Persona director and JRPG veteran says the amazing menus in Metaphor: ReFantazio were “really annoying” to make, just as Persona 5’s were “impossible to read at first”

Metaphor: ReFantazio’s UI design has looked absolutely stunning from the jump, and that menu design has been impressive even by the lofty standards of the veteran Persona developers’ own work. As it turns out, getting this stuff right is “really annoying.”

“In general, the way most game developers make UI is very simple,” director Katsura Hashino tells The Verge. “That’s what we try to do as well — we try to keep things simple, practical, and usable. But maybe the reason that we’ve achieved both [functionality and beauty] is that we have unique designs that we make for each and every menu. This is actually really annoying to do. We have separate programs running for each of them as well. Whether it’s the shop menu or the main menu, when you open them up there’s a whole separate program running and a separate design that goes into making it. It takes a lot of time.”

In an interview with GamesRadar+ earlier this year, Hashino said that the team has “been really focused on making really good UI since Persona 3,” noting that because RPGs focus “so heavily on equipment and party setup and skills and using all these menus” they deserve much more TLC in menu design.

But as Hashino tells The Verge, it takes work to build a Persona-level (or Metaphor-level) UI. The team apparently suffered during the development of Persona 5’s highly angular aesthetics in particular. “It was impossible to read at first, so we did lots of tweaking and adjusting so it became legible,” Hashino explains.

Of course, this JRPG has much more to offer than pretty menus. Our Metaphor: ReFantazio review awarded the game 4.5 out of 5 stars, calling it “a triumphant evolution of Atlus’ best.” The broader Metacritic score confirms that this is a new certified JRPG banger that’s ready to compete for the top game of the year spot.

Don’t miss any of the best JRPGs out there.