MANILA, Philippines – In about two weeks, one of the top award-giving bodies in videogames, The Game Awards, hands out its trophies. And certainly, the Game of the Year (GOTY) prize is the most anticipated. 

There are two games in the running that I’m personally fond of: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and Metaphor ReFantazio. Not to treat lightly the other titles in the race — Astro Bot, Wukong, Balatro, and the Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree — but Rebirth and the Metaphor were probably my most played titles this year. 

I know a game is good when the first thing I want to do in the morning is go for a quick session. This happened with Rebirth and Metaphor. 

But which is better between the two JRPGs? 

Maybe you can blame recency bias, but when I first started playing Metaphor, I really felt like it was certainly GOTY, placing it over Rebirth. Its pores were just oozing with style, and was dripping with the kind of cool that really made Persona 5 — the 2017 game made by Metaphor’s lead game developers — stand out. 

And its style was certainly backed up with substance. Its combat system anchored on “Archetypes” — magical beings you transform into — are basically your JRPG character classes that you level up to gain skills and unlock more powerful forms. But the magic is in how the game allows you to mix and match the skills of several different archetypes. Want a hardy warrior that could also use thief skills like steal and assassinate? You could do that. 

Battles are fast-paced, and require building a party that can take advantage of the weaknesses of the monsters. It’s fun to strategize.

The game also has a lot of heart, and has an engaging, gamified system for leveling up your bonds with the game’s characters, which allow you to really get to know them. 

The story is quite relevant to the times. In the game’s medieval, monarchical society, the king is dead, and the successor prince is in a cursed slumber. The dead king, through some magic of sorts, decrees that the successor will be decided by the people, by the manner of a popular vote — an election basically. There are lots of different tribes, and many want to be king, some for power, some to stop the rampant discrimination against certain tribes. 

There are lots to say, but this isn’t a review of the game. 

Must Read

‘FFVII Rebirth,’ ‘ASTRO BOT’ duke it out with 7 nominations each in The Game Awards 2024

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, on the other hand, is the second part in the ongoing Remake series for the beloved ‘90s JRPG, Final Fantasy VII. 

You can indeed say many things about Metaphor that you can say about Rebirth too. An exciting fast-paced combat system that allows you to customize your skills in order to take advantage of enemy weaknesses. A focus on telling the personal stories of the supporting characters. A relevant tale, this time on how a mega-corporation is sucking the planet dry. 

And both have excellent music. 

And it’s completely fine to like both games. 

Yet there can only be one GOTY. 

I think Metaphor is better than Rebirth in terms of keeping the player focused even as they pursue side quests. The game’s time mechanic, which was also found in Persona, is a nice videogame representation of the concept of opportunity cost — that is, you do one thing, and you forgo another. It makes the player prioritize. 

While Metaphor has an anime style, it has quite the cool and hip vibe, not unlike Rebirth, which I thought just got a little bit too goofy for my taste at times. Rebirth had a clash in tone sometimes — the world is ending, but hey, here’s a fun time at the beach with your pals! I get that those scenes were in the original game, but I also feel like the overall goofiness increased from FFVII Remake, and could have been toned down a bit in Rebirth. 

What Rebirth really has going over Metaphor is the scale of production and the technical achievements. Rebirth strives for realistic visuals, and boy do they look good. And while Metaphor has excellent music as I’ve said, Rebirth’s is far more iconic, and the epic orchestral production is probably some of the best in years. The voice acting is top notch too, with Briana White who plays Aerith, being nominated for Best Performance. 

[GAME DIARY] ‘FFVII Rebirth’ entry No. 1: Did anyone else get demolished by Midgardsormr? 

Speaking of voice acting, Rebirth has more complete voice acting, while Metaphor is a little more sparse, with full voice acting limited only to key scenes. 

Non-playable cinematic sequences using the in-game graphics engine are a highlight as well for Rebirth, while Metaphor relies on anime scenes, and more simplistic in-game animation for its storytelling scenes. 

Metaphor also has some minor villages and other landmarks that are presented only as an image, and not as an explorable area — which is something that Rebirth, with its scale of production, didn’t have as a problem. 

And I think that’s why Rebirth might win the GOTY. While I find Metaphor to be more charming, Rebirth’s technical achievements, and the grandness of the production — despite the funny visual bugs in earlier patches — simply can’t be overlooked. – Rappler.com

Must Read

[Game Diary] ‘Metaphor: ReFantazio’ proves the ‘Persona 5’ formula is as engrossing as ever