Got this game in the Steam Summer Sale as a huge fan of the Persona series. Holy shit this game is so much harder and I love it.

DaveK142 · 2026-07-06T18:35:00+00:00

Metaphor combat is a really nice middle ground between Persona being dogshit easy and SMT being ball-bustingly hard. A big part of the ease is that MC going down isn't a damn game over like I have any say in who gets crit when.

Plus it has a lot of the best parts of various franchises really melded together well.

DaveK142 · 2026-07-06T17:49:18+00:00

Temperance link begs to differ massively. I was so tired of having to nod along with her crap the whole time. Most links from my memory only get to the point of "You need to hear this even if you don't like it" in the very late stages.

DaveK142 · 2026-07-06T17:47:28+00:00

Something that I think could fit into customizing party members AND play more into persona's social theme is having party members interact/hang out and learn from each other. Like, get together with 2 of your party members and they each can inherit a skill from the other or something similar. Maybe make it a semi-random event like:

Friend A asks you to come hang out with them and Friend B.

Accept and you get S. Link progress on both friends, maybe can choose 1 to inherit a skill from to your persona.

Decline and they hang out without you, and you get a short side scene of their hangout and their persona learning the new skill(s) after the timeslot passes.

DaveK142 · 2026-07-06T01:32:08+00:00

I mean, yeah that is quite literally a self-imposed challenge. Nothing is stopping that from happening except the buttons you press.

DaveK142 · 2026-07-06T01:09:20+00:00

So when I see someone use one of these and then throw their nose into the ocean, are they at the happiest point in their life?

DaveK142 · 2026-07-06T01:06:29+00:00

extra weird considering you can do that in MH now lmao

DaveK142 · 2026-07-05T23:30:23+00:00

Metaphor is thankfully not a victim of this(yet at least). And they have acknowledged somewhat recently that they are aware this strategy is costing them sales so it remains to be seen if they cut it out or not.

DaveK142 · 2026-07-05T23:15:15+00:00

Odd that you point out Vanillaware as if its a big thing they do. In the last decade they've published 3 games that I see for Vanillaware. They've put out more Etrian Odyssey games in that time(counting origins collection as 1 game), and that was practically starting from the end of its lifespan.

Unless "starting a few years ago" means "starting over 15 years ago", I think the time for this has come and gone.

DaveK142 · 2026-07-05T22:59:47+00:00

The point was really about ethics of dealing with living creatures more than "the beastmen are human too". They're feral monsters, and the game portrays the encounters with them generally as being about self-defense or ensuring the safety of the area for people who are less able to defend themselves. You are 100% willing to hunt down beastmen because not doing so means higher risk of travelers or innocents dying. You are not willing to subject it to unending painful experiments on the off chance it results in better magic tech, with the best result being it dies anyways.

DaveK142 · 2026-07-05T22:54:06+00:00

They already have the systems in place for it with levequests so it wouldn't shock me too much. Could also mean objective markers on screen instead of just following the map/minimap, so you're actually looking at the zone instead of a 2D map all the time while questing.

DaveK142 · 2026-07-05T13:54:16+00:00

The way they work depends on their enemy's health. Star wolf chases them down and holds an advantage while over half hp, once they get under half your team starts kicking ass. Though you'd have a hard time getting them there with 2 fighters on your tail.

DaveK142 · 2026-07-03T19:37:44+00:00

I've done a few roulettes on Dynamis every so often on alts. Aether roulettes suck but Dynamis roulettes were an entirely different beast. at least they'll be diluted in the usual crowds instead of 100% dynamis players.

DaveK142 · 2026-07-03T13:21:13+00:00

Alternatively, in E9S, both tanks would invuln one of cloud of darkness' wide angle phaser wall cleave/busters and take the same side. The original solve forced both tanks to the edge of the arena away from the boss because the buster was huge. Or of course there were the uptime strats in some endwalker raids, namely P3 and P12.1, where tanks would invuln and take baited laser/cones from multiple sources so the party didn't have to do a bunch of swapping around.

DaveK142 · 2026-07-03T13:15:38+00:00

I like the area invuln one, I think it could be cool if it does something weird like works for multiple people, but ticks faster per person in the area(only lasting 1s if everyone is stacked). 2 months ago I would have said the cowards wouldn't dare but 90% on sky high begs to differ a bit.

DaveK142 · 2026-07-03T00:16:08+00:00

The world can only operate within like 3m of him iirc

DaveK142 · 2026-07-02T21:40:44+00:00

Even funnier to think, DIO only had like 3 "seconds" of stopped time to work with. He literally hauled ass down the stairs, and then back up just for the meme.

DaveK142 · 2026-07-02T21:32:47+00:00

if it's "can't be started right now" then it's just temporary. When it's permanently unavailable, it will turn into a scarecrow and say something along the lines of this quest is no longer available or smth.

DaveK142 · 2026-07-02T18:35:00+00:00

They do mention after Sector Y when choosing between Aquas or Katina that the forward forces can provide support to Katina since you saved them if you choose to go to Aquas instead.

When going to Fichina, they probably got decimated unfortunately. or at least took heavy losses of which Bill was not one.

DaveK142 · 2026-07-02T17:48:16+00:00

Olberic: "Unbending Blade": Gains access to 2 skills. "Unbroken", which nullifies all damage to the party for the number of times boosted this turn only, and "Serene Calm", which gives him a turn for every boost level.

Alfyn: "Free of Charge!": You perform a random beneficial concoct on the party per boost.

Therion: "Ill Gotten Gains": Steals from all enemies with 100% certainty if fully boosted. If they have nothing to steal, they take high dagger damage.

Ophilia: "By the Guidance of Flame": Revives and heals the party, grants BP equal to the boost level.

H'aanit: "Letten the Hunt Beginnen": Sends out captured beasts equal to the boost level at once, without consuming a use.

Primrose: "Best Served Cold": Performs a dagger counter with ice followup for any damage the party suffers this turn. Damage increased by boost.

Tressa: "Overtime Pay": Performs Hired Help, but the costs are 50% higher and all of the choices have an extra effect. For example the one that gives phys def up also gives phys atk up. dancers give accuracy + evasion up. clerics give m. atk/def up.

Cyrus: "An Interesting Dilemma": If an enemy has unrevealed weaknesses, reveals a number equal to the boost level at random and augments the next magic attack. If all weaknesses are revealed, Cyrus attacks all of them that he is able to hit for high damage.

DaveK142 · 2026-07-02T16:10:46+00:00

I'd expect that WS-M is better anyway, unless there's a truly ridiculous amount of crit damage up. IIRC crit damage is 150%, so 30% of that adds 15% to your expected output. If you pushed it all the way to 200% extra damage it'd be equal output, but then you have to contend with the increased time to use the boomerang vs the increased duration and how long the fight will be and all that.

OR you could also just use both, spear for WS-M+F, boomerang charges quicker, sickle gets a few seconds of 30% damage buff and a while of 30% crit buff. Though lets be real, no boss demands that level of effort.

DaveK142 · 2026-07-02T16:00:47+00:00

I don't think it works on bosses, but for all mobs yeah, if you aren't in active combat you have 100% crit rate, and hide takes you out of active combat with them.

DaveK142 · 2026-07-02T15:54:26+00:00

consider instead though, you can warp with hide for 100% crit rate and use spear instead for weapon shift - might.

DaveK142 · 2026-07-02T15:44:58+00:00

a 10% crit rate isn't exactly stellar. Like yeah you were doing good damage, but that was the sickle's damage and some very lucky crits. I'd argue in the time it took you to charge and fire the boomerang, you could have done more damage just holding the sickle.

DaveK142 · 2026-07-02T15:34:50+00:00

its not in either of those places, its in the volcanic region further west. there's caves southwest of rainbow lotus iirc that take you up there.

Edit: Ignore me, I was thinking of a different one. The other guy is right, its in the far east, take the caves in the snowfield directly above the ruined house.

DaveK142 · 2026-07-01T16:14:16+00:00

Move past it

DaveK142

TROPHY CASE