Metaphor: ReFantazio Impressions - High Fantasy Persona

[CriticalGaming]

Its kinda weird seeing someone have that reaction to another atlus game cause that's exactly how I felt with P5, the main character is a blank slate with no story to speak of and the main story is disconnect from what you do playing it.

Well I would argue that you get enough information from him via the opening cutscene where he saves a girl from being raped and is blackballed out into a new school and town. Additionally the "blank slate" is a benefit because with the RPG choices you can use the opening cutscene to as a starting point for how you wanna RP him.

The main character in Metaphor is not a blank slate. Which I dont know why they let you name him because it's totally pointless. But regardless he isn't a blank slate, he is voice acted, has his own personality, and even a backstory....probably eventually. There in lies the issue in that they've clearly got a whole story for him but I'm like 20 hours in now and I don't know shit about him other than vague little things.

It's so exceptionally poorly told that I feel like I'm taking crazy pills seeing people praise this game. Much the same way people praised FF16 when that story is fucking garbage! Yet people are out here simping for characters that suuuuuuuuuuck. I dont get it, I don't understand what the fuck is happening right now. Have we gone so long since something came out with a good story that anything half-way competent is something to go crazy for?

 

[Dreiko]

Btw the protag's canon name is Will, they let you name him but he does have a name too.


And yeah the game just takes a ton of crazy turns and twists left and right with the plot as it unfolds once it gets going, and is a really big game too. Like the default combat is with 4 party members but you don't even get a fourth up until nearly 30 hours in.

I just got the 7th party member who I did not see coming and found a bunch of answers which only ask more questions, nearly 80 hours in. It's kinda hard to talk about it without spoiling but yeah a lot of stuff eventually makes sense.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Btw the protag's canon name is Will, they let you name him but he does have a name too.


And yeah the game just takes a ton of crazy turns and twists left and right with the plot as it unfolds once it gets going, and is a really big game too. Like the default combat is with 4 party members but you don't even get a fourth up until nearly 30 hours in.

I just got the 7th party member who I did not see coming and found a bunch of answers which only ask more questions, nearly 80 hours in. It's kinda hard to talk about it without spoiling but yeah a lot of stuff eventually makes sense.

So is it a pacing issue? Like does the game just have an obnoxious slow burn that runs longer than what's usual for a Persona game?

 

[Dreiko]

So is it a pacing issue? Like does the game just have an obnoxious slow burn that runs longer than what's usual for a Persona game?

If anything people are praising the pacing here, for them it's more that it has more dungeon crawling and few socializing elements I think. A lot of the side quests are you actually fighting stuff as opposed to having coffee or going out for karaoke or something, but they give you kingly traits anyways. But the plot isn't really fast or slow, there's just a lot that transpires, you think you're out of the fire but you're just tossed into the inferno right away mutiple times and it layers on top of eachother. And after every end of deadline boss a new big thing always happens that sends you off in another segment of the quest that's different.

But yeah I am a terrible person to ask for pacing issues cause I always held that if you have a long enough session of anything you won't feel pacing issues, and this game has been my recent time-vanisher where a minimum session is like 7 hours long. Even some things like one piece which apparently are notoriously complained about due to their pacing I found fine by just simply not doing the one episode per week thing, and instead amassing a ton of episodes and marathoning them. I think I did nearly 400 episodes in a single month a while back lol. No way to have pace issues when you're watching for 12 hours a day lol. Which actually reminds me I'm due for another one of those at some point. I got over 300 eps to go.




Ultimately I just never felt any slow burns here, I just burned through them engrossed in the gameplay probably.

 

[Dreiko]

Just beat the game at just over 123 hours. Man, this was kinda perfect all the way to the end. Extremely satisfying. The epilogue was so masterful. It really felt rewarding doing your best for the people.

Also the gameplay goes super nuts when you unlock the final archetypes. I hit a boss for 42.000 damage once lol. And I'm playing on hard too. Suffice it to say, you can make some really strong team compositions.


Also while the ending is extremely satisfying it also has room for a sequel. Apparently there's other lands beyond the sea. With the way this game is selling it may not be impossible for us to get another one at some point.