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IGN's 2024 Game of the Year is Metaphor ReFantazio

TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
Never played any of the popular recent Atlus RPG's?

Come On What GIF by MOODMAN



If this is your example of the game being woke, you have lost the plot.
This beautiful brown lady wants me to take care of her dog? Woke woke woke!
 

Rush2112

Member
So this the main reason that I don’t like the media. They KNOW what public opinion is, but they THINK that they know better. I don’t trust motherfuckers like that.
 

AmuroChan

Member
Never played any of the popular recent Atlus RPG's?

Come On What GIF by MOODMAN



If this is your example of the game being woke, you have lost the plot.

Yea, I'm no fan of actual woke stuff, but Metaphor is absolutely not a woke game. Some of the themes in Metaphor are things that we've seen in old FF and DQ games 30 years ago.

I recently played Life is Strange: Double Exposure. Now that's a woke game in every sense of the word.
 
Yea, I'm no fan of actual woke stuff, but Metaphor is absolutely not a woke game. Some of the themes in Metaphor are things that we've seen in old FF and DQ games 30 years ago.

I recently played Life is Strange: Double Exposure. Now that's a woke game in every sense of the word.

No FF or DQ centers solely around tolerance, diversity, and equality

That’s literally all this game drones on about, preaching it nonstop with every narrative beat

Those aren’t bad themes, mind you, but that’s all there is in the game’s story for the most part

If ND or IG did this much preaching people would be screaming from the rooftops about how woke it is. They can’t even stomach a side quest with a deaf girl, yet metaphor’s entire narrative is basically that lol
 
Seemingly, so many people misunderstand things like 'woke' and 'activism' and the proper context for those terms. Activism and diversity are wonderful things in proper perspective. Pandering, gaslighting and virtue signaling are what most detest, specifically in gaming. So many out there just parrot words they think will be popular with fellow gamers in order to try and fit in.

Other words commonly used in gaming communities, such as 'weebs' and 'bros' are just tribal shunning terms designed to divide gamers into groups. It's all dumb, trollish and banal, and I suspect most of us who have frequented gaming boards for decades now are extremely tired of that repetitiveness.
 

AmuroChan

Member
No FF or DQ centers solely around tolerance, diversity, and equality

That’s literally all this game drones on about, preaching it nonstop with every narrative beat

Those aren’t bad themes, mind you, but that’s all there is in the game’s story for the most part

If ND or IG did this much preaching people would be screaming from the rooftops about how woke it is. They can’t even stomach a side quest with a deaf girl, yet metaphor’s entire narrative is basically that lol

The themes themselves aren't inherently woke. It's all about how the story presents those themes. I think Metaphor handled them tactfully without being overly preachy and condescending. And yes, there will be a difference between western and Japanese studios because you're not going to find many purple-haired resetera-type writers and creatives at Studio Zero. Western studios are much more prone to the type of woke writing that gamers hate. In those types of western games, the writers are using the game's story and characters as a vehicle to reflect their own ideology and lived experience. That's why they suck. I don't think Hashino wrote Metaphor with that same mindset.

I played Metaphor and Life is Strange: Double Exposure back to back. Both games address similar themes of diversity, discrimination, equity, etc. I can say with confidence that if you found Metaphor to be too "woke", then LiS may literally kill you with its wokeness because it's so in your face and the game is full of cringey, woke buzzwords-laden dialogue.
 
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AmuroChan

Member
To be clear, metaphor isn’t too woke for me. I love the game. I’m just pointing out a hypocritical double standard

I can't speak for others, but I know that's not the case with me. If Metaphor was made by Naughty Dog I would enjoy it just the same. Conversely if LiS: Double Exposure was made by Atlus I would find it just as cringey.
 

Hero_Select

Member
apparently every game is woke now

this is why people cant take both of these idiotic and extreme sides seriously.

Every game is woke in one end and every game is sexist trash in the other, my god its insufferable.
 

Buggy Loop

Member
Unbelievable that Wukong was not in the finalists

I finished it 3 times. It deserves a lot more respect than the shit found in that list like Veilguard
 

th4tguy

Member
Close to the end of the game. In the last stretch of days before the end. Really liked the experience though, just like with the persona games, by the time I get to this point, I’m skipping most of the social/ non critics conversations.
Ready to wrap this up and start dq3
 

DragoonKain

Neighbours from Hell
I'm gonna try this game eventually, but I've tried Persona and SMT in the past and they're not for me. I played SMT for a good 30 hours and I really don't get what people love about it so much. The Personas I think I get more, but it's too anime-ish for me, and I find a lot of the tasks tedious and I don't love the combat very much.

Maybe this will be different for me because of the setting and style.
 

gothmog

Gold Member
Well deserved. I would say there were plenty of safe GOTY choices but Metaphor is the easiest one to pick. Balatro is my personal GOTY with a bunch of strong contenders after that.

Astro Bot I finally got to dedicate some time to last weekend and just finished it. Sony actually pulled off creating a full Nintendo level game around detail and polish which is impressive. I would love to see them put out a game like that every few years.

Indy was also fun and probably the best Indy "movie" in quite a while. I'd love to see more of that kind of care done with older movie properties.
 
Plz don't give IGN too much credit. They gave Wukong an honorable mention.
But Veilguard was one of the finalists to win GOTY. It's just too obvious at this point.
 
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