It is undoubtedly that Metaphor: ReFantazio will share some similarities with the Persona games, as the director of the Persona games is leading the charge on this one. One of the systems in the game that falls into this category is the Archetypes, which are essentially classes for your characters. There are a lot of Archetypes in the game, which will unlock and allow you to learn skills to use in combat. This page will detail how to unlock new Archetypes and how they work.

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Archetypes are the bread and butter of the battle system in Metaphor.

Unlocking New Archetypes¶

You will unlock your first set of Archetypes fairly early in the game, right at the end of the first dungeon. For simple explanation purposes, think of them as job classes for your characters. Each character will be allowed to equip one Archetype and as you progress through the game, you will be able to inherit skills from others you have used. Archetypes are available in tiers, but the base versions are usually unlocked as you meet new Followers. As you upgrade your Bonds with the Followers, you will be able to unlock more advanced forms of the Archetypes.

Switching Archetypes¶

Unfortunately, you won’t be able to just switch to new Archetypes once you unlock them. In order to do that, first head to Akademia (think of this like the Velvet Room, sort of) and speak to More there. He will give you the option to Study Archetypes, which is what you need to do. Doing this will cost you some MAG, a currency related to Archetypes that is gotten from battles, which will unlock that Archetype for that particular character.

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(1 of 3) The Archetype Tree shows which ones you have unlocked.

Once you have studied an Archetype for a character, you can easily switch to it via the Equipment screen. Remember that each of the Archetypes will have their own strengths and weaknesses, so it’s important to keep track of that as you go through dungeons and do battles. To get the better Archetypes, you’ll need to increase the Bonds with that particular Follower, as well as increase the Rank of the base Archetype. In addition to that, you’ll have to use more MAG to unlock it, of course.

Leveling Up Archetypes¶

There’s nothing special you need to do to level up your Archetypes, since you just need to win battles. Note that you can only level up one Archetype at a time, the one equipped of course, so things will go slowly. The max rank for an Archetype is 20, after which, you will gain a permanent stat boost for doing just that.