Months before Atlus released Metaphor: ReFantazio, the developers made sure to state that there would be no romance options available in the game, like in previous Persona entries. While you can’t actually choose to pursue a romantic relationship with your party members, the story does actually have a little bit of a romance element baked into it.
Do be warned that this article contains spoilers for the Follower bond events for one of the party members in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
There are three female party members in Metaphor: ReFantazio. Hulkenberg is the stalwart knight who will always protect you, while Junah is the charming songstress who’s generally able to get along well with everyone. Then we have Eupha, the priestess that you meet at the Dragon Temple on Virga Island. If you’ve not followed any of the game’s pre-release coverage, Eupha joining your party right before the boss battle is a pretty nice surprise.
After that, she joins your cause for real, and she becomes a Follower you can hang out with as well. As you spend time with her, Eupha goes through a slow growth arc where she becomes more exposed to the world outside Virga Island, while also using her beliefs and experiences to help the Sanctists broaden their perspectives.
More importantly, though, her relationship with the Captain also grows in an organic way. When the two first meet, the Captain offers to shake her hand, and she visibly blushes. The implication is that there is another meaning behind the act of shaking hands in Mustari culture. As Eupha learns more about the Captain’s world and their bond gets stronger, all this culminates in her final bond event where she finally reveals that she wants to have another handshake so that she can express her feelings to him.
Honestly, I’m a huge fan of the way this develops. Rather than having the playable character form a harem with every single girl in the game like you do in Persona, it’s actually rather sweet watching the protagonist properly bond with Eupha and watch that naturally develop into something more.
Towards the end of the game, Eupha emphasizes that she wants to protect the Captain, and even her brother Edeni lightly threatens you if you ever mislead her.
Metaphor: ReFantazio moves away from the trends set by the Persona games in multiple ways, and this is one of them. Romance actually feels more real and relatable by the slow burn and organic shifts during Eupha’s bond events, and by the end of the story, it becomes a relationship that’s lightly hinted at, and one that you can root for.
While I do so enjoy the harem scenes in Personas 3 and 4, I’d absolutely love to see Atlus try their hand at writing a full-fledged romance arc in their future games. More of this, please!