Game of the Year: #2 - Metaphor: ReFantazio

I really enjoyed Metaphor but it didn't come close to Persona 4&5 for me personally.
I can't really tell what it is but it feels like this game is missing something that makes P4&5 special

Loved this game. I still love P5R more, but this game created a rather interesting world and the art was chefs kiss for me.

I genuinely do not want a sequel unless it’s a Final Fantasy mainline numbered unrelated style sequel. It was just fine as it was, self-contained.

Really nice write up! This game has been a complete joy for me. I’m glad to see the OST mentioned with such enthusiasm. It’s brilliant; highly emotive, super dynamic and actually kind of innovative in my opinion.

Am I the only one that noticed how very little anyone actually talks about this game? Any time its brought up its only to say that its an amazing game but never any like story or character discussions or anything

Gonna try to play it soon. While I was enjoying the demo I didn't love it enough to finish it and want more like I did with most other prologue demos. It's a really ugly game especially when you compare it to SMTV Vengeance or even P5. The story so far while interesting was incredibly predictable and the writing was so bland. But that's just demo impressions. And despite that I was still actually enjoying parts of the demo so I'm hoping it's just a meh start to an amazing 100+ hrs game

It's been quite up and down for me with this one. It gets super interesting when people like Louis or Del/Basilio appear and then it gets quite dull in those side quest dungeons - though they're at least better than Mementos - or when it's too.much repetitive dialogue. Gotta say though that Louis is up there with the best villains, plus the typical Atlus suspense plot twists makes it worthwhile. Art direction is nice and archetypes look way cooler than Personas.

@mariomaster96 maybe it's missing the comical banter from the likes of Ryuji and Morgana. Metaphor characters are just so serious all the time.

@TheArt I wouldn't say they are serious all the time but they are definitely more serious than the Persona casts. (which ofc makes sense considering the world they live in)
But yeah, the funny interactions between the Persona casts definitely might be a reason why I enjoy P4&5 more than Metaphor

Never played it and never will. Persona 5 soured me on all games in the same/similar universe so no Metaphor, Shin Megami or Personas for me.

I liked this game but it pales in comparison for me to any of the Personas I have played along with SMT V which I just started but am already finding much more enthralling. I did love some of the characters (especially Heismay and Basilio) but overall I did not find the story, combat or world to be all that engaging. I appreciate what they were trying to do and am glad Atlus wanted to try something much different but it lacked the impact and fun factor I find in their other games and many other games I played this year

I liked it, but it wasn't amazing. It felt like a lesser Persona game. Still good, but not great. But this is probably fine to let the Persona series breathe a bit.

@Judal27 I would say the demo is pretty reflective of the overall experience, the story does pick up a lot and gets more interesting and it is fun to evolve the archetypes but it still kind of just feels like something is missing the whole time as others have eluded to. it is a good game that is worth playing but I liked and did not love it throughout the entire playthrough

@Logonogo I loved P5 and am about to start Metaphor. How does P3 Reload, which I've ummed and ahhed about picking up during sales, compare to those in your opinion?

@HappyGamerGirl I would put P3 Reload just a notch below P5. It is a great game with great characters and the design is very similar. The only thing lacking in P3 is the dungeon variety compared to P5. You do not see the same kind of diverse palaces to explore but everything else is on a similar level

I got it for Xmas and started it yesterday.

@Judal27 When you get to it, hit me up in the forums. I’ll gladly engage with you in a more thorough discussion on what makes the game special, at least from where I’m standing.

How it pulls from Plato to Descartes in an examination of philosophical idealism as the foundation of political science. How it looks at the powerful role that religious institutions play in people’s lives when married with politics and the way in which its characters balance the many perspectives inherent therein. How the resulting themes, such as hero worship, fear and social anxiety spill into the game’s mechanics. How it smartly utilizes the works of Heronymus Bosch in its enemy design, referencing the humanism movement at the heart of the renaissance, a time of great political, religious, scientific and social change. The way its OST brings all of this together: a chorus of disparate voices unifying into something not only functional, but beautiful.

I don’t know, I’ve been getting a lot of out it and think it’s rather brilliant. Hopefully you can enjoy it!

@PorkChopExpress Because it’s a Mediocre game. Persona 4 was far more engaging.

I’m in the same mindset as you literally played it last night for the first time in 5 days. Honestly I think this game was hyped just for necessity. JRPG are hardly a popular genre these days, unless they have awesome pixel art.

@Jimmer-jammer ok so the game was made for you and 9 other people it seems. I guarantee you like 1% of metaphors players know what your referring too.

In my mind, Louis was a boring, mediocre villain whose motivations didn’t really make sense.

Enjoyed the game, but the stripped out romance just made it feel like a lesser P5 than it's own game.

I unfortunately couldn’t finish this game. It wasn’t hooking me in the way previous Atlus games have. I felt like they were focusing more on mechanics of the game more than having fun. It was too overwhelming and unbalanced. Maybe I’ll give it a try again later down the road — I mean, Persona 4 Golden is my favorite JRPG of all time, and I enjoy P5R immensely — but not anytime soon.

I thought the game was very good (8/10) but stops short of being anything more. I found the dungeon designs to be boring and the constant floating magla to be off putting. Then theres the time restrictions which meant you couldn't do everything in one run, unless you do what I did and turn the difficulty to easy so you use less MP and could do dungeons in one day, meaning more time to do more stuff. But doing that ruined some of the enjoyment of the combat so it was pretty much a catch 22.

So I agree with a few commenters on here that is pales in comparison to Persona games, especially P5.

@Mincey0 Plato, Bosch, The Renaissance. Honestly, these aren’t exactly obscure references. Regardless, my point was simply that there is lots to talk about for those who wish to engage it.

@Jimmer-jammer I’ve been tempted to get it but have been holding off because I didn’t particularly get on with Persona 5’s time management mechanics. However as someone with a barely used Philosophy degree from 15 years ago you might have just sold it to me. Excellent write up!

@Jimmer-jammer No doubt the story is smart. It's the gameplay that feels tedious sometimes, especially when you're not in the mood to read too much text.

@TruePlayStationGamer the way this list is probably be infinite nikki🤣🤣🤣

I recently picked this up, but have not gotten around to play it just yet. Heard so great things about it. I promise it will be one of my main games to kick off 2025.

@Jimmer-jammer while I had no idea who Bosch was before (seen some of those works before in my travels, but was never the type to look into the artist), the game definitely got me curious to look into it. I was also really interested in the themes throughout the game, especially working in a high school where kids with anxiety is sky rocketing... but also so neat to see how so many of them got sucked into the election news without really knowing much about it (I don't even live in the US) lol.

I really enjoyed my time with it. I had some small issues with it (like the three optional towers all being the exact same layout, and other optional dungeons being more or less the same), but I loved a lot about it. One thing I wish they did with the Archetypes was for them to reflect each tribe a little more uniquely. For example, a Mustari's take on a Healer vs a Clemar. What that means to them might be slightly different.

Either way, personally I had a great time with it and likely in my top 3 this year (along with SB and LaD: IW).

I just finished it! I liked it but is not a 10 game, I skipped a lot of dialogues, even in the main story, and all that teenage conversation sounds better in a persona game that in a “mature “ fantasy game, it’s a solid 8 but not even in my top 5 of the year

@Judal27 If you take a look over internet, most people find the game enjoyable but nothing special and a subpar copy of the Persona formula. Looks like another hype created by medias but confronted by a significant amount of criticism from the gaming community.

Astro Bot where it belongs. Good.

I played the demo but it never really screamed instant buy to me.

@GeeEssEff That’s awesome! I have no familiarity with the Persona games but haven’t found the schedule system to be hard to deal with at all.

@TheArt That’s a fair criticism! The game does tend to dump a lot of dialogue at times, and the player is locked into lengthy story segments at various points.

@Fides189 Yeah, like anything there is a lot of room for improvement and you can certainly see the cracks of budgetary constraints poking through. To have the Archetypes reflected differently by the tribe using it is a brilliant idea and would flesh the concept out nicely.

I wish we could explore, even in a limited fashion, the beautiful areas that the party stops at between major destinations. Also, with such a focus on bonds, it’d be neat if the food you cooked could give extra buffs depending on the rank of who you shared it with. It’s an excellent foundation for whatever might come next.

This is my GOTY. The Persona formula in this original fantasy setting was incredibly addictive, the hours just melted away as I played 'just one more day' to finish a bond or a quest.

I'm not sure it's quite as good as Persona 4 or 5, but it's in roughly the same tier imo. An incredibly polished experience with little to critique.

@Logonogo Thanks, sounds like I'll be picking it up in the next good sale then!

Dragon Age Veilguard should easily be in the #2 slot imo

@somnambulance there is no info about animation, but official manga is already on the way.

I'm playing it right now. Really good stuff. Went pretty much blind and I'm loving it.
It could be one of Atlus' best but we'll see.
Definitely better than anything Square has released recently.
Persona 4 is still the best Atlus game, followed by Persona 5 and Devil Survivor.

Deserved. An amazing game.

@Stale-Bread I wanted so badly to like P5 but after 25 hours I was done with no internet to continue. It’s what put me off BG3 for almost a year. I thought I just didn’t like TBC but BG3 grabbed me from the start and now I have 2 complete playthroughs. I find it interesting and love discussing “great” games that click for some people and others that don’t

@Jimmer-jammer my point wasn't that there's nothing to talk about but that there's little to no talk about the game actually going around. I'm a huge jrpg and atlus fan so it's not like the circles I choose to visit wouldn't love the kind of game that it is but I just don't see it. I definitely hope I can get into it more further along

@Logonogo that is a bit of a shame. But I plan to play it soon and I just hope it's a close enough of an experience to p5

I wan5 to enjoy these types of games, but just can’t get into the. I can’t help but click through the dialogue, which is endless.
Gratz to winning and glad the players enjoy it.

What a garbage comment section

I'm sure the real game will be #1. Looking forward to it

This is a straight 7/10. There’s nothing special here except a lot of banal dialogue that says very little.

@Duck_Farmer Concorde would be the ultimate troll move.

I'll agree because the game isn't as accessible as Astro Bot but it's my personal GoTY. Great story, memorable characters, well written villain, and loved it lived by it's title for being a Metaphor for our world itself. Very well done Studio Zero

Metaphor is amazing. I’m a sucker for anything Atlus/Vanillaware so this was a slam dunk for me. The cast of characters are all lovable in their own way. I’m hoping for a Strikers spin off because this franchise suits it perfectly. Well done, Atlus!

I wish I could get in on the Atlus fun, but I just don’t have the time (or patience) for massive RPG’s like this anymore. Metaphor looks beautiful and sounds interesting; happy for all the folks that have been able to enjoy it.

@HappyGamerGirl P3 is really good and they did a really good job of making the remake look good too. I prefer P3 over Metaphor 100%.

One thing that really bugged me with this game was that repetitive as hell scene before going in to a new day

Persona 5 Royal resonated with me more overall, but I adored how this married the structure of Persona to a vibrant fantasy setting and really worked to balance the gameplay and difficulty to create something consistently satisfying to play.

I have to agree with many others. I got Metaphor last week in the Amazon sales and have put in about 13 hours clearing the first dungeon and whilst its good i dont like it as much as P5 (which i didnt complete) its missing that something for me. I just dont find it fun. I was compelled to play on but i didnt really have fun whilst doing so.

Welp looks like Black Myth Wukong will be their #1. For me Metaphor would have taken that spot.

Astro Bot next 🔥️‍🔥️‍🔥

@illegalmonkey Nah it's gonna be Astro Bot