Metaphor: ReFantazio

This game holds a special place in my heart. When this game first released, I had been living through a time where I was completely wracked with anxiety. Funnily enough, the foundational theme in this game is overcoming anxiety. The others main ideas being confiding in the people you love, casting aside your pride to ask for help, and being there for people, even if you think yourself incapable of being helpful. Halfway through the game I had found a way to save myself from that overbearing anxiousness. This game helped me do that in some small way. Not only in its themes and its very inspiring dialogue, but in its music. Ode to Heroes and the Virga Island theme were both songs that genuinely made me feel better. Two years later I find these tracks especially nostalgic. This game is difficult, or at least it WAS difficult my first time around. I've beaten SMTV and almost all of the newer and older Persona entries, yet I remember struggling with a few of the encounters on my first playthrough two years ago. The reason for this is that the game wants you to experiment with your highly customizable party's skills, and it REALLY wants you to grind your brains out. There are a handful of fights that might require you to load a previous save and completely change your party composition and grind; that is, if you weren’t over-leveled (which you likely will NEVER BE unless you intentionally grind for hours to get ahead, yes EVEN IF you do all side quests). If you get stone walled by a fight you better get ready to load up a save, because you’re going back to Akademia! But why am I bothering to say this if it comes with the territory of playing an Atlus game? Because it takes so long to grind. In other Atlus games I gain a meaningful amount of levels from using all of my party's SP, but in Metaphor I find myself slowly refilling my empty MP bar with mage over and over again. You end up realizing that spawn camping enemies you one shot without entering battle is very lucrative, but it gets old fast, and you will do it a LOT. But maybe it's because I have already played the game. I did find myself blasting through the dungeons just because I knew what I was doing this time. Two final gripes. [spoiler] The final boss wasn’t fun, just annoying. I got permanently stuck healing and reviving my party and there was no chance at recovery. I reset, changed almost nothing about my strategy, and somehow completely bent him over my knee. [/spoiler] The achievements are a pain. If you’re a completionist and want it all in one playthrough, you better be thorough or you’re doing ALL of NG+ for the last one or two achievements. No thanks. Hulkenberg and Eupha are the best! Every single follower is lovable! The accents in this game are SO ENDEARING! Especially [spoiler] the Paripus Brothers [/spoiler], Catarina, and Eupha!

You’re a metaphor, they're a metaphor, I’m a metaphor. Are there any other metaphors I should know about? Great game, the story is marvelous and I was hooked. If I had to explain it in a few words to get someone to try it, “Persona-esque recency-era with racism and existential hierarchy." The story does go down with what you can consider a traditional fairytale concept but literally. That is also a very good way to describe the game, which is the whole point. “It’s a metaphor, there are character archetypes, it appears as a romantic cliche of a fantasy novel but with a twist.” It is a very lore packed world and is self-aware, even makes a few jokes about it sometimes. It has a massive amount of stuff going on in the background and a very convenient little book that fills as you progress the game. This little book even has some things that go into more detail and updates. Some of these things you can miss and encourage you to talk to NPC’s. Also, these NPC’s have a lot to say, changing dialogue with the current events. It also has a very helpful way of showing you who you have and haven’t talked to. I was so interested in what people had to say that any time I got a cutscene I was running around and looking to see what people had to say about it. A game that has me going around to learn “what’s the tea” is NPC’s done right. The characters are also interesting to watch grow and triumph the conflicts they overcome. The game also takes out the guesswork of how you talk to them as your bonds are guaranteed to rank up, so long as you spend your time with them and have the stats needed to continue. The small fights you undertake with them also show just how much they grow through the story. It's well done in my opinion. And if you must know, Basilio is my favorite, And the *monsters*. I *love* monster design and while there are the classics (slimes, ghosts, birds, goblins) they look so unique compared to the standard you have in other games. Gritty, dark, serious, when I first encountered a slime I was so shocked by how it looked. AND THE MIMICS! The mimics are the most fascinating takes on monster chests I have *ever* seen! And most of the monsters are all considered average fauna in this game. These are just natural animals going about their business unless the characters say otherwise. I could go on but I’d be making this too long. So let me go over the battle play. Much like many Atlus JRPG games it can be very grindy if you want to unlock everything you can as soon as you can but not entirely necessary. And even then, certain Archetypes make it go much faster than it could’ve. The battle system is Persona and it does take some assets from Persona 5. There are sound effects that I could swear are just ripped from the game. But I didn’t notice more than two so it gets a pass. My critique is that certain skill and item descriptions can be a little confusing and could have been translated or worded better. Late game you can fight bosses that if you planned your builds right, you can wipe them in a single turn, even on hard mode. New Game+ offers a harder difficulty but if you over-achieve on your first playthrough, it’s also a breeze. Overall, positive review and I encourage you to play it. Oh, and of course there's references. There's enough Easter-Eggs in here there may as well be a resurrection.

最后一个同伴加入得太晚了 玛丽亚太可爱了

this game deserves the hype that persona gets

if you like the smt press turn system you'll like this, its more smt than persona just with the calendar system and social link mechanics but other than that its more like Digital Devil Saga than an actual persona game which is great. character designs are amazing and i love gooning to hulkenburg, fabienne, gallica and the pink haired lady i forgot about lol

why have u not purchased this game

If I thought Persona 5 Royal was a lifechanging experience, Metaphor completely blew my mind in a whole new direction. After spending a good 93 hours immersed in this world, I am honestly speechless. What an absolute masterpiece of a journey. Having played Atlus games before, I expected great gameplay, but this feels like the absolute pinnacle of everything they have ever perfected. The combat system is a brilliant blending realtime action for weaker enemies with incredibly deep strategy through the Archetype system. It is fluid, fastpaced, and intensely rewarding. But what truly stole my heart, just like in P5, is the emotional core of the game. Building bonds with your followers doesn't just make you stronger; it gives you a profound look into their internal struggles, making every single companion feel deeply human, real, and memorable ILY Basilio!!!!! Where Metaphor truly transcends is in its narrative and its message. Moving away from urban fantasy into a grand, political highfantasy setting, the story delivers a powerful critique of anxiety, prejudice, and society.