Metaphor ReFantazio Walkthrough Part 1 – Intro & Grand Cathedral

Developed by Atlus and the core team that made the Persona games, Metaphor: ReFantazio is a fantasy RPG that builds upon the foundations laid out by Persona and SMT. To help you out, here’s a full Metaphor: ReFantazio walkthrough that covers the main storyline.

This part will cover the introduction up to the end of the first dungeon, the Grand Cathedral.

Introduction

The game starts with you choosing your name (not the protagonist’s name, mind you) in Metaphor: ReFantazio. After you’ve done that and selected your desired difficulty setting, the game begins proper.

When you first take control of the protagonist, immediately run straight and to the right until you find a slope leading upwards. This will trigger a cutscene. After that, continue running through the open-world towards your objective marker, and don’t forget to pick up the couple of Medicinal Herbs in the field along the way.

Find the Recruitment Centre

After another series of cutscenes, you’ll regain control of the protagonist. Gallica will ask you to go to the Recruitment Centre, which is located north of where you are. As you head towards your goal, be sure to talk to the NPCs along the way and listen to their conversations to get a sense of the world and its political climate as well.

As you move north, a cutscene will play with Gallica explains what an igniter is. You’ll also meet a Shady Woman who tells you to keep a low profile since you’re an elda. She reveals herself as an igniter merchantress and tries to sell you an igniter that looks like the Royal Sceptre.

At the Recruitment Centre, you’ll need to finalize the protagonist’s name and also choose from a series of dialogue options that determines your primary stat, as listed below:

• Strength
• Magic
• Endurance
• Agility
• Luck

After that, queue up to get your recruitment kit by standing behind the Young Nobleman and pressing A.

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Northern Border Fort

After arriving at the Fort, it won’t be long before you have to get into your first combat encounter in Metaphor: ReFantazio. You’ll become properly acquainted with Strohl as well, so just head forward to enter the Fort and get ready for battle.

Hit the enemy with square/X until you get the prompt to trigger a Squad Battle with triangle/Y. You won’t be able to hit its weakness right now, so just pelt it with fire or physical damage until it goes down. Head downstairs first to take care of some easy enemies and get a Revival Medicine, then head all the way upstairs.

Boss: Homo Gorleo

Homo Gorleo is the first boss you’ll face in Metaphor: ReFantazio. Keep attacking with regular sword slashes until Strohl falls, and then the battle begins proper. Here are its affinities:

For this fight, hit its leg and wing with Cyc, then accept Gallica’s offer to knock down the apples. After that, just pelt the boss with Cyc till it’s down.

After the cutscene with Grius, interact with the campfire to go to sleep.

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The Nord Mines

Boss: Klinger

While Klinger and his two Mage Soldiers have no weaknesses, they’re still pretty easy to deal with. Take care of the Mage Soldiers first with Diagonal Slash and Cyc, then do the same with Klinger. One thing to note is that Klinger will target the MC with Mage Fire, which the MC is weak to if you have the Seeker Archetype equipped, so heal through as necessary.

After this fight, you’ll be able to equip both Grius and Strohl with Archetypes. I recommend giving Grius the Mage Archetype before continuing with the rest of the Nord Mines dungeon. Most enemies here are weak to some form of magic, whether it’s Fire, Ice, or Wind, and you can use Strohl to finish off any stragglers with physical attacks.

Boss: Homo Fulquilo

Homo Fulquilo is the last boss you’ll face in the Nord Mines. If you still have the MC equipped with the Seeker Archetype, put him in the back row and have him focus on casting Tarukaja on Grius and healing. Have Grius use Blizz, and have Strohl use Diagonal Slash to whittle down the boss’ health. Whenever Homo Fulquilo uses Concentrate and powers up, and lets you know that the front row is getting targeted, move everyone to the back row and guard.

Once that’s done, move Grius and Strohl back to the front row and resume your attack until the boss goes down.

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Back in Grand Trad

Head straight to Sunshade Row to find the Hushed Honeybee Inn, where you’ll be introduced to Fabienne and Maria. At night, head to the first floor of the Inn to talk to Maria. This will unlock the Healer Archetype.

The next day, you can visit More to check out the Healer Archetype if you wish. After that, head through Sunlumeo Street to reach the funeral procession, and a cutscene will play.

Once you regain control of your character, move through the dungeon and kill off any enemies in your way. These enemies are all weak to Light magic, so the Healer Archetype will come in handy here. In the next part of the dungeon, you’ll face off against another boss.

Boss: Undead Grius

Undead Grius is pretty fearsome, but if you have the Healer Archetype, you’re good to go. He’s weak to Light magic, so use that to your advantage. Have Hulkenberg use Knight’s Proclamation to tank all of the boss’ attacks, then have the MC hit him with Light damage while Strohl focuses on physical attacks.

After defeating Undead Grius, Hulkenberg will officially join your party and the Hushed Honeybee Inn will become your main headquarters. From this point on, you’ll be able to spend your time as you wish, as long as you clear the Grand Cathedral within 10 days. Ideally, you should try to clear the dungeon in two days so that you don’t waste too much time, but this is a hard game, and trying to push too hard too fast will leave you frustrated.

I was able to clear the Grand Cathedral in three days, and that still left me with quite a bit of time to socialize and work on other things.

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Grand Cathedral

When you first enter the Grand Cathedral, you’ll run into Catherina, who tasks you with finding her friend somewhere in the dungeon. You’ll be able to find her in a locked room with the rest of the hostages in the first section of the Grand Cathedral. You just need to collect the key first, which is located on a desk near a sleeping soldier in one of the nearby rooms.

Upon rescuing the hostages and finding her friend, you’ll form a bond with Catherina, which unlocks the Brawler Archetype. Make sure to grab this, as it’ll come in very handy for getting through this dungeon.

Boss: Louisan Mage, Malmortas

Keep progressing through the Grand Cathedral and you’ll eventually run into another mini boss fight with the Whiteclads. Same deal here. Just pelt them with physical and Pierce damage and move on. When you get to the top, you’ll finally face off against Zorba.

Boss: Zorba

Zorba the necromancer is the first real dungeon boss of Metaphor: ReFantazio, and he’s no slouch. He has no weaknesses, but is quite susceptible to Strike and Slash damage. He can also summon Corpsethralls and enrage them, allowing them to deal huge damage. Here’s my recommended party setup:

• Captain – Seeker, with Hama and Medi inherited from the Healer Archetype
• Strohl – Brawler
• Hulkenberg – Warrior

By doing this, you ensure that the Corpsethralls don’t get free weakpoint hits on the Captain, while also protecting Hulkenberg from her Lightning vulnerability when you get Zorba down to 50% health. Your goal here is to have the Captain cast Tarukaja on the other two while staying in the backlines, and have Strohl take out the Corpsethralls while Hulkenberg focuses on damaging Zorba. You may also want to consider having the Captain cast Hama on the Corpsethralls to get extra turns.

Zorba will always prioritize trying to summon two Corpsethralls, and then he’ll enrage them. You need to manage the Corpsethralls properly and take care of them before you get overwhelmed.

Boss: Homo Avades

You’re not done just yet. You still need to contend with that human corpse outside of the Grand Cathedral. Thankfully, this boss isn’t all that tough.

Focus on breaking the body, then hit the heart as much as you can. The body itself is weak to Strike damage, so Strohl will deal considerable damage as a Brawler, and Hulkenberg should also be able to deal decent damage as a Warrior. The Captain should continue to support and deal backup damage where possible.

Over the course of the fight, you’ll also need to break the arms and Gallica will offer to distract the minions for you. Take her up on that offer, then continue to focus on breaking the body, then the heart.

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And that’s it! That’s the Grand Cathedral done, and you’ve officially gotten through the first chunk of Metaphor: ReFantazio. Part 2 of our walkthrough will cover Martira and Kriegante Castle.