General Gaming Metaphor: ReFantazio | new fantasy RPG from Atlus | October 10, 2024 - Demo Out Now!

[Best]

7 minutes ago, legend said:

Downloading the demo now. I'll almost surely get this regardless, but fuck it. Let's play.

 

I'm downloading right now too. 

[Brian]

Skipping demo since I am day 1

[Best]

I only played for about 20 minutes.

 

1) Absolutely beautiful visuals 

 

2) Great voice acting and characters in a very short amount of time. 

[legend]

This is *very* much a Persona game with a fantasy skin. To the point that I'm wondering if they're going to make the connection explicit at some point in the story.

[thedarkstark]

The demo is surprisingly long, I'm at like 4 hours and not done yet.

 

Yes this is definitely Persona reskinned, however I'm enjoying it much more than Persona. I'm nearly 40 and the whole horny highschooler vibe of Persona games creeps me out and saps a lot of the enjoyment out of those games. So far this game has a completely different tone.

[thedarkstark]

On 9/25/2024 at 5:31 PM, Brian said:

Skipping demo since I am day 1

The demo is the start of the full game and your save file will carry over (it's like  4+ hour long too) so may as well get a headstart if you're feeling inclined to do so.

[TheLeon]

Played about an hour of the demo before I lost power. Seems solid. My biggest surprise is that the little fairy companion character somehow wasn’t deeply annoying. 

[Xbob42]

Saw someone say the demo was "like 4 hours long" when it released. I clocked in at about 10-12 hours (not sure, had some idle time) and I could've stretched it out even further since there's some variance at the end on how you spend the first few bits of free time you get, which you can eat up in 5 minutes or in a couple hours. (It's Persona-ish, you know how it goes.)

 

Calling it Persona with a fantasy skin isn't inaccurate at all (some of the animations and camera movements even feel nearly directly lifted from Persona 5) but to me it's more like a best-of-Persona-and-SMT fantasy game. It's not quite Persona, because there's a press turn system, it's not quite SMT, because you're not recruiting or negotiating with demons, it's not quite Persona, because there's sections early on that feel like a standard JRPG's cadence in terms of cutscenes and progression, it's not quite SMT, because it has a story I'm actually paying attention to, it's not quite Persona, because everyone has the "wild card" ability, it's not quite either, because it even has stuff like front and back row ala Final Fantasy, etc.

Further, the setting and theme keeps my interest far more than most early games of Persona or SMT. In Persona, the early hours tend to be the most tedious because "stylish teen gets used to new city" is about as exciting as "man does laundry" once you've been through it a few times. SMT tends to begin a bit more interesting, but I feel like rarely gets more interesting as it goes along, whereas I feel like Persona tends to pay off more and get more engaging as you get further in.

To me, just learning about this weird, funky dark fantasy medieval world while also still slotting strangely cleanly into the "stylish teen learns new city" trope has been very entertaining. It's especially interesting because it's not at all stock standard fantasy, it's very strange in many ways, which makes it fun to learn about. I imagine I probably did clock in a bit higher than average on the demo because I read (and enjoyed) every single little codex entry I unlocked. Learning about the weird racism hierarchy, the walking house things to get across the wastelands, the odd magic system, humans and the like all was very compelling to me. I never felt like I was bored or waiting for something to happen. Stakes get raised in somewhat predictable ways, then it veers off into crazy bullshit, and I love it.

I'm glad I basically watched nothing pre-release. Not even the what-felt-like-600-year-long-video they put at the end of the demo to sell you on the game. Bitch I just played a multiple hourlong demo to completion, I don't need to be sold with spoilers! (I just looked the other way, took my headphones off and waited for the flashing lights to stop.)

 

So far it's been the most exciting game from Atlus in ages. I was slightly worried pre-demo as I had only seen a handful of clips out of context that looked good, but you never know with new IPs. Very glad to say I'm super into this one and can't wait for more.

 

Also, if playing on PC, download the nightly build of SpecialK -- the game for some reason has two different frame limiters fighting each other, along with other stupid issues (like defaulting to the last thread on Intel CPUs, which on most chips will be an extremely weak efficiency core) that really tanks the performance. Dropping that single file in the game folder improved performance to being near flawless for me, and hopefully Atlus fixes that before launch because what the fuck, two different frame limiters?!

[Teva]

Glad to hear positive feedback from the demo. I think im gonna skip the demo and go in blind. 

[Xbob42]

The demo is quite literally just the start of the game, it's still going in blind since your save carries over, but I get it!

[legend]

1 hour ago, Xbob42 said:

Also, if playing on PC, download the nightly build of SpecialK -- the game for some reason has two different frame limiters fighting each other, along with other stupid issues (like defaulting to the last thread on Intel CPUs, which on most chips will be an extremely weak efficiency core) that really tanks the performance. Dropping that single file in the game folder improved performance to being near flawless for me, and hopefully Atlus fixes that before launch because what the fuck, two different frame limiters?!

 

 

I will try this. I was extremely confused by the performance because let's face it, this is not a graphically demanding game. I had the UI selected frame limiter on in the game and decided to turn it off and things got better, but still felt off.

[Xbob42]

1 minute ago, legend said:

 

 

I will try this. I was extremely confused by the performance because let's face it, this is not a graphically demanding game. I had the UI selected frame limiter on in the game and decided to turn it off and things got better, but still felt off.

Yeah, it looks like a high-res PS3 game with some nice modern work on top of it. I think it looks great but it should be running at like 500 FPS on a mid-range PC! Was so glad that SpecialK worked as well as it did. Worked best for me in proper fullscreen mode, whichever mode you use you have to disable the in-game frame limiter so it'll turn off both and swap to SpecialK's, which is the best in the biz as far as I know.

[thedarkstark]

Damn 12 hours? I stopped at 5 and thought I HAD to be near the end. I was expecting 2 max.

 

Really has me wondering exactly how long the game is? Most games like this tap out around 60-70hours + an addition 20-30 for sidequests/end game. I know P5 was longer but that's an exception even for Atlus.

[BloodyHell]

I’m an hour into the demo and I’m so much more excited for the full game now. Just blown away. I was excited about this all along, but now I have major hype!

 

I had thought I was near the end of the demo at the top of the tower lol

[BloodyHell]

This year I didn’t think anything would come close to Rebirth for me, but already this world is challenging that assumption. Not saying I’ll prefer this, but it has that possibility.

 

I generally dislike the whole setting of Persona, but like the story and dungeons, but this is already so much more interesting than Persona to me. 

[Best]

I personally believe this game deserves a 95 in the reviews coming up. What do you think @BloodyHell?

[legend]

10 hours ago, thedarkstark said:

Damn 12 hours? I stopped at 5 and thought I HAD to be near the end. I was expecting 2 max.

 

Really has me wondering exactly how long the game is? Most games like this tap out around 60-70hours + an addition 20-30 for sidequests/end game. I know P5 was longer but that's an exception even for Atlus.

 

Not sure if it will be the same, but Persona 5 Royal is over a hundred hours and I think my vanilla playthrough was around 100.

[legend]

Just finished the demo. (A little annoyed, because they seem to stop you on a day, rather than story progress and it's possible I could have eeked out a bit further in the dungeon but decided to return to heal up rather than do a big fight with no mana and then it ended)

 

After watching their demo reel at the end, I feel like it raises the odds the universe is directly connected to persona even more. It could just be fan service but...

 

Spoiler

At one point, the MC yells "Persona master!" and then later they show Jack Frost.

 

[BloodyHell]

15 hours ago, legend said:

Just finished the demo. (A little annoyed, because they seem to stop you on a day, rather than story progress and it's possible I could have eeked out a bit further in the dungeon but decided to return to heal up rather than do a big fight with no mana and then it ended)

 

After watching their demo reel at the end, I feel like it raises the odds the universe is directly connected to persona even more. It could just be fan service but...

 

  Hide contents

At one point, the MC yells "Persona master!" and then later they show Jack Frost.

 

I had the exact same problem. I thought I would be able to go to the last day, so I started doing some quests, and it cut me off with 8 days to go. 
 

But I bought the game as soon as the demo ended. I really, really enjoyed the game.

 

I’m not really a graphics guy, but I was shocked how fuzzy some of the backgrounds are, especially considering the graphics and cell shaded art style. It shouldn’t be that demanding. The art style really is beautiful though, and I really enjoy the characters (which is a big change from Persona).

 

Im really looking forward to getting deeper into the persona system. I may replay the demo and see if I can beat the dragon I avoided the first time. 
 

The worst part is now the two week wait to play the full game. I’m so glad they took the persona framework and put it in a setting I actually enjoy. While some of the Persona stories are excellent, I really can’t get into the world or characters. Also, apparently the game has no weird dating system, which is another great choice. If there is romance, I prefer it’s chosen by the writers and told through the story. 
 

I really wish they had let us finish out the time we had to complete the dungeon, instead of just stopping us suddenly. 

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

I played the demo for a couple of hours. Not sure how I feel. Yesterday I also played the demo for FFXVI on PC. Different stories, but similarities in the beginnings where both games a cutscene and dialog heavy, press forward, cut scene and dialog heavy, press forward, cut scene and dialog heavy, repeat, repeat, press x, cutscene and dialog. It’s fine, I guess. 
 

but Metaphor feels like a game that is 2-3 generations old. I like the hand drawn art, but not much else. Metaphor feels like a dated PS2 era JRPG that has recently been remastered. Even the UI takes up so much space as if they’re trying to hide that the game was once 4:3. And the clunky, heavy handed way the story is being introduced to me feels a bit jarring. 
 

I will probably play more as stopped just outside of the cave after meeting the scholar/seeker guy and killing a some wolves and birds. So I know am not that far in. I don’t hate the game so far but I am not feeling enthralled by the world or narrative yet. 
 

I do also like the music and voice acting so far. 

[BloodyHell]

7 hours ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

I played the demo for a couple of hours. Not sure how I feel. Yesterday I also played the demo for FFXVI on PC. Different stories, but similarities in the beginnings where both games a cutscene and dialog heavy, press forward, cut scene and dialog heavy, press forward, cut scene and dialog heavy, repeat, repeat, press x, cutscene and dialog. It’s fine, I guess. 
 

but Metaphor feels like a game that is 2-3 generations old. I like the hand drawn art, but not much else. Metaphor feels like a dated PS2 era JRPG that has recently been remastered. Even the UI takes up so much space as if they’re trying to hide that the game was once 4:3. And the clunky, heavy handed way the story is being introduced to me feels a bit jarring. 
 

I will probably play more as stopped just outside of the cave after meeting the scholar/seeker guy and killing a some wolves and birds. So I know am not that far in. I don’t hate the game so far but I am not feeling enthralled by the world or narrative yet. 
 

I do also like the music and voice acting so far. 

It steals a lot from persona, and personas look and UI really hasn’t changed in a very long time. 
 

I personally only really started to click with the story when I got back to the city for the funeral. Everything else is stuff I enjoy about Persona, and none of the stuff I hate (high school setting, going to school every day, etc). I absolutely despise 

 

but yeah, if you don’t like the systems and look of Persona, you probably won’t like this. 

[legend]

8 hours ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

I played the demo for a couple of hours. Not sure how I feel. Yesterday I also played the demo for FFXVI on PC. Different stories, but similarities in the beginnings where both games a cutscene and dialog heavy, press forward, cut scene and dialog heavy, press forward, cut scene and dialog heavy, repeat, repeat, press x, cutscene and dialog. It’s fine, I guess. 
 

but Metaphor feels like a game that is 2-3 generations old. I like the hand drawn art, but not much else. Metaphor feels like a dated PS2 era JRPG that has recently been remastered. Even the UI takes up so much space as if they’re trying to hide that the game was once 4:3. And the clunky, heavy handed way the story is being introduced to me feels a bit jarring. 
 

I will probably play more as stopped just outside of the cave after meeting the scholar/seeker guy and killing a some wolves and birds. So I know am not that far in. I don’t hate the game so far but I am not feeling enthralled by the world or narrative yet. 
 

I do also like the music and voice acting so far. 

 

The engine technology is 100% dated. They pretty much just reused the Persona 5 engine and did nothing new with it, and Persona 5 was originally released on both PS3 and PS4. (Similarly, this game is also on PS4).

 

Setting that aside though, did you ever play Persona 5? I kind of hated it when I first started it for similar reasons (way too cutscene heavy at the beginning and I wasn't enjoying what was there) but it slowly grew on me until by the end it was one of my favorite JRPGs. As mentioned, this game is pretty much "Persona: Fantasy edition" so it will probably follow a similar style and you may find then you end up really liking it by the end.  But you would have to commit a non-trivial number of hours to find out.

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

1 hour ago, legend said:

Setting that aside though, did you ever play Persona 5? I kind of hated it when I first started it for similar reasons (way too cutscene heavy at the beginning and I wasn't enjoying what was there) but it slowly grew on me until by the end it was one of my favorite JRPGs. As mentioned, this game is pretty much "Persona: Fantasy edition" so it will probably follow a similar style and you may find then you end up really liking it by the end.  But you would have to commit a non-trivial number of hours to find out.

I have not played any of the Persona games. Yeah I assume that means some people started the game and immediately felt like being wrapped in a familiar comfy blanket. I don’t have the existing reverence for the style. I don’t hate it, but I don’t love it yet. 

[Xbob42]

Alright enough of that BS, now the real question: Did you fight, or did you flee?

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

2 hours ago, Xbob42 said:

Alright enough of that BS, now the real question: Did you fight, or did you flee?

when I first fell down into the canyon? 
 

I tried fighting twice and died very quickly. So my third time I just ran. 

[Xbob42]

21 minutes ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

when I first fell down into the canyon? 
 

I tried fighting twice and died very quickly. So my third time I just ran. 

Huh. I fought and was surprised that I won! Some decent loot for doing so.