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How Persona 6 Can Profit Off of Metaphor: ReFantazio's Merchant Archetype

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Metaphor: ReFantazio may not be a part of the Persona franchise, but it’s obviously a close cousin. The whole idea of Archetypes in Metaphor: ReFantazio is a close parallel to the titular Personas: images of mythical heroes magically summoned through the strength of one’s heart. It’s in the game mechanics that their differences become clear. While Persona protagonists have few ways to add or change skills after fusion, and party members have even less flexibility, Archetypes offer a ton of creative freedom and players are encouraged to mix and match new skills constantly. What’s more, Archetypes are largely designed around classic JRPG jobs, ranging from typical stars like the Warrior and Mage to the more eccentric examples like the Merchant.

The Merchant Archetype in Metaphor: ReFantazio draws many of its features from other Merchants in job-based JRPG franchises like Octopath Traveler and Bravely Default; while it lacks typical combat skills, it has a knack for finding items and making the most of them, as well as spending money to deal damage to the enemy. This sort of RPG rule-breaking makes the Merchant a standout role, generating resources that make the rest of the game easier or offering a means of attack that spends a secondary resource. Atlus hasn’t focused on Merchant-style abilities in the Persona franchise, likely due to Persona‘s distinct magic system and RPG gameplay, but now that Metaphor has shown how Merchant skills can work in Atlus’ signature game style, Persona 6 should follow through on it too.

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Why Merchant-Style Skills Could Be Useful in Persona 6

As is the case for many JRPGs, it’s common for Persona players to sit on a ton of extra money by the end of the game. Players might spend it all at the last second for a hoard of consumable items, or at least cash in to fuse Personas, but regardless, millions of yen are likely to go to waste once the credits roll. With that in mind, Persona 6 could give players a valuable new way to make the most of their money, especially as a late-game alternative to typical skills that spend SP. If these abilities appear on collectible Skill Cards or Persona 5 Royal-style skill accessories, the whole party can make the player’s money work for them at all stages of the game.

Persona does sometimes let players carry over saved money into New Game Plus playthroughs, but in that case, Merchant-style skills would be all the more useful thanks to the player’s early stockpile of funds.

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Adapting Merchant Skills for the Persona Formula

Persona 6 may not be able to copy the Merchant Archetype wholesale, but there are still ways to fit its skills into Metaphor‘s sister series. For instance, mechanically speaking, the Gold Attack and the Merchant’s item passives like Trader’s Summit and Lucky Find can fit directly into Persona, since Metaphor‘s Almighty damage and item system are practically identical to Persona‘s. Gold Attack could even function as a new skill for Persona 6‘s rare Shadows, which would be especially appropriate if it brings back Persona 4 Golden and Persona 3 Reload‘s Wealth Hand Shadows.

It’s the Synthesis Skills that might be a bit more difficult for Persona to translate. The Merchant has some extremely unique and useful Synthesis abilities that deal Almighty damage, clear enemy buffs, and strengthen allies; however, they’re balanced in part around Metaphor‘s Turn Icons, taking up a lot of the party’s time in addition to money. Without that factor for balance, Persona 6 might need to increase the money cost or rework the effects to adapt skills like All Reset and Money Power. Alternatively, it could simply take inspiration from the Synthesis skills and feature some weaker buff, debuff, and utility skills that cost money instead of SP.

Why Money-Based Skills Would Fit Right Into Persona 6

Merchant-style money skills may seem a bit out of place in Persona, but on the contrary, the franchise already features alternate skill costs. Aside from physical skills typically spending HP instead of SP, Persona 3 Reload introduced Bloody Charge, a self-buff used by Shinjiro Aragaki and a few niche Personas that trades HP for major physical damage. P3R might have only dipped its toe into alternate costs for status skills, but with inspiration from Metaphor: ReFantazio, Persona 6 can swing for the fences instead. P6 would be wise to explore new horizons with Persona‘s well-known combat formula, and the Merchant skills from Metaphor would be a great place to start.


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