Persona 5: Royal

I mean, I don’t need to explain this one, right? Every video game writer on the planet cannot resist the siren call of mentioning Persona when talking about Metaphor, including myself when I name dropped Persona in the second sentence of this article. I mean, the fact that Metaphor was developed by the same people who make modern Persona games was one of the biggest reasons Metaphor had so much hype before it launched! Sure, you’ll trade the fantasy setting for high school shenanigans, and the awesome Archetype system will be replaced by the signature Shin Megami Tensei demon fusion system. But otherwise, Persona is your best bet if you want another RPG like Metaphor

If you’ve truly never played a Persona game before, Persona 5: Royal remains the overall best way to dip your toes into the series. However, it’s not the only Persona game to deliver the mix of RPG and social simulator elements that Metaphor has. Persona 3 Reload is another great pick, though since that’s a remake of a beloved PS2 game, just keep in mind it retains some artifacts from that era of gaming. Persona 4: Golden is also worth a look if you don’t mind some dated graphics, and Persona 3 Portable remains the only way to play Persona 3 with a female protagonist.

Earlier Persona games are good too, but they’re a fundamentally different style of game than what I’ve mentioned above.