I just fucking love how this is a fatasy game that makes our world and civilization look like the fantasy, this is the strongest part of the story. The running theme that shows us how lucky we actually are, I never would have guessed an atlus would be able to do a story this well and this deep. Yeah, it's still on the nose quite often and still has that Japanese culture translation jank but it's the best from them, that I've seen yet.

Bumping this thread. I wanna hear people's thoughts and experiences... how's the game going for ye? I'm 35 hours in currently at ***spoiler*** just about to land on the Island after the Charadrius. The game toom a bit of a nose dive there in terms of fun with the stealth dungeons but it seems to be picking up again. I find myself skipping many of the follower ranks stories, many just aren't that interesting apart from Strohls, Briggitas and a few others. The pacing never picked up either, it started at a much better pace than Peronsas but it never really accelerated lime I thought it would. I'd say my experiences are lesser than my first impressions but I've got a good long way to go yet, according to How long to beat I'm just about half way or so.

I'm level 56 and in Altabury. With the last dungeon just suddenly throwing me in

While the manga has been running since 1989. At least watch the 1997 Anime Berserk. None of the others as they all suck. It's only the Golden Arc but Everything Souls is inspired by Berserk. I also mention this because Louis well fans compare him to Griffith for a reason lol.

Is that the one where the world becomes a giant machine?

And will do, I'm committed to gaming at the moment but I'll keep it in mind. 

No. It's souls before Souls. Berserk is awesome but bleak. Dark Fantasy. Depressing.  Ludwig from Bloodborne was inspired by a moment in the manga that fans memed as Rapehorse. Souls franchise enemies and bosses. Are a love letter to Berserk. From likes to put in the Dragon Slayer sword in the games for fans who cosplay as GUTS in the games. This is just a sample. The Bloodborne logo is born from the Berserk-branded. I saw a number of things in Elden Ring as well straight from Berserk lol.

Sounds fantastic. Might go straight to this actually. Cheers for the tip, man!

The anime adaptations don't do Berserk justice at all, the manga is an actual masterpiece, it's filled with art that should be exposed in art galleries.

If you are into manga I strongly recommend you go read it instead of watching it.

The stuff Guts has been through on Berserk is something on it's own unique level of fuckery, there is nothing else like it.

I consider it the best manga ever made, sadly the author died without finishing it, a friend of his that knows the full story to the ending is leading his team to finish it, but it has been slow and it looks like they are afraid to make mistakes that screw it up so there is very little dialogue going on since the author died.

25 hours played. I'm in the last day in Martira

The gameplay loop is Persona but with combat that is actually tactical (and punishing)

Worldbulding and setting are making me enjoying social sim elements much more than Persona. The characters you develop bonds have an actual story and background, instead of boring slice of life high school activities

Social links also progress faster than Persona, which is very welcomed. Here I feel I'm developing my bonds and working in my social stats only by playing the game normally, instead of griding supports

This makes me comfortable with the slower calendar passing, instead of compelling me to just rush weeks praying for the next Dungeon

The dungeons are nowhere near as well designed as Persona 5, but the fact they took a time to develop minor dungeons between major dungeons instead of relying in procedurally generated crap is a huge win

The more I play more I think Persona devs created Metaphor because they love Persona gameplay but are fed-up with creating games about high schoolers. The amount of detail and care dedicated to the worldbulding is very commendable, I want more games took their time to create fantastic and immersive worlds

The screenplay is very progressive. I was genuinely surprised to see some thoughtful messages like "Equal competition doesn’t mean equal footing"


On the other side though, it's a very unpleasant game to look at. It's not only the graphics (which are meh), but the world is always grim, dark and grey. Persona being so colorful and full of life make the game appealing to the eyes even if the graphics are objectively worse than Metaphor. Art direction here is much less creative and inspired, starting to the lack of personality of the demons you work against. Visually is just not a very memorable game. If they play in a sequel they need to work more in creating a stronger visual identity