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[Danjin44]

My favorite JRPG of all time is still Persona 4. So I'm there with you as a fan boy, and I'll be curious what others come to as a conclusion for this journey's end.

It's wild too because some of the issues here don't exist in the most recent SMT. The ping ponging of teams and no one learning from each other seems apparent...

I guess I might be alone on this but this game easily surpassed all Persona games for me especially when comes combat and dungeons...

For me Persona can be faaaar too easy, even on hardest difficulty they are cake walk.

 

[Klosshufvud]

This final boss....I finally did it...what a grueling endurance slug that was. I don't blame anyone for lowering to easy mode Arsic because this had to be one of the toughest JRPG final bosses I've played. The nature of the game means you can't just fuck off and grind yourself to victory. I really enjoyed it, even if it put my patience to its absolute most limit. I am all spent now, playing this game for 60h+ in mere five days time...

 

[Danjin44]

This final boss....I finally did it...what a grueling endurance slug that was. I don't blame anyone for lowering to easy mode Arsic because this had to be one of the toughest JRPG final bosses I've played. The nature of the game means you can't just fuck off and grind yourself to victory. I really enjoyed it, even if it put my patience to its absolute most limit. I am all spent now, playing this game for 60h+ in mere five days time...

That actually very good thing for me, even in SMTV the story final boss was far too easy compare to Shiva.

 

[Klosshufvud]

That actually very good thing for me, even in SMTV the story final boss was far too easy compare to Shiva.

It might be easy for you. I have never finished an Atlus RPG before. Only played P4G for a few hours and that's it. So I probably did a lot of mistakes in minmaxing my party and building an efficient combination. Still that's also one of the charms with JRPGs, some characters in the party end up as dead ends while others carry your ass through every boss battle.

Generally I agree with Arsic's opinions from the previous thread, minus the gameplay. I really enjoyed the battles in this game and it makes me leave the game on a positive feeling.

 

[Danjin44]

It might be easy for you. I have never finished an Atlus RPG before. Only played P4G for a few hours and that's it. So I probably did a lot of mistakes in minmaxing my party and building an efficient combination. Still that's also one of the charms with JRPGs, some characters in the party end up as dead ends while others carry your ass through every boss battle.

Generally I agree with Arsic's opinions from the previous thread, minus the gameplay. I really enjoyed the battles in this game and it makes me leave the game on a positive feeling.

Persona 4 you have no control over how build you party members because they stuck with one persona, for example Yukiko mostly focus on fire magic and healing, there is not much choice for you.

In Metaphor you do, you have way more control how you wan build your party members. I REALLY like that.

 

[Klosshufvud]

Persona 4 you have no control over how build you party members because they stuck with one persona, for example Yukiko mostly focus on fire magic and healing, there is not much choice for you.

In Metaphor you do, you have way more control how you wan build your party members. I REALLY like that.

I see. I really enjoyed that too. It makes for some very fun combinations when you're free to experiment with characters like that. I'm guessing my party composition was pretty unique for me because I can't see anyone else doing my tactics. And reading guides generally becomes useless because your party configuration is so unique that you can't apply guide recommendations. That's also a positive. It's going to be fun to read what type of strategies people used to beat the game. I expect lots of different strategies. I did swear a few times here and there when I realized my party strategy was not working out, but overcoming those obstacles is the charm.

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

Persona 4 you have no control over how build you party members because they stuck with one persona, for example Yukiko mostly focus on fire magic and healing, there is not much choice for you.

In Metaphor you do, you have way more control how you wan build your party members. I REALLY like that.

Yeah that's what I like this game the most. You can build all your party members in different ways instead of being forced down a certain build due to restrictions which is usually the case with Persona since the MC is the only character that can use multiple Personas. It will be interesting if for Persona 6 not only can the MC utilize multiple Personas but the whole cast can too

 

[Yoshichan]

85 hours, 100%

The bad:

• no sort function in the inventory
• side quests in which you increase your bond level with your followers should’ve ALL been voice acted. Not just the first and last bond level quest
• although 10/10 music, how does a game this big only have 25 different "real" songs? The metric fuck ton of repeated songs throughout the playthrough becomes nauseating
• low-budgety, canned animations and very few ”real” cutscenes
• This specific cutscene hyped me up to no end. It's just some old childhood thingy that really popped off when I saw this:
  
• BUT that cutscene led me to believe that we were getting some juppongatana action:
  
  
• but alas... well, they're cool for different reasons ofc - but certainly NOT the juppongatana I was expecting).
• from a technical stand point, one of the worst looking games I’ve played in the last decade
• lack of UI options or even a toggle to hide all of it when casually running around dungeons and towns
• too. much. JRPG. bloat. After half of the game (island), the game becomes too bloated with dialogue which aren't interesting enough. It also doesn't help that these bloated conversations keep using canned animations and non VA lines
• end-game is really bad. Game is extremely easy up until the last hour(s) where the game decides to exponentially increase the levels (and thus the difficulty) of every side quest and monster
• variety of builds are massive, but the lack of difficulty isn't encouraging me to try 90% of the combination
• I played on hard throughout the entire game and never, during its early-to-mid stages did it ever feel like this was "hard". SMTV absolutely demolished me on hard and it did it CONSISTENTLY throughout the game. Metaphor expects me to care enough about the combat when it enters its last 5 hours while SMTV -forces- me to understand the combat from start to finish

The good
+ front/back positioning in battle without any cost should be JRPG staple
+ the music, all 25 "real" songs in the game, are absolute god tier
+ the main cast is incredible, I don’t remember last time I was this invested in a JRPG cast like this
+ Louis is one of this generations most compelling villain figures. Honestly reminded me of the genius that was Luca Blight and his arc and story telling
+ the whole scenario and main quest that revolves around ”becoming the king” is genius and blew me away. Same with the idea of humans being the absolute fiends of this universe
+ the world feels SO vast while simultaneously not overwhelming the player. It feels huge because it takes days (literally) to travel from one place to another. This makes this game feel like an adventure, very similar to how FFX feels (and what i.e. FFXVI truly lacks)

Oh, and press turn is my favorite JRPG battle system ever

What a GREAT fucking game this was - but holy shit is it riddled with issues. Despite this, the main story was fantastic and press turn combat remains my favorite JRPG battle system of all time.

 

[Arsic]

This final boss....I finally did it...what a grueling endurance slug that was. I don't blame anyone for lowering to easy mode Arsic because this had to be one of the toughest JRPG final bosses I've played. The nature of the game means you can't just fuck off and grind yourself to victory. I really enjoyed it, even if it put my patience to its absolute most limit. I am all spent now, playing this game for 60h+ in mere five days time...

I didn’t change it to easy cuz the game was hard. I found the game piss easy. Only got one game over in my entire run.

I changed it to easy because the game didn’t offer a challenge - just a slog. Once you have tycoon up and running, and Junah can make anything weak to any element, it’s all just chore combat.

Nothing could kill me.

 

[Klosshufvud]

I didn’t change it to easy cuz the game was hard. I found the game piss easy. Only got one game over in my entire run.

I changed it to easy because the game didn’t offer a challenge - just a slog. Once you have tycoon up and running, and Junah can make anything weak to any element, it’s all just chore combat.

Nothing could kill me.

Maybe my non-optimal party is what kept the game engaging. But I also did skip most of the mobs in the final dungeon. They just didn't give enough exp to be worth the headache.

 

[Arsic]

Maybe my non-optimal party is what kept the game engaging. But I also did skip most of the mobs in the final dungeon. They just didn't give enough exp to be worth the headache.

I grinded everyone’s max royal class. Had gold gear for every slot for all the homies. Over level 70 some.

The tycoon can get a weapon that triples money cost and strength of the almighty money attack so nothing can resist/absorb it etc. I was hitting for 2K to 3K per cast. Junah could simply make something weak to fire, then I use Eunah giga chad fire dragon god melt it and lower attack plus defense. Then I had hulk energy available to heal.

Gear on the party would make it so when anything attacks or cast spells one would repel most likely and eliminate any more turns for the enemies.

At that point? The game plays itself.

 

[Klosshufvud]

I grinded everyone’s max royal class. Had gold gear for every slot for all the homies. Over level 70 some.

The tycoon can get a weapon that triples money cost and strength of the almighty money attack so nothing can resist/absorb it etc. I was hitting for 2K to 3K per cast. Junah could simply make something weak to fire, then I use Eunah giga chad fire dragon god melt it and lower attack plus defense. Then I had hulk energy available to heal.

Gear on the party would make it so when anything attacks or cast spells one would repel most likely and eliminate any more turns for the enemies.

At that point? The game plays itself.

I definitely used that Junah-Eupha combo too. And since the dragon also lowers stats, you can just repeat the process. My leveling for MC was really bad so I could not get proper use out of him as damage dealer. I had him mostly on debuff duty with the Faker skills that debuff twicefold. I had Hulkenberg on General for constant party buffs. This meant that while my party rarely folded, boss fights could drag on. If I would do it again, I would level up Str more with MC due to his final archetype attacks.

I never grinded though. I just played through the dungeons to completion and left them as soon as I could. I was probably a bit underleveled.

 

[Arsic]

I definitely used that Junah-Eupha combo too. And since the dragon also lowers stats, you can just repeat the process. My leveling for MC was really bad so I could not get proper use out of him as damage dealer. I had him mostly on debuff duty with the Faker skills that debuff twicefold. I had Hulkenberg on General for constant party buffs. This meant that while my party rarely folded, boss fights could drag on. If I would do it again, I would level up Str more with MC due to his final archetype attacks.

I never grinded though. I just played through the dungeons to completion and left them as soon as I could. I was probably a bit underleveled.

Tycoon is the truth. Most damage in game.

 

[Klosshufvud]

Tycoon is the truth. Most damage in game.

Never sounded intuitive to me why it would be so I didn't go down that gold mine since money was rarely an issue for me.

 

[Arsic]

Never sounded intuitive to me why it would be so I didn't go down that gold mine since money was rarely an issue for me.

It was never about the money— the money attack is almighty damage AKA nothing can stop it. With the triple weapon you spend 7500 gold per attack and do fat hits.

Prince is good too with the +4 turns, and the almighty attacks on there.

Ultimately in Atlus game the almighty affinity is the best since it overcomes resistances and just shits out damage.

 

[Klosshufvud]

It was never about the money— the money attack is almighty damage AKA nothing can stop it. With the triple weapon you spend 7500 gold per attack and do fat hits.

Prince is good too with the +4 turns, and the almighty attacks on there.

Ultimately in Atlus game the almighty affinity is the best since it overcomes resistances and just shits out damage.

Yeah but almighty is physical on Prince why I got fucked opting for Mg instead of Str. I just tried out the first Merchant class and then sort of forgot about it.

 

[Danjin44]

I’m currently close 70 hours in to the game and im still waiting for the game to “fall a part” or “ story gets offensively bad” according to some posters here…..I swear I sometimes feel like I’m playing entirely different game than everyone else here.

 

[Arsic]

I’m currently close 70 hours in to the game and im still waiting for the game to “fall a part” or “ story gets offensively bad” according to some posters here…..I swear I sometimes feel like I’m playing entirely different game than everyone else here.

Hey if you like it more power to you. I found it the worst Atlus game.

 

[Danjin44]

Hey if you like it more power to you. I found it the worst Atlus game.

Whatever you say.

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

39 Hour's into Metaphor ReFantazio

Brilehaven and Virga Island Spoilers



I stuck back onto Louis Gauntlet Runner and was able to find the formula. Lady Junah joins my main cast. I also have those two Doggo people joining to keep a watch on us. One short and one tall

I got to the Virga Island. really liked that creepy ass looking Squid with a human face boss I had to beat on the way there. The people who live on the Virga Island, I really like the way they look especially the three eyes. Also noticed the influences they got from India especially with the music for the town.

I'm really enjoying how they go into how the Sactrum Church wanting to steal Virga Island Relics. I really like how they show the negative effects of colonialism but I also appreciate how they also show some of the islander not being fine with some of the rituals that the society of Virga Island does. So far this has been my favorite segment in the story.

It's just observation and doesn't bother me but when I got to Varga Island, and I now am in full control of my character, I noticed graphically, the town looks like a high res version of a town in a PS2 game. Just find it interesting how this game got high marks and that it's not because of graphics. If it does get nominated at The Game Awards and wins all ther nominations, I would be happy since that would be the first time in a long time a game that is not a graphics showcase getting Game of the Year

I really like the crier Batlin, I hope he eventually joins my cast

I’m currently close 70 hours in to the game and im still waiting for the game to “fall a part” or “ story gets offensively bad” according to some posters here…..I swear I sometimes feel like I’m playing entirely different game than everyone else here.

Yeah I'm fine with the story. The cast is tropey but I don't mind. Social Links have been hit or miss for me though

 

[Grildon Tundy]

I agree with what folks were saying about this game being very talky. I've started fast-forwarding through mid-dungeon and side quest dialogue, and have been having a better time for it.

 

[Klosshufvud]

I’m currently close 70 hours in to the game and im still waiting for the game to “fall a part” or “ story gets offensively bad” according to some posters here…..I swear I sometimes feel like I’m playing entirely different game than everyone else here.

The last 10 hours of the game are really good. Enjoy the finale. It's quite the spectacle.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

I agree with what folks were saying about this game being very talky. I've started fast-forwarding through mid-dungeon and side quest dialogue, and have been having a better time for it.

Tbh, I don't even fast forward, I let it to auto and just browse GAF on my phone for a few minutes until the filler conversations are over.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Looks like I'm lagging a bit behind most of you guys, but I'm still making steady progress. I'm around 30h into the game and at the point where you have to infiltrate Louis' Air Ship. So far:

• done the majority of the side quests that were made available until now (have several pending ones I need to clear that I've picked up from the latest town)
• collected all the gold beetles up to where I'm in the game
• Most of my social links are at lvl 4 - 5
• The majority of my royal virtues are lvl 3 (I think I have 1 or 2 still at lvl 2)

Hoping to be done with the dungeon I've mentioned under the spoiler tag later today.

 

[Hrk69]

I am all spent now, playing this game for 60h+ in mere five days time...

You are a monster. GG.

 

[adamsapple]

Hotdamn, the writing in the game is pretty sharp.

 

[OmegaSupreme]

I heard they patched in some good AA? That's great to hear. The jaggies in the demo were pretty distracting.

 

[Nankatsu]

Man there are way more archetypes in this than I was expecting. So far my favourite is Hulkenberg Brawler.

 

[Danjin44]

Man there are way more archetypes in this than I was expecting. So far my favourite is Hulkenberg Brawler.

Brawlers are great class, they have high damage and high critical and they dont use up MP.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

39 Hour's into Metaphor ReFantazio

Brilehaven and Virga Island Spoilers



I stuck back onto Louis Gauntlet Runner and was able to find the formula. Lady Junah joins my main cast. I also have those two Doggo people joining to keep a watch on us. One short and one tall

I got to the Virga Island. really liked that creepy ass looking Squid with a human face boss I had to beat on the way there. The people who live on the Virga Island, I really like the way they look especially the three eyes. Also noticed the influences they got from India especially with the music for the town.

I'm really enjoying how they go into how the Sactrum Church wanting to steal Virga Island Relics. I really like how they show the negative effects of colonialism but I also appreciate how they also show some of the islander not being fine with some of the rituals that the society of Virga Island does. So far this has been my favorite segment in the story.

It's just observation and doesn't bother me but when I got to Varga Island, and I now am in full control of my character, I noticed graphically, the town looks like a high res version of a town in a PS2 gams. Just find it interesting how this game got high marks and that it's not because of graphics. If it does get nominated at The Game Awards and wins all ther nominations, I would be happy since that would be the first time in a long time a game that is not a graphics showcase getting Game of the Year

I really like the crier Batlin, I hope he eventually joins my cast





Yeah I'm fine with the story. The cast is tropey but I don't mind. Social Links have been hit or miss for me though

I’m just slightly ahead of you. I’m really enjoying this section of the game. But I can’t help reading it as “Viagra Island” every single time.

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

I should be done with the game by the end of this week

For this playthrough

Maxing out all five social stats
Maxing out all my cast levels
Going to try for all Social Links
Getting Every Archetypes and Maxing them for each character

For my second playthrough which is gonna to be my Completion Playthrough, I'm gonna to be doing all the sidequests and finding all the Golden Beetles. But will be doing my second playthrough in 2025.

So far the game hasn't burnt me out yet and I really like the story. The game hasn't over stayed it's welcome yet

 

[Nankatsu]

Heismay story arc about his son is damn sad and emotional.

I don't understand why the cut VA on social link moments.

 

[adamsapple]

Heismay story arc about his son is damn sad and emotional.

I don't understand why the cut VA on social link moments.

His voice acting in the scene with the lordly lady is pretty damn good.

This is probably one of the best localization for a JRPG since FF12.

 

[Nankatsu]

Pretty good tip videos for fast archtype farming.

 

[Arsic]

Heismay story arc about his son is damn sad and emotional.

I don't understand why the cut VA on social link moments.

His is IMO the best side story. Best character overall, and best voice actor.

 

[Grildon Tundy]

Is there an SMT series "Spyglass" equivalent or some way to analyze all of an enemy's weaknesses without probing with different attack types? Like maybe a character's bond eventually unlocks that? It'd be nice to know right off the bat with new enemies.

 

[Danjin44]

Is there an SMT series "Spyglass" equivalent or some way to analyze all of an enemy's weaknesses without probing with different attack types? Like maybe a character's bond eventually unlocks that? It'd be nice to know right off the bat with new enemies.

Before going in to dungeon you can buy info from informant which tell you about the enemies on that dungeon.

 

[Jinxed]

The game isn't hard but the dungeons drag quite a bit imo. Only downside so far

 

[Danjin44]

***Big Spoiler***
At first when I reached Shinjuku I thought they referencing SMTIV since in that medieval fantasy was on top while modern Tokyo on bottom but now I think about it I think it’s reference to Either Odyssey because in dungeon it has its own version of FOE.

That’s pretty cool.

 

[Sakura]

Is there any way to turn off the auto-equip thing when changing archetypes? It's pretty annoying as I don't always want whatever has highest defence values.

 

[Power Pro]

Gallica is so cute when she's wearing that little helmet

 

[TintoConCasera]

4th dungeon done. Man this one was quite fun, specially the later part with the dungeon crawler-like layout.

 

[Nankatsu]

Well shit, didn't noticed in which tab I was, and I sold all my MP potions thinking I was actually buying them.

Only realized that after I saved my game.

Thought I could still salvage this by using autosave save, turns out autosave also saves when you manually save.

 

[adamsapple]

Well shit, didn't noticed in which tab I was, and I sold all my MP potions thinking I was actually buying them.

Only realized that after I saved my game.

Thought I could still salved this by using autosave save, turns out autosave also saves when you manually save.

I've gotten used to saving with the Up arrow key now, but I absolutely hate that the first option in the Settings is Load then Save.

I've almost accidentally loaded a save so many times because I'm just quickly X-ing through the menu to save the game.

 

[TheDarkPhantom]

Lots of big story beats after Virga, love it, the narrative and characters are really this game's biggest strengths, the central cast is amongst my favourites ever in a JRPG

 

[sigmaZ]

I guess I might be alone on this but this game easily surpassed all Persona games for me especially when comes combat and dungeons...

For me Persona can be faaaar too easy, even on hardest difficulty they are cake walk.

Pretty much any game surpasses Persona for me outside of 1 and 2. I just can't get in the mind state to see those as the best RPGs someone has played.
I think those people prefer dialogue over gameplay and character chit-chat over plot driven narrative. I don't know. It's a coffee vs tea kind of thing perhaps. It's funny how a game like this that is more balanced in that regard divides people.

 

[Fabieter]

Yeah that's what I like this game the most. You can build all your party members in different ways instead of being forced down a certain build due to restrictions which is usually the case with Persona since the MC is the only character that can use multiple Personas. It will be interesting if for Persona 6 not only can the MC utilize multiple Personas but the whole cast can too

It kinda belongs to their identity in persona so I would at least prefer it to be a specific type you could choose from. More options are great but it wouldn't feel right if the the whole cast would be bunch of fools.

 

[Jinxed]

4+ hours dungeons is really a turn off

 

[TintoConCasera]

4+ hours dungeons is really a turn off

Yeah man, wish they were longer.

Mage's hero passive + Dancer's passive to recover MP make it way too easy to keep a decent amount of MP left through the whole dungeon.
Not complaining tho, clearing those dungeons in 1 or 2 days leaves me with plenty of free time to dedicate to my waifus followers.

 

[Jinxed]

Yeah man, wish they were longer.

Mage's hero passive + Dancer's passive to recover MP make it way too easy to keep a decent amount of MP left through the whole dungeon.
Not complaining tho, clearing those dungeons in 1 or 2 days leaves me with plenty of free time to dedicate to my waifus followers.

To each their own, will probably just give up on the game because of it.

It's not even hard, just so long and repetitive for no reasons