I've played previous Atlus titles, namely the modern persona titles. I don't have much experience or knowledge outside of those titles, so this game was a bit of a jump into new territory. The ending of this game left me wanting more from this series. Medieval fantasy usually isn't my cup of tea but this game knows & isn't very shy about the message it wants to tell. If you don't like high school settings and want to try Persona, this is probably the next best thing outside of just playing SMT.

A common problem that I have with the Persona games is that some party members feel like they are just there by the end of the story. Once their arc is wrapped up, there isn't a whole lot of room for them to grow outside of optional content. This kind of happens with Metaphor, but the social simulator elements are very relaxed in this compared to Persona to where I think it would be very hard to miss out on finishing every follower bond. There's less ranks to gain, you always rank up no matter what, you would have to be spending multiple days in every dungeon in order to miss all of it.

If you're even as passing fan of RPGs or JRPGs, I think you should try the game out. It had enough moments throughout to keep me hooked and invested in the characters. This game knows that it's a fantasy story and really likes playing around with that idea from the moment you start the game for the first time. I hope Atlus decides to do more with this concept, even if they decide to not use the same world. It's a wonderful celebration of the games Atlus has made in the past.