Topic: Metaphor: ReFantazio Thread

@Jimmer-jammer I'm glad you're enjoying it! I also bought it on a whim really, since I never properly played a JRPG or anything Atlus put out before. I was just interested and happened to be in a mood where I wanted to try out new things, haha. So far I'm happy to report I'm not at all disappointed with my choice!

But yeah, the point where you are right now is definitely still very early goings. Good luck playing the rest of the game hearing the Buddhist chanting all the time! At this point I'm just singing along any time it comes up (which is, of course, often). Let me know how you feel about it as you continue playing!

@Jimmer-jammer You're moving on quick! I'm glad the game hasn't let you down yet. Good to hear you haven't felt at any point pushed or stressed with the deadlines so far either. I don't think it'll happen for you at any point then, having used your time up until this point efficiently. And I agree regarding the Hero Leaves. I'm usually just keeping the Archetype I have unlocked a better one I'd like to use for a character using leaves, and that's worked out well for me so far.

I'm a bit more slow going than you seem to be, so I'm still making my way through the very end game. I just started in what I believe is the last main dungeon of the game earlier today, but I popped out midway through to continue tomorrow. I have my Royal Virtues and Follower Bonds all maxed out at this point, so aside from having to clean up the last few side quests I have time galore luckily. I'm a bit stressed about my leveling regarding getting to the final boss, but I hope with the final dungeons I'll get to a point where I feel like I'm ready to face it. Hopefully I won't have to grind still at some point in the future, because that always puts a damper on my fun. I feel blessed that I've been able to avoid it thus far! I presume you're currently somewhere around Virga Island based on your game time? Is the main theme there driving you nuts yet? Haha.

I think I have less than ten hours left at this point, and I'm pretty happy about it. Don't get me wrong. I still really enjoy the game, but after eighty-some hours I'm definitely feeling the length. Especially since I was playing it with Midnight Suns "on the side", which itself is an eighty-hour romp. I hope they'll nail the ending as I've not heard much chatter about it, so that could be positive or negative!

So I picked this up after playing the demo and getting hooked in. For some reason I downloaded the PS4 demo, so I couldn't transfer my save over to the PS5 version. D'OH!

What drew me in is the quality of the writing for most of the characters and story. Which is strange for me as I'm usually a gameplay first kind of guy. It also moves at quite a brisk pace for the first few hours. Also loving the mostly British accents, with one character I cannot see past Billy Connoly lol. The human enemy designs are all kinds of wierd and awesome. And it all looks so so stylish. Love the art style. The game does a good job of manexplaining all the systems too.

I'm at the grand cathedral just after the second save room. I also beat the dragon at the mines. Not finding it too difficult so far, with only a pack of white wolves almost wiping me out. But you can restart battles at anytime without any penalty, and I rinsed them at the 2nd attempt.

I'm almost out of MP for a couple of my characters though. Items which restore it are scant too. I'm aware you can grind the easier enemies if the main character is a mage and you get a little MP back for each character stunned/killed. But ugh grinding. Will see how I get on when I carry on this evening

Tagging in @Th3solution as he was somehow interested in my thoughts.

@Jimmer-jammer Ah cheers for that! I did think that, as one of the tutorial tips mentioned that. I wasn't sure if I wanted to 'waste' a day though.

I've tried about half hour of grinding to get MP back, and it feels too much a chore to me! Will explore alternative methods!

@JohnnyShoulder Sounds like it’s clicking for you. It’s really interesting that this game has resonated so strongly with you all (like @Jimmer-jammer @Tjuz ) who haven’t been Jrpg or Atlas / Persona fans before. The new IP and setting was probably a really good idea to help make the genre more appealing to newcomers. The quality of writing also sounds like it’s a step above. Not to disparage the writing of Persona, but I’m not sure I would use the superlatives I hear you all using when talking about the narratives. I’ve felt they were always good, but not exceptional. The fun was always in the social sim aspects intermixed with the combat systems.

Speaking of, it also sounds like they’ve loosened up strictness of the schedule. In the Persona games I’ve played you really do want to try to complete a dungeon on one go so as to maintain efficiency of schedule, otherwise you can’t max out everything and could miss content. The option to break up the dungeon runs has been there, but I always tried to knock them out all at once. Maybe that’s why I eventually felt burned out after the end of P5. 😅 It’s a bit like playing an open world game and trying to get all the collectibles and side quests.

Regardless, the positive vibes everyone has had for the game has definitely stirred some interest for some future point.

@Th3solution I don't really have any frame of reference as to the writing in the Persona games, but I'd definitely say it's above average compared to the wider gaming landscape. I'm not sure I was quite as enamored with the narrative as some, but I did really enjoy myself throughout. I think it has some very high highs, but there's also times I wished it would speed up a bit. The game also has the tendency to lock you into what are essentially hours of cutscenes, which I do think negatively affected the pacing. The effect of which is especially worsened by the fact that they would often deliver the necessary information in long, drawn-out conversations which could've easily been cut down into more biteable chunks.

I do think the character work in this game is the star way more so than the overall narrative, which I doubt is surprising or unusual based on what I've heard about other Atlus RPGs. I did genuinely enjoy being with each of the party characters and I would be hard-pressed to name a weak link within them. I do think their follower bond stories are mostly pretty... hamfistedly written. There's really not a lot of nuance or thematic subtlety they employ, but I think the positive themes and strength of the charcters overcome that and most of the time make it come across more charming than anything. If you don't mind that type of writing, then I don't think there'll be an issue for you there.

As for the schedule, yeah, I didn't really have any problems with time management throughout the game. And as much as I tried to play optimally anf min-max my time, I definitely wasn't incredibly efficient or anything. In the end, I believe I had about a week left where I could finish up some non-essential stuff or just kill time waiting for the final day to approach. If you're already coming into this game knowing the system and how to approach it from Persona, I imagine the scheduling will be a walk in the park for you on this one. I did one-day every dungeon which I'm sure helped, but I've found it to not be that hard to do. I'd say the first major dungeon is the hardest to do in one and the only one that really required a bit of grinding, as you're simply not well-equipped at that point to deal with a battle of attrition versus your MP.

I do hope you'll give it a shot and let us know how you get on with it! Just make sure you have a good block of time available to dedicate yourself to it. I finished at about 110 hourd on the in-game timer, but that includes a lot of my pausing the game while I had to look away for a bit to perform home office duties. Having a home office job where I'm mostly not actually working and can focus on other things has been essential to me in finishing it in the — by my standards — short two months I did, haha.

@Jimmer-jammer @JohnnyShoulder How are you peeps' journeys getting along? Glad to see you join us on the path, Mr. Shoulder. Like I said earlier, I've finished the game at this point. If you at any point have the need for some spoiler-free advice or tips, just give me a shout and I'll do my best to help out. Not that I'm the best gamer, mind you, but I've managed my way through this one alright.

And to maybe assuage some of my own fears for you once you get to the later points of the game, don't stress the level or Archetype grind. You'll be fine. I was too, and I'm not the type to grind anything at all. As long as you just kill every monster in your way going through the dungeons, you'll rack up the necessary XP soon enough. I would advise prioritising Maria's bond as much as you can, as she gives you certain bonuses that help out in leveling both. The sooner you get her to a specific level, the more beneficial it'll be to you in the long run. I think it definitely helped in my lack of need to grind.

@Tjuz Thanks for the tips! It's good to know there is not an over reliance on grinding in the game.

I'm currently facing Zorba and did a sort of a trial run against him, as I didn't have a great deal of MP so will need to go back into town and get some rest. I think this will be my third day in the dungeon and fourth for this section. Seems to be doable though.

@Tjuz Okay, that sounds about right, regarding the story and writing that is. As much as I enjoyed the Persona games, the stories I’ve largely forgotten but the characters were quite memorable, even though their arcs and dialogue were sometimes… hamfisted, as you eloquently put it. I’m not really an anime fan and the manner of storytelling is more in that style. Still, they’re doing something right to make us care about the characters despite it all.

I've beaten Zorbo which I found quite straightforward. I made sure I kept my teams health topped up and I don't think I had to revieve anyone. I struggled more with what came afterwards, but that was down me not changing Archetypes (anyone else sing 'I am an Architect' by Manic Street Preachers whenever an Archetype is on screen? Obviously I'm replacing Architect with Archetype. No? Just me then.) I could done it with my then setup, but it was taking too long. So reloaded later and changed my Archetypes round, and it was way better.

So now I've been wandering round town doing side stuff, and have a couple of days left until the next event. I've got a bounty and a follower bond to do. In hindsight I maybe should not have done so many virtue quests before follower bonds and bounties/side quests.

Almost forgot to mention that this is another game I'm getting higher frame rates and resolution than advertised. My TV is showing 4K 120fps, which I do not think is an option on consoles, even on the Pro. My TV must be doing some fancy upscaling or something. It feels great to play anyway. I'm currently playing on my Dad's PS5 who has a 1080p TV and I have noticed some blurriness, especially in motion. It hasn't made me feel queasy like it has before, but it is definitely noticeable.

@PorkChopExpress Pay the informant outside the Honeybee Inn for info, he will tell you what the enemies are weak to. Then you can use him for future missions including any bounties or side missions. If I were to do it differently, I would have gotten my wisdom upto to 2 so I could purify the sword you get from defeating the dragon in the Nord Mines. I also did not unlock the Igniter shop early enough to actually buy anything from it, so would have done that earlier.

@Jimmer-jammer Thanks! Yeah I hear there is a chunk of time later that you can use to finish of any follower bonds/royal virtues. Am on my way to the next city as have unlocked the Gunner.

@PorkChopExpress I only sell stuff that comes up in the tab when going to a shop. Ingredients you need for cooking which you won't unlock till a bit later, apart from one side activity in town. To purify a weapon your Wisdom needs to be at 2. You can then take weapons and armour to a church to purify them which makes them stronger. You will also need blessed water which you can find in chests and those blue glowing items.

You can also pick up items that need to appraised before they can be used, just take these to any shop and select the 'Appraise' option.

@PorkChopExpress You'll be ahead of me soon!

Came across my favourite character and story moment so far in Martira. Quite a bit of toilet humour which most likely explains why!

@PorkChopExpress Blimey, that feels like you got through that quickly! I've only recenly got to Brilehaven, so feels like I still have a ways to go.

@Jimmer-jammer I'm currently in Brilehaven, doing bounties and other side activities before infiltrating Louis's runner. Still enoying it so far!

I have been playing through the demo on Steam Deck, and got to the end of it yesterday after a week or so and 10-11 hours playtime. I went to buy it thinking it would still be on sale (for some reason) but I have had to fork out £59.99 for the full game now unfortunately. I wanted to get it regardless as I have enjoyed the demo, but I hope I don't get bored and bounce off it.

Not a Persona fan but this is gelling with me a lot more.

@kyleforrester87 Hope it manages to stick with you.

Was there anything in particular that you didn't like with the Persona games? I've never played them, but was always put off by the setting and time management stuff. The latter in Metaphor seems to be a bit more lenient in how many days you have to do everything.

@JohnnyShoulder I don’t really mind the time management exactly, more how clunky and disjointed I felt that it made the experience in Persona. Still feel a bit like that with Metaphor, but it’s less restrictive overall so I am trying to put those grievances behind me. Persona was way more restrictive, in the early hours at least. Constantly getting told to go to bed.

As for my problems with Persona, I guess I mostly struggle to get too excited about playing a huge RPG as some school kids. I found Morgana (the equivalent of Gallica) really annoying, and while the music was good it’s pretty repetitive and wore quite thin after 20-30 hours. Potentially the same problem with Metaphor tbh, the music is cool but it seems to run on quite short loops or just has the potential to become quite tiresome for whatever reason quicker than a game like Final Fantasy or Xenoblade Chronicles.

Also Persona 5 started with a pretty cool villain which I thought would set the standard for the rest of the game, but from what I played it was the peak.

I had Metaphor gifted to me for Xmas as I really liked the look of it (plus I am a fan of Persona lol).
Put about 2 hrs into it and have not looked at going back to play it yet.

I know these games have very slow starts but this one is just not clicking for me yet. Might give it another shot tonight on my Portal.

@kyleforrester87 Yeah the music is probs my least favourite aspect after almost 80 hours. I've had to turn it off sometimes. Mind you I was hungover at the time and could not bear those monks chanting any longer lol.

@JohnnyShoulder at first the battle music is really cool, same with Persona 5 but it does grate over time. Ideally it needs 9 or 10 different battle songs to keep things fresh, if they are going to be that intense. Hopefully I stick at it… spent £60 so I mean to!!