Metaphor: ReFantazio has released a prologue demo which spans the 'first four dungeons.' Plus, your saved data will carry on to the full version of the game.

Metaphor: ReFantazio could be dangerous for someone like me who has never played a Atlus RPG . mainly because the developer's move away from high schoolers with psychic dreams and into high fantasy suits my style.

There's now a demo available! The Metaphor: ReFantazio Prologue Demo was announced earlier today, and then re-announced at the Tokyo Game Show. It lets you play the prologue -- and it's a real meaty one.

Steam's page promises "four" dungeons and seven of the 40 Archetypes (which are classes that characters can equip) as well as "six supporters, including party members, who will support the protagonist on his journey".

I'm still downloading the 24-gigabyte demo, but players have already reported they've had about four to five hour with it. That's downright generous. Unfortunately, they are also reporting some performance issues, which I know are not isolated.

"I have a rtx4090 and a 7950x3d, and my GPU utilization is all over the map," writes a player on the subreddit for the game. "When dashing, it drops to 70% and when standing still, it will go up to 100% without any frame rate caps."

It's a shame because Timothy Monbleau, a PC Gamer reporter who played the game last month, said it was quite good. "I have this sinking feeling that Metaphor ReFantazio will consume hundreds of hours when it comes out in Oct."

Looking at the Steam reviews reveals that the culprit may be the game rendering at 125% resolution. However, some naysayers reject the fix. I'm sure there will be more patches. Optimisation problems are notoriously difficult to diagnose.

If you're okay with frame drops, which are unfortunately not uncommon in today's age of games that are getting bigger, there is no reason to not try the demo. Your save data will allow you to continue the game in full version, with the same storyline and character status, when you buy the full version in October.

This demo is impressive, despite its performance issues. However, considering Atlus' pedigree with Persona, this confidence is not unwarranted. Metaphor: ReFantazio will arrive October 11.