This whole surprise mandatory royal archetype is actually the worst thing. Now everytime I get someone, I have to look up a guide, which usually gives me spoilers of other future archetypes, which are the sort of thing that I want to have the joy of discovering myself. It's not like wait until midgame and all are unlocked is plausible, as the game expected you do somehow know exactly what route to take 100 hours before telling you it's a thing.

Not saying it ruined the game but, it kinda did.

How to play a Persona game.

Boss: 9999HP, 2x adds 5000HP each
Must kill adds or wipe
Killed add, got one hit on boss
Adds regenerate
Grind for an hour
Boss at 100 HP, surprise cutscene fully heals the boss

Games like this don't need an "easy mode", because easy mode is only mildly less tedious. It needs a walk simulator mode. As in removing the gameplay altogether would've been an improvement.

Now something Atlus/SMT excels at: monster design in the pure aesthetics kind of way. You'd think I've seen all there is to be seen, but without fail every boss ever in any SMT and derivatives are just a different magnitude of brilliant.

The narratives... This is a Persona game. As in I remember Persona fondly but in a "I liked it but I just couldn't love it" kind of way. Here is that again, it almost always touches something unique and interesting but always backs off the last second. Which is very different to SMT main lines, I only played IV and it broke me in ways no other fictions ever did and I couldn't touch another one. And I played it pre Trump.

With monster aesthetic designs, I frequently feel "this is cool", but Persona/Metaphor kind of, "holy shit what is this I'm looking at? How? Even... What?!" Almost never happens.

This is my holy grail of monster aesthetic design. I don't want to describe them because the impact of seeing them is the point.

I'm only partially joking when I say that I'm so fucked in life that I'm thinking about just do a hyperspecialised degree in videogames monster aesthetics design*.

The monster designs here. This is the level I want to eventually achieve.

(*Yes it's a thing. Yes I know you don't need a degree for that shit. I have this formative-years acquired mental illness called raised as Traditional Asian, and all my rebellion went to the oppositional defiant queer with lifestyle of an ibis going through trash cans thing. Academic external validation is something I lost my battle on not giving a shit over, normal people don't even need to have this issue)

I get that Bardon is a really nice bro who genuinely cares, and as a command he kept on closing wall holes instead of commanding, which in a village of like four people it works, and I love him for it and all

But I was not expecting how literal the supportive Commander weapon is a floor mop

I support you with my mop!

That is the real deal, folks. None of that hero fantasy shit. Don't fight for me I can fight for myself. Please mop for me, you have no idea how incompetent I am at mopping

It's worrying that I like Louis more than just about anyone else going after the throne at this moment. Especially way more than any of the hereditary royals.

Catherina is cool. Clueless but cool

I have to Guide Dammit here more than any other games, specifically because the game doesn't know how to communicate anything well, and punishes you for it.

Is "Mausoleum" the same as "Catacomb"? Not telling. You can enter and find out. Congrats you lost a full day. Now try a different location that may or may not be "Mausoleum" as I've unlocked multiple tombs already. Congratulations you have timed out, game over.

The team I want: Neuras, Catherina, that super helpful decaying Tooth.

The team I got: Strohl, Hulkenberg, Heismay.

I don't really dislike anyone in my party. I wish them the best, just I don't vibe with any of them either.

I'm worried that my team won't make it to the next destination after this food poisoning.

Especially considering this is kinda you know, Heismay's sons state.

Your elf: tall thin long eared waify fragile mages, who only drink the most vegan dews

Our elf: tall thin long eared brutes leaving elf shaped holes on walls, currently eating chunks of dry wall between bites of rotten possum remains

Brigitta is such a miserable lonely git, but also she's by far the easiest to bond with for that reason. But also her class is essentially useless. And she's just so so punchable. The peak Elon Musk who camps on Reddit kind of punchable.

Metaphor needs an option of doing whatever the NPCs want to do to others back to them. She's not even useful to me lol.

I'm at the Soiree and it's suddenly becoming quite interesting.

Junah is implied will be a party member. So we have a One Race Per Character party most likely. We are a fox missing and a third eye person missing so far. Hope it's Catherina.

Speculation:

Elda: lol there's only one
Clemar: Leon
Roussainte: Hulkenberg wait does she have a first name
Eugief: Heismay
Nidia: Junah???
Paripus: Catherina???
Ishkia: My precious brother in spirit Neuras
Rhoag: ???
Mustari: ???
Fairy: Gallica

They are all pretty shit to goblins and ogres tbh

Metaphor is doing that ridiculous thing like Clair Obscur where the "difficulty" is it gives you turn icons then refuse to respect it.

This is so old. Try something more inter, like every time the players almost won a fight, delete the game off the console mid battle. Also irritating and petty shit over fairness, but at least interesting.

That octopus fight is the worst of going out of turn I've ever seen.

Enemy starts with two turns. It howls and gains four. Then between each it gets a free AoE raid wide without using a turn icon. Then because it's series of random hits there will be one Crit, which generates another free turn icon. So each "two turn icons" is really 15 back to back turns from the enemy, that's completely not communicated, that no one can survive through.

Just remove turn icons completely if games don't want to honour this shit.