Metaphor: Refantazio - Maxing Out Your Follower Bonds: A Guide to Mastering Relationships!
Metaphor: ReFantazio's Follower Bonds: Persona-Style Social Links for Enhanced Gameplay!
Metaphor: ReFantazio borrows heavily from the awesome Persona series; that includes its Social Link system (renamed "Bonds" here). These aren't just fun cutscenes about the characters. Boosting your Bonds unlocks amazing combat skills, items, and even discounts at shops! Think of these like relationship building and strengthening – creating closer connections with teammates and various other important non-playable characters (NPCs), adding various benefits as these develop.
There are 14 Bonds in total – involving both your party and other NPCs. This relationship-building is a huge aspect in this particular RPG; making a fully completed Bonds system immensely valuable. However, you absolutely don't need it to win. This adds immense replayability; and the Bonds themselves can seriously alleviate grinding in that otherwise challenging RPG experience, and getting additional MAGla will also add those bonuses; this makes getting these relationships important on various levels. Why bother? Those enhanced skills give you a huge combat edge. Extra loot and those shop discounts really help reduce grinding, letting you explore different character and party compositions, without adding additional pressure.
Navigating the Follower Bond Menu: Key Tips and Tricks!
Once you finish Regalith Grand Cathedral, the Follower Menu unlocks! It displays how strong these bonds are between Will and the involved people.
- Red Handshake: A Bond rank is ready to increase.
- Gray Handshake: A rank can improve; go to town and speak with them; use Gallica (an NPC who helps you) to locate these characters during free days, for improved time efficiency!
- No Handshake: Progress the main story for a new rank!
Improving bonds unlocks class Archetypes, greatly increasing the skills and improving those overall stats that make battles far easier, as well as showcasing new story aspects. These are optional. If you use certain archetypes only you can skip several completely, improving the overall level of effectiveness within a certain setup, this would help alleviate any problems in this otherwise somewhat straightforward and simple gameplay.
Boosting Your Party Member Bonds: Leveling Up Relationships!
Those six party members are always available for Bonds and are easier to work with. Their progression unlocks different character Archetypes (and combat upgrades)! Strohl (a warrior type, who joins your party on 6/6) allows access to those Warrior, Swordmaster, and Samurai archetypes. Hulkenberg (who starts on 6/11 after Grius leaves; you cannot bond with Grius; which also allows those key archetypes for those desiring to use these), Heismay (who appears on 7/4, and unlocks Thief, Assassin, Ninja), and the rest unlock more skills for certain builds; creating many unexpected choices for experienced players!
Junah (unlocked in Virga Island through that “Save the Mourning Snakes” side quest), Eupha (also Virga Island, through “The Trial of Malnova”), and Basilio (unlocking through various dungeon exploration tasks) are essential! Yet timing matters – Junah and Eupha require completion before leaving Virga Island. You cannot get these additional members later! If these opportunities are missed, these benefits might not ever happen later. Thus being prepared when and if these characters arrive matters greatly. And, DismArchus’s YouTube compilation videos show their bond scenes! It should make improving these far easier.
NPC Bonds: Unlocking Hidden Talents Across Tamriel!
These characters boost gameplay: You'll get these through quests in many towns!
- Gallica: This is fully completed when your calendar hits 9/24; unlocking Mage skills.
- More (unlocked on 6/5): unlocks Seeker, Magic Seeker, and Soul Hacker Archetypes.
- Maria (6/10): unlocks Healer, Cleric, and Savior Archetypes.
- Catherina: This Bond increases through completing her "A Friend in Need" side quest. You need completion of this prior event. You unlock Brawler and Martial Artist.
- Neuras: completing "Providing A Spark" unlocks Gunner, Sniper, and Dragoon Archetypes.
- Bardon: Completing the side event, “Old Castle Town Kidnapper,” unlocks Commander and Warlord.
- Alonzo (6/29): needs higher Imagination and Wisdom, giving you Faker and Trickster skills.
- Brigitta: You need Wisdom and Courage, obtaining Merchant and Tycoon Archetypes.
Conclusion: Unlock ReFantazio's Full Potential!
These bonds in Metaphor: ReFantazio add that awesome social link style to that otherwise epic JRPG adventure! Boosting them increases gameplay by enhancing abilities; improving overall efficiency for every other part of your experience; reducing grinding times, reducing that tedious part, and giving you even More resources to use elsewhere.
Don't sleep on the optional Bonds! These relationship moments with your party and NPCs provide a richly satisfying gameplay enhancement, rewarding exploration and relationship building for an otherwise completely forgettable side activity. Every player needs those rewards; and for veteran players this provides an additional layer to an already-challenging game!
