Metaphor: ReFantazio is easily one of the best JRPGs of the year (and ever, if you ask me), and since its release last Friday, fans have been pouring dozens of hours into it across PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, and, uh, 3DS.
You read that right – despite not officially releasing on Nintendo's previous-gen handheld, that's not stopped at least one player from seeking out the crunchiest possible way to explore Euchronia. Well, I say 'crunchiest,' but in this clip posted to Reddit, user bjatman8008 shows the opening cinematics, as well as a little bit of gameplay running around in one of the earliest dungeons, displaying surprisingly well on their New 3DS XL. It might not be quite as crisp as on, well, literally any other platform, but you can't deny that it's workable.
Playing it on my new 3ds xl from r/MetaphorReFantazio
It's worth pointing out that in the clip above, technical wizardry hasn't been deployed to get Metaphor: ReFantazio running natively on the handheld – I'd genuinely fear for the console if it was. Instead, as explained by the user themselves in the thread, they're streaming a copy of the game from their PC to their New 3DS XL, which explains how, despite being the least optimal way to play the JRPG, it still seems perfectly functional. Should this be your platform of choice? Definitely not. But hey, it's pretty dang impressive to see it in action.
Metaphor has had a spectacular start, anyway – it quickly became Atlus' fastest-selling game and biggest Steam launch, hitting a huge concurrent player peak to beat the records of JRPG hits Persona 5 Royal, Persona 3 Reload, and more. It's really no wonder after a slew of overwhelmingly positive critic reactions, including in my own Metaphor: ReFantazio review, in which I gave the game four and a half stars out of five. Scores like that have put the JRPG up there as one of the best-rated games of the year so far on Metacritic – it'll be interesting to see if it can bag itself any Game of the Year awards when the time comes.
