I'm willing to give this game a try, since it's my first Atlus game.

[Griever]

I'm probably going to play Persona 3 Reload after, just to compare.
I played 5 hours in the demo, and the demo convinced me the buy the game, despite some negatives I didn't like (no full voice acting, dubious graphics). I'm having really fun by the old school JRPG vibes, the strategy in combat, the dungeons, the fantasy setting, and the bonding between characters.

I want to see how the story ends, and I'm using this basically as my first Atlus experience.
But I can see that if you're coming to this as an Atlus veteran, you might expect a lot more.
I'm not exactly sure if the game is truly superior to previous Atlus games, so I cannot say on that regard.

[Steve]

I hope you enjoy it!
As for me, I'm obsessed with Persona 5 (love it!), but only did the one playthrough of Persona 4 Golden and haven't got into P3R yet myself (not sure it's my cup of tea that one personally). Aside from those, I did also enjoy Catherine, lol, but that's quite a different game to this genre of games by them.

And with that being my Atlus history... I adored this demo! I think this could very easily end up topping P5 for my favourite Atlus game spot, though time will tell if that holds true lol.

I can't wait!

[Griever]

Originally posted by Steve:

I hope you enjoy it!
As for me, I'm obsessed with Persona 5 (love it!), but only did the one playthrough of Persona 4 Golden and haven't got into P3R yet myself (not sure it's my cup of tea that one personally). Aside from those, I did also enjoy Catherine, lol, but that's quite a different game to this genre of games by them.

And with that being my Atlus history... I adored this demo! I think this could very easily end up topping P5 for my favourite Atlus game spot, though time will tell if that holds true lol.

I can't wait!

Thank you :)
I just checked Catherine and that game seems very interesting actually.
I have no clue about the Persona games and how 3/4/5 differ but I thought of jumping in with Persona 3 because its the most recent re-release.

I cannot judge Metaphor compared to the Persona games, but for me as a JRPG guy who usually plays Final Fantasy, I felt right at home. It feels like an old school Final Fantasy, just with lots more to do!

[Karkarov]

I have been playing Atlus games since the first US release of Persona 1 and the demo delivered everything I was expecting from this game.

It is an evolution of the persona system with a better overworld/method of doing combat encounters, more control over party builds (in Persona you can really only truly control the main characters build), and a more adult/serious story out the gate. The Persona's develop serious stories too but almost universally start in a much more low stakes way and involve a lot of generic high school antics, like field trips, and guys obsessing over girls they barely know.

I am not sure where this "this is the best game atlus ever made" nonsense came from, it isn't out yet so who knows and anyone claiming that should be ignored. I know the first 10 hours of it were on par with persona 5 in my opinion, and Atlus has not made an RPG I did not like in a VERY long time.

Also heads up OP Catharine is not an RPG, it is a hard core version of Qbert with a story attached to it.

[wombocorp]

Catherine is really good and pretty short if you just want to check out an Atlus game to see what they're like I suppose (gameplay wise it's very different from most of their other games but it's similar thematically), but yeah this game looks awesome and if you're sold on it then go for it. Atlus has a lot of beloved titles and all of them are pretty unique in their own way so don't worry if you haven't played a Persona or SMT game prior. Just play what's interesting to you since I think most of them are very good games in their own right.

[MrDark086]

Originally posted by Griever:

Originally posted by Steve:

I hope you enjoy it!
As for me, I'm obsessed with Persona 5 (love it!), but only did the one playthrough of Persona 4 Golden and haven't got into P3R yet myself (not sure it's my cup of tea that one personally). Aside from those, I did also enjoy Catherine, lol, but that's quite a different game to this genre of games by them.

And with that being my Atlus history... I adored this demo! I think this could very easily end up topping P5 for my favourite Atlus game spot, though time will tell if that holds true lol.

I can't wait!

Thank you :)
I just checked Catherine and that game seems very interesting actually.
I have no clue about the Persona games and how 3/4/5 differ but I thought of jumping in with Persona 3 because its the most recent re-release.

I cannot judge Metaphor compared to the Persona games, but for me as a JRPG guy who usually plays Final Fantasy, I felt right at home. It feels like an old school Final Fantasy, just with lots more to do!

P5 and P3R by extension are all from Catherines engine hence all the flair and style. Persona 5 Royal is a perfectly serviceable entry point to the series, I haven't played Reload just yet but if it follows Atlus trend it'll likely be a good entry point as well. When Atlus releases a game (from Persona 3 to Persona 3 FES to Persona 3 Portable to Reload) they always trend to make the game even easier. For example Persona 3 and FES didn't allow direct party control and there was no defense option but when Portable was made it adopted Persona 4's battle system so direct control was given, defense was an option, and the exhaustion mechanic was removed as well. I do enthusiastically recommend Persona 3 FES all the same as well as Persona 4 Golden. Pretty much any of the series is solid. The only oddballs are 1, 2 Innocent Sin and 2 Eternal Punishment. Those two are a bit dated and harder to get into.

The only downside to the series is eventually you'll want something a little more difficult and end up in mainline SMT which is a whole other beast. Welcome to AA (Atlus Anonymous). We meet the 2nd Wednesday of each month.

[hush]

I hope this game is worth the hype! I'm not an atlus fanboy yet. only played persona 3 up to persona 5 and their rereleases, and also the devil survivor games. I enjoy every game from atlus that i played so far and hopefully this game won't change that!

[Griever]

Originally posted by Karkarov:

I have been playing Atlus games since the first US release of Persona 1 and the demo delivered everything I was expecting from this game.

It is an evolution of the persona system with a better overworld/method of doing combat encounters, more control over party builds (in Persona you can really only truly control the main characters build), and a more adult/serious story out the gate. The Persona's develop serious stories too but almost universally start in a much more low stakes way and involve a lot of generic high school antics, like field trips, and guys obsessing over girls they barely know.

I am not sure where this "this is the best game atlus ever made" nonsense came from, it isn't out yet so who knows and anyone claiming that should be ignored. I know the first 10 hours of it were on par with persona 5 in my opinion, and Atlus has not made an RPG I did not like in a VERY long time.

Also heads up OP Catharine is not an RPG, it is a hard core version of Qbert with a story attached to it.

Tbh what you describe about the high school setting is why I previously avoided the persona series. I’m way more into fantasy especially medieval fantasy in terms of my imagination. So metaphor really hits the spot for me, especially as a Berserk fan.

And for me it’s all about athmosphere, music, and story/characters. Even above gameplay. I’m the minority of gamers like that I guess. I’ll literally vibe in a part of the game just checking out the environment and town if it’s intriguing to me.

This is why I didn’t buy black myth wukong. The game might have stellar gameplay and graphics but I can’t vibe with the setting.

[REBirthTheEdge]

If you like this, I would recommend SMTVV and SMT3 next.

And await for Digital Devil Saga and Kuzunoha Raidou HD ports.

Yes I know this game is closer to Persona than SMT, still no school setting and more blood and gore so it's more SMT aligned.

[Griever]

Originally posted by wombocorp:

Catherine is really good and pretty short if you just want to check out an Atlus game to see what they're like I suppose (gameplay wise it's very different from most of their other games but it's similar thematically), but yeah this game looks awesome and if you're sold on it then go for it. Atlus has a lot of beloved titles and all of them are pretty unique in their own way so don't worry if you haven't played a Persona or SMT game prior. Just play what's interesting to you since I think most of them are very good games in their own right.

I preordered metaphor already after the demo and just waiting for release now ^^ gonna be a 150+ hours no life game for me I guess again lol 😜