyed the grind when it was an organic part of gameplay. But then, in what feels like a decision driven purely to pad the game’s length, the developers decided to throw a massive, jarring 15-level difficulty spike at me in the final stages of the game.
Imagine this: you’ve dedicated hours upon hours of careful, strategic play. You’ve managed your resources, trained your party, and upgraded your gear as best you can. But then, out of nowhere, the game suddenly tells you that all that effort means nothing. The final month throws a level spike that renders your entire journey up to that point insufficient. Your party is under-leveled, your gear inadequate, and you’re forced to grind. And not just any grind—hours of it. This isn’t the kind of challenge where a bit of extra effort or creativity will get you through; it’s a blatant, unapologetic grind wall.
The game’s gradual difficulty curve suddenly spirals into an exponential ramp that makes no logical sense, feeling completely detached from the progression you’d experienced up to that point. Suddenly, the focus shifts from being a rewarding adventure to a time-wasting grind-fest. And it’s frustrating because, up until this point, Metaphor Refantazio had been so balanced. Each new area brought a sense of excitement and fair challenge, a manageable learning curve that invited you to grow alongside your party. But with this level spike, all of that is tossed out the window, replaced by an experience that demands endless hours of grinding to stay even remotely competitive.
And I’m not talking about the kind of grind that adds value. The problem with this forced grinding is that it’s repetitive and doesn’t enhance your skill or strategy. There’s no nuance or unique approach needed; you’re stuck fighting the same monsters over and over, hoping to inch up in levels to stay alive in the final dungeons. It’s mind-numbing. This kind of design punishes players who invested in the game early on, clearing dungeons and defeating every monster they could find, only to be told that all their hard work was for naught. No amount of strategy or pre-planning can help you; you simply need to grind.
But the nightmare doesn’t end with the final month grind. No, the developers decided to keep pushing the frustration meter higher with the dragon bosses. By the time you’ve invested hours into grinding just to keep up with the level spike, you’re met with these dragon bosses who are essentially spamming moves that deal 9,999 damage. Let me repeat that: 9,999 damage. It’s not only ridiculous but also demoralising. You’ve just spent hours gearing up, grinding, and preparing, only to encounter a boss that trivialises all your efforts by instantly wiping out your party with attacks that no player could reasonably defend against. What’s supposed to be a challenging, epic encounter is instead reduced to a maddening exercise in futility. These dragons spam high-damage attacks that leave you with virtually no time to strategise or react, transforming what could have been a memorable encounter into a frustrating, unfair slog.
Here’s the thing about RPG bosses: they should be tough, sure, but they should also be fair. They should test the skills and strategies you’ve learned throughout the game, not blatantly ignore them. When a boss hits for 9,999 damage repeatedly, it doesn’t feel like a test of skill or strategy. It feels cheap, as though the developers are mocking the player. This isn’t challenge by design; it’s simply throwing arbitrary numbers at players and calling it difficulty. The dragon bosses don’t require you to think, adapt, or grow as a player; they require you to mindlessly grind to an absurd degree, in hopes that maybe—just maybe—you’ll survive a few rounds before the boss lands another ridiculous attack.
And finally, we come to the final boss fight—a culmination that should have been the peak of everything the game had built up to this point. I had genuinely hoped this fight would redeem the late-game experience, offering a balanced challenge that felt like a fitting climax to the adventure. Instead, what do we get? An utterly broken encounter that throws every fair-play rule out the window. After the grueling grind and frustrating dragon battles, the final boss fight ends up feeling more like a punishment than a reward. The battle mechanics seem designed not to engage the player but to exhaust them, presenting a brutal gauntlet of unfair attacks and overwhelming damage that has nothing to do with strategy or preparation.
I’m all for challenging boss fights, especially in an RPG where you’re supposed to feel a sense of accomplishment when you finally conquer the game’s biggest foes. But there’s a clear difference between “challenging” and “unbalanced,” and unfortunately, Metaphor Refantazio falls firmly into the latter. This final boss feels like a hastily thrown-together obstacle, more interested in padding game time than offering a genuine, rewarding experience. Instead of feeling like the end of an epic journey, this final encounter felt like an insult—a test not of skill but of patience. After dedicating hours to grinding and battling my way through unfairly designed enemies, I expected at least a semblance of fairness in the finale. But instead, I was left with an unsatisfying, exhausting fight that felt more like banging my head against a wall than any sort of victory.
In the end, Metaphor Refantazio went from being one of my favorite RPGs of recent years to a game I genuinely struggled to finish. The forced grind, unbalanced bosses, and outright broken final encounter transformed what began as a love affair with the game into a bitter, frustrating experience. What started as a 10/10 masterpiece—the kind of game I couldn’t wait to share with others—became a 5/10 grind-fest that I now can’t in good conscience recommend.
If the game had maintained the balance and enjoyment of its early and mid-game phases, Metaphor Refantazio would have been a gem. It had everything it needed: a captivating story, deep and rewarding combat, and a world that felt alive and worth exploring. But somewhere along the way, the developers decided that more grind equals more challenge, that bigger numbers make for tougher bosses, and that forcing players into a marathon grind was somehow fun. These choices shattered the immersion and enjoyment of the experience, turning what should have been a rewarding journey into an exhausting chore.
So here’s my final takeaway: Metaphor Refantazio could have been great. It could have been the RPG everyone talked about, the one you’d replay just to relive its story and world. Instead, it’s a cautionary tale of how poor design choices can ruin even the most promising of games. As it stands, my original 10/10 rating has dropped dramatically, and all that remains is the memory of what could have been. Unless the developers address these glaring issues with balance and gameplay, I can’t recommend this game to anyone who values their time and sanity.