Doodleschmit

We’re on a similar clip! I have played P5R and Metaphor maybe a year or two ago, but in the past few months, I picked up Persona 3 Reload on sale. There’s something about getting to the end of these 100+ hour, character-focused JRPGs (for me, at least) that leaves such a specific feeling (bawling my eyes out for the last hour of the game).

SPOILER FOR P5R NARRATIVE

Since this was your first time through P5R - How did you feel about the Justice Confidant’s arc? I usually don’t feel too much remorse for villain characters in these types of games, but I can honestly say that Akechi gets me right in the feels, despite the awful things he’s done. Some of it is probably due to his voice actor. The guy has some breadth to convince me that this “pleasant boy” really went insane during his arc.

END SPOILER

I’d genuinely like to know your thoughts on the game as a whole, or anything about the characters.

The reason I brought up P3R is because I beat that (hard recommend if you enjoyed P5R, by the way), but then didn’t know what game I wanted to start into next. So, I just hopped back into P5R because I evidently wanted to keep crying after another 100 hours. Got through that, and went into Metaphor next, which is what I’m replaying now. I had started my P5R replay as NG+ at first, but the way that works, I had so much access to endgame stuff that the beginning just didn’t feel quite right, so I just started brand new games for both my P5R and Metaphor playthroughs (although I think Metaphor might handle NG+ in a way I would like better)

Metaphor will be a little different than Persona, but it remains reminiscent of it. A lot of mechanics you’ll just probably vibe out though. Combat won’t use the “1 more” system you’re used to, but the replacement system is still interesting to me, in terms of getting me to think through how I will take each character’s action. Social links/Confidants are fairly similar with some Quality of Life improvements (no more going to the Velvet room to pick up a pile of personas you aren’t gonna use for combat, just for Confidants!). Metaphor builds a good sense of adventure with its mechanics, too which I like. I could see some people being a little off-put by the game’s presentation of its narrative and fantasy elements. All in all, I’m enjoying, laughing, and crying along with this replay of it. Once again, the voice work for these characters is doing wonders.

If you are aiming for “more P5R”, I’d point you to pick up P3R as your next title. But, if you want a little break from that particular scene (modern-ish city/school life), then Metaphor is a great pick, too.