Kind of wild this game came out when it did, because the endgame parallels to rn is

I'm not going to compare an idealized version of metaphor to SMTV and P5, I'll compare what we got to what we got

SMTV and P5 were both flawed games as well but I think they're still marginally better than metaphor. It's no slight to metaphor, like you said this is the very first metaphor game, but that's the reality.

I strongly disagree about the combat system. Press turn done better in SMT. P5 had much better dungeons. I won't speak on the writing and story since these things don't matter much to me.

I still said metaphor is a great game. Just thought it was a reach to say it's better than P5 and SMTV

every time Gallica said 'woah,' all i heard was this

Feel like you end up with more side quests in the final month than the entire game up until this point.

Two days away from final battle, has anyone else not unlocked any of the royal archetypes bc I keep coming up short on magla and it’s been hard to get s***.

I do have everyone as their elite archetypes but that s*** was a pain from how little magla i’m surprisingly getting at this point in the game

you'll get all the royals in the final dungeon, the exp and mag you get there is insane. I wish you got more time to play around with them more

do you have everyone's bonds maxed out, including non-party members?

Finally started this after finishing up some games in my backlog, somehow have avoided spoilers, i only know roughly some party characters. Im approaching the catacombs right now. What can i say, i love atlus. One criticism so far: at times i have to wait during battle so i can listen to the full battle theme cause some enemies are so weak lmfao.
Also can i say i love that people die in this s\*\*\*, even actual party members. Im not one to love killing characters for the sake of shock factor, but in a setting and story like this, it surely adds to the subject matter.

I do thats the thing, i just have gotten MAG at a super glacial pace idk whats up lol

I’m level 63 too idk whats going on lol. Im just gonna chalk it up to me having f***ed up badly a long time ago and accept my L and do better on NG+ bc i wanna do unlock everything i can

ah gotcha lol yeah in that final dungeon you'll be able to farm major MAG and hero leaves if you have your party in mastered classes and also jewelled roots from farming the melancholia spawn points. i think youll be able to farm comfortably ie defeat enemies in field combat around lvl 76-78 but 80+ will give you a decent cushion in the final fight(s)

Think it might be too late for me i finished the dungeon and im on 10/24. Imma do the trials but other than that i gotta rawdog it

youll have time lol trust

The game could really use a feature that allows the player to reconfigure their party before restarting an encounter. Sometimes the rewind function is enough but there's been quite a few times where I didn't have the specific archetypes or abilities required to efficiently clear an encounter and was forced to burn through a lot of items and MP.

9/11 and 9/12 full of twists

Feel like if we got that month with the mage academy it'd feel fine

3 straight days of historical events is crazy lmao

Oh yeah game award nominations getting announced monday

My predictions:

Game of the Year
Best Direction
Best Art Direction
Best Narrative
Best Score
Best RPG
Best Performance (probably Strohl or Louis VA)

Out of all of these i think Best Art Direction and Score is probably the strongest lock, RPG is like a 50/50 since FFVII Rebirth

Just finished

I somewhat enjoyed the game but overall I think this is extremely forgettable. I think all the systems in the game are well designed and excellent for what they have decided to create here but I think the story and setting are just very... uninteresting, especially for a fantasy game.

I understand that for Atlus this is a very ambitious title as they are moving away from the modern setting they are so accustomed to with Person but in the realm of all the fantasy JRPGs I feel like this is one of the least ambitious ones I have played, there are numerous reasons as to why I think that is but it all boils to this game being too afraid to embrace the fact that its not Persona.

I admit that the calendar system works pretty well here and they made time management aspect more important when compared to Persona but I can’t pretend that I’m not disappointed that the “3rd pillar of Atlus” has the exact same gameplay loop as one of its other pillars.

Also, I feel like the calendar has always been a double-edged sword, it makes a lot of sense in Persona since you are a student going to school with an actual schedule but it really isn’t necessary here, it can make for a satisfying gameplay loop but it restricts the narrative as the game now needs to balance progressing the story and giving you free time so you can raise your royal virtues (this really didn’t need to be in the game) and doing social links; I especially wish social links weren’t in this game because… again… I would have liked Atlus to step outside of their comfort zone and find a way to develop character relationships without crutching on a dedicated time slot you put in the game, personally, I think the majority of social links end up being pretty soulless especially when the MC is silent and the interaction between MC and party members can seem almost abstract at times with how you little input you have and yet the characters act like you changed their whole life.

In terms of music, outside of a few obvious tracks like the boss theme the music in this game was just as uninteresting as the narrative. It took like 60 hours to get a track like Wings of Freedom, before hearing that I could have sworn there were like 4 tracks in the game.

Above are just a few issues I have with the game but there are countless things I could write about such as the protagonist being silent (Atlus should grow some balls and actually make a protagonist so that meaningful interaction is possible, f***… some conflict would be nice), most uninspired by the book enemy designs outside of humans, “Atlus writing” and “subtlety” not being able to coexist in the same sentence, side dungeons just being cave and open field (Actually I really appreciate the attempt at side dungeons instead of a Mementos though), the world building and world in general in pretty bland and uninteresting.. etc

I can’t say that this is a bad game but when I think of the Atlus team sitting down and brainstorming their new fantasy RPG I feel like the moment anyone said anything too ambitious they threw said person out the window; a list of ideas was written top to bottom in a piece of paper from “safest” to “ambitious” and unfortunately they picked the top one called “Metaphor Refantazio”

I know this all sounds harsh, but when I look underneath the Atlus polish, I really think this is one of the most vapid JRPGs I have played in recent memory. I will always prefer a flawed video game to a game that never leaves its comfort zone.

Dont really understand the protagonist take. The protagonist didnt talk much, but wasnt silent at all, and was probably the least “blank slate” protagonist theyve ever made. I dont think they ever intend on making a protagonist thats just another character. But this seemed like a good balance between “silent” and “character thats part of this world with their own character and agency”

Also, im sure the goal from the getgo was them attempting to combine the best aspects of their existing big franchises(Persona, SMT, and Etrian Odyssey)

I didn't think this needed expanding on but the protagonist was as "silent" as one would be in a Persona game; they just voiced the dialogue options this time. Adding VA doesn't make Will less of a blank slate than any other protagonists.

Gallica pretty much spoke for him any time you weren't given a dialogue choice and lowkey I feel like Strohl too spoke a lot for the protagonist in a lot of instances (He kinda reminds me of Makoto from Persona 5).

I haven't played it but we just had Ringo with Soul Hackers 2 who has her own personality and actually has agency. Sure, Will does speak a few times but those instances where he does feel like by-the-book stock one/two line sentences that could have also been dialogue boxes; you will never actually see something like Will and Louis going back and forth and discussing their ideologies beyond a surface level because Will doesn't have agency.

Side note - I know this game was in the pipeline long before Soul Hackers 2 but I really hope how Soul Hackers 2 performed doesn't make Atlus think that every game they make from here on out requires a silent protagonist.

I don't recall anyone outright stating in the interviews that the goal was to make a hybrid of SMT and Persona when it was still Project Re Fantasy; only that they wanted to make a fantasy game with conflict among tribes playing a heavy role in it. Obviously, when it was revealed as Metaphor Refantazio the similarities were clear. It's still disappointing to me that the team would spend 7 years combining aspects of their most popular titles than come up with something completely new and original

Playing this game has made me think a lot about other JRPGs I have played and had issues with in the past and actually appreciate them a lot more. I think of Final Fantasy and how almost no game in that series is identical to each other and despite how flawed some of the games in the series are I think its beautiful how they don't let their past work tie them down.

Eeeh i disagree but each their own.

In this game we had entire scenes with the protagonist speaking like
him discovering More was his father, and having a entire discussion with him. Gallica also not being there

He he still has minimal dialogue in cutscenes.

Even if they didnt fully didnt commit to him not being a silent protagnist(Personally i dont want them to fully abandon silent protagonist), imo the little they did went a long a giving him a personality compared to the Persona protagonists. Even just him voicing the dialogue options goes a long way in that it doesnt take you out of the seen.
They found a nice balance between making him his own charcater, while still putting you in the shoes of the character imo

Yeah to each their own. Personally I wish they fully committed to it, I don’t think this “balance” does anything for me, the minimal dialogue doesn’t really give him personality as for the most part Will just says by-the-book hero responses, the scenes where Gallica isn’t in it are very few and for the most part she finishes his sentences or expands on them. It feels extremely safe which is how I feel about this game in general.

one thing i will say about this game is that I don't feel like it had all the space to spread it's wings out all the way

finally beat the game... fantasy lives on