Metaphor: ReFantazio Review - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Hello gamers welcome to the kind of funny games cast for Monday October 7th 2024 It's me Andy Cortez and I'm joined by Barrett Courtney blessing. How do you junior and Michael Hyam? What does it maybe let's just get straight to it? Okay, what'd y'all eat for breakfast?

You don't want to know that? That'll locks bagel I've been doing that lately there's a sandwich shop around the corner from us I've been going to you and the locks bagel is like kind of expensive as a mr. Pickles. I don't want to doxor at you know I mean, but no, I it's not that one.

Okay. I've gone to one that just opened up like not that long ago And the locks bagels fire, but it's also $11. Oh, I know I don't think about exactly the one Everybody this is a company games cast and what I'm excited to talk about today is a big review and all the scores are out right now For this little video game called metaphor, but I found out you We don't have pronounced actually my ideas Michael Hyam who also reviewed it for IGN Well, how do you pronounce the word the second word I say refontazio refontazio refontazio? Okay, that's beautiful Each every weekday we get together talk about the biggest previews reviews and topics video games live on YouTube twitch and podcast services around The globe and if you love what we do, please support us with a kind of funny membership on patreon or YouTube to get all of our shows Ad-free watches record them live and get a daily exclusive show for a chance to be part of the show submit your thoughts and opinions as YouTube super chats as we go So make sure you get your super chats in because this is gonna I'm sure there's gonna be a lot of well How do you compare this part to persona and how do you compare there's gonna be a lot of those questions and we'll be able to answer all those as the big JRPG turn-based and especially Andy and I have a lot of answers I've got a lot of stuff to say I've got a lot of stuff to say housekeeping you already got Rogers Silent Hill to review on K of GD that's not true That was from last week But you did great last week On a flight, you know, you just got back last night, so yeah You already got on games daily the ex-cast takeover with my hair is talking about the big halo news but time to talk about how to fix halo I was like can I do another headline that's how to fix halo?

I feel like we've done that yeah a lot that was pretty much like 90% of the X-house episodes anyway Um if you're kind of a member you can get today's Gregway, which is actually Madeline Stanley's Gregway our up and cover So go check that out and you know today's Gregway is actually gonna be Greg reviewing the Coke flavored Oreos Oh, like three three months ago or something though No, it's it's like they have like the Oreo flavored Coke, which he did do right now He's finally gonna eat the Coke flavored or I thought he was gonna review the Ghostbusters crispy cream which how does how is Ghost bus is still so relevant. It's really it's really trying to know it's like fetch, you know But if that's was actually a thing like 40 years ago, and then people are like trying to bring it back and it's like not man Here's hot take what if Ghostbusters is Avatar but for boomers what would have to like blue avatar? Where's my people so like yeah? Yeah, it's like we're feeling a lot of that's a really hot take right there Thank you to our patreon producers Carl Jacobs and Delaney twining appreciate all of y'all support today We're about to buy new world to turn them, but we'll tell you about that later for now.

Let's get to the topic of the show Metaphor re-fantasia say role-playing game developed by Studio Zero and published by Atlas the first original game from Studio Zero since its formation 2016 by the Persona series director Katsuya Hashino character designer Shiger noi so a jima and composer shouji meguro and I Poof I got a lot to say about this video again. Oh, yeah, I'm sure you're looking forward to my opinions But let's get to everybody else's opinions first because of course Beren's been talking about metaphor you fantasia for a long time, but if I toss you however You want to say it sounds like a like a kumbia band or something like that. Oh, I love I love Like I love kumbia. You like kumbia like my favorite Yeah If you've noticed at any time people are talking about when we've had our games caps What's going on for the rest of the year?

Barrett's always singing the praises of metaphor and get ready for metaphor You find out yo, and this is like gonna be the one that everybody needs to check out and then all the reviews came out this morning And it turns out Barrett was kind of right and so was a lot of other people who've been really really excited about metaphor Um, I want to go through the panel right here If you're comfortable giving it a score give it a score on the kind of funny scale which is zero to ten And you got the point five's in there as well. We include zero can I give some zero out of ten? Yeah, no, I think it's just one I think it's the lowest thing nothing can be below golem Here's the thing it's a 20 point scale, which means either we can get something a point five out of ten or you're right Or a ten point five yeah, yeah, yeah, you know We gotta figure that zero, but like if you just eliminate those zero point five is making a zero I'm down put on the meeting. We'll talk about it Yeah, yeah, give me a review score give me a quick little blurb about how you feel about the game And then we will dive deeper into all of the things that make this game either great or terrible And then make sure you get your super chats in everybody blessing.

How long have you played this game? What would you give it if you're comfortable giving it a score and what do you think about? I saw a lot of chatter in chat for the episode man How long is blessing played this game? Has he beaten this game?

Is he gonna give this game a nine out of ten like all the other games? The answer is yes I'm not right Metaphor Refantagio I do feel this one of the right occasions for me We're like having not finished a thing yet. I know I'm gonna finish it I do feel comfortable enough to give it a score because I have played 70 hours a metaphor Refantagio long time and I'm in the final dungeon the reason I'm not beating it is because I got other review codes And like my final week of playing drag ball, you know sparking zero Yeah, I had to switch over to that because that reviews coming to priorities I was one of those where you go. All right, well bears got this exactly like I need very Finish we're gonna have my go home on and so like I could have either taken that entire week to like stretch and like You know just work on metaphor and have that done or I could play drag and ball and some other games that I'm reviewing Then we'll talk about yet And so I play 70 hours.

I have I'm in the final dungeon. I am utterly in love with this video game I am gonna give it a nine out of ten nine out of ten is the score I'm gonna give it This is one that I'll say if you're a persona fan You know exactly where you're gonna get into in terms of gameplay loop But I don't know if you know what you're getting into in terms of how they have translated that game play loop into something that I think Really works in ways that are unexpected You know Therefore we fantasia what is special about it is that shift in in genre the shift in like what the world is It is fantasy it is like medieval fantasy in a way that you know and in like you guys for the most part Know me as far as what my tastes are yeah, hi fantasy usually isn't my jam I like the modern presenting of a persona. I like a sci-fi setting. I like a cyberpunk I we're talking about Dragon Age a few weeks ago What are you guys are giving your preview and I'd mention like yo right now I think I'm becoming a fantasy sicko and this game is a game that's doing it for me where I'm so in love with how they're treating the Different locales within the game.

It's very globe-trotty. You're exploring the world in the game and like you're going to different locales Being different types of people the game's really political in a lot of ways in a good way, right? Where the premise and the thrust of it is an election that is happening in the world and people are running to be king And it's really cool to see them translate that and look at modern conversations that people are having like in our real world Right in translating that to what does that look like in a pamcy setting when you're talking about things like wealth distribution Or you're talking about things like you know power or talking about things like race and all these different topics They do such a good job of trying to paint a full picture of you know What an election system looks like in our world and what that looks like in a fantasy world I think a lot of that stuff now they tackle it is really fun my biggest thing that I love about this game compared to the persona games Is the combat system and the party development? I think this is the most fun as far as the Alice games I played which are persona three reload through persona five royal This is the most fun.

I had overall those overall those I want to talk about fun in place the most fun I've had for sure and the reason for that is because they give you so many options and how you want to build your party and level up your Party they you know I think you know they want to give you a bit more I guess control as a player right where every time you level up your main Character they're like hey Here's that like with the stat into one of the things and like actually build who you want this character to be as far as like what their strengths are But on top of that there's the archetype system Which is actually replacing the persona system where instead of catching persona like Pokemon where you talk to them and like convince them and join your team It is more so about a more set amount of Archetypes and leveling them up to gain abilities and being able to kind of mix and match what archetype parties you want to build and what abilities you want to main retain for a certain party members It's really deep and really cool when you get into then what becomes like dungeon exploration and side quests and like I love how many Dungeon there this game I love that most of the dungeons have some kind of strategy They want you to focus in on like there's just a lot of refinement when it comes to the gameplay of this compared to the previous big Atlas RPGs and I've had such a blast I am I've lost days to this game where I wake up on a Sunday morning I boot up the game and I don't turn it off until the night time like Full day you said you said you're doing around 12 to 14 hour sessions and stuff like that Yeah, yeah, like I knew you were in when there was a weekend we had finally gotten like Zelda echoes of wisdom had come out and You know like we got to buy our own copies and I knew that you were gonna try to prioritize that game over the weekend Yeah, and then you texted me like man. I was gonna try to play Zelda, but all I can play and think about is metaphors Yeah, I knew I was like, okay, yeah, I'm so invested with this role. I'm so invested in the story I have like nitpicks on things, you know, and it's one of those things where I know there's gonna be a metaphor royale Ultimate edition that will add voice acting to social directors. Yeah, there's gonna be some kind of cut that like because one of my things is man I wish there was way more voice acting There's a lot of voice acting don't get me wrong But coming off a persona three reload and person on five Royal where social links have voice acting for each of the times Hanging out with your party members This game is one of the ones where they only have it for the first time you hang out in the last time you hang out And so they're like swaths of things where I'm like man I feel like voice acting would give somebody's characters a lot more a life Especially in these scenarios where I think you really want to have voice acting in there that and then like there are some visual things As far as like the environment that reads a bit messy to me I don't have the words for it.

I feel like there's a bit of noise they do a lot of like crunchiness with how the world is rendered in some spots Yeah, yeah, that's what I noticed when Barrett was playing here at the studio And I saw the TV I was like, oh, that doesn't look great And then I booted up on my PC. I was like, oh shit looks real good with a lot sharper I think that maybe there's some work on the console versions I'm playing kids 5 to be clear but that's that I do love so many of the art style choices like the characters look fantastic Especially in the key art, but yeah, I'm having a blast with this game. I probably have 10 to 20 hours Oh, I'm 1000 gonna be on yeah, I'm Michael Hyam yo you reviewed metaphor Refantasio We've got a 9 out of 10 did what would you give it on the kind of funny school with a point five? Yeah, well shit.

I don't know if I could say that no Okay, Tom Mark said that shit or Dan I don't know if it was dance able to know Tom who enforced that but I have to stick with a 9 because I am I legally obligated I am professionally obligated to stick with my score of 9 out of 10 I respect and IGN and but anyway, it was one of those games where I finish this and I had to do a lot of reflection where My emotions about it and then combining that with how I experienced like the game natural gameplay experiences There are less I mentioned there are some shortcomings that I see throughout the game So it wasn't there are aspects of the game I wasn't like necessarily blown away by but I think it gets all the important parts right so in my review I kind of laid out as this is a refinement of the Atlas RPG formula So with social links you it's a lot more purposeful You know there's very little time wasted because even when you're traveling from place to place and it takes days off of your calendar Because you're still using the daily calendar system There are always things that you can do to feed into another game places now I know all about social links Michael, but yeah people in the chat. Yeah, what's a social link? Well in this game they're called bonds or followers and they're just it's a social same element where you you interact with an NPC Are you interact with a supporting character and you like progress and you build levels with them and you see parts of their story like a Personal story their personal lives kind of progress and you as the main character help them through a specific piece of their life So by the time you finish their social link or their follower bond level You see this complete arc of someone who may have like gotten over like something really traumatic or figure out a problem with like their family or something and it all feeds into the same themes that the game tackles in the main story and Metaphor feels very purposeful and like every bond does feed into the same themes when you hang out with them You're going to level them up because in previous persona games. You had like waste time like oh, let's get lunch cool I got some extra points.

I don't know when this the social links are level up But yeah, they got some like friendship points essentially. Yeah, they also don't do the thing We had where you want to be holding a certain person to like get the extra yeah, there's no archonists anymore So it's a lot more efficient is what I say like I paid for your lunch I'm not good I always got him the same wrong that he always wants it's like three times from your level But there's a lot more efficient So it has the same systems, but you engage with them in a much more effective manner So you don't really waste time and this game is very good about not wasting time So you'll also upgrade your social stat points reading books interacting with the world that stuff is a lot more deliberate too They show you the points you're working towards like the things you're working towards so everything's like clearly laid on the table So okay, I know what I'm gonna do with my day-to-day in addition to the side quests and dungeons in the main story So gameplay wise, it's a lot more efficient of combat system I think with archetypes it's a job system and it offers a lot of flexibility that atlas RPG time in the past The dungeon design I'm a little iffy on like someone like pretty repetitive. It's like okay There's a template and I follow it. It's fine battles are cool You see a lot of the same enemies, but you do have more challenges in terms of their specific ways this game wants you to engage with The systems and it's like hey you figure this out as if it's a puzzle like this enemy is reflecting all magic attacks What are you gonna do?

It's all you want to do physical tax well, they're strong defense So how you gonna do that and there's a lot of spells and a lot of ways you can create your party so you can create your own advantages So there's a there's an exciting level of gameplay that atlas hadn't done before but the other day it is an atlas RPG Which means what does the story have to say about the rest of our world and having finished metaphor Refontazio it is a very very powerful story Not just because it is embedded in politics and it says a lot of the right things and it doesn't doesn't just say the right things It says it with a demonstrating and understanding of the complexities of the material that it is working with So I think like there's lines where highs may talks about diversity and also their stuff But he has a line that is exactly the thesis of affirmative action without having to say it and so it's like this game knows that okay diversity Is step one there's another element to this because of the social dynamics that you see across this world There's another element that we need to dig into and in that dialogue he acknowledges it and I was like okay cool We're not just like we're not just going surface level these sorts of things And I think that's really important because metaphor does have these grand statements that would have fallen flat if it hadn't demonstrated understanding of these Things prior to those big grand moments But there's also another element to it that I think anyone who finishes game will realize that There's a meta narrative to this game and that's all I'm gonna really say about that I don't know how Barrett I'm sure you're gonna be a little bit more I'm gonna whack some poetic yeah But there's there's another layer to this that speaks to us in terms of how we consume fiction and how fiction affects our real lives And how that can be inspiration to do things to become a better person or to do something better for your world The game opens with that early on there are the first things this game says early on there was those there are those immediate hints that There's something else also happening here Which I thought was really it definitely feels like a play on like the opening of person of five like even OG Where it opens up with the vo like this game is a work of fiction and like it has you sign the agreement But I feel like they do it kind of in this way being more aware of it and having a purpose behind it kind of thing So no no, I think that's the last thing I want to say for now is Yeah, that extra layer that this game incorporates is very smart to me I think a lot of folks I was on to say they kind of saw it coming I was still kind of surprised by the twists and the ways it we've all those things in and it was like I had a couple moments where this game got this game fucking gone Oh, yeah, and it wasn't even like oh my god This tragic thing happened to a character it was more like hey this game is speaking to me directly in a way that very few games Do I haven't felt felt since like and Walker I'm fancy 14 where this game is trying to reach out to the player themselves and tell Them something and I think that's very powerful. I think they do extremely well with metaphor. Awesome. Well Well, I'm excited to dive deeper on deeper in later on when it comes to systems and combat and differences between you know If it's a first time persona player hopping in or something like that I'm excited to dive deeper in with you all but bear it you have played and beaten metaphor Refontazio, how many hours have you played?

What would you give it on the kind of funny rating scale and give me some of your thoughts? So going into this game I was kind of both excited and apprehensive right kind of for the same reason Some of the leads behind this game are some of the same visionaries that helps bring us on a 3% of 4% of 5 right? And then they left as we said earlier They left the persona team before persona 5 even came out in the West to start at this new studio and start working on this title So on one hand, I'm very excited to see what the OG kind of persona team has to follow up persona 5 with Do we know do we really know why like is it just a we wanted to work on something new sort of thing? I don't I don't know if like the full story is like really out there in terms of like why this was all happening But I the vibe I get is that like they've been working on personas and spurson of three at least like some of these leads Maybe even a bit beforehand and it the vibe I get is they just want to work on something new And on the other side of what maybe apprehensive was like persona 5 was the game that got me back into JRPGs and RPGs in general And I was with the what blessing was talking about with a like high fantasy setting the slight changes in like gameplay and dungeon calling systems Even if this game was great, I just was a little bit nervous that like it still wasn't gonna hit for me Now being on the other side of this 87 hour journey for myself I can say that I had nothing to worry about and I can confidently say that this is a 10 out of 10 master piece on the kind of Funny review scale and it is easily my game of the year I think if you're an Atlas fan not just a persona fan, but an Atlas fan I think this is a must play.

I think if you're a fan of the genre, I think this is a must try Obviously, we'll get into the nitty gritty of Gameplay dungeon calling mechanics, social sim elements, all of this stuff But a kind of big takeaway for myself and how this game feels kind of like a post-mortem for persona 5 to maybe move on from persona Spiritally for these devs was it felt like this game felt like the devs grappling with the idea of art and what makes art successful Art often being used as a mirror, an allegory, a metaphor for our real world lives And with that is art only successful in terms of sales numbers in terms of accolades and Art only successful in terms of sales numbers in terms of accolades Or is art truly successful what it challenges its audience to reflect on its perception of themselves of the world around them their material conditions and makes them really think about what their ideals are and in turn Inspires them to live out those ideals fully to change the world for the better And I think the fact that this game was the first game in a while that is making me think about the medium on that deep of a level Like this is nothing short of a masterpiece to me And so yeah, that's kind of my my overall thoughts I'm gonna end kind of this segment with one of two bold statements handy. I got two bold statements One of them what you told us that sparks. Yeah, we're gonna say the second we're gonna say that one for later on Hopefully when I was faded that they probably don't remember we're gonna say the second bold statement for later on hopefully when less people are watching Less people get angry at me, but the first bold statement I have before we get into the kind of minutio the game is that I think Obviously persona 6 and the newer lead persona team have always had big shoes to fill I no longer think that is because of persona 5 I think that is because of metaphor revenge. I'll show Awesome very very exciting if you all are looking forward to this video game Now you're probably looking forward to it even more excited to dive deeper into metaphor Refauns you with our cast and crew here, but of course you all came from my thoughts obviously Yes, how many hours have you put it to it?

Andy I quit after 10 hours. Oh, hey, you know what? Ten hours here's the thing after like three hours. I was convinced I was like, you know what he tried three hours I respect it.

Yeah, but hey, you know I'm out of time like you know, you know how you feel about that's like some full game sometimes Yeah, now here's what I'll say though. I didn't quit because I didn't like it. I really like this game I don't like it 70 to 80 hours like it. You know what I mean?

I really enjoyed my time with it I enjoyed the characters. I had a great time with with the combat system I know I'm always like shooting on turn base RPGs and stuff that just like turn base combat in general And it's usually just it's the character right just always a joke But I had a great time with it. I really enjoyed the evolutions of it the ways to kind of also include real-time combat to sometimes circumvent What you would be doing in turn base? I had a I had a really good time with it sort of experimenting with what these other roles were with the Archetype system and everything like that finding ways to experiment with different classes and hey You've been a major this whole time, but what if we what if I made you this other sort of warrior type or whatever?

I really enjoyed sort of what the game is doing side quest wise like this is sort of my first game of this style and And again, I think if I had no other game to be playing I would continue to play this game But other things sort of came around I'm like it's a 70 to if this was a 15 hour game I 100% would have eaten it but 70 80 is a lot for me to commit to something that I that I like but don't love right But I still think it's obviously I agree and I totally see where everybody's coming from with all these high-review scores But we'll get we'll get to more about metaphor You found housing and we'll dive deeper into all the systems and the gameplay and combat and characters and all that fun stuff Right after a word from our sponsors this episode is brought to you by New World's a turn Um New World's a thrilling action RPG experience for console and PC players with a vibrant world vast and beautiful setting dynamic real-time action combat And the freedom for players to choose how to forge their destiny combat is skill-based and dynamic incorporating swords guns and sorcery So that you can build one character to rule them all as you explore a turn them and unravel the mysteries of the supernatural island that you can't believe You love playing RPGs alone? You can in New World a turn them or play cooperatively with your friends as you complete quests get better gear and level up Greg played this at summer game fest on PlayStation 5 and was caught off guard by how much he enjoyed it and how many hours He said he could see himself sinking into the final products There's boss fights cool enemies cross play resource gathering and crafting So yeah, this sounds like a great game pre-order New World a turn them now on PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X or S to get the Asoth's soccer wolf mount and prepare for launch on October 15th One quick thing I wanted to hop into is What were some of the small drawbacks that each one of y'all had because I know when we look at our rating scale Ten out of ten masterpiece does not mean a perfect game bear gave this game a ten out ten masterpiece I feel like tears of the kingdom is a masterpiece I feel like aldering is a masterpiece and I can still name about five to ten things that I don't like about those video games But everything else sort of overshadows any of the tiny nippics I'd have bear What were some of the job-backs that you may have with this video game? I think the opening takes a bit I think that is one the only aspect that I think is almost impossible to follow up with persona 5 persona 5 in its first 20 Minutes does such a great job of showcasing what the combat is like showcasing what the stakes are presenting it to you in this like Really stylish package and then it you know takes takes you into the more like traditional RPG opening where you're going into a new Town near the new kid now you're gonna start out on this adventure whereas metaphor does start very like all right You're going into the kingdom You don't really know like who your character is or anybody is yet And you're kind of slowly getting the story kind of like piecemeal to you like over the course of like the first ten hours Of like what we're really going to be about so I think the essentially what people got to play with the demo If you're not if you're like kind of liking the demo, but maybe not fully in love with it I would say like definitely stick with it into the first dungeon like I think my kind of like Bronmer is like the You have to at least try to get through the first dungeon to see how you feel because that's where I knew I was in love with persona 5 was being that first dungeon and I would say that like by the time I finished the first Dungeon for this game on a gameplay level I was definitely way more into it and then it was like the big next story beat after that first dungeon where I was like Okay, now we're starting to get somewhere here that I'm like really interested in and then soon after that That's where I became like really invested in the story and the world and all that stuff So I'm glad you and blessing sort of told me to push past that first segment because I as somebody who is already going in Into a video game like this not necessarily super stoked about what this experience may be I was immediately kind of turned off because I felt like it was very very slow at the beginning and I'm running around a world And they're trying to maybe make me feel like danger or and it's like the first time you get your hands on the six I think it's like the most bizarre part of the game Yeah, because it drops you into the kind of desert place and people have already played the demo So they know what I'm talking about here where it's like you're kind of encouraged to not engage with any of the enemies But you're running around and maybe picking up some items There's a lot of enemies to kind of like weave throughout and stuff and even if you like do the real-time combat against them You're not getting into the turn-based gameplay. It's just like a really weird choice I think to like have your hands on the sticks for the first time into gameplay I would say that is like my biggest criticism of the game were these kind of like opening moments But past that I think it like it only gets better from here I don't think there's any dip past that I'm trying to think if there's anything else like that really sticks out to me in terms of like Big criticisms.

There's probably like a couple of things here and there But that was that was kind of like my big takeaway is like that's the only big criticism I have for the game And for anybody curious I played about five hours on PC and by five hours of the steam deck and it runs okay on the steam deck nothing special But I was really impressed on the PC being able to kind of push it up to the highest resolution and make it look As nice as possible and I enjoyed that experience hi I'm you mentioned that you had some you know draw there are some drawbacks with your game What were they yeah? I think one thing that stood out to me was as I mentioned before is dungeon design I like the fact that there are a lot of dungeons to explore especially through the side quests But you kind of after a while you kind of see like okay This is the template within they're working within you know I enjoy going through the motions of a atlas turn-based combat system I think this is one of them as you said before this is probably the most exciting combat system that they've created But as you go through these dungeons you are going through the same motions for it just it appears a time And I think you know I think back to that was like one of my things against a persona three with reloaded It's like okay. We're going through targets again So you know I kind of autopilot I like I can turn off my brain and just like trudge through the dungeon And I think there's a lot more potential in the combat system They're like I said before there are enemies who challenge you in different ways But I do think it falls into a bit of a formula which you know is it like a wild drawback But it is kind of like okay, I think I know what this game is now So I wasn't like blown away by it, but I was enjoying it And I think there there are moments There are story moments that could have benefited from like I said voice acting or like additional voice acting or could have been like framed It'll bit of a better way to emphasize the fact that this is an important moment So they're like little bits and pieces here in the story I'm like I kind of wish I saw this rather than the screen turning black and then like okay this thing has been I wanted to see that happen. Yeah a blessing you're talking about the voice acting That was like one of that's like the other big like thing that definitely stood out to me is that especially after playing For some three reload that has voice acting for every single like social link and all that stuff It was like a big reminder of like all right this team did not work on person a five-royal or percent of three reload The last game they made was percent of five which did the same thing where you like the first hangout with like reugious voice acted Then hangouts two through nine or not and then voice at the last one the last one is voiced So that was definitely like a oh shit, right?

And so the or litter a little like kind of like modern quality of life stuff that I think it's still like It was like a huge deal or anything But yeah, that is one thing I noticed and like the The main dungeons are cool. They make me do some cool stuff But I think compared to the spectacle of like a p5 It's a it I would say it feels like a step like it maybe a half step But it does have some spectacular moments. Yes, and some of those dungeons have they have their moments But there's a level of familiarity as well say which is a good like that could be a good thing But again like if I'm thinking of a ten that's like I want something that is going to like go above and beyond Where it does go above and above and beyond was like the main story stuff Which I have mentioned before and I guess one other nitpick I was going to mention she it's I had oh I love the story don't get me wrong, but there are moments where it falls into cliches. They're kind of I like this is fine But also I wish you there are moments which I took which it took itself a little bit more seriously Okay towards the end Do you ever like the the final sequences of this game are mind-blowing but there are a few moments where I'm like You didn't really have to do that as a little cheesy, but I'll hold it against it at the end of day It's a power friendship, right?

So but yeah, those are just a couple of things I'm thinking about it like when I give a game a nine out of ten like that's a strong recommendation So a lot of things that I was not too hot on are still they're not I'm not like groveling I wish this game didn't do that or something that was like super hyped up about but they work it fine. Awesome. How about you? Yeah, I mean I think the same things these guys just mentioned I agree with and like the stuff I said before right I think in terms of dungeon crawling the thing that I do like is when you compare it to a person or five or a person Or three-road right like I prefer the way they tackle side quests in this game versus how they do like a momentos or a Tarders 100 where it is like just what like if you haven't played those games right?

I'm a mntos Tarders. They're essentially like these long dungeons that you can return to overtime Yeah, and the way that we think they show handles it is you are essentially going to new locations Like you're taking your runner which is like your big ship has legs That runs very fast you take that usually a trip will be like a day to two days right like you know You'll take those two days get there and then you'll be at a dungeon and then explore it And I like the fact that it is you're getting to also unique locations even though to Michael's point It does it does feel a bit like cut and paste in some aspects right like a lot of the visual design of these dungeons It's like okay. This is definitely dungeon a dungeon type It's definitely like once you're in the side dungeons. I would say it definitely feels very similar to a mementos Tarders and Andy for you It's like it's like the ruins in Elden Ring and then yeah It's like procedurally generated levels and it's all in one dungeon And you're kind of going back to it throughout like either done like kind of level grind and like all this stuff And then I think I do prefer this way of presenting it There's no like one-to-one of a mementos in this game.

These are just like Dungeons and to Michael's point right like I think I think there's a more refined version of this I think it's a step forward But I think because they're going for it right and trying to have all these different cool side dungeons It is a thing where there's a bit left to be desired in terms of the polish of it the uniqueness of each of the dungeons Maybe I get my creature the dungeon something that's going to elevate the entire thing But I do love the loop of when you get a side usually when you get a side quest you were just talking to a random person in town That's like oh man the monster ate my dad and he's like oh we can call the monster for you and your homie Galica Who is like a fairy creature should be like oh there's a guy in the tavern you can talk to you That's gonna give you a clue on how to beat the monster So like you get the side quest you go the tavern is every single one you get side quest you go to the tavern you talk to the Informant the informant will be like yeah, I'm on there. I heard that if you get some fire Fucking up with fire if you try to punch it it'll fuck you if you try to punch it don't punch it But like if you say in the back row which we'll get to that he's such an arc yeah Yeah, it's in the back row we'll do more damage so you guys like the Formant talk to you Yeah, then you go to the dungeon you'll take a day trip go there and then you go through the dungeon You get to the end it's usually like nine times at the final boss that you fight and Galico Let's you know 40 times at your your you know party made it is low on health. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah Oh, I know I know Let me introduce you to a character named Morgana sort of I saw somebody in Chatsay Galica is such an improvement over Morgana I was like oof. I can't imagine how that was because like there are more gossinators Yeah, I like both more Like way like more like the same shit over and over again especially in those like first 23 hours Yeah, holy shit shut up dude.

Yeah, I experienced that he was what I'm hearing There were definitely a lot of moments where I was kind of thrown off by the the quality of NPC chatter Kind of didn't really matter what was being said or what the context was but they were always just like huh sounds good And it could have been a positive or a negative reaction to something like me There's a lot of those like a little bit of filler. Yeah, just a little barks Yeah here and there But Galica definitely is going to let you know a lot if somebody's hurt or like if somebody's low on health or you know They're cursed or they have a disinfectant and then whatever. Yeah, like I think the dungeon stuff I like I like the direction they're heading I think there's still a destination to get to but I think we'll get there like I did enjoy like having them be more Staying alone as opposed to like one long time I'm going through and then the other thing all shout out Like I mentioned before right like there's a bit of noise in the environment that I'm not the biggest fan of visually When I'm playing on PS5 then there's also like a lot of particle effects in the game I think that's gonna come down to just taste wise like if you fuck with that if you don't I early on I was like why there's so many part of effects. I could not take my eyes off the me Maglin air it is the maglin air, but like it's everywhere Yeah, I got used to it over time and like I kind of stopped noticing it but I definitely have the thing where I'm like man I don't know.

I don't know if they needed that much magma in the Initially it heard blessing till Barrett I maybe like within the first week of them playing it how Overwhelming and overbearing the UI don't get me wrong the ui's freaking fantastic But those first moments of walking around and seeing the people oh yeah, you would see like a lot of like different pop ups And that is something that definitely kind of hit me initially like oh by there's a lot of noise on the screen right now And I'm not talking like just magma particles I just mean there's a lot of I'm getting sort of like But I got used to it pretty quickly and I think the just hopping into a menu is a treat like there's so much artistry there I will say coming off of persona five that if you love persona five like this is more persona five for you Like in a lot of ways like they're taking a lot of the learnings and making that game Like I've got translates the visual as well where what we're talking about in terms of crowd chatter I'm pretty sure they have a lot of stuff going on in persona five with that and yeah Like even in UI like I like so much how the UI looks in this game Which is not a surprise because atlas but even in just like in like turns turns visions in combat look so good Initiating combat. Yeah, and then she and combat like the pause menu looks so clean squat Yeah, some of the synthesis attack here. Oh, yeah, like, you know, there's so much cool visualization I also one thing I really appreciate it and I didn't necessarily expect because turn-based Combat can be very like you're used to saying the same animations You're used to kind of getting like similar barks or whatever But I really appreciated that the critical attacks at whenever they would happen just based on RNG or based on how powerful your characters are the critical Tax have a unique animation and I thought that was really awesome and well done There's always like little details that they like really pour over to make it always feel fresh and not have like the Same kind of tempo in a fight like over and over again. So I don't want to get into spoilers.

Obviously we won't be spoiling anything but Talk as much as you can that you feel like spoiler-free about the different companions that you all are getting and Whether you would compare them to other video games companions I think that's maybe an easy way to put the audience to kind of understand what's going on I love this crew so much They are the heart and soul that drive the story and that's kind of the way it is with party-based RPGs, right? It kind of lives and dies by the cast and crew that you're working with one thing I'll say about the main character is like one of the big improvements is this character talks? Yeah, and they're like moments. He doesn't talk that much, but when he speaks, it's like oh shit It feels like a moment It feels important and I really like the main voice actor too because he's he just sounds like a young adult like a young person But when he like stands up and says something.

Yeah, it's just like oh this is a Understated, but yeah, there's a very good like anime protagonist who comes from nothing But then like when he has those kind of big moments like yeah, I like that it just sounds like a normal person to me But everyone else is funny because the main protagonist has like an American accent Everyone else is around as a British accent. It's really fun. It might be because of a stripe Yeah, yeah, cuz you don't really interact well But the this cast and crew is very very good I think everyone kind of represents like different walks of life you have There are companions that you get later on the game But we can't talk about but I will say that you get one of every you get different tribes throughout your entire party and You get their backstories that relate to their tribe too So it's not just like oh look at us We have a diverse cast of every tribe in the game But you also dive into who they are where they come from why they are yeah, so you yeah The game makes good on that premise as well say so they drive the story. They're wonderful characters They have their moments even though this is a game that is about this grand narrative about this election about becoming king about changing the world I say my review that this game still takes the time to let that companionship loss among the party members And it's it's a tricky thing to bounce right because persona games are such personal stories where you are dealing with personal problems and traumas And of course, there's a bigger picture that feeds into persona But with medfor it's kind of a flip where the priority is that big picture the personal moments kind of I would say fall by the way But they're yeah, they're they're secondary to everything else But even with that when you have these rank eight social links with your party members There are moments that really fucking hit yeah Because it speaks to who that character is and feeds into the larger theme at the same time So they kind of like kill two birds with one stone And I just want to like shout out a couple of them that we can't talk about hi Boy, I fucking love him so much like I didn't think that they would be able to like sojiro like peak anime dad Yeah, hi, I think might be like he's a precious boy But he's also like my new anime dad Yeah, I said from fx16 was more cute.

Yes 100% sounds really unbeatable One of the things I want to mention with this with this party too is one of the things that this setting has allowed the Atlas to do is make some of those stories more adult For some of you know, you're you're in high school right or hanging out with like a bunch of people your age in this game Yeah, hi's may is like he's like work Rome right and like yeah, he's an adult And so that gives you an adult story out of that character and a lot of other characters with not all the other characters Maybe I guess a lot of the characters early on they run into are gonna be more adult or more grown I honestly think of like your party at least from my understanding like your character is the youngest Yeah A lot of these games especially like kind of at least the person on the side of things I feel like the your party the side characters the follower social things like these games like live and die by those and like definitely like Hi's may was the first one where it's like, you know, 15 hours in I'm talking to bless I'm like, yeah, like I'm really liking it I'm getting more into the flow of like combat and dungeon crawling the story and the characters haven't quite gotten yet But then once you get to like into the more election side of things and start doing the globe trotting thing And then you get introduced to high as may and then doing high as may is like personal follower like social link stuff That's for like it was literally the morning of like finishing his or maybe only getting halfway through his follower kind of bond thread I was like, man, I'm really liking this game But I don't think it's I don't know if it's gonna make me cry like a persona Yeah, and fucking later that night I got to beat with high-speed I'm like yup breaking down with like the things that he has to go through and process I was like no damn they understand how to humanize You know any sort of world that they want in very very real ways and so yeah, and there's another character that I can't talk about I know you're talking about like I think they might be one of my favorite fictional characters of all time I love them so goddamn fucking much. I'm so excited. They're voice actor had so much fun voice acting them Oh, and we can't talk about it. It's a spoiler.

It's a spoiler I don't like it hits to like accidentally give it away Bring a super chat from Emory games will move on to another part of the video game and Emory games asking how restrictive is the calendar mechanic? Whenever I hear those words my eyes glaze over I don't want to feel arbitrarily locked out from content Here one of the things I do like this time around is they tell you so clearly if something's gonna pass time Yes, and so if you highlight if you're if you're like talking to a guy and he's like oh man help me You know, I don't know raise the flag or something It's like it's gonna help your imagination or some step it'll tell you it'll give like a little clock icon So you will never be confused about like if in what I'm what I'm about to do going oh shit Am I about to waste my day my time? I think this is comparing it to other person a game I think this is the best at the social sim flow of things for like various different reasons like You know, I will say by the by the time I beat the game I did have every follower social link fully completed like it wasn't a challenge like percent three reload or percent of three is like oh man Like because there's like we don't have school I can't hang out with any of the classmates and all this stuff like they are very respectful of like You know giving you the time to like actually do what you want and you know Like you have your menu with all of your like followers And it'll tell you like hey this followers available to do this thing right now press X on this menu and you can go transport to them immediately Little things that like that you also have the gauntlet runner Which I think like you know a kind of stressful thing in persona games in the past is like damn I want to go grind the dungeon, but I also want to go hang out or you know level up my social status And this is called like Kingley values or virtual virtues you think yeah Because I've heard you all talk about persona games in the past and how you bless you say I'll put on a podcast in grind a dungeon I've heard you talk about grinding doesn't really quite often is that like grinding a dungeon in this game Yeah, like do you feel yourself under level at points? You have to just like learn how to use the archetype system smart.

Yeah, I would say like in terms of difficulty I think this is a more strategic game than anything I think that's more so where the difficulty comes from but really quick to finish my thought I think the social sim elements of like you know You can use your gauntlet runner to go over to a side dungeon But that doesn't take up your full day You can do things on the gauntlet runner to like do like a social stat stuff or possibly something I really loved is if there is a follower or a social link that's part of your party who like goes on these adventures Do that on it sometimes like you can't do their like next follower thing until they're like hey Like let's next time we're on like an excavation or some shit I'm talking to me on the gauntlet runner And so like the way that all flows feels much more natural to me than any of the persona game so far and so yeah to flip it over to difficulty like this is a challenging game and Like definitely compared to personas and I feel like that's like a big part of what like the devs looking back at a lot of the criticism Of modern persona games and being like oh damn they don't think we got the stuff when it comes to challenge All right, fuck it like let's totally kind of rethink our combat system the archetype system and it's like make the player think more strategically I would say more akin to an SMT. It's close to the solution but got me sense it Yes, which is you know I to the difficulty question I think one of the reasons why they kind of had to make more difficult is because they gave you so much power It's like once I really like figured out the archetype system and like what some of these different classes slash like jobs Like archetypes afford you. Yeah, I thought like God I was like a second. This is my focus is getting cool.

Yeah, I'll say wait Okay, so if I level this character up in this archetype class I can retain this ability so I can like maybe stack these percentages And like give everybody a healing ability and like you know put everybody into like I will it felt like I was solving Grandpa's won't how it overpowered and because they give you that much power They're like all right cool. Let's crank this shit up And if you're someone like me who doesn't understand a lot of that language I would compare to the way the classes work in Dragon's Doggantu where you can you can level up somebody as the warrior class up to Level nine and then you can swap them off to Mage or whatever and then you can bring some of those moves over so that they kind of retain that so now you have a mage that isn't just doing Kind of a heal with a normal spell now it might have a melee attack or something like that I thought that stuff was really really good and like something I have to give props to like playing all the Person games for every person again ranks like something that was always overwhelming for me and hi I'm you can correct me if I'm misremembering here like the OG persona games like wasn't like the modern ones where like everybody has Like their seppersona it was like any monster you collected you could swap your parties of like the different personas and At times felt overwhelming of like the different types of like party layouts you could have a total for shimmy I'm talking like OG persona, okay, which I think is a bit more based off of a sense Gameplay I really love that like at the beginning it felt like I started getting flashbacks of like oh god This is gonna overwhelm me I can change out my party stuff like so much But I think it was smart that they like it's not like you're catching a hundred and whatever like personas in here It's like you've got 18 or somewhere around like 18 different archetype like kind of And then you have like upgraded versions of those specific art types to kind of mix and match I love the kind of changing like bringing skills over from other art types and new things just like really play around with Kind of the whole system of party layout. It was so cool to think about it early on of me as I'm building my main character Thinking about the different archives like one of the early ones I believe I should be able to talk about oh you guys are the mark Early Early early on like I started dial into the fact that you know Made is the archetype that is able to wield abilities that have like different kind of like what do they call it? Elemental sex.

Thank you. Um and once I start dialing on that I'm like okay well me with my persona brain I'm like I want my main character to be able to wield yeah different elemental abilities And so I start just putting points into mage or into my magic for my main character It's not going that way and like it was so cool to then have that sort of ripple out into high start building the rest of my party Where then I'm like, okay, well, I need somebody who's on healing So I'm gonna put this person on I need somebody who's going to like be physical Oh, I mean I didn't expect that like you know just because I have these elemental things Does it mean I'm gonna have like a thunder element so some like being able to mix and match and have to figure out all these issues Yeah, it's so satisfying that to get it It feels like such a step up to like persona 5 in terms of I think the simplicity of that looking back at it is like That game and it royals all about exposing weaknesses and doing like the you know the what's the high-five mechanic where they pass But on pass and like the one more and all that stuff and I think like to balance it like yeah It still is about like trying to find weaknesses getting crits and all that stuff But I think the way that they balance certain like combat flows while still having like the energy and like quick pace of a persona I think is really impressive like when you expose weaknesses You don't get to like just pass it to whoever party member you want You know you have your turn icon so like if you expose weakness that turn icon will go away It'll turn into like a half icon Yeah, and I think that stuff is like really impressive Like a different kind of strategy. Yeah, I'll do a different flow I'll often you're all dealing with the front row back row type stuff a lot. Yeah, a lot Yeah, it's it naturally flows into how you think of things or how you position your characters like if you're a mage build or If you're a magic build you can just sit in the back row or if someone's gonna take aggro like what I did with Hulkenberg for example She's very much someone who like pulls aggro has a lot of health and has high defense So if I'm not attacking with her I can use the spell that pulls enemy attention move to the back row Tragic's bar by the way, okay, yeah, I agree Oh, it's a last name.

It's a last name. Yeah, it's her family name I'd say early on in that first demo portion maybe about 30 minutes 45 minutes in you'll get an enemy that's out of the Notification they are attacking the front row. Yeah. Oh sick.

All right. Cool Let me go to the back row cool This is game design and see how to play the game and then I never really was I never encountered that a whole lot they find ways to make that more enticing Yeah, I don't think you can get into it But like there are ways in which like that becomes more into play a bit later into the game. Yeah, especially with like the different art types You're playing around with and builds and stuff I love that critical, but it does like oh it's an interesting wrinkle to just add a little bit more I think about your turns. Yeah, and like a lot of aspects if you're not fully paying attention to it and kind of turn your bring on It could fuck you over and you Someone in the front row unguarded who has like low health or as like low defense I would like to apologize to the first one German mortise horse racing driver and ego hulk and work on it, bro I didn't realize I don't think I was a contract next year for us I have a super chat here from Carlos Viega's who asks what needs to happen for this game to break the niche barrier getting nominated for Goatee persona and trail series are top JRPGs for me.

Thanks. Thank you Carlos very super chat I think people just need to give it a try man. I think that have putting out the demos really smart I think that was a really smart move. Yeah, I think well that's not much of a solution Like I'll give it a try right.

Yeah, I I Feel like persona fans like they got into it be on a whim like I was like oh this might seem interesting like next thing You know oh shit, these are my best friends. Yeah, this is the world I care about And like and he might be might be one of the ones who it didn't hit with but I think like more often than not Someone will try this and be like oh, I'm invested in this because I am now playing a game where there's an element of that I am putting myself into there's an emotional investment in this kind of game But I think a lot of people might be hesitant to do but if you do give it a little bit of a try if you like start to Get into a little bit I think it'll start to like follow like you'll fall down the rabbit hole like these kinds of games are very good about like What's they got you they got you for the rest of this game rest of the game and like I play RPGs in my entire life But p5 back in 2017 was like the first time that I played that style of RPG and then from then from then on I was like this is all I ever want from games and it's been it's been kind of life-changing for me But it's it's hard I think turn base RPG's come with a sort of stigma I guess but if anything this is a game that it's 80 I'm placing it for 80 hours. It is a game that still moves very fast Whether it's in its combat or it's story pacing. Yeah, it is a game that moves best It just has a lot to say yeah I also think like persona 5 was very popular right like I think that was that was one that was able to kind of break through that And you know I think if this is a game that ends up being it One that I speak still community in that way like it'll naturally get there I do think though that the thing that's holding this back compared to persona is fitting within the fantasy genre There's a bit more games out there that you look at that are like, you know We've seen this before yeah, we've seen this before like persona is 5 like the the style they invented jazz obviously there was so much that was like sexy about that game that drew in a lot of people Yeah, it's kind of like trick feels like the wrong word But kind of trick them into being like hey try out a fucking turn based combat system that does feel fast and you can First on a five and from branding presentation visuals.

It's oh, I gotta check that out I think that before we fantasia also has the problem of it is called metaphor we fantasia Yeah, that's not a great title if you try something to the masses we don't know I'm not a pretty honest. We don't know So I think that is a problem But I also think that maybe they're banking on the fact that there's a pedigree here And so if you understand that metaphor we fantasia is from the makers of persona and it is the next game essentially That is oh, this is the next persona 5 I think they're hoping that that's gonna sell copies on its own and that people show up for it in that way But I think this game also just has like a brain like not a branding issue per se because I respect like creatives calling shit What they want to call it like if you want to call it metaphor We fantasia call it before not a more power to you know, yeah more power to you But I do think that's a barrier and also I think there's a thing of I've seen people online think that this game's an Xbox exclusive Yeah, the heavy Xbox is not something to think yeah The heavy Xbox marketing definitely made people think that this was an exclusive and it was coming to game pass Which yeah neither are I think launching multi-plat was a smart move I think like leaning like trying I think maybe over correcting in like because the person games used to be PlayStation exclusive over correcting and like Almost exclusively doing Xbox like marketing. I think painted them into a weird corner We'll see how that plays out But again like I said at the beginning of the show maybe it doesn't matter if it breaks out of the niche Maybe it matters if it inspires you to do something bless there. That's final super chat from Jacob David thank you Jacob for your super chat who asks did you end up trying to max out all the archetypes for For the MC or does or did you just imagine do ones that fit your play style?

Okay? Yeah, there's a I mean you you find the ones that because all the party members sort of spec into certain play styles There I think a lot of people who I talked to went with mage build with the protagonists because I was all you have In your party, right? Yeah, yes, it has a mean your party It has elements. Yeah, Scholokberg are like much more physical hyzmnes more agility focus So like through that portion of the game which is like about halfway through that game It's like okay, who's gonna be the magic caster, right?

But I think that the ways in which you can create a magic caster is really interesting so there's like a whole like half the branch of The archetypes for my main character were like all filled out where I like I didn't even bother with these other Archetypes because everyone else can cover those so I had like being seeker and then magic seeker and then being the elemental caster and then having supporting abilities that Would boost my magic spells and also being a healer if I needed to there's even if you are creating this magic caster character There's still a lot of flexibility so you don't have to you should you should be striving to like unlock every single Yeah, or like trying to spec into there's a part of the game where you have to like at least unlock a bunch of them through the MC But is there a max on the amount of moves one your characters can have I mean depends on the archetype? Yeah, depends on the archetype depends on like the Whatever follower that archetype is tied to of like how deep you're getting into their like relationship There's like a couple different things that kind of mess around yeah with that social links are how you unlock Yes, yeah, yeah, how you unlock a lot of those are archetypes are through the social links So there's like a cohesion between the two and you can have up to four inherited skills Yeah, I think I want to mention as I compared to again where I was coming from in previous titles I do like how refined that entire social system Mixing in with like the dungeon and combat system how much more refined it is because the person five already was in a place where I think It was super balanced as far as every social link or every like confidant level you do you're getting something out of it So there's always like a oh man hang out with this person I love love Oh, now I'm not everything some feeds into each other and I think they push it even more here where it is every day I in this game I wake up and I'm like, oh man, I want to do this But I also want to do this but I also want to love this thing so I can talk to this person so I can lock this archetype Because they have a healing ability that I want if I get this healing like my brain is on 100% So something that you all were talking a little bit earlier is that that sounds overwhelming, but it is We've alluded to it. We've alluded to it by the time I got to the end of this game I had every social link or follower bond maxed out with extra days before the final deadline Yeah, I have all my royal virtues were maxed out So I think the has it to see some people maybe like oh I'm gonna have decision paralysis or I'm not gonna be able to do Everything by the time the game ends because it's tied to a calendar system seems very generous This is the first time I've ever maxed out all my social links on a first player with no guy No guy, no guy. I just this is like a play as a reviewer You have to figure this out yourself.

Yeah, and for Andy just like in past games There are so many people who put out like calendar guides of like alright this day You need to hang out with this person and then like to max out these things and all the stuff You want to go on the day with everything? Yeah, exactly So like the way this game flows it doesn't feel like you really need that as much I have like 15 days left in the calendar I'm like I definitely want it more on the wire with the social link stuff one thing with the art types that I do want to shout out It's kind of a positive and a negative I just remembered is the dungeon calling when you're in the action combat mainly that's used to like kind of we can enemies and get them Into a place of what do they call it? It's like a days or whatever when you start a start into the more turn-based stuff You know like you come in with more of an advantage if you like hit him a bunch and they don't attack you in the real-time combat I would say because this game when you're in the dungeon crawling stuff like if you played person a five You're gonna know how this like feels running around in dungeon I would say like it sometimes feels awkward like doing like the real-time combat But the was yeah like the dog is a little weird Sometimes like the sort depending on what thing you have to attack with doesn't feel great But the positive on that depending on what archetype you're using like the mage right versus the seeker like when you start out with a seeker Which is like your kind of default archetype as the protagonist you have a sword and that's cool And that's neat but then when you unlock the mage you get this like little casting thing that brings out like Whatever and there's gonna be more and more of that stuff like blessing like unlocked an arch-type or he was like wait I can do this and like the like the real-time combat shit and it was like yeah There's like I love it Yeah, but yeah, it is awkward, you know like when you think about this game and dodge roll It's it feels kind of how it sounds but I do yeah It is one to like you know mix and we're messing around with different architects and go Oh, yeah, I'm gonna use this one so I can have like the fucking I can swing in a different way than I would a different one We have a couple of super chats that are pretty much asking the same question So thank you to Hillary as well as SD turtle and I'll read Hillary's question because they're in the same vein She asks or they ask what are the chances of an upgraded version coming out in a year? So I've learned to wait with persona games since they always have a royal or a golden upgrade.

I don't know I would I mean if it happens I would like of course yeah, I'm I'm like maybe 50 50 on whether it will happen because I think At least maybe this is my understanding is that Reload royal golden those are opportunities for like their B teams to work on something that is still important Yeah, but the template is already there so it felt like a building block for like the new persona team There's gonna be a new persona Whatever person personus 6 ends up being it's not gonna be Hashno and those people for say they've moved on studio zero metaphor is their game That's where they're going with that So whatever personus 6 is that team has been trained on doing reload royal all these other extra versions of their game But studio zeros first project was captain full body So yeah, they're not they're not obviously like rereleasing these games and directors cuts versions are it's in their blood So yeah, you know if it happens I'll be there for it if it doesn't if they move on to something else then like okay That's cool, but as I think was blessed I said earlier that you can see ways in which this game could be improved I think I think I'm at for directors cut is what takes it to a 10 out of 10 for sure Yeah, I think that is the opportunity to do voice acting right like that gives opportunity like yeah a lot more voicing in this game I think it's opportunity to I mean within the next year is tough or the next couple years I'd want it in like PlayStation 6 like make that make that like the other world say it took like three years at least after Yeah, I'm going with it. Yeah, yeah, like take time with it. You know, yeah Get some extra characters in there like I feel like that stuff always fits in in a nice way and like get Maroque in there for some reason Yeah, that's how counselor Could you like shoot as fuck the next couple months in the calendar? Yeah, one quick question as we round out this episode from the one Only Sekiro actually here in the podcast really really cool asks wonder if you could respect attribute points at your people So I think that's probably more so in the archetype system.

I don't think you can respect But a smart system I think is that once you've maxed out an archetype Like you'll they'll get like master level like 20 out of 20 or whatever They'll still get XP points and then every time you like level up it'll give you this item That's called like a hero's leaf of light or whatever that you can give to other archetypes to give them a fuck time I can't do yeah, it's like yeah exactly and so like I found myself in terms of like art type grinding for if like I wanted like a certain Ability from one art type to carry over to a different art type I found myself like equipping all like master kind of art types for different characters going around leveling those up a bunch And then giving a fuck ton of rock candy essentially to other art types So I think the other is from Pokemon rare candy rare candy Oh And so while there is no reason back from what I remember There is like a really I think smart way especially like the latter half of the game to like encourage you to still play around with stuff And not feel like you're tied to certain things even though you invested in them like oh, I mean a bad decision with Well, there's there are ways the game for like kind of ease is that that stress the pressure of making the right decision in progress No, you're RPG progression, so I think it's still smart system wonderful any final thoughts gamers from for y'all This amazing review of metaphor we've hunted I got my second bold statement in I Everybody's gone there's only four people in chat. Oh, thank God. Um, so Understand what I'm about to say I feel in very specific ways, maybe not always in this comparison and he'll get to that I throw it from our sponsors. I Think in a lot of ways this game to me maybe not always but a lot of ways feels like this generations final fantasy seven And I say that in very specific content I mean maybe not like in like in terms of cultural impact maybe not in terms of same exact vibes But there were so many moments in terms of the globe trotting JRPG in terms of the characters with the world and like Places you visit means to them There's so many moments big and small that like even just like visiting like little towns that are really only like portraits Essentially where you like a shop and whatever on the way to a dungeon There are so many moments that like I felt like the rat at two We mean where I'm like old critic and I take a bite out and I'm transported back I'm six years old and I'm hanging out with my babysitter I'm playing Final Fantasy 7 Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 10 and like this game has so much of that in terms of the gameplay flow in terms of the Vibe in terms of the music which we didn't really talk about And like even like the more softer moments in the music and in terms of like kind of like political like themes and Points that are made that I was just like maybe less So this is this generation final fantasy 7 but a lot of the times it felt like I feel like I'm playing the remake of a PS1 RPG classic, but it's just it's a new game and that's like so fucking impressive to me to double down on that a little bit I had a moment early on and this is when the game first started clicking for me where I texted you bear and I was like This feels like I'm about to embark on like a magical like adventure Like I feel like I'm about to embark on a big journey and now that I'm 70 hours in on the last dungeon, right?

Like I still feel that I feel like I just went through like a great adventure that you know I'm glad to experience you know and like I think it's funny because when I first heard you say that at Spark Social Like a good truck park. I do remember this. Yeah, and like when you said that I was like alright But now that I'm here right like I can see where you're coming from and I know it's maybe a little bit of Overkill of a statement, but I don't know I've thought about it with less like qualifying That morning that I had like really that had like come up as a thought and so that I've had to think about it for a couple weeks and kind of like Give a reason of like why I felt that way in so many moments playing throughout this game I saw spoon McCain the chat say that man. They're really gonna come after bear No, cuz if all the haters they didn't even watch the video they just commented immediately and left Knowing rebirth came out early this year.

I say this knowing remake came out a few years ago And that's the impressive thing is that like rebirth gave me so many of those moments because rebirth adapted the parts of Final Fantasy 7 Then I'm most nostalgic for and I think this gave me made nostalgic for an era And it's not even a part of the area which I think is again so fucking impressive and you found thoughts from a high Or bless oh, I mean I we didn't talk too much about story because it is hard to talk about because the second half of this game is really Where it comes together, but I hope that people see it to the end because It's one of those games where it really holds its cards close to its chest until its final moments Yeah, and I think when I saw its final moments That's when I felt like this overwhelming sense of clarity where everything clicked and I felt like as I said at the top of the show That's when the game spoke to me and that's when I like oh that's what you were trying to say this whole time Holy shit, and so that's when all the pieces start to fall into place and it does so in such an elegant beautiful Warm way that it almost felt like someone was telling me a bedtime story in a way and it's like Cuz I finished this game I was I was cat sitting for Lucy James and I was like I was playing in her living room And I just sat there just like in a puddle of tears for like an hour after I finished this game not because like I said Not because like I said goodbye to my friends. Yeah, that was like kind of sad whatever don't cry because it's over I'm glad that happened it was but it was more like no piece of media has ever reached out to me in this specific way I think that's the part that makes it for special. Yes. I mean for me I this is just another game to appreciate what Atlas does in your RPGs because there's no other studio That is making games like this, you know, they found such a you know different formula that works so well That is able to like make me lose hours and hours in my life in a way where it's like damn This fits this like you guys have solved like a perfect puzzle here And so it's cool to see that being applied to a different genre and yeah I hope they never stop making games like this right?

I think you know being able to tell stories in these ways find ways to connect with characters in this way where it is Over a long period of time, right? Like you keep revisiting and getting these cool small stories and doing all that stuff right like I think they do They just do such a great job of it. And so I'm at a place where I almost don't want to finish this game You don't want it to end. Yeah, I don't want it to end.

Yeah, I'm a final dungeon I'm like I want to play this man. I want to finish this shit So if reloaded finished you I do have real life that we got a remake of the first game that this team was like really known for Yeah, and then we got this to kind of show off like damn they have come a long way. Yeah amazing Well, thank you everybody for joining us This has been the kind of funny games cast each and every weekday we get together talk about our biggest reviews and topics in video games live on YouTube Twitch and podcast services around the globe Thank you a Barrett and blessing Michael high and work people find you You can find me and all about bullshit at Michael P. I am on Twitter still I'm not there that often or you hit me up on Instagram Boy, I'll be posting a helicopter.

You know what? Yeah You have my number dog you can hit me up anywhere But yeah, you find me there and at hit video game website IGN calm I also want to shout out some of the homies who have reviewed metaphor refund. I'll see you because their writing is fucking incredible It's one of those things where I read someone else's right like how come I'm not that good I want shout out Kenneth Shepherd from Kotaku just Howard from GameSpot and Homie Jesse Vitale who wrote this for but why though? Oh, and I know that there are other great reviews that I have yet to read I know Eric Van Allen put his stuff on blood God excellent blood God also But definitely if you're interested in other perspectives of metaphor that are very insightful.

They're very heartfelt Definitely check them out. Yes. If you love what we do Please support us with the kind of money membership on patreon or YouTube to get all of our shows ad free watch us record them live and get a daily exclusive show Enjoy the until dawn stream next you can catch kind of funny game daily and on YouTube or podcast services And know that until next time it's been our pleasure to serve you