This is what I am talking about, Astro Bot set the stage to win GOTY for me but this to me is the only thing standing in it's way of glory. 

I played the demo that is available for consoles & PC for a good 10-12 hours(Very meaty demo) and it's really good, there's a lot to like with this game. The battle system is very much like Digital Devil Saga where if you exploit weaknesses, you get more turns and can give teammates turns as well. There's also the ability to move up allies to forefront or background where they do more damage but take more damage if on the forefront but for a healer/mage, you can stash them in the back and they can take less damage but still dish out damage. 

Playing it on hard is pretty challenging too with a side boss being a nightmare on this mode where I lucked out in beating it without taking any damage. Story is pretty wild too, Atlus does completely away with the high school setting and give you more of a mythological setting that is about a mad king to be trying to do a plot of taking over the kingdom through dastardly means(He is a pure fake messiah complex type of villain). Voice acting is pretty good, I am really digging this game, the music is whimsical and has some bangers(The male singing takes time to get used to but the instrumentals are great). 

There's also a job system similar to FF5 where each character and learn a new class with new moves which is needed given each dungeon has their own gimmick(Side area for example has enemies that go berserk over any mage/cleric class which is the game trying to nudge you to do pick warrior/knight classes) and you want a mixture of spells and moves(You inherit one spell from a previous class that you can carry over), probably can see lots of possibilities on how to combat enemies. 

If Elden Ring was FROM Software's leap into going out of their comfort zone, then Metaphor: ReFantazio is Atlus's attempt of branching out to tackle something new. I am all in for this bad boy this Friday. 

Once I wrap up Echoes of Wisdom, this will likely see me out for the rest of 2024. Really excited to get my hands on it, especially after giving the Persona 3 remake a mix. It's been over seven years since my playthrough of Persona 5 and while I won't be as dialled in (160+ hours in a month...) I'm sure I'll be in for a good time.

Just tossing up whether I should get this for PC or PS4. I'm leaning towards PC but haven't really thought of all the logistics.

Hulkamania is running wild. The knight was big time becks for me in that optional dungeon. Strahl is also maybe the best "Bro dude" of the Atlus games thus far and I love me some Junpei.

Will Bosch(Who I named since Will is canon and Bosch is the last name of the artist that might have inspired some of this game's designs, Hieronymus Bosch also has a personality and seems like a cool enough pacifist of a main character who despite not being accepted due to his race, still wants a peaceful world and is so much into his book of peace & prosperity of people.

Just finished it up, did everything but the final bounty and the dragon trials, the final bounty because I ran out of time, and the dragon trials I felt way underleveled for...and ran out of time.

While I'd say it's their best effort I've played yet, I still think Persona 5 (Royal) is my favorite of the bunch. Just a more streamlined experience, where this felt a bit more drag here and there. Positives are maybe their strongest story, the "RETRY" option for combat for when you get totally fucked (I may have given up at the end if not for it), and their ever dependable cast of characters, and about as good as turn based can get combat.

But Jesus suffering FUCK, final boss's 2nd phase has gotta be my least favorite final boss in any of their games (1st phase wasn't an issue), maybe my least favorite in all of turnbasedom. First of all, I did everything in the game but the aforementioned, AND did a shit ton of grinding, I still came in at the mid-60's for a level 85 boss, and 20 levels in these games is quite a difference. But they gave him every cheap move in the book, can instantly buff himself, dispell your buffs and debuffs you used against him. He gets 5 standard turns, and has moves to constantly hit whatever weakness you have on the board for extra moves, as well as constant criticals, and just as constant dodges (even when you have his dodge debuffed and your accuracy buffed). Constantly hits you with Axiety, forcing you to burn turns. Has an instant 1 hit kill move to take out a party member with 100% success rate. And if you manage ALL of that bullshit, when you get him down to about 1/4 of his life...he gets "Soul Scream" which turns 1 turn into 4 turns.

I fought this buttfucking son of bitch for probably 5 hours before things finally didn't do something to screw me over in his final phase. The only real chance is if when he gets down to 2 moves, you manage to dodge, so he misses and doesn't get to use his final move for Soulscream. But, like I said, even with his accuracy debuffed and your dodge buffed, it almost never wanted to do it at that particular time, so I was in a cycle of trying to revive and heal my characters without being able to deal any real damage or risk having my entire party wiped. The first time it actually let me dodge before "Soul Scream" twice...I won.

It won't be so bad on replays, probably being overleveled in NG+, but that first time through, I got so angry I was legitimately considering just looking up the ending and sending it back without beating it. Just did not feel fun, even doing absolutely everything perfectly, the RNG was a motherfucker.

But, I finally did it, it's done, but fuck that was frustrating. Crazy spike in difficulty from the dungeon that preceded it. On to Veilgaurd.

I heard about that final boss, can't wait to try this. What difficulty did you try him on RagnarokMike? Hard? Normal?

I just got to August, MLB/NFL has sort of taken my time away from this. I did a couple of those optional bounties/quest searches last night, think I am going to the 3rd major dungeon/timeline tonight or tomorrow.

I am enjoying the game a lot but it does throw a lot at you, so many different jobs and the like. It does get to be a bit overwhelming but the endless possibilities you can have are amazing. I love the retry option too, so big to keep the stun on enemies, especially on hard mode.