Entertainment
'Metaphor: ReFantazio' review in progress: The 'Final Fantasy XV' I've always wanted

Disclaimer: This is a review-in-progress, as I haven’t finished this game yet. As such, the score is subject to change.
I’ve spent nearly a decade aggressively trying to like Persona 5 as much as everyone else I know, but it turns out the trick was just to wait until the chief creatives behind it made a different game instead.
Metaphor: ReFantazio is, in its own way, the game of my dreams. That’s because it takes everything good about Persona, including the effervescent sense of style, fun turn-based combat, and engaging calendar-based structure, and recontextualizes it into a substantially more interesting experience. By ditching the trappings of modern Japanese high schools and embracing a unique, colorful fantasy world with a fun road trip conceit, Metaphor rises above the limitations of its spiritual predecessor.
Persona series director Katsura Hashino (with character artist Shigenori Soejima and composer Shoji Meguro, among others) has put his name on something special, provided the game doesn’t completely fall apart in the third act. After about 40 hours, though, I’m in love.
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I just can’t wait to be king

Our hero for this journey.
Credit: Sega/Atlus
Fair warning: I haven’t seen the end of Metaphor’s story yet, so I can’t pass full judgment right now. But so far, so good.
Rather unlike the Persona series, which has traditionally melded a real-world setting with supernatural nonsense, Metaphor cuts out the middleman and is a full-on fantasy adventure. The United Kingdom of Euchronia’s king has been assassinated and, thanks to a series of simultaneously wacky and very cool magical shenanigans, a new contest for the throne has been declared. Anyone can sign up and whoever gains the trust of the people (as judged by magic) through a series of kingly challenges around the world is declared king at the end.
Naturally, our protagonist joins the fray, accompanied by a diverse, constantly growing group of friends along the way. As one might expect, the contest for the throne is made exponentially more complicated by the circumstances around it. The true heir is either missing or dead, depending on who you ask. There’s an unwritten but widely accepted racial hierarchy that favors some tribes over others, and the state church is trying to rig the game so its chosen candidate will win.
That’s all exciting and intriguing in its own right, but a lingering mystery about the nature of this world keeps driving the plot at crucial moments. I’ll just hint that the giant, terrifying monsters threatening the kingdom’s safety are called “Humans,” so there’s definitely something strange going on.

This is what Humans look like in ‘Metaphor.’
Credit: Sega/Atlus
Metaphor’s narrative is hard to fully judge without having finished it, but after 40 hours, it’s got me hooked. One of the reasons why I didn’t vibe with Persona 5 was the central cast of characters; a few of them were simply very annoying to me — and I never grew attached to them. That isn’t the case here, at least partially because the story is about people who scan as adults rather than high school kids with problems that I don’t care about.
Here, we get to pal around with a talking rodent who is also a master assassin and the fantasy equivalent of Taylor Swift instead. These are fascinating people with backstories that I want to discover and problems that I want to help them solve. It’s really all I ask for from any RPG party, and Metaphor delivers on that front handily.
I’m a little less sure about Metaphor’s overarching themes. Racism is a major part of this world, as the kingdom is made up of several tribes with varying levels of political power. However, where I’m at in the game, it feels like a story where racism happens rather than a story about racism. It’s very nice that each member of the central party is from a different tribe, but characters repeatedly saying “it’s bad to be racist” feels a bit simplistic without much examination of how the culture got to this point or how to fix it.
Of course, I could feel totally differently about that by the time the credits roll. Time will tell.
Metaphor is giving me what Final Fantasy couldn’t
The crown contest involves traveling from place to place and solving various local problems to win the support of the populace.

Who doesn’t love cooking with the homies?
Credit: Sega/Atlus
However, regular carriages are too slow and not grotesque enough, so you and your buddies travel the world in a fantastical tour bus called a Gauntlet Runner, which looks like a boat with two enormous, disgusting monster legs. I love it.
In this way, Metaphor quietly became the version of Final Fantasy XV I always wanted, but never got. Yes, I’m going to complain about a game that came out in 2016 for a second. Bear with me.
FFXV’s entire selling point was that it was about a group of close friends on a road trip together. When I played the game at launch, huge amounts of backstory and character development had been off-loaded to a movie and a five-episode anime miniseries. In addition to that, the main cast of dudes almost never spoke to each other in the game itself. I spent like 80 hours driving around the world with those boys and learned almost nothing about them. It was a broken, fractured story that didn’t fulfill its most basic promise at all.

Talking to your friends is very important in ‘Metaphor.’
Credit: Sega/Atlus
A cavalcade of post-launch DLC eventually “fixed” FFXV, but if you want a road trip JRPG, just play Metaphor instead. It adapts the calendar-based structure from Persona, in which you have to carefully think about how to spend time each day because there are hard deadlines for finishing major story dungeons. Even in a Gauntlet Runner, traveling takes time, so you wind up spending a lot of Metaphor just kind of screwing around with your buddies on your tour bus.
You can read books by your lonesome to develop the protagonist’s personality traits like courage, tolerance, and eloquence, which, in turn, unlock other gameplay opportunities around the world. If you’d rather cook meals with beneficial status effects in the Gauntlet Runner’s kitchen, you can call a friend over and do that with them. And, like Persona, each character has a corresponding social level that goes up the more you spend time with them.
This can be accomplished on the Gauntlet Runner while traveling, which is great and heightens the feeling that this is a real road trip that’s having real effects on these people’s lives.
A very accommodating road trip
None of the above would be very compelling if there weren’t also an excellent turn-based RPG under the hood.

You gotta beat up enemies in real-time before you get to beat them up in turns.
Credit: Sega/Atlus
Metaphor takes the basics of Persona and tweaks them in additive and smart ways. This is still, at its core, a turn-based RPG about carefully enduring long dungeons that can’t be completed in a single in-game day because there intentionally aren’t enough magic potions to go around. Eventually, you have to turn back and go to sleep to recharge. That’s also how real life works if you think about it.
There are some key differences that elevate the experience, though. For instance, hitting enemies with their elemental weaknesses doesn’t automatically stun and knock them down like it does in Persona. Rather, it does extra damage and gives you an extra turn before the enemies act again. Fights feel less like puzzles where the goal is to knock everyone down at the same time and more like, you know, actual fights because of this change.
There’s also a formation system wherein each active party member can switch between standing in the front or back row at any time. Being closer to enemies means your melee attacks do more damage, but you’ll take more, in turn. Step back, and both the damage you deal and damage you take go down. This isn’t particularly complicated, but it gives you more to think about during fights, which I appreciate.
A real-time action element enhances things further. You can simply start turn-based combat as soon as you see an enemy, but if you’re feeling brave, you can bang out quick melee combos against them in the overworld to drain a stun meter. If you drain it and then go into turn-based mode, you’ll start with stunned, half-dead enemies instead of fully healthy, pissed off ones.
Oh, and if an enemy hits you in the overworld, the opposite happens. They get a big advantage over you, and your best bet at that point might be to run away. Encounters against even weak, basic enemies can quickly go haywire if you aren’t careful.

Mapping out trips is vital.
Credit: Sega/Atlus
Problematically, the camera can be a bit uncooperative when fighting in real-time. There were more than a few instances where I was hit by an enemy I couldn’t see and nearly hit a game over screen because of it. Still, I find the real-time bits to be an overwhelmingly positive addition to the game. It keeps the player on their toes and adds a layer of challenge that wasn’t in this crew’s previous games.
Archetypes are the cherry on top of the combat cake in Metaphor. These are magical alter-egos you unlock through making friends with people outside of combat that basically act as equippable classes for each party member. Every character can equip every Archetype, and Archetypes level up independently. Max out an Archetype’s level, and eventually you can evolve it into a more powerful one.
This is an incomprehensibly huge upgrade over Persona, which had a similar system wherein the protagonist could switch between combat roles at will, but each party member was stuck doing whatever they were designed to do. In Metaphor, tinkering with party composition and planning out your long-term upgrade path are both vitally important and extremely fun. Each Archetype has a different weapon associated with it, and these weapons behave differently in real-time combat, so that has to enter the equation, too. I’m just a sucker for a class system in any RPG and this is a really, really good one.
All of this is wrapped in a level of difficulty that I would describe as accommodating and fair. After 40 hours of gameplay, I haven’t hit any frustrating roadblocks, likely because Metaphor is generous with optional hints about which party members to bring to each dungeon and offers items that allow you to quickly level up Archetypes you’re not actively using. If you’re a couple dozen hours into the game, and you suddenly find yourself in need of strong fire magic, you won’t need to do any grinding to get it.
Even armed with the knowledge of what to expect and the tools to deal with it, Metaphor still requires just the right amount of tactical awareness and planning to feel challenging without being excessively hard.
Everything looks awesome in Metaphor
There’s no reason to dance around this: Metaphor looks amazing.

Dude, even the menus look sick.
Credit: Sega/Atlus
It’s largely due to art direction, too. The kingdom’s capital city of Grand Trad looms large in the distance, thanks to a giant inverted pyramid that looks rad as hell. Humans (the enemies, not people) are nasty freaks who often defy description. And perhaps most importantly, the fashion is out of this world. Nearly every character is absolutely rocking whatever outfit they’re wearing, especially the nasty fella you’ll meet fairly early on who rolls around in a purple cheetah print robe.
The only criticism I can offer is that, at least on Xbox Series X, Metaphor doesn’t run very well. It targets 60 frames per second and is able to hit that when indoors or fighting enemies. Go outside or run around a bustling city, however, and everything tanks a bit. This almost exclusively affects non-combat situations and doesn’t inhibit playability at all, but it’s very noticeable.
Metaphor is full of earworms
Metaphor’s soundtrack is similarly dazzling, though not without some small imperfections. Composer Shoji Meguro brings the heat when it matters, as the main combat themes are serious toe-tappers with a male opera vocalist who kind of sounds like he’s rapping in gibberish. I’ve had the music that plays when you have an advantage in combat stuck in my head for several weeks.
Environmental and story tracks stand out less to me, but they’re all nice enough to listen to that I can’t complain. Meguro’s score is mostly made up of orchestras and choirs, as is befitting the setting, but I can’t help but yearn for the more rock or funk-inspired tracks he wrote for Persona at times. Pursuant to that thought, the boss fight music isn’t hype enough for me.
I’m willing to change my mind on that depending on what happens later in the game, of course. I’ll also say the English voice acting is excellent across the board.
Is Metaphor: ReFantazio worth getting?
In a year almost dangerously packed with exciting RPGs like Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Metaphor: ReFantazio is almost certainly, if nothing else, on the medal stand for that particular genre in 2024.
Granted, I need to wrap up the game before rendering my final verdict on it, but my 40 hours with Metaphor have been consistently delightful. Its endearing cast of characters populate a fascinating fantasy world with fictional layers that I just want to peel back until I see everything there is to see. Enhanced turn-based combat with real-time elements, combined with wholesome friendship mechanics and great road trip vibes, all work to seal the deal for me.
So, yeah, you should probably get Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Entertainment
Best Mothers Day gifts: Show mom some love

Mother figures are the backbone of the world. Yours may be your biological mother, or maybe she’s your mother-in-law, your best friend’s mom, or simply someone whose motherly instinct has helped you through hard times.
Moms teach you the adulting necessities, give advice even if the problem is your fault, and above all, they put up with your shit and (almost) never complain.
The game plan here isn’t just to snag the last bouquet at CVS just so you’re not the kid who forgot Mother’s Day (but definitely also get flowers). And you don’t even need to spend a lot of money. (Peep our list of Mother’s Day gifts that cost less than $50. Want even more cheap gift ideas?
Skip the generic mugs and show your appreciation with a gift picked just for her: Whether it’s something to make a part of her life easier, something she’s mentioned wanting in passing, or simply something to make her feel like a damn queen, you can’t put a price on everything she’s done for you, but heartfelt gifts certainly help.
After all, they say “No matter how hard you try, you always end up like your mother.” But is that even a bad thing?
Entertainment
Ban subscriptions and get Microsoft Office 2024 for life for just £121

TL;DR: Grab Microsoft Office 2024 Home and Business for PC or Mac for just £120.54 through June 1.
You wouldn’t keep paying for Netflix if you could own your favorite shows, right? So why are you still subscribing to Office apps you use every day? Microsoft 365’s price keeps going up, but there’s finally a way to break free — and it’ll cost you way less in the long run.
Microsoft Office 2024 is the answer you’ve been looking for. Instead of monthly payments, simply pay £120.54 once and be set for life (reg. £188.37). It’s that simple. And, yes, this lifetime download works for PC or Mac.
What’s included?
This license comes with:
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Word
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Excel
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PowerPoint
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Outlook
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OneNote
The newest version of Microsoft Office is a little different from Microsoft 365. But just because you’re switching to a lifetime license doesn’t mean you’ll miss out on some of the most recent updates. Word and Excel both still have AI integrations for text suggestions and smart data analysis, and PowerPoint still has improved tools for recorded presentations.
Once you’ve redeemed your purchase, you can install your apps on one computer. After that, they’re yours to use however you want. No more subscription fees or sudden price hikes to worry about.
Why rent when you can own?
Mashable Deals
Get a Microsoft Office lifetime license on sale for £120.54 with no coupon needed.
StackSocial prices subject to change.
Entertainment
Wordle today: Answer, hints for May 9, 2025

Oh hey there! If you’re here, it must be time for Wordle. As always, we’re serving up our daily hints and tips to help you figure out today’s answer.
If you just want to be told today’s word, you can jump to the bottom of this article for today’s Wordle solution revealed. But if you’d rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.
Where did Wordle come from?
Originally created by engineer Josh Wardle as a gift for his partner, Wordle rapidly spread to become an international phenomenon, with thousands of people around the globe playing every day. Alternate Wordle versions created by fans also sprang up, including battle royale Squabble, music identification game Heardle, and variations like Dordle and Quordle that make you guess multiple words at once.
Wordle eventually became so popular that it was purchased by the New York Times, and TikTok creators even livestream themselves playing.
What’s the best Wordle starting word?
The best Wordle starting word is the one that speaks to you. But if you prefer to be strategic in your approach, we have a few ideas to help you pick a word that might help you find the solution faster. One tip is to select a word that includes at least two different vowels, plus some common consonants like S, T, R, or N.
What happened to the Wordle archive?
The entire archive of past Wordle puzzles was originally available for anyone to enjoy whenever they felt like it, but it was later taken down, with the website’s creator stating it was done at the request of the New York Times. However, the New York Times then rolled out its own Wordle Archive, available only to NYT Games subscribers.
Is Wordle getting harder?
It might feel like Wordle is getting harder, but it actually isn’t any more difficult than when it first began. You can turn on Wordle‘s Hard Mode if you’re after more of a challenge, though.
Here’s a subtle hint for today’s Wordle answer:
Gibberish.
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Does today’s Wordle answer have a double letter?
There are no recurring letters.
Today’s Wordle is a 5-letter word that starts with…
Today’s Wordle starts with the letter T.
The Wordle answer today is…
Get your last guesses in now, because it’s your final chance to solve today’s Wordle before we reveal the solution.
Drumroll please!
The solution to today’s Wordle is…
TRIPE.
Don’t feel down if you didn’t manage to guess it this time. There will be a new Wordle for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we’ll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.
Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today’s Strands.
Reporting by Chance Townsend, Caitlin Welsh, Sam Haysom, Amanda Yeo, Shannon Connellan, Cecily Mauran, Mike Pearl, and Adam Rosenberg contributed to this article.
If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you’re after? Here’s the solution to yesterday’s Wordle.