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necrophilia) wrote2024-11-04 11:22 am
necrophilia) wrote2024-11-04 11:22 am
Entry tags:
the age of a new king draws nearer.
So! Metaphor Re:Fantazio. Characteristically, I have a million things to say.
Spoilers up until mid-October game time, with potential for endgame spoilers in comments.
I really think this game was a success. I've had so much fun playing it. The marriage of the press turn combat style with Persona's calendar, while not being constrained by high school shenanigans, has been so much fun. And it's nice that Atlus remembered a game can make me laugh without resorting to LOL SEXUALLY HARASSING YOUR FRIENDS AMIRITE?
I've been playing it on normal and have wished for slightly more of a challenge, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Persona 3: Reload was easy unto boring on normal and hard, but this game really actively discourages large amounts of level grinding and forces you to be slightly underleveled at all times, which balances out how paint-by-numbers some boss battles are. (I saw an article that was titled, like, "Metaphor Re:Fantazio has an MP problem." And I was like, "no. You're confusing a bug for a feature. It's deliberate." At least, I saw it that way.) As someone who likes to grind my characters to the maximum level in level-based games, it's interesting! I appreciate that the game forces me to play by its rules.
The story is solid, the characters are fun. The worldbuilding is really engaging. I desperately want to know more about this setting as it currently is. It doesn't feel half-baked. When the bonds teeter into drama or spectacle, I believe this is a world where these events could happen. (Compare P5, with its ridiculously overwrought confidants. ... Look, P5 is such a good punching bag!)
For fun, here is my rating on party members.
1. Basilio — he may overthrow Akihiko Sanada as Jes's ~Most Atlus Character Of All Time~.
2. Junah
3. Hulkenberg & Strohl — I see them as a set, idk why.
4. Heismay
5. Eupha
6. Gallica
Note: 4 & 5 are interchangeable depending on my mood.
Which leads right into my next point!
Despite how good this game is overall, the story is not evenly balanced among its characters.
Take Heismay. An early chunk of plot concerns him: who he is, what he's about. Him confronting his grief is told in parallel with Sanctoress Joanna confronting her grief. After that? Other than his bond, he provides filler lines for the rest of the game. Compare that to Junah. She is introduced early, maintains a slight presence until she properly becomes a party member, and then continues to have a front seat to the plot through her status as a double agent and her relationship with Rella and the Magnus brothers.
I remarked to a friend when discussing the game that it felt like Basilio and Fidelio had the most voiced lines in the game despite not being party members at that point in time. And, like, I thought they were great so I was pleased... but it was definitely unevenly balanced in their favour.
I feel like the story is about a small handful of characters and the rest of them are just there to fill out the Atlus-mandated party composition. And it really feels like Will is one of the latter. We're told how awesome he is and how much of a leader he is by the other characters, but it's a case of "telling, not showing". He doesn't display any of the traits he's repeatedly accused of embodying.
My take: he didn't need to exist. The malleable-ish protagonist wasn't a necessary feature to tell this story. It could have worked just as well with Strohl as a deposed prince trying to reclaim his country from Louis—since Strohl does actually display nobility and leadership and compassion and frustration at the status quo—with Hulkenberg as his disgraced knight. Or it could have been a story about Junah and Basilio and Fidelio growing disillusioned with Louis alongside the player as the world is slowly coloured in, and defecting to the resistance, and have you play as all three of them. The Persona-style protagonist is a weight around the game's neck.
I also think Eupha suffers for me in the way that P5's Haru suffered for many people. She's introduced too late and her dungeon is such a slog that it made it difficult for me to connect with her. It would have evened it out a bit if she had been introduced earlier on as a candidate, rather than her brother. Although her outfit is cute and I enjoy that she seems to be a stealth love letter to FFX's Yuna, as well as the Etrian Odyssey references.
And there are times when I wish the game would commit to its tone more. Hulkenberg should have killed Rella. Just saying.
Anyway! I definitely don't regret buying it and am looking forward to my NG+ eventually. And I definitely want to play around with fic.
Spoilers up until mid-October game time, with potential for endgame spoilers in comments.
I really think this game was a success. I've had so much fun playing it. The marriage of the press turn combat style with Persona's calendar, while not being constrained by high school shenanigans, has been so much fun. And it's nice that Atlus remembered a game can make me laugh without resorting to LOL SEXUALLY HARASSING YOUR FRIENDS AMIRITE?
I've been playing it on normal and have wished for slightly more of a challenge, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Persona 3: Reload was easy unto boring on normal and hard, but this game really actively discourages large amounts of level grinding and forces you to be slightly underleveled at all times, which balances out how paint-by-numbers some boss battles are. (I saw an article that was titled, like, "Metaphor Re:Fantazio has an MP problem." And I was like, "no. You're confusing a bug for a feature. It's deliberate." At least, I saw it that way.) As someone who likes to grind my characters to the maximum level in level-based games, it's interesting! I appreciate that the game forces me to play by its rules.
The story is solid, the characters are fun. The worldbuilding is really engaging. I desperately want to know more about this setting as it currently is. It doesn't feel half-baked. When the bonds teeter into drama or spectacle, I believe this is a world where these events could happen. (Compare P5, with its ridiculously overwrought confidants. ... Look, P5 is such a good punching bag!)
For fun, here is my rating on party members.
1. Basilio — he may overthrow Akihiko Sanada as Jes's ~Most Atlus Character Of All Time~.
2. Junah
3. Hulkenberg & Strohl — I see them as a set, idk why.
4. Heismay
5. Eupha
6. Gallica
Note: 4 & 5 are interchangeable depending on my mood.
Which leads right into my next point!
Despite how good this game is overall, the story is not evenly balanced among its characters.
Take Heismay. An early chunk of plot concerns him: who he is, what he's about. Him confronting his grief is told in parallel with Sanctoress Joanna confronting her grief. After that? Other than his bond, he provides filler lines for the rest of the game. Compare that to Junah. She is introduced early, maintains a slight presence until she properly becomes a party member, and then continues to have a front seat to the plot through her status as a double agent and her relationship with Rella and the Magnus brothers.
I remarked to a friend when discussing the game that it felt like Basilio and Fidelio had the most voiced lines in the game despite not being party members at that point in time. And, like, I thought they were great so I was pleased... but it was definitely unevenly balanced in their favour.
I feel like the story is about a small handful of characters and the rest of them are just there to fill out the Atlus-mandated party composition. And it really feels like Will is one of the latter. We're told how awesome he is and how much of a leader he is by the other characters, but it's a case of "telling, not showing". He doesn't display any of the traits he's repeatedly accused of embodying.
My take: he didn't need to exist. The malleable-ish protagonist wasn't a necessary feature to tell this story. It could have worked just as well with Strohl as a deposed prince trying to reclaim his country from Louis—since Strohl does actually display nobility and leadership and compassion and frustration at the status quo—with Hulkenberg as his disgraced knight. Or it could have been a story about Junah and Basilio and Fidelio growing disillusioned with Louis alongside the player as the world is slowly coloured in, and defecting to the resistance, and have you play as all three of them. The Persona-style protagonist is a weight around the game's neck.
I also think Eupha suffers for me in the way that P5's Haru suffered for many people. She's introduced too late and her dungeon is such a slog that it made it difficult for me to connect with her. It would have evened it out a bit if she had been introduced earlier on as a candidate, rather than her brother. Although her outfit is cute and I enjoy that she seems to be a stealth love letter to FFX's Yuna, as well as the Etrian Odyssey references.
And there are times when I wish the game would commit to its tone more. Hulkenberg should have killed Rella. Just saying.
Anyway! I definitely don't regret buying it and am looking forward to my NG+ eventually. And I definitely want to play around with fic.
no subject
I think Heismay ended up feeling, to me, like a father figure (in stark contrast to Hythlodaeus, though they start out the same way) and I think a lot of his role is being a quiet little bat man who provides a weight of experience that Will lacks. (This is particularly interesting to me in the context of Atlus's writing staff not once having met a parental figure that was functional, at least to judge by their family vibes.) I would have liked to see more of him and Basilio in a maybe less-antagonistic vibe (that bit at the Dramatic Ending Part felt rather out of nowhere to me?) because as eugief and paripus they have some of the same experiences and I can't even say they went about them differently!
One thing I think I really, really liked about this, versus a Persona, is how the social links work. Since spending time is an auto-rank, you really do get to *roleplay* Will (within confines) and decide how you want him to approach things, which is very different than the weird sociopathic funhouse mirror that a Persona protag becomes. THAT SAID your proposal of Strohl and Hulkenberg delights me, yes please.
I think that there are some parts of the game that feel too shallow (Catherina???), and the dungeons are honestly very simplistic in a lot of ways - but to be totally honest I prefer a basic bitch dungeon loop to that fucking [string of unprintable curse words] timed segment in the palace with the crystals. Fuck every bit of that. Fuck it sideways and upside down. I am apparently just not competent enough for that part of an Atlus game (the Jailer in DDS2 can still make me want to cry just thinking about it, and that was over ten years ago.)
many thoughts to ponder, thank you for sharing them. ♥
no subject