Metaphor: ReFantazio director avoids reading comments whenever possible. 'Constantly looking back at reactions isn't healthy for your mental health.'

Metaphor: ReFantazio, more than any other game, is about democracy and the role of a leader in listening to the public's grievances. Good thing director Katsura hashino isn't an aspiring monarch because he (quite logically) avoids the feedback spiral that is online comments and reviews.

This is according to a conversation he had KeiichiroToyama, which was published by Famitsu and translated here by Automaton: "I check things out sometimes," Hashino confesses, "such as right after launch." It's not as if I can adjust my behavior based on what i see. When I need to check something out, I do it all at once, because constantly observing reactions isn't healthy for your mental health."

If I'm being completely honest, that's pretty humbling to hear. Metaphor: ReFantazio has done well for itself. It's earned the prestigious title as fastest-selling game within Atlus' library and we gave it a 95/100 in our Metaphor ReFantazio Review. I'm 52 hours into the game and can confirm that it's a great game.

It's admirable that Hashino isn't interested in the comments section. Listening to feedback for game development is important, but you can't please everyone. Not to mention that while players are usually very good at identifying problems, they're not always great at figuring out the root cause of those issues, or, err, expressing them politely.

In a survey early last year, over 91% of industry respondents identified harassment and threats as a persisting issue in game development--meanwhile, review bombing (not to paint the two with the same brush, there can be some valid reasons for the latter) has increased across titles after Helldivers 2 players rather successfully told Sony to go stick it where the sun don't shine.

Hashino, who has been a director for Atlus for more than two decades, may also have the advantage of being able to make the type of game he enjoys. Auteur privilege and all that. As someone who has had people tell me how stupid I am for my videogame opinions (not like you would ever do that dear reader? I can relate.

Hashino says he doesn't want to "really appear in promotional material" either, but that he gets a lot more requests to speak about the IP because "it's a brand new IP." It's more than I had when I worked on Persona. No wonder he hasn't responded to requests for a musical version of our Top 100 list. Shame, Gabe Newell is probably free.