I thought about giving everyone a merch arch but decided against it. Maybe if I do a NG Plus as it would be fun to break it on a second playthrough lol

L2 doesnt' always tell you though? Sometimes it's all question marks and you just have to try attacks. The informant in the taverns can give a hint though

Yep, you need to trial and error it and not forget the informatns tips but at least it tells you what repels which is the most frustrating aspect, the first ones listed are what repels before the elemental question marks. Idk how anyone perfers this system over Persona, it's such an interruption to the combat and steers you away from buolding strategies, like I have barely delved into buffing enemies on normal and hard cause tanking, healing and resurrection was so important..If I couldn't change archetypes from the menu I'd have dropped it already, still very frustrating to have to stop mid dungeon and change skills but something you have to deal less with on easy mode.  Strangely I'm using more diverse skills now on Easy mode, such strange design philosophy. 

Press Turn is one of the best turn-based combat systems ever. However, SMTIII Nocturne and SMTV implement it better than Metaphor. Metaphor scaling/balance isn't as good as those two. Since Metaphor was not done by the SMT/Persona team. It shows. I never felt it was a big issue in Metaphor but noticeable. Tho the final boss is a tedious annoying bitch.

What problems are you having with scaling? I'm find the scaling curve fine so far. I think the main issue is in SMT better damage skills comes as you progress the game, here we have access to stronger skills early in form of Synthesis. The new Archetypes look more as side-grades than really upgrades. But not enough to break the game (at least not in a blind playtrough)

Finished the game 2 days ago so never really struggled. Just the spikes in Metaphor felt a little more random whereas SMT is tough but fair and you usually know why. Not sure I always knew why in Metaphor

I'm feeling some content of this game was cut due to deadline constraints

More specifically there is no dungeon or free time in Altabury Heights. This surprised me a bit, I think we are talking about at least 6-8 hours of content cut


Also the villains of this game villains are intrinsically SMT. With clear "order" and "chaos" alignments.

That'd make sense, content cut between the difficulty spikes would explain a lot. Perhaps there was more free time and aide quests planned but the scaled back and just didn't adjust things properly. 

I've done all of the side stuff now, last quest to go!

I don't understand why they made Heismay Royal Archetype so hard to get

You need Ninja level 20, which is fine since it's his cannon class, but you need Sniper 10 first which needs Seeker 10

You need Tycoon level 15, which needs Commander level 10

Then you need Dragoon 15, which needs Magic Knight 10, which needs Mage 10


So to get Heismay royal class you need:

- Base Mage line level 10
- Base Seeker line level 10
- Base Commander line level 10
- Advanced Knight line level 10
- Elite Merchant line level 15
- Elite Gunner line level 15
- Elite Thief Line level 20 (maxed)

You need 14!!!! Archetypes to unlock his Royal Archetype


It's crazy. I don't know if I will manage before the deadline, at least not without some grinding