Time management is key........ :-(

[Wicca-san]

Am I the only one who wishes they would tone that part down a bit so I don't feel the need to wait for a guide to play the thing?

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy their games and all, but playing through a game twice just to get a true ending that I missed because of some ephemeral order of actions or whatnot makes me more stressed than anything. It's why it took me ages to even play P5R. Even WITH a guide.

[Stoibs]

Originally posted by Broso:

They did tone it down already. I managed to max all virtues and follower ranks and still had weeks to spare in the final month, all without any guide. This would have been near unthinkable in P3/4/5.

I'm not finished the game yet but this certainly feels like the case for me so far also.
I'm just finishing up The Island region and most of my followers that are unlocked and available to me are between social rank 6-8 already, apart from the newest party members. My social stats are all 4~4.5 too, so it does seem like this game will naturally allow for you to see most things as long as you aren't wasting days.

Shame about that missing book.. I remember getting *one* book from an NPC in Brilehaven, not sure if that's the only one you are talking about or if I missed another one also :/

[Mad Max]

I just looked it up and the 'True Ending' is literally just avoiding the 'bad end' pitfalls that can happen by choosing the wrong dialogue option. And even if you do by accident, just reload your save.

No esoteric nonsense this time, no 'talk to this guy on this specific day or you're screwed', it's very simple.

Thank God

[otakon17]

Originally posted by Wicca-san:

Am I the only one who wishes they would tone that part down a bit so I don't feel the need to wait for a guide to play the thing?

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy their games and all, but playing through a game twice just to get a true ending that I missed because of some ephemeral order of actions or whatnot makes me more stressed than anything. It's why it took me ages to even play P5R. Even WITH a guide.

Oddly enough, I've been using a guide *minimally* and am in the last leg of the game with nearly all quests done, all Bonds maxed and over half the Archetypes maxed out for the MC at least. And I still have a fair amount of time left on the clock till the absolute point of no return. The games time pressure mechanic feels WAY less overbearing than it was in the Persona games in comparison.

[Mad Max]

Originally posted by otakon17:

Originally posted by Wicca-san:

Am I the only one who wishes they would tone that part down a bit so I don't feel the need to wait for a guide to play the thing?

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy their games and all, but playing through a game twice just to get a true ending that I missed because of some ephemeral order of actions or whatnot makes me more stressed than anything. It's why it took me ages to even play P5R. Even WITH a guide.

Oddly enough, I've been using a guide *minimally* and am in the last leg of the game with nearly all quests done, all Bonds maxed and over half the Archetypes maxed out for the MC at least. And I still have a fair amount of time left on the clock till the absolute point of no return. The games time pressure mechanic feels WAY less overbearing than it was in the Persona games in comparison.

This is good to hear. Sounds like if you are even somewhat efficient about time management and pay attention to quest deadlines you will have plenty of time to do everything you want to do and level up all your friendships.

[Wicca-san]

I freely admit they did better with this one than Persona 5 Royal (which was also outdone by P3 Reload and especially P4 Golden in that respect). I was able to max out all bonds and get the best Archetypes for my 4 main party members (and completed all quests too!). The only thing I didn't get done was maxing out EVERY archetype for the protagonist.

[Fuhrer]

I get where you're coming from conceptually, but they already did tone it down massively for Metaphor. It's actually very straightforward and limits your options a good bit comparably for ease of use. Prioritize quests and S Links, then just raise whatever social stat you need/is the lowest except courage and you're golden.

[Sharkofspace]

The time management in Metaphor feels extremely strict and overly punishing, and lots of people seem to describe it that way, yet people generally say it's easier than Persona for some reason?

[Stoibs]

Originally posted by Sharkofspace:

The time management in Metaphor feels extremely strict and overly punishing, and lots of people seem to describe it that way, yet people generally say it's easier than Persona for some reason?

Everyone here is on our first blind runs obviously since guides kind of don't exist yet or are being worked on in realtime; yet those of us who are entering end-game (or testimonials from people who have finished the game already) are all confirming that we've been able to max out all socials.

I literally didn't even *find* two of the confidants in Persona 4 on my first blind play, and in P3 you basically need a guide to do a perfect min-max 100% run.

I don't know what to tell you, it does seem extremely more lenient here than Persona.
You have so many chances to raise social stats while Gauntlet travelling, and they've even written certain Follower rank-ups with party members in mind while onboard also, so even spending several days trekking out to tackle a dungeon keeps you in constant progression.

[Doctrine Dark]

Originally posted by Wicca-san:

Am I the only one who wishes they would tone that part down a bit so I don't feel the need to wait for a guide to play the thing?

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy their games and all, but playing through a game twice just to get a true ending that I missed because of some ephemeral order of actions or whatnot makes me more stressed than anything. It's why it took me ages to even play P5R. Even WITH a guide.

i mean time management is a staple to there games. Its like asking for a Call of duty game without guns or harvest moon without farming. And as far as true endings go this game is way more forgiving than any of there other games even the SMT games that don't have time limits. The only way to mess up the ending in this game is to pick the obviously wrong choices that you can't miss.

[Wicca-san]

Right, but my original concern is that we didn't know anything about how they were handling that part going in. I didn't mind it as much with P3/4, but it REALLY irked me that with 5 you could potentially miss an entire SECTION of the game and not even know it. (Like one of the Dark Souls expansions iirc)

[Broso]

Originally posted by Stoibs:

Originally posted by Broso:

They did tone it down already. I managed to max all virtues and follower ranks and still had weeks to spare in the final month, all without any guide. This would have been near unthinkable in P3/4/5.

I'm not finished the game yet but this certainly feels like the case for me so far also.
I'm just finishing up The Island region and most of my followers that are unlocked and available to me are between social rank 6-8 already, apart from the newest party members. My social stats are all 4~4.5 too, so it does seem like this game will naturally allow for you to see most things as long as you aren't wasting days.

Shame about that missing book.. I remember getting *one* book from an NPC in Brilehaven, not sure if that's the only one you are talking about or if I missed another one also :/

That's the one. You get all books automatically but the one book from that NPC that is missable.

[Fuhrer]

Originally posted by Sharkofspace:

The time management in Metaphor feels extremely strict and overly punishing, and lots of people seem to describe it that way, yet people generally say it's easier than Persona for some reason?

In what world is it strict or punishing? Unless you deliberately choose the most stupid options repeatedly it's really laid back.

[fairtoki]

They already tone it down in this game.

Playing blind no guide, I max everything and finish every quest and still got 14 free days remaining.

So don't worry about time, just play it however you want.

[Mad Max]

Originally posted by fairtoki:

They already tone it down in this game.

Playing blind no guide, I max everything and finish every quest and still got 14 free days remaining.

So don't worry about time, just play it however you want.

When you love Persona/Atlus games but don't have enough time to spend on multiple playthroughs reading this makes me smile.

[Intern Waffle]

I'm pretty happy so far with how this works.

It's like a flip-flop of how it works in Persona. In Persona, it feels like the dungeon is the thing you do in between trying to do EVERYTHING. But in Metaphor, it feels like everything is what you do in between trying to do all the dungeons!

Sidequests? Dungeons! Main quests? Dungeons! Bounties? Dungeons! Hell, traveling to dungeons? Sometimes that's a dungeon!

I feel like my free time isn't a mad dash for optimization, it's actually a chill out period where I get to do what I want and work towards achievable goals- which is how gaming should feel, frankly.

Like, several of my followers are at 4/8 ranks already, and I'm not even 20 hours into the game. I have every royal stat thing at 2.5, minimum. You can ask Gallica if ANYONE, ANYWHERE has a sidequest for you and she magically knows about it. You can ask Gallica if ANYONE, ANYWHERE wants to talk to you and she magically knows about it. And best of all, when you do a "Social Link", IT ADVANCES. EVERY TIME!

The Calendar is only 5 months but that's because you can sit down and play for 3 hours and only advance 2 days, sometimes. Plus they let you do stuff at night, immediately- no unlocking it required, and no special second edition of the game remixed to make it happen. It's just there.

There's value in the way Persona does it but this game truly cuts out so much filler fluff. There's no more 25-straight-days-of-grinding-stats-and-social-links crap. It's 4 or 5 days at most, then you do some of a dungeon once you've gotten through some side quests and got some cash to blow on new equipment, then 4 or 5 days of free time before another 4 or 5 days of main story progress. It feels SO much better than 28 days of day-to-day ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, 2 days of main story progress, and then a dungeon opening up with another 28 days of day-to-day ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ to manage around it. It's *streamlined*.