Anyone else not that impressed with the game?

[Swimfan]

Plot is good and the game has some nice atmosphere but I'm kinda wondering where all those glowing reviews come from. I'm at the end of the first big dungeon and NOTHING has really blown me away. The graphics (while crisp) are below average and while the artstyle is great in ATLUS's normal fashion, the U.I. is way too cluttered and unaccesible for my liking.

I'm missing crucial base feature their older games had and on top of all that I'm kinda bored by the battle system already. Archetypes - as it turns out - feel like a weak substitute for the Persona system their main games are normally based on. Enemies are only threatening because they get AoEs long before you do and consistently just attack my group with their weaknesses ... that's okay but this also means that combat kinda drags in an uncharacteristically fashion for ATLUS.

Maybe I'm being to harsh but after their brilliant P3 Reload, Metaphor looks kinda ... "amateurish" to me and also a tad overpriced for 70 bucks :-/

Edit: People pointed out that I can change the skill/spell order in a menu where I wasn't looking for it - thanks! Sadly this underlines my complaint with the overly cluttered systems and menus but at least the option is there :-)

_______

Edit2:

I'm now 13 hrs in and my first impressions persist. There are some very good moments (mainly story-wise) but so many small details (or missing thereof) drag the whole experience down for me unfortunately. One scene that really stuck to me was when

a) It seemed the group was asking me to make in important decision and I choose what the devs. didn't intend so my crew was like "OR we don't do that and go with option A" which shocked me by how insultingly bad it made the entire "decision-making" in this game look

b) After that I had a cutscene where not only did lines in the background flicker (the game has this problem in general even on the highest settings) but the ground/grass textures was just a flat green plain. I'm not kidding, it looked horrendous and reminded me of those latest Pokemon games everyone laughs at because of how bad they look. The artstyle is great, the graphics are just subpar for the most part.

[Koornia]

Well, me, for example.
After the outstanding "SMT 5 - Vengeance", "Metaphor" is just boring in everything, except the music.

[HeinzHarald]

It gets better.

[Swimfan]

Originally posted by Koornia:

Well, me, for example.
After the outstanding "SMT 5 - Vengeance", "Metaphor" is just boring in everything, except the music.

Hmmm I wouldn't even say it's "boring" ... as I said, I like the base of the story (which is what keeps me playing) - but somehow it feels like the game delivers less of what ATLUS is really good at and has some strange flaws I just didn't anticipate from them tbh..

Originally posted by HeinzHarald:

It gets better.

Sadly for most of my problems with the game there is no way that it gets better. The only thing that can improve is the battle system and I know that ATLUS RPGs tend to get better with time in that area but I'm already dissapointed that I feel so bored whereas SMT5 V. (as a more recent example) already had me way more hooked 7 hours in - and that is a game I played the base version of.

[Aldroen]

I am in the opposite boat.

I find the combat and archetypes way better than anything that Atlus gave us before. I always found the persona/demon system really cool but in reality was always very bloated where archetypes are more condensed but meaningful in which one you chose with some having some cool gimmicks in them that spice up the gameplay.

The combat is probably the best it ever was, no more constant turn based encounters. I went through a whole dungeon with maybe few actual encounters that were properly challenging rather than just going full auto mode for 90 % of the dungeon falling asleep as I am fighting the same enemy again and again that I already mastered using muscle memory to quickly spam the same skill to be done and over it like it usually is in persona and smt games before.

Grinding is also way easier now removing the slog of it and overall the experience feels way smoother in metaphor than it did in any other Atlus game.

[panachemidi]

You can change the order of the skills, it's in the archetype sub-menu under Party

[Sparhawk122]

People with low standards. If the game were cheaper the lack of technical polish would be somewhat forgiveable.

Game does not even have anti aliasing. When games from 2001 and onwards had AA. Even Morrowind has anti aliasing.

Then there's the low quality Audio.

Cluttered UI.

[Xeerz]

Originally posted by Aldroen:

I am in the opposite boat.

I find the combat and archetypes way better than anything that Atlus gave us before. I always found the persona/demon system really cool but in reality was always very bloated where archetypes are more condensed but meaningful in which one you chose with some having some cool gimmicks in them that spice up the gameplay.

The combat is probably the best it ever was, no more constant turn based encounters. I went through a whole dungeon with maybe few actual encounters that were properly challenging rather than just going full auto mode for 90 % of the dungeon falling asleep as I am fighting the same enemy again and again that I already mastered using muscle memory to quickly spam the same skill to be done and over it like it usually is in persona and smt games before.

Grinding is also way easier now removing the slog of it and overall the experience feels way smoother in metaphor than it did in any other Atlus game.

This. I have yet to beat 4 or 5 because of how combat works in that, I see me finishing this one though purely because of this.

Archtype is really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ amazing due it being more condensed over the other two which felt very bloaty from time to time.

[illusion]

Wtf are you even talking about? Archetypes are better fleshed out persona's. Skill inheritance is also fresh and having the MC not just be the character with every element is a breath of fresh air.

Persona combat was getting stale by the time P3R came out. I went through royal and golden and while the synergy meter or whatever it was nice, it was still the same thing.

[N/A]

Once you complete More's first quest you gain the ability to change and unlock Archtypes anywhere whic is a QoL improvement over Persona but not really an improvement over the Cathedral of Shadows in smt because you could technically already do that.

I forget what menu I was in, maybe the Archtype preview in equipment? I just know that their was a place I could reorder my skills but didn't because I only have like 5 lol

The AoE thing I get. I think they did it, lock your AoE behind the combo attack thing that they replaced all out attack with to make it more appealing. I'll say that while the team attack thing is much more conservative than AoA it's also much more interesting.

It's kind of a scary thought but if they have AoE already what are they going to do with more press turns? At this rate they pretty much have to get more creative going forward or they will just squash us lol

[HeinzHarald]

Originally posted by Swimfan:

Sadly for most of my problems with the game there is no way that it gets better. The only thing that can improve is the battle system and I know that ATLUS RPGs tend to get better with time in that area but I'm already dissapointed that I feel so bored whereas SMT5 V. (as a more recent example) already had me way more hooked 7 hours in - and that is a game I played the base version of.

Yes the battle system is the main part that gets better (at least 20h in), with more archetypes, and the ability to unlock and change archetypes from the main menu).

The environment variety is a big plus as well imho, but that's not something you mentioned.

[Scyris]

I am honestly suspicious of the offical review scores, Persona 5 the royal seems much better than this yet it didn't score so many perfect scores, really makes me wonder if some bribery etc went on. I am glad the game got a good review, but the fact so many are perfect are VERY suspicious to me. A few might be normal, but the amount this game is getting is very abnormal that it looks suspicious.

That said its been a while since a decent jrpg came out so that prob helped as well, last really good one was p5 the royal, or the p3 remake.

[shelledfade]

4/10 imho. Haters gonna hate, these 2002 textures are insane.

The fact that I had to download a mod to remove the sprint blur/lines and to inject antialiasing/fov/correct 16:9 and also had to install reshade to apply additional techniques just to prevent my eyes from actually bleeding at $70 is crazy.

I'll finish the game but damn, what the actual hell happened here? Terrible. Literally morrowind-era textures, its blowing my mind.

It's like a scam that everyone seems to be in-on. I just don't get it.

[ishiki]

Originally posted by Scyris:

I am honestly suspicious of the offical review scores, Persona 5 the royal seems much better than this yet it didn't score so many perfect scores, really makes me wonder if some bribery etc went on. I am glad the game got a good review, but the fact so many are perfect are VERY suspicious to me. A few might be normal, but the amount this game is getting is very abnormal that it looks suspicious.

That said its been a while since a decent jrpg came out so that prob helped as well, last really good one was p5 the royal, or the p3 remake.

Persona 5 Royal has a 95 meta, this has a 93 meta with half as many reviews, so this did not review better. As it will probably drop a point or 2 after more reviews.

Not that meta is the best indicator for everyone, because I like P3:R more than P5, and that has a way lower meta.

[hush]

Originally posted by ishiki:

Originally posted by Scyris:

I am honestly suspicious of the offical review scores, Persona 5 the royal seems much better than this yet it didn't score so many perfect scores, really makes me wonder if some bribery etc went on. I am glad the game got a good review, but the fact so many are perfect are VERY suspicious to me. A few might be normal, but the amount this game is getting is very abnormal that it looks suspicious.

That said its been a while since a decent jrpg came out so that prob helped as well, last really good one was p5 the royal, or the p3 remake.

Persona 5 Royal has a 95 meta, this has a 93 meta, so this did not review better

take not he didn't play the game, he's suspicious because he only sees negative review out of all the praises here

[hush]

Originally posted by Swimfan:

Plot is good and the game has some nice atmosphere but I'm kinda wondering where all those glowing reviews come from. I'm at the end of the first big dungeon and NOTHING has really blown me away. The graphics (while crisp) are below average and while the artstyle is great in ATLUS's normal fashion, the U.I. is way too cluttered and unaccesible for my liking.

I'm missing crucial base feature their older games had (like changing skill/spell order for my battle menus) and on top of all that I'm kinda bored by the battle system already. Archetypes - as it turns out - feel like a weak substitute for the Persona system their main games are normally based on. Enemies are only threatening because they get AoEs long before you do and consistently just attack my group with their weaknesses ... that's okay but this also means that combat kinda drags in an uncharacteristically fashion for ATLUS.

Maybe I'm being to harsh but after their brilliant P3 Reload, Metaphor looks kinda ... "amateurish" to me and also a tad overpriced for 70 bucks :-/

have you reached the game show part?