In April, as part of a promotional video about Metaphor: ReFantazioThe game's director, Katsura Hashino, quietly dropped a fact (via translator) that has haunted me ever since: “The music you hear in the game is in the protagonist's head.” On the screen, as he speaks, there is a scene showing Gallica, the main character's little fairy friend, casting a spell; Blue flashes surround the protagonist and a dialogue box appears that says: “It's like the music is playing directly in my mind. 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 knew. It makes the journey a little easier.”
And now every time the song changes Metaphor: ReFantazioI don't think about the composer Shoji Meguro. I think of Gallica, the game's intellectual composer behind every note. And it's seriously distracting me!
Don't get me wrong, I love music in Metaphor: ReFantazio. The soundtrack was released on Friday alongside the game and I'm listening to it as I write this. I love the haunting and occasionally dissonant string melodies, the energetic vocal singing of that song in the background of most battles, and the cheerful melodies that play at happy moments, like when the characters are enjoying a meal together.
The problem is that I can't help but think that all this music is in the protagonist's head, and Gallica is the one composing it, or maybe it's just a spell and she doesn't have an active role in the story. The songs themselves as they change? I don't know.
What I do know is that I continue to judge music by this absurd metric of fiction. Sometimes a melody comes on and I think, “Is this it?” In fact Appropriate, Gallica? It seems too cheerful for the atmosphere of the conversation I'm having! And on that note (ha ha), does music ever distract our hero from listening to what other people are telling him? Because it plays out in almost every conversation you have, including dangerous and stressful ones. During battle, I probably want the accompaniment to cheer me up, but I'm not sure how much I'd appreciate Gallica's music pounding in my head for almost every second of every waking moment. I mean, what is this, me in high school walking around with headphones trying to constantly match songs to my teenage mood swings?
Actually, that's about the age of the protagonist of this game, so maybe he'll like it. But even I had to take off my headphones when it came time to pay attention to a history lecture or whatever. And sometimes I just wanted some peace and quiet!!!
This isn't a real problem, except that I can't stop thinking about it. Will the main character eventually ask Gallica for a pause button on his infinite playlist? I've been here for over 30 hours and he hasn't complained about this even once. Maybe he's afraid of insulting her?
To zoom out even further, why did game director Katsura Hashino think that the music in this video game necessary an explanation? I never hear music in a game, TV show, or movie and think, “Where is that music coming from?” Nobody thinks that.
On the other hand, Metaphor: ReFantazio It's a game about stories and the tropes they contain, and it gets pretty meta at times. So I guess music is just another example of that, and I'm supposed to constantly remind myself of the artifice of the world my character lives in. If that's the vibe, then it's definitely working, because I'm really nervous.