Current Events > I beat Metaphor: Refantazio, my thoughts (major spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

I think 8 or 9 out of 10 would be my score.

Story: The whole game you're kind of waiting for a true acknowledgement that the world in the fantasy story our world, is indeed not a utopia. I really liked the scene where you confront More about it. Interestingly to me, while this is the kind of JRPG where the party can tend to restate information and sentiments multiple times in scenes, the game felt that Will declaring the world is not a utopia was succinct enough. It's like once you can say it, it's so obvious, it doesn't need hammered down on. I found the way that was handled very satisfying.

I mostly really like More. The reveal that he is the king ends up being essential to tying together the personal/emotional stakes of the story with the world-ending stakes. I'm a sucker for battles against someone who sincerely thinks they're helping you, and this reminded me of P5R. I don't like the actual king so much, though perhaps I'm not quite supposed to. Strohl was right to trash him. I'm mixed about the protagonist being the Prince himself. The ways I imagined the story possibly going were more interesting, in my opinion. I liked how after the party decides to (they think falsely) claim Will is the Prince, Basilio tells Will how he needs to be ready to take a lie like that to the grave. In practice, the team is mostly spared having to make any kind of choice like that.

Louis is a serviceable villain. Suitably evil and hate-able. Not terribly original what with being a guy who can't trust anyone and gets power from hate and fear in a JRPG. His full human form is awesome. Undertones of Lucifer in shape that adds to its imposing form and the cracked face design is so excellent. Easily clears all Persona final bosses in terms of character design.

The party is pretty likable although Strohl/Hulk/Heismay have a lot more presence than the rest. I don't like Junah at all, she's basically a plot catalyst for mid game then does nothing. Eupha is meh, Island arc as a whole is very bland and is carried by the post-apoc reveal. Basilio (and Fidelio) is excellent, but after Fidelio dies there's not much for Bas to do on the team. Since he's dumb he doesn't get to contribute anything new, he's a tagalong. I like his relationship with Heismay and wish it was expanded on. Heismay's racism evolving into a soft fatherly affection toward Basilio is really sweet and works very well for both characters. But it's not given any spotlight time what with the urgency of the main plot completely taking the reins. On the other hand, subtlety is often not this game's way of doing things, so maybe this characterization is actually handled pretty well, and a lot of the game is just bloated in terms of pacing. It's just clearly the most interesting relationship on screen despite being the least directly examined.

Archetypes is a great system mostly. Very flexible but still gives the opportunity for each character to feel distinct by having their signature Archetype and stats tuned for it. The game lets you break it for sure. Between Tycoon crit build and Heismay Royal Thief with that Knight's Protection skill inherited. There were some, like Faker, that I essentially never used except for Skill Inheritance. I never really understood the Masked Dancer line, it felt strong when you got it but felt like it fell off hard in late game. I'd rather target weaknesses that exist or crit through than spend MP to create weaknesses.

I liked the awakening sequences for the most part, my favorite awakening in the game is Basilio's. He thugs out his archetype in a moment of personal grief rather than being near the prince in the heat of battle. And after ripping his heart out, instead of doing a big "I AM" speech, he just quietly says goodbye to Fidelio. It's a subversion of the established format that works incredibly well, and again, it's a shame the game doesn't bother to make time for Basilio after he joins the party.

I liked the enemy designs in the game. If you don't know, the "humans" are based on Hieronymous Bosch paintings, mostly lifted directly:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/d/d19fb781.jpg
(Here's 2 of the major Humans in the game.)
But it did kinda feel like there was a LOT of asset reuse. The later dungeons don't have any original enemies if I remember correctly, and it felt like there's only like 3 dungeon designs. I wonder if I'd be incorrect to speculate that this game didn't have as much budget relatively as Persona 5.

I'm not gonna play the game but I did see the concept art and bought

https://www.amazon.com/dp/3836587866

They're a cool place to find inspiration from, I just wish their unique appearances felt less front loaded. The fight right after one of the most important story segments in the game uses a reskin from the start of the game for example.

Bump