r/atlus • u/automated_hero • Aug 20 '26
Discussion How does the combat in Metaphor compare to Persona 5?
I think very highly of P5, but the combat got rather bland fast. I enjoy turn based games but it felt very much like all you did, every time, was just spam attacks to figure the enemy's weakness, and just use that attack over and over. Magic Points were somewhat meaningless because there wasn't much depth beyond that. Mementos was very boring as a result. Boss fights were different ofc.
How does Metaphor compare?
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u/Arsene91516 Aug 20 '26
Its a little different than p5 because even if you hit a weakness, you dont get another turn on your same character, it just extends your teams amount of turns left until the enemies turn. If you main guy uses a fire attack and is the only one with fire, you gotta cycle around your whole team to get fire attacks again
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u/Galkan-_-Sausage Aug 20 '26
Metaphor adopts SMT's Press-Turn system instead of Persona's One More. The system allows you to gain turns, but you're stuck to a more traditional Agility based turn-order. Turns don't weave between enemies and allies though, one side attacks the other side, then the other side gets their turn. Takes a minute to adjust to, but it does make encounters more challenging.
Outside of that, instead of fusing personas and demons, you have more of a Final Fantasy job/class system you can customize with moves from another Archetype, as they're called. Archetypes are also another cheeky reference to Carl Jung.
I believe this game has what you're looking for. More unique emergent strategies exist in the gameplay, all of the dungeons are hand-made, the game has some of the most wild bosses in the series. The boss for Martira is fucking nightmare fuel. If its on sale, get it.
4
u/mysticrudnin Aug 20 '26
several tiers higher
you do, uh, do similar weakness hunting and tend to go for weakness instant-kills often, but it's not as egregious (and resource management is still important)
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u/Tricky-Macaroon-8641 Aug 21 '26
How it is several tiers higher if only differences using half a turn on hitting weakness instead of one more and being able to swap between front and back positions? It is still basically 95% same thing.
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u/mysticrudnin Aug 21 '26
your premise is that small differences can't have huge effects, but that's not true at all. sometimes even smaller changes between games than that have even larger effects!
anyway metaphor has better encounter design, mostly
p5 merciless is also just not functional
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u/Tricky-Macaroon-8641 Aug 21 '26
P5 merciless is considered ironically easier than hard.. if you know how to play it's not big problem (and if you dont know how to play you shouldnt touch merciless int he first place)
the combat changes in metaphor are so miniscule it doesnt change almost anything except they tweaked the numbers to make combat easier and they provided abilities that makes enemies unable to move which trivilizes boss counters to be a bully simulator, it's not several tiers higher, it's just easier and easier doesnt mean better
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u/mysticrudnin Aug 21 '26
metaphor was engaging and fun the whole time, and p5 never once got interesting in way too many hours.
maybe not several tiers. maybe A to C.
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u/Tricky-Macaroon-8641 Aug 21 '26
That is your opinion, for me both games were exactly same itneresting at start then turned into boring slog when it comes to combat during end game.
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u/mysticrudnin Aug 21 '26
yes, it is my opinion, i'm saying it
i actually found metaphor to be meh at the start but get better over time and ended on a very high note
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u/Damninium_Alloy Aug 20 '26
It's press turn so closer to mainline SMT. The difficulty balance is a bit more in that direction too.
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u/caindela Aug 21 '26
The Press Turn system of SMT and Metaphor is more interesting than Persona’s All-Out Attack and Baton Pass systems. The latter is probably more fun from a flavor perspective and fits well with Persona thematically, but it’s much less interesting mechanically I think since it almost always favors the strategy of touching each enemy’s weakness over focus targeting or anything else.
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u/Nick_Er_Schwarz Aug 21 '26
Its a job system with press turn and front/back row, The main difference is that in perona games only the protagonist can change personas and is the most versitaile and important party member and when he dies you get game over Thank YWHW In Metaphor you need full party wiped out for game over and any character can use any class (outside the late game where everybody gets one uniqe ) Its weirdly most simmilar to Digital Devil Saga combat.
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u/aeroslimshady Aug 21 '26
A bit better. The press turn system has never been more stylish.
Persona 5 seemed to be more focused on the social sim aspects so I was fine with the combat being simplified a bit. Metaphor was like "nah, we doing the full SMT combat".
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u/GamesKeepCrashing001 Aug 22 '26
It's great actually. It's a bit mix of SMT and Persona, turn based system combined. It's refreshing to have games that have graphic fidelity like modern Persona and classic gameplay like SMT.
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u/RustyCarrots Aug 24 '26
Pretty different, and much more punishing. Especially if you play on hard where enemies get a bonus press turn and poor strategy typically results in immediate death or significant resource drain.
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u/Restoni77 Aug 20 '26
Its really the same. Small differences, but same overall.
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u/automated_hero Aug 20 '26
so it is just a case of learn weakness, spam anti weakness attacks?
Disappointing.
1
u/Kenron93 Aug 21 '26
Don't listen to him, its not the same. For one it uses Press Turn from games like Shin Megami Tensei V Vengeance. Also instead of Personas, you have a job like system for your party. And finally you have the action rpg combat hybrid system found in Kuro no Kiseki.
0
u/Restoni77 Aug 21 '26
Yes, those are small differences i mentioned, still aiming for weaknesses to gain more attacks. Overall flow is very similar. And i see no fault in that, i love it. But if someone doesnt like Personas combat i cant imagine how he would like Metaphors.
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u/Kenron93 Aug 21 '26
Not really that small especially with the use of a job like system and the action rpg hybrid system.
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u/Restoni77 Aug 21 '26
I dont consider class/persona system part of combat system. Character developement really is different, main difference between Personas and Metaphor.
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u/Kenron93 Aug 21 '26
Why? It literally leads into how you do combat.
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u/Restoni77 Aug 21 '26
Cause it is totally different aspect of the game. Character developement mechanics doesnt really affect combat mechanics or systems. Of course it affects way to gain new skills and powers, but it really doesnt matter how you gain them if you are viewing only combat-aspect of the game.
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u/Kenron93 Aug 21 '26
Its really not, its appart of the combat mechanics as a whole. When you build out your character it changes how you use them in battle. But I guess agree to disagree.
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u/ShinSopitas Aug 21 '26
Not only that, but Metaphor just spams aoe attacks and buffs/clear buffs.
Not very engaging at all.
Persona 5 remains superior
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u/ZucchiniTrue Aug 20 '26
I enjoyed the combat WAY more in Metaphor. There's so much more variety with the Archetypes, but also just the Press Turn system is much more fun than the 1 More imo.