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Digital Foundry: Metaphor ReFantazio - Fantasy Persona... But What About Performance? - DF Tech Review

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Is that what we're going with now? This is the next Ocarina of Time level of game?

No, but it's a good example of how a strong game can somewhat overcome its technical issues.

Despite its technical shortcomings, Metaphor seems to be a very strong game.
 

Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
The fact that it has a strong reception despite this kind of tech shows how good the game is.

Ocarina of Time ran with a 20fps frame rate cap, what a piece of shit miright?
Surely, you can do better than that. The standards were much lower back then. A myriad of PS1/N64 games ran at sub-30fps.

If a game came out on PS5/Series X running at 20-25fps today, it would get eviscerated regardless of its quality. That kind of performance would only be perhaps excuses on the Switch, and I stress, perhaps.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Surely, you can do better than that. The standards were much lower back then. A myriad of PS1/N64 games ran at sub-30fps.

Again, the game being received this well despite the higher standards is a massive feather in its cap as a released product.

Could the tech have been better? Yes, of course. TAA would be the bare minimum. But the technical and critical receptions are different matters. If we're going down that route, Elden Ring should be stripped of most of its accolades too.
 

Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
Again, the game being received this well despite the higher standards is a massive feather in its cap as a released product.
Nah, it’s simply dumbshit reviewers.
Could the tech have been better? Yes, of course. TAA would be the bare minimum. But the technical and critical receptions are different matters. If we're going down that route, Elden Ring should be stripped of most of its accolades too.
Yes, it absolutely should. The game was damn near unplayable for me at launch. Not that this matters because while the game is good, the hype exceeded the quality. This is a different matter, but a game running badly to the point it affects play should get points knocked off its final score. At least with Metaphor, it’s turn-based, so snappy response and high frame rates won’t affect how well you interact with the game.
 
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MMaRsu

Member
Because "journalists" say so?

I mostly ignore scores and don't get too heavily invested in review wars, but if people can't even tolerate any discussion on this game possibly being overrated then I guess nothing is overrated.

It's literally built on a copy of a 10 year old PS3 game, with nearly identical battle system, dialogue system, social link system, game structure. It runs poorly technically, which I agree isn't a huge deal but after seeing how much loading screens matter to people interested in Starfield, I continue to be absolutely baffled that a current gen $70 RPG with $100+ special editions is getting such a gigantic free pass for dropping the ball on loading, texture detail, frame rate, resolution.

We're know that the gameplay is going to be nearly identical to Persona 5 with some nice tweaks and updates. Gameplay-wise alone I could see that being a 8/10 or so if we're generous considering it has nothing really going on in the level design or dungeon design, meaning that all that is left is writing and story to give it a +14 bump. That has to account for the giant score boost making it among the best games ever made. It's just kind of hard to believe that is truly the case. Guess we'll see. I guess the game is entirely immune to criticism, and honestly Persona has been like that for a decade so none of this surprises me.
Just because you find it overrated doesnt mean it is.

Also, you cant know if a game is overrated till you play it yourself
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Surely, you can do better than that. The standards were much lower back then. A myriad of PS1/N64 games ran at sub-30fps.

If a game came out on PS5/Series X running at 20-25fps today, it would get eviscerated regardless of its quality. That kind of performance would only be perhaps excuses on the Switch, and I stress, perhaps.
We been same damn route every time new FROM games comes out and still didn’t stop anybody from enjoying the game.

Remember how RE4 Remake got tones of shit because its visuals even people said it’s worse remake but once again game comes out people enjoying crap out of the game and all that graphic complaint amount to NOTHING.
 

Topher

Identifies as young
I mostly ignore scores and don't get too heavily invested in review wars, but if people can't even tolerate any discussion on this game possibly being overrated then I guess nothing is overrated.

It's literally built on a copy of a 10 year old PS3 game, with nearly identical battle system, dialogue system, social link system, game structure. It runs poorly technically, which I agree isn't a huge deal but after seeing how much loading screens matter to people interested in Starfield, I continue to be absolutely baffled that a current gen $70 RPG with $100+ special editions is getting such a gigantic free pass for dropping the ball on loading, texture detail, frame rate, resolution.

We're know that the gameplay is going to be nearly identical to Persona 5 with some nice tweaks and updates. Gameplay-wise alone I could see that being a 8/10 or so if we're generous considering it has nothing really going on in the level design or dungeon design, meaning that all that is left is writing and story to give it a +14 bump. That has to account for the giant score boost making it among the best games ever made. It's just kind of hard to believe that is truly the case. Guess we'll see. I guess the game is entirely immune to criticism, and honestly Persona has been like that for a decade so none of this surprises me.

Criticize it all you want. Not sure who said you couldn't. I certainly did not. I was responding to a comment about journalists.

I was excited for the game after playing the demo. My excitement does not override your criticism or vice versa.
 

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
At the end of the day, I don't like telling anyone what to think about a game. I guess for some reason this triggered some dormant last shred of care I had left for some kind of common reality. We all live in our own world and there is no objective anything. I guess just have fun with what you like. I'll pick it up down the road because I did like the demo mostly.
 

Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
We been same damn route every time new FROM games comes out and still didn’t stop anybody from enjoying the game.
Speak for yourself. I put the game down for an entire week waiting for them to patch this trash. The reviews on Steam the first week were also quite negative.
Remember how RE4 Remake got tones of shit because its visuals even people said it’s worse remake but once again game comes out people enjoying crap out of the game and all that graphic complaint amount to NOTHING.
Don’t care about graphics. I care about performance. If the game always end up lagging in the middle of big fights that require quick response, it deserves to be put down for that. Metaphor at least is turn-based, so it’s whatever for this game.
 
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Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Speak for yourself. I put the game down for an entire week waiting for them to patch this trash. The reviews on Steam the first week were also quite negative.

Don’t care about graphics. I care about performance. If the game always end up lagging in the middle of big fights that require quick response, it deserves to be put down for that. Metaphor at least is turn-based, so it’s whatever for this game.
That’s your choice but that didn’t stop me and many people for enjoying the crap of the game.

I personally take more issue with game breaking bugs that actually prevents me from progressing the game like most Bethesda and CPR games.
 

Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
That’s your choice but that didn’t stop me and many people for enjoying the crap of the game.
And it did stop many people from enjoying the game, or are we just going to ignore that something like 30% of the reviews on Steam the first week were negative? My point is that when performance affects playability, points should 100% be deducted from the game.

The dumbass journalists just glossed over it instead of calling out the unacceptable performance and here we are over 2 years later, still blatantly ignoring poor performance.
 
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Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
And it did stop many people from enjoying the game, or are we just going to ignore that something like 30% of the reviews on Steam the first week were negative? My point is that when performance affects playability, points should 100% be deducted from the game.

The dumbass journalists just glossed over it instead of calling out the unacceptable performance and here we are over 2 years later, still blatantly ignoring poor performance.
Reading many reviews most of them mentioned performance and graphics, it just they enjoy the game despite of that.

Reviews are not objective, they are subjective….at end of the day reviews are nothing more than someone’s opinion of the game.

This why I keep saying read actual review instead of just looking at the score…their positive might not be positive for you and vice versa.

I’m hype for this game not because of high scores, I like demo and I liked Hashino’s past works….thats it.
 

begotten

Member
Why is DF even making a video on this game?

It's common knowledge that ATLUS is technically disabled, that's why they have extravagant menus and annoying music in their games to cover it up.
 
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Life Diff

Member
gif.gif
Yes massive console fanboy here with the 4080 and 34 ultrawide oled monitor - case closed 👮‍♂️
 

Thief1987

Member
The fact that it has a strong reception despite this kind of tech shows how good the game is.

Ocarina of Time ran with a 20fps frame rate cap, what a piece of shit miright?
No, it's only showing that "jourñalists" are biased and have bottom low standards, if they have them at all
 
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Shin-Ra

Junior Member
Why is DF even making a video on this game?

It's common knowledge that ATLUS is technically disabled, that's why they have extravagant menus and annoying music in their games to cover it up.
It’s much worse than recent years’ Atlus remastered+expanded Persona’s and SMTV:V. It’s an original title with busier visuals that are more badly affected by poor image quality.

Fortunately there’s a demo so you can see for yourself how rough it looks but if you’re avoiding the story before digging into the whole game it’s not an option.

People should be encouraged to do better.
 

Bojji

Gold Member
Reading many reviews most of them mentioned performance and graphics, it just they enjoy the game despite of that.

Reviews are not objective, they are subjective….at end of the day reviews are nothing more than someone’s opinion of the game.

This why I keep saying read actual review instead of just looking at the score…their positive might not be positive for you and vice versa.

I’m hype for this game not because of high scores, I like demo and I liked Hashino’s past works….thats it.

Reviews are subjective. Story is subjective, music, art, even graphics etc. But performance is objective as fuck, you have good performance or bad performance based on numbers:

- sub 30 fps, TRAGIC
- locked 30 fps without motion blur - bad
- locked 30 fps with motion blur - not too bad
- locked 40 fps - good
- unlocked 30-60 fps without vrr - TRAGIC
- unlocked 30-60fps with vrr - can be good (if the framerate is closer to 60 than 30)
- locked 60 fps - VERY GOOD
- unlocked 60-120fps - very, very good
- locked 120fps:

perfection-michael-fassbender.gif


Most people were not happy about performance of FS games, yet they sold quite ok and From didn't care - they could always use excuse that they don't have high budget to hire competent programmers. But Elden Ring made them millions so IMO there is no excuse for next game. But of course reviewers will give it free pass...

It might be a piece of shit technically but it's not an xbox game so i'll give it a pass.

Isn't it on Xbox as well?
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Reviews are subjective. Story is subjective, music, art, even graphics etc. But performance is objective as fuck, you have good performance or bad performance based on numbers:

- sub 30 fps, TRAGIC
- locked 30 fps without motion blur - bad
- locked 30 fps with motion blur - not too bad
- locked 40 fps - good
- unlocked 30-60 fps without vrr - TRAGIC
- unlocked 30-60fps with vrr - can be good (if the framerate is closer to 60 than 30)
- locked 60 fps - VERY GOOD
- unlocked 60-120fps - very, very good
- locked 120fps:

perfection-michael-fassbender.gif


Most people were not happy about performance of FS games, yet they sold quite ok and From didn't care - they could always use excuse that they don't have high budget to hire competent programmers. But Elden Ring made them millions so IMO there is no excuse for next game. But of course reviewers will give it free pass...
You said it yourself people have different tolerance when it comes to performance. Games like Elden Ring, Bloodborne, Sekiro, Monster Hunter World on PS4, BotW/TotK were played and loved by many despite having performance issue, that didn't effect their enjoyment.
 

Bojji

Gold Member
You said it yourself people have different tolerance when it comes to performance. Games like Elden Ring, Bloodborne, Sekiro, Monster Hunter World on PS4, BotW/TotK were played and loved by many despite having performance issue, that didn't effect their enjoyment.

It did. It always does.

As many have said, for game like this one with static combat system framerate is not that important but From Software games that required precision inputs were fucking insulting to the player.

People have different tolrenace for this for sure, but most of the time they just adapted to shit performance (like 30fps lovers here), with option to switch all those games to 60fps - almost everyone would do it.

Remember that Cerny said that 70% of players choose performance mode this gen?
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
It did. It always does.

As many have said, for game like this one with static combat system framerate is not that important but From Software games that required precision inputs were fucking insulting to the player.

People have different tolrenace for this for sure, but most of the time they just adapted to shit performance (like 30fps lovers here), with option to switch all those games to 60fps - almost everyone would do it.

Remember that Cerny said that 70% of players choose performance mode this gen?
I would as well given the choice but at same time I will never skip great game just because it runs at 30 FPS.
 
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