VGChartz's Evan Norris: "From the beginning, 2024 had its work cut out for it. The previous year, 2023, was one of the best in a long time, thanks to a plethora of unusually great games that included Tears of the Kingdom, Baldur's Gate III, and Resident Evil 4. In the end, 2024 failed to surpass its predecessor, but it turned out plenty of extraordinary experiences in the process.
Among those experiences are Astro Bot, a 3D platforming tour-de-force that proves PlayStation studios offer far more than just cinematic third-person action games; Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, an action-RPG that builds upon the successful framework of Final Fantasy VII Remake, a GotY contender itself; Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, which did what Hollywood could not and made Indy compelling again; The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, a different and joyfully experimental take on the evergreen series; and Metaphor: ReFantazio, yet another in a long line of deep and engaging role-playing games from Atlus."
TNS: Sony has had an interesting career with live-service games, making this new lineup of PlayStation releases all the more interesting.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Metaphor: ReFantazio encourage player agency, allowing an impressive level of nuance and creativity to team builds.
I hadn't played Metaphor until it was on GamePass and I can tell you I vastly prefer Clair Obscur. That said, I have never been a big fan of the Persona games.
Same tbh. I love persona but Metaphor felt dated to me personally. Expedition 33 definitely felt fresh.
I could not get into Metaphor, whatsoever and I’m a huge Persona fan. I feel like Metaphor is incredibly overrated, but… and I know this is blasphemy, but I think Clair Obscur is slightly overrated as well.
I think that was on me though because everyone said it was the best thing since sliced bread and when I fired it up, I thought it was ok. I’d take Yakuza Like a Dragon, FF7 Remake/Rebirth, and Persona over it… heck I actually think Lost Odyssey is better. But to each their own.
Lost Odyssey is pretty underrated. Clair Obscur felt like a combo of Lost Odyssey, Legend of Dragoon, and some Shadow Hearts: Covenant, all amazing games that I love.
Yeah. Expedition 33 is a bit overrated. It’s cool to have a turn base RPG with a good story, I’m grateful. But it seems that the people that are more impressed don’t really play RPGs and see it as fresh air.
Yeah, I think they are overrated as well, based on how highly people lift them up. People hoist clair obscur up as if it is a 15/10 game.
I love all of the persona games, but I cannot get into Metaphor for some reason, I am trying to play it
Clair Obscur is good, but I do not like the battle system, both Metaphor and Clair have great stories
I just finished Clair yesterday
Both Metaphor and Clair are very slightly overrated
I personaly really disliked ReFantazio, couldn’t get into it and i loved P5 back in the day. Clair Obscur is much, much better IMO. It cuts all the nonsense and bloat, focuses on fun, it’s much more intuitive, waaaay more focused and much better paced and it doesn’t have incoherent anime nonsense. And i found Refantazio take on the racism and classism to be very shallow. So no i don’t agree that they are two sides of the same coin.. i mean why? Just because they’re both turn based games? Get out of here with that.
For me it was like demon souls to blood Bourne.
I know not the same game but it’s the best example for me.
Just like bloodborne, expedition 33 was faster and more fluid.
And metaphor, just like demon/dark souls, it’s much slower.
For me I like the faster pace combat.
Plus, an updated Astro Bot Limited Edition DualSense wireless controller is coming later this year.
I thought for a moment they will announce a VR version
It’s the only thing I’m waiting for to buy that psvr2
Omg i’m so glad i read the blog! I can’t wait to see what the special surprise is when you finish all the levels, i’m hoping we unlock a level similar to Winter Wonderland or something like that..
Where you collect FF bots ;))
"an updated Astro Bot Limited Edition DualSense wireless controller is coming later this year"
Music to my ears
