Topic: Metaphor: ReFantazio Thread

@HallowMoonshadow lol it's my least favorite mainline SMT. Even including the first two. I love the vibe of Nocturne, but the dungeons and story, ugh. Also not a fan of Meguro's soundtrack beyond a few tracks, as heretical as I know that sounds to people who worship the PS2 era of Atlus.

Kinda funny how this one even mirrored the Nocturne trajectory of requiring a re-release to fix the story. Although Vengeance had a LOT more work put into it than Nocturne Maniax. And pretty much all of Atlus' other re-releases. They pretty much remade the campaign from the ground up, which is why it's one of the few times I'm not all that annoyed by a Director's Cut version of the game existing.

Is this game worth to get now for $33 on Amazon, or should I wait till it drops even lower or even when a Royal type of edition releases like Atlus did with Persona 5?

@BeyondKnight I mean, it was worth getting at full price, so certainly for $33 if you like Atlus JRPGs!

I'm glad Sega seems to be clueing in that doing remasters for recently released games with no upgrade paths is scaring off consumers.

Falcom games will follow if they keep up with the Ys X shenanigans.

@HallowMoonshadow Definitely do so! And that goes for anyone who decides to revive this thread by diving in! I had a complicated, but ultimately positive relationship with it myself, so I'm intrigued to see what you all will make of it.

@HallowMoonshadow Metaphor was actually the first Atlus game I've played, so I can't really comment on the comparisons you've made to their previous games. The unique premise for this one is ultimately what got me to try it out. I definitely agree that quite a few of the archetypes feel rather useless. I'm sure some of them could work great when synergizing them with a party built around it, but that's above my pay grade really. I've never been a min-maxer who cares much for specialising my party's builds to get the best out of it. I try to simply get something usable and go from there until I hit a wall and clearly need to adjust some things. I think when you have more opportunity to mix and match certain archetypes over time, you'll have a bit more fun with the system from the sounds of it. A few of my characters definitely turned into something very different from what their selected archetype would suggest by the end of it.

Totally agree that I was very disappointed the bonds weren't voiced. It saddens me to hear that they did that for Persona 3 Reload but not here. That's a rough regression. Like you said, the voice acting is really quite good all around, so any excuse to have more of it would've been acceptable. More importantly though, I think it does cheapen the effect the bonds are supposed to have. They're the big character-building moments that should have had tremendous care put into them, and yet they fall flat on too many occasions because of it. With the scousers representation, I assume you mean Junah? I'm not well-versed on British accents, but that's the one that jumps to mind as standing out. Loved her voice and accent, so it was a solid choice!

I get your frustration that none of the characters are romanceable. I actually like that all of them were platonic, since I don't think this story is served in any way by becoming about who's the best girl, but there's definitely plenty of great options we could've had if they had decided to go that route. That said, and I know that this likely wouldn't have been possible either way, Strohl would've had to be my romance pick. Love that man (and he's hot)!

A lot of the fantasy races do feel like "here's a regular model, but we added a little something so they're a whole different race now". The eugiefs are by far the most distinct from what I can remember. I think they largely make up for it with the writing, but having it visually represented as well would've been better. The places this game goes with the elda in particular I found very interesting. Totally echo your sentiment on the ugly human designs though! I forget what their inspiration was for those, but I think they nailed it. They look really cool.

I'm glad you're enjoying the story thus far, minus the hiccup with the pacing in Brilehaven. I think I enjoyed Brilehaven more than you as I enjoyed the getting together of all the champions, but it does run a bit overly long. I think that's a problem I have with the game in general, where by the end it was less about seeing its culmination and more about getting it over with. Not that there isn't good stuff throughout as well as specifically at the end, but the pacing can be a bit messy sometimes. There was definitely a point where I started feeling burnt out, but that could be a mix of the game as well as my own tendency towards shorter games.

@HallowMoonshadow Yeah, I was a bit surprised you couldn't switch Archetypes out mid-battle, either, considering how closely they seem to stick to the MegaTen format for a lot of stuff. I don't mind being forced to commit to a build during battles, though, tbh, since it forces you to be a bit more careful with how you customize your characters going in, and you're still given so much more freedom with your party overall. Also, once you get enough party members you can swap in new ones mid-battle, it's easier to bring in characters with skills and elemental affinities that would help during battle.

I joked with people that, yeah, naturally they don't include romance in the game that doesn't feature teenagers in it. 😛 I'm not sure it would've been appropriate for the game overall, though, and it's another way that this game distinguishes itself from Persona (because God knows it needs more instead of less of that).

And yes, Louis is beautiful and very fun as a villain. 😍

I actually really like the smaller scope of the cast/game compared to Persona. The scope creep of that series since 3 is honestly insane!

@HallowMoonshadow Ahhh, those accents! Forgive my ignorance when it comes to the wide range of accents within the UK, haha. It's a great collection of them and each one really gave the characters a unique personality. I really liked them as well. But haha, fair enough! I suppose ''what's the point of dating if they're not high-schoolers'' might be Atlus' MO. That said, does Shin Megami Tensei have romanceable characters and/or are they adults? Like I said to Ralizah, I actually don't know much about that particular series.

@HallowMoonshadow Ah, good to know! I had no clue that was more of a recent addition and not a staple of all their games. I guess it makes sense then that they went back to the roots with something like Metaphor... even if disappointing for everyone who wanted to make out with Hulkenberg. 😉

@HallowMoonshadow It's a shame to hear that you haven't really been vibing with Metaphor as time as gone on, but I have to say, I had pretty much the exact same experience. It went from a stand-out game to a good game at best for me over time as well. I did end up finishing the whole thing, but by the time of the epilogue I was waiting for the credits to roll more than anything. I think you say it perfectly when it's a game that just completely whelms you. There's nothing I can point at that bad necessarily, but even its best moments are not ones that elevate it. After all the praise I'd heard for Persona's gameplay loop with its calendar and social bonds, I also definitely expected more from that here. It all felt fairly negligible and none of the arcs really felt like they deepend the characters in any meaningful way. I agree with you that those could've been easily taken out of the game and that it'd probably be better off for it. Only Strohl and Heismay's really stand out to me when I think back to the bonds now as being worthy arcs for the characters.

It's really a game that sells itself on its premise, since like you said, the whole tournament and traveling stuff was very novel. It just eventually loses the charm of that and doesn't really replace it with anything of equal interest. I will say I disagree with Heismay's stats! I will concur that they don't really make sense, but his high mobility saved my butt on more than a handful occasions. I found his near-guaranteed misses to be incredibly useful in taking down bosses and minimising damage for the whole party. He was probably the one I had in my party most frequently by the end of the game.

So yeah, it's a solid 7/10 game. Good stuff, but nothing that really justifies its incredibly long playtime. I'm not surprised that even as you're nearing the end-game, you're not really feeling the heat to continue on. I wish I could say the finale is worth the trudge, but I think you can safely end it here if you're no longer feeling the motivation. I think if you force yourself to keep playing, you'll just come to resent it more than anything. I'm glad that for the time you played you at least found enjoyment in it, so it wasn't a total lost cause!