To Be Bled On An Altar So Fair And Just.
I've finished Metaphor: ReFantazio at last! Here's my last batch of playthrough notes.
SHITTY GRUMPY DOG BOY, NO
It's possible he's more of a shitty grumpy cat boy, actually. His ears say dog; his eyes and tail (and attitude) say cat. But I've got used to calling him 'shitty grumpy dog boy' by now!
I can't believe they killed off half of Ant and Dec!
Fidelio was easily in my top three characters, along with Leon and Junah. I already knew Basilio would be joining the team, which made me slightly concerned about Fidelio's fate - why would Basilio join and not Fidelio? - but I'd managed to persuade myself Fidelio would be sticking around. I was looking forward to getting his follower scenes!
I've anticipated for a while that at some point the prince would die, leaving the protagonist campaigning to take the throne himself. I wasn't expecting the protagonist to turn out to be the prince!
To be honest, this does make the game's story feel a little thematically weird. It's a story about how a country tries to move from birthright to democratic elections for its leader! And then we work to ensure that the democratically elected king is, in fact, the son of the previous king. It's easy to envision a story in which Louis, the man who feels that birth should not determine one's standing, is instead the hero.
The other problem with this twist is that it makes the protagonist's visual design less interesting! The blue hair looked a lot better. The white hair is too close to the colour of our clothes; it strips our design of contrast.
'Come to the throne. With the power of the Royal Sceptre in my hands, I will give you what you deserve,' Louis says, making it sound very like he's going to shove the Royal Sceptre up our arse.
Strohl does such weird horny grunting when he gets a new ability. That's not a complaint; it's an observation.
'Now it turns into Persona 6 and we have to play another hundred hours,' Tem predicted when the game threw us into present-day Tokyo. Unsettlingly plausible.
Throwing us into Tokyo was delightfully ludicrous, but then the game didn't really do anything with it! Let us see the mediaeval fantasy protagonist exploring our world for a while; that would be fun.
Interesting that the game specifically mentions that there are fewer executions under our rule, but there are still executions. The executioner mentions that there will always be criminals, so we'll always need gallows, and... no, no, I think it's very possible to have a society without gallows, actually.
Wow, we've done an awful lot of nepotistic hiring in our first year as king. I like that a couple of NPCs actually comment on the fact that the new king has just filled all the major positions with his friends.
'If you were crowned king,' Tem says, 'how long do you think it would take you to go mad with power? Because I would do it immediately.'
And that's the end of Metaphor: ReFantazio!
I've had a great time with this game. The plot's nothing special and the protagonist is a little bland, but the other characters and setting and combat combined to create an RPG I happily sank a hundred hours into. I love the 'if you're a high enough level, you can just defeat enemies without going into the battle screen' mechanic; I found it so satisfying when an enemy switched from yellow to blue!
It's still outrageous that I wasn't allowed to marry Strohl, though. I can't believe Atlus keeps doing this to me.
SHITTY GRUMPY DOG BOY, NO
It's possible he's more of a shitty grumpy cat boy, actually. His ears say dog; his eyes and tail (and attitude) say cat. But I've got used to calling him 'shitty grumpy dog boy' by now!
I can't believe they killed off half of Ant and Dec!
Fidelio was easily in my top three characters, along with Leon and Junah. I already knew Basilio would be joining the team, which made me slightly concerned about Fidelio's fate - why would Basilio join and not Fidelio? - but I'd managed to persuade myself Fidelio would be sticking around. I was looking forward to getting his follower scenes!
I've anticipated for a while that at some point the prince would die, leaving the protagonist campaigning to take the throne himself. I wasn't expecting the protagonist to turn out to be the prince!
To be honest, this does make the game's story feel a little thematically weird. It's a story about how a country tries to move from birthright to democratic elections for its leader! And then we work to ensure that the democratically elected king is, in fact, the son of the previous king. It's easy to envision a story in which Louis, the man who feels that birth should not determine one's standing, is instead the hero.
The other problem with this twist is that it makes the protagonist's visual design less interesting! The blue hair looked a lot better. The white hair is too close to the colour of our clothes; it strips our design of contrast.
'Come to the throne. With the power of the Royal Sceptre in my hands, I will give you what you deserve,' Louis says, making it sound very like he's going to shove the Royal Sceptre up our arse.
Strohl does such weird horny grunting when he gets a new ability. That's not a complaint; it's an observation.
'Now it turns into Persona 6 and we have to play another hundred hours,' Tem predicted when the game threw us into present-day Tokyo. Unsettlingly plausible.
Throwing us into Tokyo was delightfully ludicrous, but then the game didn't really do anything with it! Let us see the mediaeval fantasy protagonist exploring our world for a while; that would be fun.
Interesting that the game specifically mentions that there are fewer executions under our rule, but there are still executions. The executioner mentions that there will always be criminals, so we'll always need gallows, and... no, no, I think it's very possible to have a society without gallows, actually.
Wow, we've done an awful lot of nepotistic hiring in our first year as king. I like that a couple of NPCs actually comment on the fact that the new king has just filled all the major positions with his friends.
'If you were crowned king,' Tem says, 'how long do you think it would take you to go mad with power? Because I would do it immediately.'
And that's the end of Metaphor: ReFantazio!
I've had a great time with this game. The plot's nothing special and the protagonist is a little bland, but the other characters and setting and combat combined to create an RPG I happily sank a hundred hours into. I love the 'if you're a high enough level, you can just defeat enemies without going into the battle screen' mechanic; I found it so satisfying when an enemy switched from yellow to blue!
It's still outrageous that I wasn't allowed to marry Strohl, though. I can't believe Atlus keeps doing this to me.