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[od-chan]

Metaphor is the first ever RPG where I actually buy and use consumable items, going back to Pokemon in 98 I'm talking about these "disposable" Ice and Light Spells you get at the magic shop in particular. They cost like 300 each, do 100 damage per.

I'm at the first proper dungeon now, the raid a the grand cathedral, since the goblin's messed me up yesterday. There's all these Undeads, and later on these stone Gargoyles , who I pretty much do no substantial damage to, with my current party, except if for using magic. And since 100 damage is quite substantial early on and Mana seems to be the most precious resources of all, this seems to help out greatly early on.

I think I progressed up until the last Save Room in The Cathedral in one in game day this way. Cost me like 3 or 4k moneys worth in ressources, but it felt pretty good to be properly prepared once and be able to actually take advantage of it like this


e: lol nvm, I just figured out the whole skill inheriting/persona switching stuff, how easy it is to just learn healer with everyone in order to inherit the holy offensive spell

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

HELL YES I just defeated the optional boss, with all 4 party members alive too.

(Minor spoilers about party/archetypes)

Spoiler

Heismay’s Royal Thief archetype saved my ass SO MANY times. He has that passive that makes your enemy lose all their turns if he dodges. There were a few times where the boss used that move that gives him 4 extra turns, only for Heismay to dodge and nullify them all.

Other than that I kept hammering away using attacks that debuff the boss’s stats, making sure his hit rate stayed as shitty as possible and making him waste turns buffing himself up again. Probably took me about 30 minutes to finish it.

 

[GHG]

AA addition is nice. Between that and the performance mod I am pretty happy with now this game is looking and running now.

This is still the superior solution FYI:

Metaphor ReFantazio TAA Mod - Antialiasing FIX for PC and Steam Deck

If you're frustrated by the lack of antialiasing in Metaphor: ReFantazio, I have good news: I managed to compile a mod that adds TAA (temporal antialiasing) to the game for PC and Steam Deck.

greatondeck.net

 

[xenosys]

Finished playing this last night after 92 hours. Persona 5 Royal is the best JRPG this century for me so Atlus had a lot to live up to but they've done a great job for the most part.

Not without his annoyances, but a solid 9/10 title.

It falls down in some areas compared to P5R like the visuals, the OST and the story itself is a fairly predictable generic JRPG hero's journey with elements that felt like they were a bit rushed towards the end. It also had some repetitive aspects that felt lazy like the side-dungeons, but overall it was much better than I thought it would be when looking at the previews.

Proper GOTY contender alongside Rebirth and Astro Bot for me.

 

[TintoConCasera]

Almost at the end of the game, still have to finish it but I can already tell I'm going to miss this one once I'm done with it.

Story, characters, music, combat system are all so well done, I just wish the game had one or two more months, I don't want it to end lol.

 

[SF Kosmo]

This is still the superior solution FYI:

Metaphor ReFantazio TAA Mod - Antialiasing FIX for PC and Steam Deck

If you're frustrated by the lack of antialiasing in Metaphor: ReFantazio, I have good news: I managed to compile a mod that adds TAA (temporal antialiasing) to the game for PC and Steam Deck.

greatondeck.net

TAA performs great but I do not like how soft it looks, and if you have the overhead to get a locked 60 with FXAA then that's gonna be better.

 

[TintoConCasera]

Since I'm almost at the end of the game I'm trying to complete as much stuff as possible.

Do I need to beat Elegy of the Soul? I'm wondering if that might be required for a secret ending or something. Shit's hard as hell.

 

[Kurotri]

Since I'm almost at the end of the game I'm trying to complete as much stuff as possible.

Do I need to beat Elegy of the Soul? I'm wondering if that might be required for a secret ending or something. Shit's hard as hell.

You don't need to do that, no.

 

[TintoConCasera]

You don't need to do that, no.

Thank fucking YHVH! I was dreading the idea.

Thanks fren.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

Since I'm almost at the end of the game I'm trying to complete as much stuff as possible.

Do I need to beat Elegy of the Soul? I'm wondering if that might be required for a secret ending or something. Shit's hard as hell.

Post 952 is how I did it. I honestly thought the fire dragon was a lot harder.

 

[TintoConCasera]

Post 952 is how I did it. I honestly thought the fire dragon was a lot harder.

Good job mate. For me the problem is that I can't seem to even start the fight, first turn he wipes my party with an almighty attack that deals 9999 damage to everyone.

 

[Grildon Tundy]

I had more A-Exp items than I knew what to do with while end-game grinding, so I figured I'd fill out tons of archetypes for Heisman since he already had the most unlocked.

He is at 94 Agility now, with the skill that makes the enemy lose their turn on a successful dodge. He dodged nearly every attack. Made a couple end game bosses a cakewalk...but I feel like I earned it.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

Good job mate. For me the problem is that I can't seem to even start the fight, first turn he wipes my party with an almighty attack that deals 9999 damage to everyone.

Apparently that happens only if

Spoiler

you’re wearing equipment that nullifies anything, for example the armor you got from the 3 dragon trials. What a dick move.

 

[Grildon Tundy]

Good job mate. For me the problem is that I can't seem to even start the fight, first turn he wipes my party with an almighty attack that deals 9999 damage to everyone.

Can confirm: remove nullifying equipment and he won't deal that KO move.

 

[Danjin44]

Apparently that happens only if

Spoiler

you’re wearing equipment that nullifies anything, for example the armor you got from the 3 dragon trials. What a dick move.

This happens with some of the SMTV bosses as well.

 

[TintoConCasera]

Apparently that happens only if

Spoiler

you’re wearing equipment that nullifies anything, for example the armor you got from the 3 dragon trials. What a dick move.

Can confirm: remove nullifying equipment and he won't deal that KO move.

LOL wtf, really? That's super dickish. "Hey bro here's this awesome equipment but hey, don't you fucking dare equipping it!"

Never would have realised that was the reason, thanks.

This happens with some of the SMTV bosses as well.

Really? Guess I luckied out because that never happened to me, as far as I remember at least.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

I had more A-Exp items than I knew what to do with while end-game grinding, so I figured I'd fill out tons of archetypes for Heisman since he already had the most unlocked.

He is at 94 Agility now, with the skill that makes the enemy lose their turn on a successful dodge. He dodged nearly every attack. Made a couple end game bosses a cakewalk...but I feel like I earned it.

Yeah that passive is straight up broken, I love it.

Already beat the hardest boss but now I’m wondering if I could’ve used e.g. Royal Knight’s Proclamation to get him to focus on Heismay and lose all his turns even more often. I bet that could be a killer strategy.

 

[TintoConCasera]

Nothing wrong with some broken skills here and there imo. I think part of the fun of a job system is breaking it as much as possible.

 

[Danjin44]

Really? Guess I luckied out because that never happened to me, as far as I remember at least.

With Khonsu Ra side quest, he summons his friends and immediately use skill Megidolaon to wipe your entire party on his first turn.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

This happens with some of the SMTV bosses as well.

It was especially dickish because you JUST GOT this

Spoiler

armor from the 3 quests leading up to it.

Oh well it was actually a pretty exciting fight. Got my heart rate going a few times there where he built up 3 full turns + 4 half turns, only for Heismay to dodge and nullify it all.

 

[Danjin44]

It was especially dickish because you JUST GOT this

Spoiler

armor from the 3 quests leading up to it.

Oh well it was actually a pretty exciting fight. Got my heart rate going a few times there where he built up 3 full turns + 4 half turns, only for Heismay to dodge and nullify it all.

If you can make you character to resist everything then bosses need find way to punish it and almighty attacks is their best option.

 

[yogaflame]

This is still the superior solution FYI:

Metaphor ReFantazio TAA Mod - Antialiasing FIX for PC and Steam Deck

If you're frustrated by the lack of antialiasing in Metaphor: ReFantazio, I have good news: I managed to compile a mod that adds TAA (temporal antialiasing) to the game for PC and Steam Deck.

greatondeck.net

I hope they will have that same update for the ps5 version. Not that I'm complaining to much, it is still a good game.

 

[Klosshufvud]

So is NG+ worth playing? I've had some really bad cravings to come back to the game ever since I finished it. Maaaan it's going to be so long until we get a DLC expansion.

 

[Grildon Tundy]

So is NG+ worth playing? I've had some really bad cravings to come back to the game ever since I finished it. Maaaan it's going to be so long until we get a DLC expansion.

Probably not, unless you have achievements or a specific goal in mind.

I've tried going into NG+ right after finishing Persona to clean up missed achievements in the past, but I quickly lose interest. Even with speeding through all dialogue and cutscenes, there's just too much of it.

Love, hate, or ambivalate Atlus' "definitive editions" that come out a year or two later, they're well-timed (imo) for a second playthrough: Enough time has passed that I can stand watching the story play out again and then there's the new content to look forward to.

 

[od-chan]

spoiler about a conversation early on (first 2 weeks)

I usually don't linger on around with "details" too much in these games, but this is kinda ridiculous. Oh no, behold, the church is sponsoring "free" elections.

How is it bad that the widely trusted, widely popular, church is helping to sponsor independent candidates to run for office? however that office may look, this is a first step in building a civic government, WHICH MINORITIES ESPECIALLY would benefit from. Also it's not like the church is asking for money or anything evil to skew the race here, they're asking for public service basically (there's these dangerous monsters, whoever gets rids of them, gets an up). So it's completely beyond me how they're trying to insinuate that what the church is doing is, in fact, anything but actually making it more fair. Faulting the church for not doing it 100% altruisticly is beyond - to stay polite - naive.

And oh my god what is this writing. No, lmao, being an outcast (especially an elda, one of the most hated people) doesn't give you an advantage here. Not here, not anywhere, not now, not ever. There's a reason why the CIA uses foreign nationals for every political campaign abroad, and not someone who stands out at every step of the way.

It really reads like "hurr durr, le church bad, but being different is actually le good!", and this has been going on for a while.

The writing in this game, really. I love it overall, since I melt every time Saori Hayami talks, but oh my god this writing.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

They do and they are fucking annoying

 

[Sakura]

Is the 99 a soft cap or hard cap in regards to stats? ie if my magic is 99 already is there any point in having gear that is plus magic?

 

[SF Kosmo]

So is NG+ worth playing? I've had some really bad cravings to come back to the game ever since I finished it. Maaaan it's going to be so long until we get a DLC expansion.

It won't be a DLC expansion, it will be the whole game with a bunch of new content bolted on for another $70.

 

[consoul]

Patch notes:

No fix for the bugged Skullduggery quest.
Platinum is off the table for me then.

 

[sigmaZ]

I finally finished Metaphor Refantazio. Around 66 hours. And boy do I have some thoughts. Insanely long post incoming.

Let me start off by saying I love Atlus. I got introduced to Persona in 2020 through the Royal re-release, and played Persona 3 and 4 afterwards, including this year's Reload remake and of course SMT V. I'm a casual player and not a JRPG veteran at all really. Through these games I was able to familiarize myself with some of the big names behind these games. So when I heard that the main trio behind the Persona games was building a fantasy game, I was hyped as hell. I feel particularly connected to Persona 5 and its themes/messages.

I have to say that they managed to deliver a great game that deserves the praise and success it is getting. I love the world they have created here. However, it also falls short on some of its ambitions, with some weird decisions and directions that ultimately for me, keep it from standing equally to the Persona series it draws so much inspiration from.

The good:

• As mentioned, amazing world. This game has its very own unique look and it feels like you are partaking in a grand adventure. You have all these different towns and settlements alongside the 8 tribes and you can truly feel the world fall into chaos once the race for the next king starts. It does all that despite not being an open world game.
• Art direction is absolutely on point. In fact, it's so good that some of my highlights were the little moments where the crew stops on the road to take in some of these wonders. It's the pictures you end up giving to Maria.
• Music. Shoji Meguro decided to take a completely different approach than what most would expect and included Buddhist chanting in a fantasy RPG. Wild stuff.
• Combat. This is something that I feel is the best rendition yet. It's absurdly fun. The amount of combinations you can have through synthetic attacks, the items and skills that enable you to truly dominate fights is a step above what they accomplished with Persona 5. It's not something that is a revolution in combat design but some subtle additions and changes (like enabling your teammates to have different Archetypes, same as you) is something that adds up after a while.
• Louis. At first I thought he would be your average run off the mill powerhungry villain but there's more to him and his story than what you initially think. I think he's one of the coolest villains Atlus made recently. Amazingly acted by Yuichi Nakamura.
• The cast is wonderful. By the end of your journey you really feel and understand just how close you have gotten to them. They are lovely to be around.
• Atmosphere is done so well that it feels like you are actually playing through a fantasy novel.
• Bonds are great. Unlike in Persona, you actually have the possiblity to rank up all your "social links" and virtues in a single playthrough. In fact, you are able to see *everything* the game has to offer in a single playthrough without needing to manage your time as much because the game gives you ample time. Whenever you worry about not having enough time, trust me, you do.
• Those damn snappy menus, man. Credit where credit is due.

The not so good stuff:

• Story pacing. Some of these story moments in the game happen too quickly over a very short time period. While I thought that the game was paced well up until the Virga Island arc, it kind of loses its grip on that after and suddenly you'll have tons of twists and turns happen in what feels like 2 minutes. You get like 2 cast members way too late into the story for my liking.
• The dungeons. I'm sorry but this is pretty lazy. You have the exact same labyrinth or forest or tower that all look and feel the same every time you do another bounty hunt. And after a while, the labyrinth ones are just annoying. I also *never* saw the point of engaging in battle while looking for a Neuras treasure or the actual bounty/boss of that area. So when you just want to beeline to your objective but you have to walk around a maze for the upteenth time it starts to get on your nerves.
• Game pacing. What I mean with that is that the game is a little too generous with its timeframe and especially towards the end, you will find yourself having a bunch of days where you just don't have anything to do. Granted, it's better than the opposite, but still not ideal.
• Another thing that falls under the same umbrella of game pacing is how they paced the levels. You see, this may be a very subjective issue, as I may just suck at games, but my problem was that I was basically breezing through the game on normal, having done *every* side quest except the Collosseum in Brilehaven and the 3 trials, and I ended up arriving at the very last dungeon of the game at level 50. The game did NOT like that. If you are reading this and are on a similar course, please reconsider and try to level up heavily. I was not prepared at all for what happened afterwards. I must have been underleveled by what, 25 levels or something? It was a huge slap in the face. You will want to tear your eyeballs out at that point. The final boss specifically is a *huge* pain in the ass. I actually had to reset to storyteller mode to just get through the game and even that took me hours. Which brings me to my next issue:
• The final stretches of the campaign. Mind you, I like the story well enough and its themes that Metaphor wants to talk about. However, the last few hours, especially the last dungeon, drag. A lot. The enemies and bosses take forever to kill. Everyone feels like they have 20 healthbars. And again, the final boss in particular 4 PHASES! ARE YOU KIDDING ME! feels VERY inflated. Every time you think "ah..finally, this is it", another cutscene plays and it just keeps dragging. Mind you I was heavily underleveled, but I don't want to point the finger at myself if the game allowed me to reach this dungeon so easily in the first place.
• Dialogue. Maybe I am misremembering, but I do not remember Persona being as filled to the brim with as much useless dialoge as Metaphor. I have read some posts here where people mention they have started skipping dialogue, and I fully understand why. There's a lot of fluff and a lot of repetitions from all characters that made my eyes roll sometimes. Enough, I get it! Let's just go!

Very good overview. I'm just about halfway true and I'm pretty much feeling the same. Thanks for warning about the ending. I'll just use a trainer for the difficult spike when it gets to that later on.
I agree with the dialogue outside the main dialogue too, but I feel the same way about the Persona games. To be honest, skipping the non voiced dialogue outside them main plot has vastly improved my experience. I really hate this trend in modern RPGs where they try to get you to know the characters through exposition. There's way too much time put into fanservice, it really saps the mystery out of games. I'd rather not know that a character that I thought was cool doesn't even know how to cope with basic emotions.
But yeah, the main plot, the OST, the snappy UI, and the old school dungeons are probably my favorite aspects of the game.

 

[Jacob0101]

And feels nice another person that struggled immensely in that final fight.

What are you talking about? Final boss is easy on hard mode.

 

[Grildon Tundy]

I finished this last night. Some thoughts below, but let me preface this by saying I don't want to take away anything from people who really enjoyed it.

Dear Diary,
I have (and always have had) a pretty hard time relating to characters in medieval fantasy settings, and so much of what makes the lineage of SMT games what they are is the characters. The characters in Metaphor are well done, but I want more of a shared experience with them as a foothold. I've never been a banished knight or a post-apocalyptic orphan, but I have been a high schooler (albeit not in Japan) and I've lived in an Asian city very similar to where Personas take place. So when the supernatural cosmic elements really kick off, I feel like I'm more immersed and ready to go along for the ride. Metaphor's starting point was already far removed from my own.

The dialogue was too talky, so I started skipping through it, and that snowballed into losing a lot of the flavour of the game and character moments that are a main draw of Persona-likes. But I wasn't ready to read/listen to all the dialogue to see the good stuff. The combat was fun as always, and I enjoyed grinding, finding synergies with my party and obliterating opponents.

I think if I were in the right mood and more of a ME fantasy fan, I would've liked this game more. Definitely a bit of a timing issue on my part, since I've played ALL of the games in my list below (save for the SMT IVs) just since March of this year. Might be a bit burnt out. M:RF was a 7 out of 10 for me.

Of the SMT/Persona/Metaphor games I've played, here's how I'd rank them:

1) Persona 3 Reload
2) Persona 5 Royal
3) Persona 4 Golden
4) SMT IV & SMT IV: Apocalypse
5) Metaphor:ReFantazio
6) SMT V: Vengeance

 

[adamsapple]

Final calendar week of the game.

Spoiler

 

[Shake Your Rump]

100 hours later and I returned to this thread. I am very annoyed, upset even.

Spoiler: “Ending” spoilers

I was having the greatest time. The game was tracking to be superior to Persona 5, which I consider a masterpiece. Then I got a bad ending?

I have always chosen dialogue options that seemed the most interesting, but this time it just… ended the game? I went through 100 hours with conversation choices essentially being meaningless, then suddenly the developers decided to make one particular set of choices game-ending.

It completely deflated all my enthusiasm. Like… what the fuck? It wasn’t even thought provoking or interesting. It was just, “oh, I guess you suck, Louis wins, bye”, followed by the full set of credits and no indication of what I did wrong.

So, yeah, the game auto saved right before that interaction, and I selected the dialogue choices that the game apparently wants, and it allowed me to continue. It just wasn’t the same after that. It kind of felt like cheating. I am never one to save scum or reload a save to see alternative choices. I like to just play out the game and see where it takes me.

After that forced ending, I was too distracted by the bullshit that just happened to enjoy the rest. Went through a ton of cutscenes, started my flight to the capital to face Louis again and just shut off the game mid-flight.

I went from thinking about this game all the time to being repulsed by the thought of continuing. It’s not a rational thought. It’s definitely pure emotion. It’s fine. I got my enjoyment out of it even if I never touch the game again.

 

[Shake Your Rump]

Hmm that's good news for me, I thought I had 70+ hours to do

I don’t know how it’s even possible to complete the game in less than 70 hours. Maybe if you skip every conversation? Maybe if you run past enemies? Not sure how you would be strong enough to complete the game that way, though. Maybe on easy mode? Never talk to town NPCs? No idea.

 

[consoul]

No fix for the bugged Skullduggery quest.
Platinum is off the table for me then.

Patch 1.09 just dropped (like just now). No English patch notes yet, but I can confirm the Skullduggery quest bug has been patched.

I had to reload a save from much earlier to get back to where the quest hadn't expired yet, but was able to complete it now. The skeletons do now spawn correctly in the Mausoleum.

 

[sigmaZ]

I finished this last night. Some thoughts below, but let me preface this by saying I don't want to take away anything from people who really enjoyed it.

Dear Diary,
I have (and always have had) a pretty hard time relating to characters in medieval fantasy settings, and so much of what makes the lineage of SMT games what they are is the characters. The characters in Metaphor are well done, but I want more of a shared experience with them as a foothold. I've never been a banished knight or a post-apocalyptic orphan, but I have been a high schooler (albeit not in Japan) and I've lived in an Asian city very similar to where Personas take place. So when the supernatural cosmic elements really kick off, I feel like I'm more immersed and ready to go along for the ride. Metaphor's starting point was already far removed from my own.

The dialogue was too talky, so I started skipping through it, and that snowballed into losing a lot of the flavour of the game and character moments that are a main draw of Persona-likes. But I wasn't ready to read/listen to all the dialogue to see the good stuff. The combat was fun as always, and I enjoyed grinding, finding synergies with my party and obliterating opponents.

I think if I were in the right mood and more of a ME fantasy fan, I would've liked this game more. Definitely a bit of a timing issue on my part, since I've played ALL of the games in my list below (save for the SMT IVs) just since March of this year. Might be a bit burnt out. M:RF was a 7 out of 10 for me.

Of the SMT/Persona/Metaphor games I've played, here's how I'd rank them:

1) Persona 3 Reload
2) Persona 5 Royal
3) Persona 4 Golden
4) SMT IV & SMT IV: Apocalypse
5) Metaphor:ReFantazio
6) SMT V: Vengeance

I think this is fair, but I think Persona games are the same. Skip the dialogue in the side content in Persona and you will find they to are far more enjoyable games. Everything else is up to your current interests be anime, modern, or fantasy, or whathaveyou, but I think fundamentally all of the games suffer from the same bloat and design dysfunction, though one's pain threshold just might be higher when waifu are involved. I'm not finish but I'm pretty sure this game will come out somewhere like a 7.8 for me, which is fairly high, but it would be much higher if I didn't have to adjust aspects of the game to increase my enjoyment. It's like eating a nice tasty sandwich covered in mayonnaise, so you have to take off most of the mayonnaise to eat it. I feel this way about most of Atlus games.

 

[TheDarkPhantom]

And that's that, I'm not exaggerating when I say I steamrolled the last boss (and everything leading up to it...). Almost 90 hours clocked, will gather my overall thoughts before doing one of my signature, epic posts lol. For now I'll say I think both P5 (either version, beat both, plat'd Royal) and P4G are superior games overall. There is a lot I *love* about Metaphor while also being disappointed in what I believe are a few flaws.

Oh and PSA: you can still get the ingredients to do the final recipe after a certain point, managed to get that trophy too, need about 6 more trophies to plat

 

[TintoConCasera]

Finished the game last night. Hard mode and about 120 hours. Expect spoilers below.

I did every sidequest (except the superboss, but I have a save ready in case I want back to that later) and maxed out both followers and royal virtues. I don't know if any of those affected the ending in any way besides being able to chat with your maxed out followes both before the final boss and after the coronation. In any case, I found maxing those out was far easier than in Persona 5, although I gotta say I've completely ignored the colosseum so maybe that gave me some "extra" days.

Anyway, game has been kind of a rollercoaster for me but I have to say, I ended up loving it so, so much. Game sure has a pacing problem, because to me Port Brilehaven was kinda boring while Altabury Heights felt like the game entered 6th gear and started to unveil it's story at a very, very fast pace. Those first two weeks in September are crazy.

Don't have much else to complain about really. Game could look better, and the difficulty is kinda easy for most of the game, but I was expecting that being the Persona devs. Still I have to admit, I've died a few times but nothing that couldn't be solved by loading a save, switching a few skills and trying again. Even then, engaging with both the combat system and the job system felt super fun to me, I was always thinking about how I could mix and match jobs and skills to make the most out of the team, specially in the first half where specializing is much harder because the low number of party members.

The story, man I've loved it. The themes are beautiful, the characters are all cool and much more likeable (at least to me) than anything from the Persona games and the story itself, while full of twists and turns that sometimes seemed to come out of nowhere, I've still appreciated a lot. Kinda bummer to end up focusing so much on the power of friendship for the last stretch of the game but hey, it's an anime JRPG, so no surprise there really.

About the characters, I've liked that they are much more present than in the Persona games. Playing boardgames with Hulkenberg, meditating with Eupha or drinking with Heismay, stuff you can do outside of their "social links" (royal links?) is very welcome and helps flesh them out much more. They also did a very good job introducing both Junah and Basilio early on, so you don't get that "Haru effect" of a character joining near the end of the game and having almost 0 screen time.

This goes for the villain as well. Griffith Louis has a ton of time on screen and is overall a great villain imo. In fact, it might be one of my favorites in videogames: lots of screentime, cool writting and voice acting and a nice backstory to give him reasons to be like he is instead of being evil just because. Kinda reminds me of Jon Irenicus from Baldur's Gate 2, and that's already a very nice compliment.

And last but not least, the music. Wasn't the biggest fan early on but it sure ended up growing up on me, some very nice exploration music but also some amazing battle themes.



So to wrap this up: game is amazing, better even than I was expecting. If they ever make a re-release (they probably will) I hope they improve the pacing, give the other candidates a bit more of screen time (Lina, the eugief girl with the big hammer, has a portrait but barely appears at all in the game?) and improve on the enemy variety, since they have TONS of recolors which is super lame.

So overall, this is a solid 9/10 for me and my personal pick for GOTY. When it comes to SMT, I'd say it's easily one of my favorites, I've been hooked from start to end and I know I'm going to miss playing this.

 

[Klosshufvud]

TintoConCasera I really like Louis as villain too.

Spoiler

Keeping him as the final villain was also refreshing. The last thing I wanted was a BIG BAD GOD BEHIND THE SCENES. No, it was a straight up Louis vs Prince duel going on to the very end. Despite his good amount of screen time, I never got tired of his presence. I just love when stories stick with their villains to the very end. The music in the finale mixing with the Prince's theme was quite something

 

[Danjin44]

TintoConCasera I really like Louis as villain too.

Spoiler

Keeping him as the final villain was also refreshing. The last thing I wanted was a BIG BAD GOD BEHIND THE SCENES. No, it was a straight up Louis vs Prince duel going on to the very end. Despite his good amount of screen time, I never got tired of his presence. I just love when stories stick with their villains to the very end. The music in the finale mixing with the Prince's theme was quite something

I would say his one of better villains Atlus made.

 

[TintoConCasera]

TintoConCasera I really like Louis as villain too.

Spoiler

Keeping him as the final villain was also refreshing. The last thing I wanted was a BIG BAD GOD BEHIND THE SCENES. No, it was a straight up Louis vs Prince duel going on to the very end. Despite his good amount of screen time, I never got tired of his presence. I just love when stories stick with their villains to the very end. The music in the finale mixing with the Prince's theme was quite something

Yeah I was expecting the same. Glad that never happened and what we had was a very good villain instead of tired trope of "ok, now lets go kill God".

I would say his one of better villains Atlus made.

Haven't played all of the Atlus games but honestly, I struggle to come up with one that's better.

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

Yeah I was expecting the same. Glad that [ISPOILER]never happened and what we had was a very good villain instead of tired trope of "ok, now lets go kill God".[/ISPOILER]


Haven't played all of the Atlus games but honestly, I struggle to come up with one that's better.

But I love that trope

 

[TintoConCasera]

But I love that trope

I mean I hate God as much as the next guy, but it's nice to have something different for once.

 

[Kurotri]

Haven't played all of the Atlus games but honestly, I struggle to come up with one that's better.

For me it's him and (Persona 5 Royal spoiler) Maruki

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

For me it's him and (Persona 5 Royal spoiler) Maruki

I had my issues with Persona 5 but I really liked the added story they added with the Royal Edition

 

[TintoConCasera]

For me it's him and (Persona 5 Royal spoiler) Maruki

Yeah I loved that one too. Morally grey villains are always pretty nice and something I always like in SMT games.

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

Agreed Louis is a fantastic villain. I really liked the part where

Spoiler

you finally confront him and accuse him of assassinating the king and he’s just like “yeah of course I did. Forden already knows, i wonder why he hasn’t announced it already”

 

[TintoConCasera]

Even without being an SMT game, I love how they still managed to make Law vs Chaos a central theme of the game with the conflict between Louis and Forden. Cool stuff, it's nice to have villains do their thing and not focus all the time on the MC or whatever.

 

[Danjin44]

Haven't played all of the Atlus games but honestly, I struggle to come up with one that's better.

In mainline SMT you usually gonna fight a God as lass boss which they kinda of lack personality compare to proper character does.

Even in Strange Journey which in my opinion has one of the best stories in Atlus games, what you fight in the end is Mem Aleph which almost has no personality.