>>528570697
I haven’t played E33 myself yet, but I did want to hear your takes. Ignoring the first half for now, I do feel like Metaphor falls into some of the problems you mentioned.

The storylines and character arcs feel underdeveloped or serve little purpose beyond moving the plot. Rella’s entire progression and resolution are a prime example. It feels rushed and incomplete, as if they ran out of time or budget and condensed the last part of the story, which is exactly what most people have been criticizing.

And even though the overall narrative is fairly straightforward, Metaphor’s execution still manages to come off messy, especially with stuff like Louis’s timeline and his connections to the King, which never feel properly sorted out. It’s a shame, because a less straightforward, more nuanced and thought provoking approach could have given the game the kind of depth that keeps people talking, like E33 still does.

On top of that, most of the characters in Metaphor don’t feel very fleshed out. They come across as flat and interchangeable, with motives that feel virtually identical and none of the genuine personality or nuance that make Persona’s characters so resonant.

I will say though, the character designs in Metaphor are great and from what I’ve seen of E33, it has some really cool looking characters too.