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[sloppyjoe_gamer]

Wow....so now after again thinking im at the final battle with louis, this game cockblocks again in extreme fashion and FORCES you to play until the game calendar is 10/26????? Im at 9/29 now with absolutely no possible way to just go fight him if i choose. Im fucked and have to slog my way through to 10/26. Who the hell thought design like this was a good idea in an already massively long ass game.

So disappointing.....time to youtube the ending.

 

[SF Kosmo]

Wow....so now after again thinking im at the final battle with louis, this game cockblocks again in extreme fashion and FORCES you to play until the game calendar is 10/26????? Im at 9/29 now with absolutely no possible way to just go fight him if i choose. Im fucked and have to slog my way through to 10/26. Who the hell thought design like this was a good idea in an already massively long ass game.

So disappointing.....time to youtube the ending.

This feels like a weird complaint, it's quite challenging to max out all your social links and unlock all the classes before the end of the game, most people will find that time to be barely enough or not enough.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

This feels like a weird complaint, it's quite challenging to max out all your social links and unlock all the classes before the end of the game, most people will find that time to be barely enough or not enough.

Dragon trials are hard too. I got everything done with a few days spare

 

[sloppyjoe_gamer]

This feels like a weird complaint, it's quite challenging to max out all your social links and unlock all the classes before the end of the game, most people will find that time to be barely enough or not enough.

But not everyone wants to max out everything and do all the trials, etc....the fact i cant just go face louis and have to wait until that specific date to enter that area is terrible design

 

[SF Kosmo]

But not everyone wants to max out everything and do all the trials, etc....the fact i cant just go face louis and have to wait until that specific date to enter that area is terrible design

I mean you would probably get your ass kicked, the final bosses are long tough fights and you want to develop your characters.

I definitely get that this game (like Persona) can give you a lot of one thing at a time. There are times where you have an hour or more of almost entirely cutscenes, or hours of dungeon crawling, or hours of "free time." At least witn the latter you can choose to spend it doing what you want. It's kind of baked into the structure of the game.

 

[GateofD]

I was happy that with the sloppy way disorganized way I was doing my bonds, I was still able to max it all out with a few days spare.

 

[Feel Like I'm On 42]

The aliasing is so bad in this on PS5! I'm on the Pro too but you telling me base PS5 can't run this with AA and maintain 60 fps? How friggin incompetent is Atlus??

 

[RaZoR No1]

This feels like a weird complaint, it's quite challenging to max out all your social links and unlock all the classes before the end of the game, most people will find that time to be barely enough or not enough.

IMO this was one of the easiest game from Atlus in terms of maxing out bonds / doing all side quests.
At the end I had so many days left and did not know what do to.

TBH I think I was able to do nearly all dungeons in one ingame day / evening.
Sometimes I had to farm MP etc. but it was doable (played on hard).

 

[sloppyjoe_gamer]

IMO this was one of the easiest game from Atlus in terms of maxing out bonds / doing all side quests.
At the end I had so many days left and did not know what do to.

TBH I think I was able to do nearly all dungeons in one ingame day / evening.
Sometimes I had to farm MP etc. but it was doable (played on hard).

Yes this is my exact point! I was physically not able to go and enter that last area to go fight Louis until the in game calendar was 10/26 or whatever it was, and i was at 9/29.

In all the earlier dungeons i could go in earlier than the deadline time and make my way through if i chose, but then for the very final dungeon after (i would say most people) were already at likely 60ish hours of playtime, not allow you to do that. I had to slog through almost 30 in game days before it would let me in that last area. That to me, was stupid and bad design.

I'd still would give this game an overall 10 but that last boneheaded design point took off a point for me and now i'd give it a 9.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

The aliasing is so bad in this on PS5! I'm on the Pro too but you telling me base PS5 can't run this with AA and maintain 60 fps? How friggin incompetent is Atlus??

Only for this game. Dunno why.

Persona 3 reload looks razor sharp and clear. Metaphor is just straight up ugly

 

[Skifi28]

Only for this game. Dunno why.

Persona 3 reload looks razor sharp and clear. Metaphor is just straight up ugly

P3 is on unreal engine I believe while metaphor on their own which is at least 15 years behind technically.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

P3 is on unreal engine I believe while metaphor on their own which is at least 15 years behind technically.

Persona 5 isn’t on UE but doesn’t suffer the same problem either

 

[Skifi28]

Persona 5 isn’t on UE but doesn’t suffer the same problem either

It does to an extend, but it runs at a much higher resolution and has much simpler geometry/models so it's far less pronounced. For whatever reason they can't or refuse to use any form of AA in their old engine.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

My man Strohl topping the JP popularity charts.

 

[Giallo Corsa]

It does to an extend, but it runs at a much higher resolution and has much simpler geometry/models so it's far less pronounced. For whatever reason they can't or refuse to use any form of AA in their old engine.

As a newcomer to Atlus games, gotta say, not only there's some dubious practices at play (charging again for a PS5 only version of PS5) but, there's either some technical incompetence on their part, or, they just don't care (which is worse), case in point, the complete lack of an AA method (both Metaphor and SMT5) and the complete lack of any kind of vibration feature on SMT5...

I don't get it, these games sell by the truckload apparently, you'd think that they'd put some minimal effort into it but...

It's a shame since Metaphor has got to be one of the most uneven looking games this gen - beautiful graphics and presentation marred by the absolutely horrible Aliasing, haven't seen this amount of jaggies since the PS2 era ffs.

 

[mèx]

Finished it in around 100 hours. I did basically everything with a few days on the calendar to spare.

Overall I really liked the game, it's a fun adventure with an interesting concept, the whole scenario of becoming the king was quite nice. I also found the meta-narrative of the impact that fiction has on reality on a personal level well done.

The story, apart from a couple of twists was pretty predictable but it kept me interested throughout. I also found the pacing between story/side content to be good, at least until the final act. At that point you get six side dungeons in a row, it was a bit too much.

The cast was pretty good! I enjoyed the party interactions and group dynamics. I started playing with the English voices but then I switched to Japanese after a couple hours, personally I think they fit better but I'm not a native English speaker. I got a whiplash when I saw the anime portrait/cutscenes with English voiceover.

I wish the characters were introduced at a better pace, the last two party members are introduced in the group a bit too quickly for my tastes. Speaking of the cast, Louis could have been a truly great villain, but he's just OK in the end. The problem is that they should have introduced his backstory and some motivations throughout the story: currently most of the revelations are towards the end... Due to that, there is not much weight to him unfortunately.

Combat was snappy, the fact that you can just one shot enemies a few levels below you on the field was really welcomed. The archetypes system was addicting, there is a lot of experimentation to be had there.

The production value was pretty bad. No consistent voice acting, terribly drawn anime cutscenes instead of mocapped animations, image quality is one of the worst I have seen at my monitor native resolution. I had to play the game a 175% resolution scale to make it look decent. Given its critical reception I was expecting something more akin to Xenoblade when it comes to the overall production, but it's not even close. Heck, even the newest Falcom games with the new engine are better in some regards.

It gets a solid 8 from me.

My man Strohl topping the JP popularity charts.

Strohl is by far the best written party member so I'm not surprised.

 

[protonion]

I'm near the end.
The first 25-30 hours were incredible.
And then you go to the island and the game falls apart in every way.
I lowered the difficulty just to speed up my playthrough.
Pity. It could have been a masterpiece.

 

[sloppyjoe_gamer]

I'm near the end.
The first 25-30 hours were incredible.
And then you go to the island and the game falls apart in every way.
I lowered the difficulty just to speed up my playthrough.
Pity. It could have been a masterpiece.

Kind of how i feel too. I got to a certain point where i was at game end and i somehow had 30 calendar days to kill and the game would not let me go face the final boss section until that 30 days were up. Boneheaded design decision to allow you to go right to earlier boss fights if you chose and not have to wait for the actual day you're "supposed to", and then suddenly take away that option for the end.

Nevertheless, despite how the end game fatigue felt, overall id give it a 9. Combat, story, and especially soundtrack were outstanding. If i didn't have to slog through that 30 days at the end i'd easily give it a 10.

 

[Imru’ al-Qays]

Loved the class system compared to the demon fusion system in SMT/Persona, but the story was mediocre and I found the gameplay loop less interesting than Persona.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

found the gameplay loop less interesting than Persona.

Hmm why’s that? I played persona after metaphor and found persona kinda boring after metaphor

 

[Imru’ al-Qays]

Hmm why’s that? I played persona after metaphor and found persona kinda boring after metaphor

There's a lot less to do around town and the social links are less compelling and there are fewer of them

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

There's a lot less to do around town and the social links are less compelling and there are fewer of them

I personally enjoyed the social links a LOT more in Metaphor. The stories for the characters are more fleshed out and interesting. Persona's are kind of just boring to me.

Granted, I'm playing through Persona 3 Reload right now. There's just NOT much to do around town and the social links are mostly skippable (some are good though) - are Persona 5's town activities and links better?

 

[Imru’ al-Qays]

I personally enjoyed the social links a LOT more in Metaphor. The stories for the characters are more fleshed out and interesting. Persona's are kind of just boring to me.

Granted, I'm playing through Persona 3 Reload right now. There's just NOT much to do around town and the social links are mostly skippable (some are good though) - are Persona 5's town activities and links better?

Yeah P3 has the most rudimentary mechanics in this respect

 

[Power Pro]

I've finally starting diving into this today, but man...here we go again. I've loved the Persona games, but after I became more aware of the calendar system, it can also be such a stressful thing. I'm already not sure how I should be managing my time. Persona games often hit a point where "you should have done this social link instead of this one on this day" because you miss out on the chance to maximize it if you don't know when the ideal time to do certain activities are. If it's like Persona games, I do know spending the least amount of time in a dungeon is usually the ideal way, but sometimes the timing of certain social activities didn't line up well. I'm already afraid of running into that problem.

 

[Zephyranthes]

If it's like Persona games, I do know spending the least amount of time in a dungeon is usually the ideal way, but sometimes the timing of certain social activities didn't line up well. I'm already afraid of running into that problem.

Metaphor is very forgiving with this. Even without using a guide, I had maxed out all bonds and completed every side quest with weeks to spare by the end of the game.

 

[RaZoR No1]

Metaphor is very forgiving with this. Even without using a guide, I had maxed out all bonds and completed every side quest with weeks to spare by the end of the game.

I can confirm that.
In that regard it was probably the easiest one compared to the Persona games.
I think all dungeons can be finished in one day, of course managing / farming MP will be key for that.

 

[MudoSkills]

I've been really enjoying this, got to (I think) the last dungeon (Skybound Avatar) and having really enjoyed the music all the way through, the music in this dungeon fucking sucks.

That monk just ceaselessly wittering on, what a way to go out.

 

[Moochi]

I played on hard mode. I needed every bit of time save for the last 2 days to prepare for Louis. I maxed out all the bonds except Basilio, Euthanasia, and Catherine. I complete the Dragon Trials by using Tycoon on the MC with a Luck rating of 65, the Abacus that increase money skills by 4x, and the talisman that doubles Crit damage. Combine that with buffs and debunks, MC hit for around 4.5k per turn.

I wanted to use the Chronicle of the End for Louis, but I guess I spent too much time exploring archetype trees. I was only able to unlock Junah and Hulkenberg's archetype.

I think this is Atlus's best RPG by a country mile, and the most accessible. The chanting, Japanese fusion music got stuck in my head more than the any of Persona Titles j-pop jazz. The characters werent as bombastic as any of the p3-5 characters, but their stories were more mature, and I appreciated that none of the social links were romantic in nature.

Archetypes give the battle system more freedom for experimentation that Persona titles. The story telling rarely wasted time through unecedsary party banter. The themes of the story, while not unique, paid off, even if my personal most hated trop reared it's ugly head by the end (the power of friendship!)

The pacing is some of the best Atlus has produced. I rarely felt that I had been stuck in a story heavy section for too long--they kept these moments of uninteractivity short enough that I wasn't bored. The plot was intriguing enough to hold my interest just long enough that when the free form, choose your own quest gameplay opened up, I was refreshed and ready to go.

The game is leisurely paced. I understand that this formula may not work for everyone, but in my opinion this is the most refined it's ever been.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

I played on hard mode. I needed every bit of time save for the last 2 days to prepare for Louis. I maxed out all the bonds except Basilio, Euthanasia, and Catherine. I complete the Dragon Trials by using Tycoon on the MC with a Luck rating of 65, the Abacus that increase money skills by 4x, and the talisman that doubles Crit damage. Combine that with buffs and debunks, MC hit for around 4.5k per turn.

I wanted to use the Chronicle of the End for Louis, but I guess I spent too much time exploring archetype trees. I was only able to unlock Junah and Hulkenberg's archetype.

I think this is Atlus's best RPG by a country mile, and the most accessible. The chanting, Japanese fusion music got stuck in my head more than the any of Persona Titles j-pop jazz. The characters werent as bombastic as any of the p3-5 characters, but their stories were more mature, and I appreciated that none of the social links were romantic in nature.

Archetypes give the battle system more freedom for experimentation that Persona titles. The story telling rarely wasted time through unecedsary party banter. The themes of the story, while not unique, paid off, even if my personal most hated trop reared it's ugly head by the end (the power of friendship!)

The pacing is some of the best Atlus has produced. I rarely felt that I had been stuck in a story heavy section for too long--they kept these moments of uninteractivity short enough that I wasn't bored. The plot was intriguing enough to hold my interest just long enough that when the free form, choose your own quest gameplay opened up, I was refreshed and ready to go.

The game is leisurely paced. I understand that this formula may not work for everyone, but in my opinion this is the most refined it's ever been.

I agree, it's the best Atlus RPG thus far in terms of gameplay and structure. Good story too, although I wasn't blown away by it in that regard. Loved the battle system, art direction, and music. I look very fondly back upon my playthrough last year. And yes, the end boss music is....terrible lol.

I really hope they keep the Metaphor series going as its own standalone dark fantasy genre, to the more lighthearted Persona series.

 

[od-chan]

I picked the game up again, I'm on 25/7, 20 days until whatever the fuck a soiree is. I actually picked a great time for returning to the game, when I started it up yesterday I was right at the night before presenting the "head" of that royal woman as my spoils for the contest, which is a moment that really emphasizes all of the strengths of the game.

Any recommendations on what I should be doing? Since I stopped playing for a while I kinda lost track of things. I have all my virtues at 2, except for wisdom which is at 3. I picked up a bunch of side quests but they all seem like whatever, nothing really interesting in terms of a reward or like a social link or character or something. So maybe focus on virtues? In that case I should probably look up which ones are required for leveling the links with the waifus (or maybe a kind soul here can spoonfeed me).

Also, I noticed yesterday I'm really not happy at where my party is. I have Heismay as a Thief and Strohl as a Swordmaster. They only do really low single target phys and dark damage, which isn't really that impressive. I got my Hulkenberg two timining as Gunner and mage, which works out kinda fine. I completely forgot about these synergy attacks or whatever they're called, these seem right now to be by far the most powerful attacks.

 

[MudoSkills]

You'll need to build all your virtues up at some point - I think every link has a gate at some stage. It becomes easier as the game goes on (more points per interaction) - so I think you'll get more for speaking on the podium at Brilehaven then you would have at Grand Trad.

Generally I prioritised side quests and bounties on my first play through.

As for archetypes, it makes sense to stick to one until you max it out but I'd encourage having everyone in the party at least have access to all the basic level magic skills - which you get from the seeker, mage, healer and thief lines.

 

[od-chan]

Generally I prioritised side quests and bounties on my first play through.

Thanks! I did just that, only got like 6 days left now. Cleared ALL the bounties, did the first arena quest and a bunch of other stuff. I can't shake the feeling that I suck BADLY at this game. The Tomb of Lament kicked my ass so so hard. I think I used like a total of 40 potions or something. It's either I pretty much dominate the enemy with ease OR I'm about to wipe - there's rarely something in between. When I get hit, I I get hit HARD. Weaknesses don't seem to do too much (unlike in P5)

I do have like close to 200k in money now, so the potions didn't really hurt that much (and I sure as shit won't be carrying around a healer, who trades MP for HP all the time, when potions/money are much easier to procure). Also, I only yesterday understood that the game apparently expects you to pass your turn with certain members, like strategically, if you wanna use up your 2 turn symbols on the last unit to execute one of these synergy attacks. I get the strategic appeal of this, but I really don't like being forced to have one unit basically idle if I wanna utilize my team comp properly.

Again, I'm pretty sure part of the problem is on my end. I think making Hulkenberg into a mage was kinda retarded when the game clearly wants her to be some kind of Knight or something, but the Knight skills are sooooo worthless (at least on normal, idk about hard). I only play Knight on my MC because the overworld spear attack is soooo much better than the other stuff.

I'd encourage having everyone in the party at least have access to all the basic level magic skills - which you get from the seeker, mage, healer and thief lines.

Doesn't that take forever? If with "basic" you mean like WEAK ice/fire spells than that would already take like a considerable amount of time since you need to have Mage leveled up quite a bit, Thief I think to Rank6 or something as well for the first WEAK dark spell. And I don't have the feeling that these weak spells will help me out that much, even if I target a weakness, because they're low level spells.

I guess I could use these Incense items, but I thought about saving those to push Merchant to 20 for that one quest, or if I unlock another Archetype I wanna quickly boost.

Overall I'm having a pretty good time with the game. I love the concept of the Gauntlet Runner and how they implemented it. Going away for 3 days actually felt like kind of a commitment/big deal/journey in some way, which is pretty much the ideal vibe for a JRPG to invoke. My biggest gripe so far is probably how much unvoiced dialogue there is, especially when they've got such a quality cast of seiyu, almost feels like a step down from previous games.

 

[MudoSkills]

The game is really generous with the archetype exp items, I'd use them to boost everyone to the point where the skills that you want are unlocked, as it won't take many, and you won't have a hard time getting more.

Unless you build your MC towards magic none of the early party members have a particularly high stat, but if you have a single enemy and can all target it's weakness, 8 turns each time you attack is pretty much guaranteed to take it out in one or two rounds.