ANYHOO, I'm really excited to talk about something new. I just got done with the
Metaphor ReFantazio demo and the game looks fantastic.
Let me just say:
this game is legit. It's an auto-buy, for jrpg fans and fans of Atlus. MR borrows a lot of signature moves from Persona 5 and SMT but is a wholly original new and refreshing IP. I'm at 6+ hours and the game is going to kick me out as soon as I progress in the next dungeon, or 3 more calendar days pass, whichever happens first. World exploration and traversal feels a lot like Persona 5. The dungeons are smaller and feel a lot like Mementos and the P5 palaces. There are about 4 little dungeons in the demo. The demo doesn't get you very into the depth of the turn-based battles yet, so that is something to look out for. But enemies all have slash/pierce/strike or one of six elemental weaknesses just like in other games.
Everything else is wholly new. It feels like a completely original Atlus title and IP. It's a medieval fantasy and there are some sort of storybook world inversion going on. "Humans" are the bad guys / mutant boss creatures. Big bad guy is going to destroy the kingdom and take over the world. This world reads storybooks about modern America/society. The MC has a Tinkerbell companion and they're trying to save the sleeping prince and the world from inevitable doom. Kind of feels like a darker toned Ni no Kuni, in its world atmosphere. You meet like 20 companions along the way, some of whom join your party, that act similar to the tarot card relationships in a brand new system. There's this Da Vinci-like Virtruvian Man map in the menu with hexagonal pieces that appear to unlock about 20 different classes. like original persona summons, that have a few spells each, and you level them up. Each one ranks up to 20 with exp, starts with 2ish abilities, and gets and handful more as they rank up. So each party character has to choose 1 creature/class to level up at a time, then you spend a bit magi currency (alt exp) to unlock a different creature/domain on the map, but can then get into starting with inherits.
It all looks very addictive. The more I played,
the more I wanted to play. The game starts off feeling very on-rails and as an anime episode. The animation and art design are top notch. I was surprised by the production quality. and the amount of detailed anime sequences. The character designs, personalities, and voice work are superb. The soundtrack is very good too. A couple of gripes I have is that I dunno why we always get such a choppy and stuttering during FMV anime sequences in these types of games. Another complaint is that the screen window is always slightly bobbing and gyrating, and the text box outline morphs and flashes during all of the text based and dialogue cutscenes. They clearly did that in order to add some dynamism to the presentation, and I don't like it. But was able to get past those things, and everything else seems perfect. Everything is not turn-based battles either, as you can real-time run up on enemies on the map and whack them a few times to debilitate them in battle, or single whack everything in a pack of low-level enemies to prevent the battle. Most of the game was story, text based, the introduction of new characters and new personas, delightful side-character depictions and witty street banter that sets the world stage. The presentation is excellent. Clearly a 90-hour game but everything moves at a very quick pace. There are a lot of diversions and modes in the gameplay.
Metaphor ReFantazio is another contender for JRPG of the Year. Man we have been eatin good in 2024. This demo was really important to me, and to people in both the JP and CE threads because we've got an $149.99 collectors edition coming up in exactly two weeks and we need to decide if we want to let this expensive item ship. I will probably repost this in those threads, bc that's where this conclusion is more applicable to those premium customers. I can't tell you how fast it's going to sell out and become OOP, but I can absolutely promise you that if you're one of these customers and you miss out on this CE, you're going to be incredibly disappointed. If it goes OOP it's going to become absurdly expensive and sought-after. I didn't get very far yet, but the game appears to be excellent. If you've played other Atlus games then you know whether or not this is going to be right up your alley.
yo online multiplayer and 
