Metaphor: ReFantazio's Prologue demo normally takes around five hours to complete since it only offers up the mammoth game's opening slice, but that hasn't stopped some players from clocking in the equivalent of another JRPG's entire runtime.
Twitterer Ceyarma shared their exorbitant playtime today like it's a "badge of honor." And, in fairness, I respect the hustle of anyone who can stretch a five-hour taste test into a 51.2-hour marathon. Metaphor's Prologue demo came out just a mere week ago, so you'd need to put in about seven hours per day to reach those incredible numbers. Or, in other words, you can very slowly play through the entire demo every single day.
I WILL WEAR THIS. LIKE A BADGE OF HONOR. https://t.co/UBoWfDFT35 pic.twitter.com/JY11ucC163October 3, 2024
Ceyarma is far from the only one who's been hooked on the Persona studio's fantasy pivot, however. In response to the above post, another player shared their Steam stats and, scarily, they had a playtime of 67.8 hours sunk into the demo.
To put those numbers into perspective, Persona 3 Reload and Persona 3 Portable take around 64 hours to beat, according to playtime estimator website How Long To Beat. Persona 4 Golden is roughly a 68-hour affair. And Persona 5 is the only game in the series that dwarfs whatever hold Metaphor's demo has on players, as that high school romp is about 100 hours long.
What I'm dreading (and really excited) to see is what those playtimes look like when Atlus unleashes its fantasy epic in full on October 11. Developers have already said Metaphor rivals Persona 5's 100-hour runtime, but if this demo is any indication, JRPG stans will likely frolic around those dungeons way after the credits roll. At least the demo's progress will carry over into the full game.
