JRPGs are moving beyond classic turn-based combat

At G-Star 2025, Katsura Hashino — director of Metaphor: ReFantazio and the last three mainline Persona games — laid out a vision he calls "JRPG 3.0," positioning the classics as 1.0 and the present moment as 2.0. He argued the transformation is beginning with combat, particularly a shift away from strictly turn-based systems.

Metaphor: ReFantazio (2024) embraces a hybrid approach: on the field you fight in real time, killing or stunning enemies with basic combos and dodges, then switch into turn-based mode to deploy fuller strategies. Two years before Metaphor, Nihon Falcom’s Trails Through Daybreak also moved from a long tradition of turn-based battles to a seamless hybrid where transitions are central to abilities and stunned foes yield a powerful opener.

Both games reserve turn-based combat for story-critical encounters while using real-time play for routine enemies, letting players slice through weaker foes without the ritual of formal battles.

jrpgs, turn-based, hybrid combat, real-time, metaphor refantazio, katsura hashino, persona, trails, nihon falcom, g-star 2025