The Metaphor ReFantazio Demo Is Actually PERFECT | REVIEW 

The demo has been a real joy, the quality of the voice acting is impressive, give me FF16 vibes. I’m liking all the characters so far, the combat rocks too.

This shit is about to be so good. Like amazing. This story has me locked in. The combat is deeper than i thought it would be. The archetypes are very customizable. VA is top notch. Im loving everything about this game.

I like the demo, its nice not being playing as a highschool student every now and then like Persona and SMT

7:45 that's Inaccurate. You have to purchase/unlock each archetype for every character individually.

Its perfect if you ignore all the performance issues. Atlus has already tweeted that they're looking into the issues, so hopefully, there's a fix for day 1. But all platforms suffer from inconsistent framerate and stutter.

The only gripe I have is that i wish i could turn off the bottom right Hud, especially when exploring and not in dungeons. Regardless, it looks great. This game will take me straight to monster hunter wilds.

I’m thinking of going for another playthrough soon just cause it’s so good.

Metaphor: ReFantazio GOTY 2024

Metaphor is almost like a spiritual successor to Persona even though the series isn't even dead.

anyone else a bit bothered about how ridiculously big the portraits are in the textboxes. They should shrink them by about half the size lol

I stopped playing the demo halfway because it was just so good. I'll keep playing when the full game is released.

The battle music is ridiculously good. Found myself sitting on the post battle exp page, just to hear the choir come in.

The transition to Louis entering the Cathederal is jarring and has me concerned, its like a whole cutscene is missing

storyteller because I am still learning the mechanic

Hands down the best demo ever made and it's not even close

I like the battle on this rather than persona in persona you can change exploit the enemy weakness all by yourself but you cant in this so you need to build your team

there’s a DEMO? I know what i’m doing this weekend

The game is good but far from perfect. It has some glaring performance issues on PC and console unfortunately. I hope it can be improved before the official release otherwise $70 is a tall ask imo. The game itself mechanically, story and characters yeah its quite good I am liking it quite a bit, combat as well. It's faster paced with less downtime. I do like it.

I think the gameplay is great & the designs are really cool, but there are some flaws too. I'm not as high on the visuals as you are. There's a lot of cool looking spots & the 2D cutscenes are excellent, but certain areas can have a lot of low quality textures and look really poor (mixed in right next to some high quality stuff sprinkled in). Then you have the lack of any AA whatsoever, making edges around everything shimmer like crazy & look jagged, even running at 4k on PC. The game's visuals are somewhere below P3R & SMT V Vengeance, though I like the art design & presentation better. Regarding other things, It also feels weird going back to not having everything fully voiced. I didn't expect so much text again, though it's not some huge issue. They made a big deal of the MC being able to talk for once, but even he's relatively quiet unless a dialogue choice comes available. Outside of that, I was initially really worried about performance on PC, as it was terrible at first (even when I dramatically lowered settings). Thankfully, they released a patch & I'm able to run things at 4k/60, so all good there! Aside from those minor complaints, the game is still going to be really fun. The combat & archetype mechanics, combined with the social systems is going to be strong as always. The story also has potential. It's not too crazy yet, but the voice acting is great & the cutscenes go a nice job setting things up. Can't wait to see where it all leads!

I wouldn't go into the SMT games expecting Persona level story telling and characters because if you do you're going to be extremely disappointed. SMT is more about the hard battles and dungeon crawling.

Have you played any of the trails games?

Nah lmao😂

Seen some say"it looks like a ps3 game" like shut up

im not rlly hype about it might get it a year later or so when its cheaper not a big fan of the aesthethics and characters ive seen so far these armor thingys look weird too

My only complaint is the protagonist. I really hope he has some secret bad ass power up to make up for his weak, fruity, soft ass design

Finished the demo today, and the following are my impressions. Spoilers, obviously. - Has autosave, which will probably save my ass at some point - Unlike most Atlus games, has audio setting to balance BGM, voice, etc. - Played on a PS4 Pro, graphics and performance were good, no long load times - They added item sorting (seems like in every Atlus game I find myself in mid battle scrolling though a hundred randomly named things to find that one item that cures dizzy or whatever, now they’re type sorted under tabs) - OTOH, I found equipment menus a bit hard to read. Everything owned is shown, whether it’s equipped by another party member or not, with no indicator that it’s equipped until you select it. Also, it doesn’t tell you how much a weapon or armor piece improves your armor rating, just has an up arrow. - Added a front row, back row combat mechanic (like in classic rpgs) that’s actually pretty fun - Combat swings and animations feel a little sluggish, but you can press a button to make them instant (like in SMTV) - There is actual crimson blood, graphic throat slitting, etc. Cool. - Pacing felt “off” somehow, hard to explain, it just didn’t flow into a narrative that felt like it had momentum - There is very little of that Atlus fun, humor, or creativity until near the 5hr mark, when some weird shit goes down, other than that, feels like boilerplate fantasy rpg - I wasn’t feeling the music. Battle music was cool, but the transformation scenes, which were overall weak imo, and the new blue room piano music were insipid. - Main thing I’m noticing, having recently played through P3-5 and SMTV is that this game didn’t make me “feel” anything. No laughs, no tears, no excitement. Only moving scene for me was when Gallica stridently swears her loyalty. - Speaking of Gallica, is it just me or she the least attractive fairy ever? I mean, this company puts cute fairies in every game, Pixie, Hua Po, Titania, it’s like their trademark. Gallica is tough gal and a less annoying navigator than any of the previous ones imo, but as plain Jane as a fairy can be. Aren’t there laws against that in Japan? - The game features themes of discrimination, racism, hierarchy, etc. and a number of what seem to be trans characters. If that kind of thing offends you, might wanna skip this one. - The new blue room feels uninspired. Every one before now had atmosphere and interesting attendants. This one feels empty, with some trans guy who apparently writes utopian novels. Not only that, but I found the whole archetypes progression system FAR less interesting than demon negotiation and collecting. Of course, all these are just first impressions. Overall, I think this will be a fun fantasy rpg with some Atlus gameplay mechanics (nearly all the same mechanics, most even mapped to the same buttons as before) but it won’t rise to the level of a Persona or Shin Megami Tensei title. The music, the lack of humor, the difficulty with varying the mood of the scenes (it’s all one serious note) gives the impression that the devs were out of their element here. After playing the demo I’m frankly not sure if I’ll get it on release or wait for a sale, but I’ll definitely play it at some point.

I'm glad there is still a market for this style of game. Including you Alex. But nothing about this makes me even wanna try it. But that's just me. Either way I'm glad people still enjoy games that could have come out on ps3

I'm about 7 hours into the demo, so I assume I'm coming up on the end. It takes a lot of confidence to release such a meaty chunk of a game like this. Knowing how much Atlus games typically open up after the 10-15 hour mark, I imagine there's a TON of surprises in store for players. As per usual, the UI, music, character design, art design, VA, combat, and customization are off the charts. The story is a bit confusing at first, but once the big Louis scene happens, things really start to fall into place. It feels very contemporary and thoughtful in a way that's consistent with what the Persona series is always pulling off, and the vibes are a unique, elevated approach to the low magic/medieval sword-and-board fantasy you get with something like GoT or the recent FFXVI. Most notably, it simply FEELS good to play and exist in, despite some of the more dour, contemplative motifs of what the story is presenting thus far. I've already found myself getting a bit emotional at some of the excellently illustrated and storyboarded FMV scenes. Speaking of which; there are already more bespoke cutscenes in this demo than the first half of any Persona or SMT game, which I think is super engaging and a sign as to how much focus Atlus are placing on creating an impactful, deep narrative. The heightened level of explicit violence is quite surprising, and I'm pleasantly taken aback by the elements of meta narrative occurring. Once the full release of this game gets into the hands of more people, I believe it's going to be a big deal and spark a lot of conversations about both how JRPG's are constructed and the things that this game is choosing to make statements on. It sounds gauche and cliche, but this is shaping up to be an important game for not only fun's sake but for the bigger cultural climate of current society and the gaming industry.

I loved the demo, but the story got me a tad bit underwhelmed. I am not sure the writers are ready to leave high school.

I tried the demo, but I couldn't get into it and I played the previous persona games. THIS JUST BORING

GOTY my ass. It’s just persona 6 re-skintazio’d. Relaaaaaax.

No it's not! Metaphor:ReFantazio demo is boring as af!! Hope Persona 6 comes out soon.....like next year soon

The game is super political. Main character's best friend the prince gets cursed into a coma while their father the King is assassinated. Now nation wait for who to be next in the Throne via election magic shows which of 3 top possible candidates hold the peoples' hearts. Not to mention the mysterious book the main character has that describes another world, our world. While this game's world, monsters are called "humans" 🤔