Metaphor: ReFantazio is, without a doubt, one of this year's best JRPGs. Hell, I'd argue it's one of the best JRPGs of all time thanks to its powerful narrative, along with its engaging mix of turn-based battles and social sim elements that leave you with oh-so-much to do. But it also owes a lot to its delightful cast of characters.
From your excellent supporting 'followers' like the sly, scheming Alonzo, to the big baddie himself, Louis, Metaphor's characters are the life and soul of the JRPG. But from day one, I had an immediate favorite – Leon Strohl. The very first party member to join the protagonist's cause to take down Louis and save the prince of Euchronia, the charming Clemar has a noble heritage and a tragic backstory, a drive to stand up for what's right and protect those he cares about, and isn't afraid to put himself in danger to do so.
Between emotional moments that tug on your heartstrings, rousing speeches that give you goosebumps, some really cool battle lines, and even a transformation scene that involves him ripping his own heart out, Strohl is taken to the next level as a character thanks to a phenomenal performance from English dub actor Stewart Clarke. Sitting down to chat with 12DOVE about his role, he's buzzing with enthusiasm and says it was "a really fun challenge" to bring someone who wasn't "your traditional noble character" to life.
Strohl's beginnings
You may expect a 'noble' character to be rather high and mighty, snooty, and a tad out of touch with everyday folks, but that's not Strohl, who's incredibly grounded and wants the best for those around him. However, his bold introduction when he enrolls in the army alongside the protagonist initially gave Clarke a different impression. "He's quite cocky. It's very kind of like, 'Oh, well, maybe the entire army isn't doomed if I'm here,' you know, there's a lot of bravado. There's a lot of talking back to authority," he says of the introductory scene.
The actor initially leaned into his "stuck-up" perception of Strohl in his performance, but soon realized that there was much more to the Clemar than his upbringing. "Very quickly I was like, 'Oh, wait, that's not him. This is not him!' And I remember going… 'We need to go back. We need to redo that first scene.'"
Clarke believed that even though Strohl could be a confident character, making him too "full of himself" would "throw off his character arc." After all, he's meant to be your protagonist's "ride or die" companion throughout the entire game, so relatability was key. "And, yeah, okay, he's not perfect, but he will try his best," adds Clarke. "We redid it, and that's the joy of acting, is finding these discoveries and making these decisions."
He also admits that this initial interpretation of Strohl may have been influenced by the fact that he stepped into the role "very, very quickly" from a performance in Final Fantasy 16, where he voiced the honorable prince of Sanbreque, Dion Lesage. After getting the brief for Strohl which outlined his noble lineage, the actor first thought that the two characters sounded "very similar" to each other, and went into his first recording session for Metaphor: ReFantazio with the "more Dion-esque, refined take" on Strohl that ended up being changed to the "more relaxed" version we now know and love. "You could look at them on paper and find similarities, but I think actually, in reality, they're very, very different," he says.
Thrown in at the deep end
But what was Clarke's first day voicing Strohl like? Intense, by the sound of it. He was quickly thrown into not only one of the most iconic moments in the game, but one of his favorite scenes to perform – Strohl's awakening. The dramatic moment when Strohl first taps into his Archetype power by ripping a metal heart out of his chest (because the Persona 3 cast shooting themselves in the head with 'Evokers' clearly didn't go hard enough) was, in my opinion, one of the greatest moments in the game.
For Clarke, it was a huge personal highlight. "It was just fun," he laughs. "We did the awakening scene [day one], which is a baptism of fire, isn't it? Welcome to the gig, here you go, do an awakening scene."
While it could have been a daunting task, the actor enjoyed doing it so early: "It informed a lot about Strohl, about how passionate my version of Strohl is, how he speaks to power, how free he is communicating that to people, which again, informed me later on when he had scenes with Louis and all that kind of stuff." That aside, he beams at the simple joy of expression it allowed for. "It was just great fun watching the animatic being like, 'I'm in an anime scene. This is just great! Like he's having a power-up moment, he's going Super Saiyan.'"
Screaming for a character tearing their heart out wasn't the only challenge Clarke faced, though, as he opens up about the broader challenge of voice acting: "filling in the blanks." Not everything in Metaphor: ReFantazio is voiced, and Clarke didn't have the story's entire context while he was recording. As a result, he'd sometimes have to be filled in with extra details to help him imagine certain scenes, like the plot of Strohl's Bond (essentially a Social Link) story, which is only voiced in the first and final ranks. An amusing moment early on in the game – when the party uses a painting of their arch nemesis, Louis, to stop his necromancer ally Zorba from attacking them – was also particularly confusing in this regard. "Honestly, I was like, 'What is going on?'" he laughs.
From actor to fan
Not knowing every detail of the game did have an additional benefit for Clarke, though – it meant that playing it himself was "such a fulfilling experience, because it filled in all those gaps." Coincidentally, he rolled credits the day before we spoke, and considering that he describes it as "my kind of game" and spent 133 hours playing it, it's no surprise to hear that he "loved it." It turns out that we had a very similar approach to combat, too: "Strohl never left the party – obviously, you've gotta build around Strohl – so he just became Mr. Big Sword, and everyone else just kind of buff[ed] him. 'Everyone throw your buffs on Strohl, and then he's going to hit them really hard with a sword.'"
After spending what he estimates was around 50 hours recording lines for his character, I was curious to find out if any of Strohl's unvoiced dialogue came as a surprise to Clarke during his playthrough. While there were "no shocks," there were some funny lines that "would have been lovely" to perform, including when the party gets swallowed alive by an enormous worm, and is faced with, uh, only one way out. "I was gutted that we didn't get to voice that, because it was really funny," he laughs. "I just wanted to say butthole, and I didn't get to say butthole. That was sad."
"I just wanted to say butthole, and I didn't get to say butthole. That was sad."
Stewart Clarke, voice actor for Strohl
Throughout the lengthy recording process, Clarke was aware that he was working on a JRPG, and turned to playing Xenoblade Chronicles 3 to serve as "a kind of inspiration" for his work. However, he didn't initially realize that he was part of an Atlus game, although certain lines nearly gave it away.
"We got to the very end of recording, [where] everyone calls out what Archetype they are when they become that Archetype. And we were doing the ones at the very end, the Royal Archetypes, and there was like, Persona Master, Soul Hacker, Devil Summoner. And then they were like, 'Can you just say Persona?' I was like, 'Why am I saying Persona? What game is this?'" he recalls, grinning. When trailers for the game came out, he was hit with the realization that "this is a bigger deal than I thought it was."
The future of Euchronia
Metaphor: ReFantazio has created a whole new world for Atlus, although at the time of writing, we don't know if we'll see any further expansions to it in the form of story DLC, sequels, or spin-offs. Would Clarke be down to reprise his role if given the chance, though? "Of course!" he says, without a moment's hesitation.
"It's beyond me, it's not in my court, but yeah. If there was more story to tell, more things to do, I do think the world of Metaphor was brilliant, and I think it was crafted really, really artfully, and the world of Euchronia and the art direction and all of that was… it's a fascinating world, and I think there's more to tell," he continues. "Whether that's the story of our protag and the Six Partisans, I don't know, but you know, I'm ready to answer the cry, ready to heed the call to adventure, should it arrive."
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Be sure to take a look at our Metaphor: ReFantazio review to find out why it's an evolution of Atlus' best RPGs.
