Metaphor: ReFantazio sold way better on PC than its developers expected, again proving gamers on the platform have a growing appetite for the subgenre and for Japanese games as a whole.
In an interview with 4Gamer translated by Automaton, frequent Persona lead and Metaphor's creative director Katsura Hashino said the team's newest fantasy romp far exceeded their expectations on PC, but it also fits into a larger trend. "Although Atlus is generally associated with console games," Hashino revealed the percentage of PC folk playing Atlus games goes up every single year. "Even if you look at long-term data from over the past five to 10 years, the trend is evident."
For context, Atlus was no stranger to platform exclusivity for literal generations, from Persona's association with the PlayStation to the numerous Atlus games that were once exclusive to the Nintendo DS and 3DS. These days, though, almost every major release from the company drops on almost every platform: Persona 3 Reload, Shin Megami Tensei 5 Vengeance, Unicorn Overlord, and Metaphor: ReFantazio, just to name a few.
It's not just Atlus that's enjoying a bigger piece of the PC pie. Monster Hunter Wilds producer Ryozo Tsujimoto said "there are more players than ever playing on PC, including in Japan" a few months back, and Square Enix has been very outspoken about its plans to abandon console exclusivity in recent years, especially off the back of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's very successful PC port.
"Even as a developer, I believe that there is much merit in each player being able to enjoy the game in their preferred environment, and I'm glad that we were able to accomplish that," Hashino added.
We asked Metaphor: ReFantazio's lead UI designer about RPGs that inspire him, and he name dropped a surprise PS2 sleeper hit from 25 years ago
