In April, as part of a promotional video about Metaphor: ReFantaziodirector Katsura Hashino quietly dropped a fact (via translator) that has haunted me ever since: “The music you hear in the game is in the main character’s head.” As he talks, the screen depicts a scene in which Gallica, the protagonist’s little fairy friend, casts a spell; blue glitter surrounds the main character and a dialogue box appears that says: ‘It’s like music is playing directly in my head. The effect of Gallica’s magic is inspiring.”
Gallica then says out loud to the hero, “After all, music was the first magic this world ever knew. Makes the road a little easier.”
And so now, every time the song changes Metaphor: ReFantazioI’m not thinking about composer Shoji Meguro. I think of Gallica, the in-game mastermind composer behind every note. And it’s seriously distracting me!
Don’t get me wrong, I love the music in it Metaphor: ReFantazio. The soundtrack was released alongside the game itself on Friday and I’m listening to it as I write this. I love the haunting and sometimes dissonant string melodies, the energetic vocal singing in that song in the background of most of the battles, and the lively jig-like tunes that play during lighthearted moments, such as the characters enjoying a meal together.
The problem is that I can’t stop thinking about the fact that all this music is in the main character’s head, and Gallica is the one who composes it – or maybe it’s just a spell and she doesn’t play an active role in the songs themselves while they change? Don’t know.
What I do know is that I continue to judge the music based on this absurd in-fiction metric. Sometimes a tune starts and I think to myself, ‘Is this this? Real Appropriate, Gallica? It seems a bit too cheerful for the mood of the conversation I’m having!” And on that note (ha, ha), does the music ever distract our hero from listening to what other people are saying to him? Because it plays through almost every conversation he has, including dangerous and stressful ones. During a fight he probably wants the accompaniment to pump me up, but I’m not sure how much I’d appreciate having Gallica’s music pounding into my head almost every second of every waking moment. I mean, what is this, me walking around in high school with headphones and constantly trying to adapt songs to the mood swings of my teenage years?
Actually, that’s about the age of the main character of this game, so maybe he likes it. But even I had to take off my headphones when it was time to pay attention to a history lecture or whatever. And sometimes I just wanted some peace and quiet!!!
This isn’t really a problem, except that I can’t stop thinking about it. Is the main character Gallica eventually going to ask for a pause button on her infinite playlist? I’ve been at it for over 30 hours and he hasn’t complained about this once. Maybe he’s afraid of offending her?
To zoom out even further, why did game director Katsura Hashino think the music in this video game necessary an explanation? I never listen to music in a game, TV show, or movie and think to myself, “Where does that music come from?” Nobody thinks that.
On the other hand, Metaphor: ReFantazio is a game about stories and the tropes within them, and at times it gets quite meta. So I think the music is just an example of that, and I have to be constantly reminded of the artifice of the world my character lives in. If that’s the vibe then it’s definitely working because I’m extremely upset.