31 days remain... fuvk me. Whybisn't there a skip. Fuck. I might as well do the side content now cause I'm not doing those boring follower ranks.

Finished the game today. Same post I made in the other thread below.

I beat Metaphor: Refantazio, the 8th JRPG I have beaten this year. Platinum requires NG+, so I did not go for that. I played the game on Hard difficulty, the highest difficulty available on your first playthrough and savored every moment of it, ending up at 105 hours played. I completed every side quest, maxed bonds and royal virtues. Before the final boss I got what I felt was 10 extra levels to give me a boost, and the final boss was still extremely difficult on hard difficulty. It came down to luck, which I am not happy about, but I don't see another way other than grinding to max level and getting higher stats. Anyways the game as a whole was brilliant at the same level as Persona 5 and SMTV Vengeance. I am still not sure which of the three I like the most, they all gave unique amazing moments and gameplay. Maybe it goes like this, Persona best music and epic moments, SMT best gameplay and battles, and Metaphor best setting and story. My opinion could change soon though. Either way Metaphor is a must play for any JRPG fan out there.

Looking forward, it seems November I have other commitments so no new games. December I might be able to eek out a 9th JRPG, but we shall see. This might be the first year of only JRPGs beaten, maybe I should top off the year with something else.

What you rating it at? 

Omg the final boss is a right cunt and a waste of time. At level 80+ on easy and after three wipes I lowered the difficulty to story mode, I only beat him because when you die in that mode it let's you revive with full MP. So after an hour and a half of just whitling him down on the best build I could think of I am lefti fuming at the waste of time that was, It was not worth it, I wish I gave up when they said 31 days remain and just watched the ending on youtube. Fuck that shit. Same as Tales of Arise, padding for length is worse than bloat for scope.

... ugh, so many thoughts on this game, so many highs and low points. 

I don't really do ratings as I love almost all JRPGs deeply.

It is a 9 or 10 out of 10 like Persona 5 and SMT V Vengeance.

Looks like you had the same problem as me with the final boss. Spend so much time getting him down only for luck to be involved in the final stretches.

Eunpha Royal Summoner to attack + debuff, it will  make the boss spend two turns, one for reseting your debuffs and other to buff himself. In the first half she's your best damage dealer because of her AoE

MC Prince to tank, cure status ailments, buffing your party and attacking when you can

Royal Knight Hulkberg to draw attention + reflect, her passive reflect skills will occasionally end the boss turn. If you have trained her as Healer as I did, make her the main healer of the fight. Use her skills to grant immunity to your party members (focus on Eunpha and Basilio, Royal Prince is extremely tank and and can buff himself to get more Survivability)

Basilio Royal Berserk can at the same time unleash damage and inflict weakness to strike. Best damage dealer in second phase 

With this combination you might be able to attack the boss 3 to 4 times every turn, and at best will suffer damage twice when it's the boss turn 

If you don't focus on defensive skills and stats this fight will be a nightmare. I've beaten it first try, because I've already figured the game's meta and was it simply kinda worked without more careful planning lol 

Not a number ratings person but a solid 8/10. STMV-V a 9/10 and Nocturne a 14/10

I would have beaten it on easy, I got close on my last attempt if O hadn't run out of all MP refills and HP refills in the true final form which is an insane tank, I would have had to go bavk to a save and biy more MP refills to make it through. I was not expecting to spend 5 hours after the last dungeon and near 2 hours to beat the bosses final two phases, it's like the game doesn't know when to let go. You have the final boss, then the final boss again, then the final bosses true form, then the final bosses last chance and oh wait, he's not dead yet then after burning you out completely you still have an epilogue and then an after credits scene. It's like the game doesn't know when to let go. JRPG's are marred by this issue, I'd play more of them if they were more cohesive and respected time more efficiently or add a "auto fill" mode that'll do the forced side stuff evenly like the last 31 days of follower quests (already maxed virtues) that aren't that interesting and side contend quest only taking one day now that the runner can fly. Ugh, Tales of Arise as bad as it was on this issue at least made it so you can choose to engage in follower dialogue scenes through out or skip them if you're feeling burned out and wanna B line it. 

As much as I have my faults with the game the writing and localisation team done a great job with both, especially the English VA and direction given to them. A bit overly poetic but after playing the Ys Nordics demo, my God does it show how amazing of a job they done. By far the best I've seen in a JRPG yet and the use of different British dialects and actually writing phrasing, idioms and the like local to those regions of the UK was masterclass.