Recent reviews by Mikh

Recommended, but not as wholeheartedly as many other reviewers. To preface, Persona 5 is my favorite game of all time, Persona 4 is somewhere in my top ten, and Persona 3 is somewhere in my top twenty. I had very high hopes for Metaphor: ReFantazio, but never felt myself falling in love with the game in the same way I have with other Atlus titles.

Metaphor isn't so much an evolution of Persona's trademark calendar and social link system as it is an imitation of it packaged on top of an otherwise pretty solid dungeon crawler. What fundamentally makes Persona work is that Atlus recognizes that developing social links requires so much game time, that they intentionally restrict the amount of time the player needs to spend engaging with the combat and dungeon gameplay. Metaphor cannot fully embrace this structure, because the archetype (or class) system requires so much time spent in combat to make it workable. As a result, the game spends most of its time jumping back and forth between the miserably uninteresting labyrinths and the too few number of social links (called "Followers" in Metaphor).

Atlus appears to have realized that the archetype system is simultaneously too present and too grindy to be able to fully embrace it. In SMT fashion, combat largely comes down to "buff yourself, debuff the enemy, blast away with whatever the enemy is weak to (or Almighty)." As a result, the archetype system - which initially appears to be highly in-depth, with large amounts of build customization - in practice ignores well over 90% of skills in favor of the simple tank/buffer/healer/DPS roles that are commonplace in nearly all RPGs. The closest Metaphor comes to embracing its class build potential is making an evasion tank by having your high agility character inherit a taunt, or with the Masked Dancer archetype changing usable skills based on equipped accessories that the player has to craft.

Additionally, mastering enough archetypes to meaningfully engage with the system requires large amounts of grinding in the highly barebones action combat, which only amounts to "attack", "dodge", and "avoid glowy circle AoE." There's no way to parry or guard. There isn't a light/heavy attack dichotomy that so many action games use. There isn't even any way to use your actual archetype skills, only a pretty mild difference in attack style based on which weapon type you're using, but which basically boils down to the Seeker archetype as the default, Merchant archetype if you want more money, and Thief archetype if you want more items - every other archetype is flatly worse in action combat and you'll almost never use any of them aside from novelty or to slowly restore your MP with Mage. Even Mage's gimmick quickly becomes worthless, because over leveling from grinding archetypes means you very rarely actually use MP enough to need to restore it.

Cumulatively, you'll find that grinding archetypes to explore the width of the game comes at the expense of becoming wildly over leveled for main story dungeons, preventing much of the depth of it. The end result is nearly all trash fights in dungeons are killed in the action combat, leaving the "actual" turn-based gameplay (which is really solid and engaging much of the time) almost entirely exclusive to boss fights. Dungeons become a boring parade of relatively same-y color palettes and environments, which take a couple hours to run through one-shotting almost all enemies until you're graced with a boss fight. This would be almost acceptable if dungeon visual and music design was as good as Persona 5, but Metaphor is unquestionably a downgrade here. What happened to the team that created the art museum or casino palaces? Even the spaceport has more going for it than the best dungeon in Metaphor.

Fortunately, the character writing that goes into the social links ("Followers" in this game) remains excellent. Three or four of them are among the best and most emotional that Atlus has created, with notable shout outs to the Thief and Faker archetype stories as being truly exceptional. However, there are both too few (14 in total, down from 22 in Persona 3 Reload, 23 in Persona 4 Golden, and 23 in Persona 5 Royal) and they are too short (all ending at rank 8, as opposed to rank 10 in Persona). This is understandable to a degree - Metaphor is not a Persona game and social links are not the primary gameplay loop - but almost half of the Followers in Metaphor are party members. It feels like there's just nobody to hang out with outside of the main cast. Having even two more purely optional Followers would have gone a long way here, but the calendar and archetype systems require such a large amount of dungeon crawling that it is understandable why Atlus chose to limit the social links in this way. Fortunately, the upside of the limited number is that every rank up gives you something tangibly useful - no more having to rank Yoshida up all the way to eight before unlocking a gameplay perk you care about.

All of this being said, the writing remains engaging and moving enough to carry the game all the way to the credits. There are moments in Metaphor where I was nearly as invested in the story and characters as I've ever been in an Atlus title. Atlus doesn't shy away from more complex nuances of issues including racism, anxiety, politics, religion, and grief, even if some of the minor antagonists are a little under developed. The approach to the relevancy of the main narrative is appreciated - largely gone are the "villain of the week" mini-arcs that plague Persona, replaced instead with the well-written-if-maybe-too-Sephiroth-y omnipresent antagonist of Louis Guiabern. Plot twists and lore revelations abound as usual of Atlus, and there is very clearly a lot of inspiration taken from many of the major JRPGs released since Persona 5. Fans of Final Fantasy XIV, Xenoblade, and Nier will probably have a lot to like here, because many of their themes blend through into Metaphor in a satisfying way. Great artists steal, as they say.

Emotional highs don't quite reach the best moments in Persona history, but they do come close. As a breath of fresh air, I never felt truly bored with the narrative. The story always felt like it was going somewhere intentional - even if through a somewhat meandering path - which is something nearly every other Atlus title has failed to achieve. The cast still struggles with the final couple characters being introduced too late to feel fully involved in the group (and present gameplay problems, because it's frustrating having several characters with ten mastered and a half dozen in-progress archetypes, then a new character joins completely fresh with exactly zero progress), but the core five or six characters who you meet early on remain compelling and likable. The combat and archetype system are indeed fun - above gameplay loop criticisms aside - and "grind to get bigger number and obliterate hard boss" as a staple Atlus design remains strong and present here.

Despite all the negativity I've written, you'll notice that I have 115 hours in-game at time of writing, which doesn't even include the twenty or so additional hours I put into the demo. I'll probably have more by the time you read this review, because I'll run through NG+ at some point to finish up missed achievements and kill superbosses. I did thoroughly enjoy my time with Metaphor, but there are just too many conflicting design decisions for me to give it the 10/10 Game of the Year Persona 5 Surpassing Masterpiece kind of rating that many other reviewers have.

Metaphor: ReFantazio is a really solid set of turn-based mechanics with a well-written, engaging main narrative and a rounded, enjoyable cast of characters, held back by an attempt to imitate the gameplay style and tone of a Persona title. If Metaphor is to truly become a "third pillar," as Atlus has claimed, then Metaphor 2 will need to do more to stand on its own feet.

Falcom does it again. Tales through Daybreak is another excellent entry into what may have become the best JRPG franchise.

Overall, a B- expansion to an A+ game.

Dawntrail is broadly as good as (and in many regards better than) Heavensward and Stormblood, but will likely be remembered as a lesser story than Shadowbringers or Endwalker. Encounter design (as of writing in patch 7.0) is excellent, with both extreme trials being a ton of fun and novel in their own regards. Dungeon structure is dramatically improved upon previous expansions, with almost certainly the best leveling dungeons so far. The first graphics update is spectacular and most of the music is to the caliber a fan of FFXIV will expect. Pictomancer is a blast to play and a real contender for the most fun job Square has ever made, and Viper is fast and flashy if perhaps lacking a bit in unique identity. Several jobs are at a bit of a low point (Black Mage, Summoner, Monk, Dragoon, and to varying degrees all of the tanks, healers, and physical ranged DPS), but there's enough variety in combat roles at this point that most people will find at least a handful of jobs that they resonate with, even if they might not be their old favorites.

Most of the negative reviews are going to focus in on the character writing or voice direction of new character Wuk Lamat, but I never found myself disliking her to any meaningful degree. Certainly there are moments in the story where she comes off as naive or excessively tolerant, but in a game full of grandiose, melodramatic characters, I don't feel as though an excessively optimistic protagonist is too far out of place. Given the option to do post-Endwalker and Dawntrail over, I think Square would have elected to introduce her and the continent of Tural earlier, to present exposition that unfortunately has to be in the early levels of Dawntrail proper. As it stands, it does feel as though parts of the level 90-93 story drag on a bit, but once the full narrative gets moving it's largely enjoyable with only a few missed notes.

If Dawntrail can keep up the gameplay improvements that it's introduced so far, and if the content roadmap that Square has previously shown can be kept to, then I think there will be a strong argument for it being the XIV expansion, even if the main narrative never hits the emotional highs that we've come to expect of the game. Even if not, FFXIV is still an excellent game, but some of the cracks in the formula are starting to show after a decade of iteration. Hopefully Square takes all the negative feedback into consideration and knocks it out of the park in 8.0. Until then, most will likely enjoy their time in Dawntrail, even if they may be bored for a few hours during its narrative.

An excellent remake of an all-time classic.

Another solid entry in the Persona 5 series. Combat is a little too straightforward for an SRPG, but as a proof of concept of "Persona, but XCOM" it's enjoyable enough. Worth a play if you've finished Royal and Strikers and are looking to spend more time with the Phantom Thieves.

The gold standard of what a faithful remake of a classic should be.

Another excellent entry into the Trails franchise, if personally not at the absolute top of my list. An A- entry into an A+ series is still nothing to scoff at though.

However, as every other review you've seen of this game says, don't start with this one - it's the tenth game in a continuous running story that assumes you've played and finished every game that came before. More over, it acts as an epilogue to most of the major plot threads from all of those games. Beginning with Reverie is like starting a TV show halfway through the final season. Getting into Trails is absolutely worth the time, but this is unquestionably the worst starting point. Go pick up Trails in the Sky, Trails of Cold Steel, or the upcoming Trails through Daybreak for much better entry points.

Story acts as a solid capstone and sendoff to the previous arcs, even if some of it feels like a bit of an emotional and narrative retread of parts previous games (especially Cold Steel IV). Even so, I frequently found myself grinning from ear to ear at just how much I love these characters and this world. Some people understandably dislike having such a huge roster of characters (over fifty that are playable, and dozens more named NPCs of various importance with backstories that you'll be familiar with from all of the previous games), but I never found myself any more frustrated with the "everyone chimes in with a line or two in every cutscene" storytelling style that has become synonymous with Trails than I was in previous entries.

Gameplay is definitely the most fun so far, with tons of post-game team building content that just begs you to optimize the hours away looking for that perfect setup. Reminds me of what Persona 5 attempted to do with Mementos, except dramatically quicker and more engaging. Master and Sub Quartz are a really excellent RPG system that actualize Final Fantasy VII's Materia system into modern sensibilities, and Reverie's implementation of the system is head and shoulders above previous entries. Brave Orders are still generally entertaining and serve as a great way to add functional gameplay elements to characterization of the cast, and the new United Front system feels suitably "power of friendship" for a game that at its heart is about how much the player appreciates a cast of characters developed over a decade and a half.

Ultimately, if you're at the point in this series where it begins to make any sense to pick up Reverie, then you don't need a review. Buy it and continue onward into what has probably become one of your favorite franchises.

My favorite game of all time.

Stray delivers exactly what it says in the description - you play as a cat and explore a post-apocalyptic cyber city. The animations and attention to detail are exceptional and the story is equal parts charming, hilarious, and moving. Press B to Meow is the greatest button prompt in history. Highly recommended.

Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising is maybe the most "fine" game I've ever played. It's not exceptional in really any way, but there's a certain charm to how the combat, animation, and music work together that makes it an enjoyable experience. The whole game essentially boils down to doing fetch quests and running through the same half dozen or so dungeons over and over, but the length is short enough and the combat is entertaining enough that it doesn't overstay its welcome.

Definitely accomplished its goal of making me more interested in the world of Eiyuden Chronicle, and I'm looking forward to the main game more now than I was previously. But just don't go into this one expecting anything you haven't already played before.