One of Metaphor: ReFantazio's subtle improvements on Persona may be better than you think, saving you time and actively earning you some dosh or recouping precious magic points if you play your cards right.
Metaphor approaches combat a lot like Persona does – baddies potter around 'dungeons' until you run into 'em and fight through turn-based combat. What's neat about Metaphor, though, is that you can whack and insta-kill them if you're appropriately strong. No fuss, no fight loads, just a modest helping of experience points.
Now, that's not totally new to JRPGs and is an evolution of what we've seen in Persona – Ryuji could insta-flatten weak Shadows in Persona 5, and spooking fiends in Persona 3 Reload before fighting them gave you an advantage. But! Throwing all of that together and making it more accessible to your main character – suck it, Ryuji – got an approving nod from me when I played Metaphor's demo.
It doesn't stop there, either. Metaphor is like many RPGs in that you'll need cash – called Reeve – to buy stuff, though players are quickly finding ways to game the system. An early Metaphor Archetype you can unlock called The Merchant is pretty handy for making money despite actually spending money to use certain attacks, and it's all thanks to that combat innovation.
As plenty of other fans have noted online, they have an ability called Alchemy that gives you a lil' bit of dosh when you stun or defeat an enemy on the field. The in-game text undersells it by saying there's only a chance of it happening, but it seems pretty consistent to most players. Essentially, go push over some weaklings in a dungeon, and you'll get paid.
As for which dungeon, plenty seem keen on picking up the 'Man's Not-So Best Friend' bounty to return to the Tradia Desert and put down dogs for dosh – I said the money-making scheme was effective, but I didn't say it was moral.
It's not just money, either. If you find your MP drying up by the time you reach a dungeon's boss, you can swap to the Mage Archetype to earn a slither of MP for, you guessed it, going and pushing over some rube into the dirt.
It's no wonder our Metaphor: ReFantazio review rates the JRPG so highly.
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