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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   2506 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for October 17, 2025

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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How is Metaphor? I'm a Persona fan (3/4/5), but when I tried SMT5 I didn't like it at all. The battle system was mechanically better and had more depth, but everything else was worse. Much worse. In particular, the constant echo-y audio drove me mad. I stopped playing after the first chapter and haven't returned.

Metaphor has the press turn battle system from SMT, with a job system for party building a la FF, and the social link/calendar systems from Persona. It's pretty good, though I don't personally think the story was as strong as P4 or P5, nor were the characters. I think it's worth giving a shot based on what you said.

How is the story/characters? One of the most off-putting things about SMT5 is it didn't feel like it had any characters at all. I don't even mean they felt cliché: they felt inert, like mannequins. I'd happily take a stereotypical JRPG hero over the Nahobino/whatever-his-real-name-is any day.

Significantly better. Unlike SMT5 which is basically pure gameplay with only the bare minimum of story to support it (I bounced off myself for that very reason), Metaphor has an actually pretty interesting story that it tells, and the characters are generally pretty interesting to spend time with. It's very much like Persona in that sense, not at all like SMT. Like I said I don't think it pulls those aspects off as well as the best of the Persona games do, but I think it gets a solid 7/10 on story and characters whereas I'd give SMT5 a 0/10.

I also quite enjoy that the protagonist in Metaphor isn't silent like in Persona. He's a real character who has his own thoughts and will speak up on things, even if you do have some player control over his opinions.

Thanks! Sounds worth a shot, will pick it up sometime.

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