World of JRPG's

UIs in Hashino's games have been avant-garde for a while now, but Persona 5 was the first time I thought the over-the-top design was essential to the game. Persona 5 makes for an amazing case study in top-down game design, where every last piece of it feeds back into the concept of a bunch of idealistic little shits running around causing upheaval in crusty old power structures by way of thievery. The menus were a big part of the constant reinforcement of this theme.

After playing the demo, I'm not sure how to feel about the menus in Metaphor just yet. I feel like a lot of it relates to things I haven't seen yet in the game, though the use of the MC's body--the artwork is literally him from head to toe as you proceed down the menu--is interesting. Leonardo's Vitruvian Man is referenced in multiple spots in the game, and there's also some body horror stuff going on with some of the enemies, so I imagine the sense of one's human (humanoid?) body is important somehow. It feels a little bit form-over-function overall, but given the game's pedigree, I'm giving them a lot of latitude once I delve into the game this weekend.