Metaphor Re:Fantazio, the award-winning 2024 game by Atlus that operated under the codename "Project Re-Fantasy" wherein the Kingdom of Euchronia experiences its first ever popular election amidst a succession crisis. Noted also for some of the most heavily-designed UI ever to be seen in a JRPG. Also the game i've stat topicked with the smallest PC cast ever, which says more about the other entries than this game, to be fair.
Special thanks goes to
CTOBN's mechanics guide for making this possible via unearthing Metaphor's underlying formulas, and the attached spreadsheets for determining skill bases. So, without further ado:
STATS AND WHAT THEY DO:
HP: Run out of these and be added to the Human Victim Memorial.
MP: Run out of this and turn into a Fire Emblem character.
STR: Influences physical damage and is a factor in defense against physical skills.
MAG: Influences magical damage and is a factor in defense against magical skills.
END: Primary defensive stat. Reduces damage taken.
AGI: Determines your initial place in turn order and also accuracy/evasion rates. Also steal rates. I would say lol but you can actually get some nice gear from stealing. Also has a minor effect on multihit skills.
LUK: Determines most everything to do with status - from infliction/resistance rates to recovery chances. Has a minor effect on multihit skills.
(Note on AGI: Metaphor is still a phase-based game like all press turn SMTs, and thus AGI's actual effects on speed in a DL setting are miniscule. AGI can only really be used to determine where someone lands on tiebreaks versus other characters whose speed generally falls under "Average and Wins Tiebreaks")
Non-HP/MP stats hard-cap at 99. HP and MP hard-cap at 999.
Accuracy is not a listed stat in-game, but instead calculated as a constant as a multiplier to skill accuracy (97% for physical ST and Plasma Nightblade, 95% for physical MT, 99 for magical ST, and 98 for magical MT)
ELEMENTS, ROW, AND STATUSES:
Attacks have ten possible elements here: Slash, Pierce, Strike, Fire, Ice, Lightning, Wind, Light, Dark, and Almighty. These can be Physical or Magical in nature. Weakness is typically 1.5x damage, but can be more in some rare cases that exist largely outside the stat topic's domain. Some attacks explicitly pierce resistances, allowing them to break through immunity/absorb/reflect traits as well, essentially treating them as neutral at worst.
Row is slightly more complicated and I would argue up to a number of interpretations. A character can choose to be in front or back row, both before battle and before they take action on their turn. This part I suspect isn't up to debate, but the effects of being in back row are:
Normally, being in back row provides a 20% reduction in damage taken in exchange for melee attacks (effectively all physical attacks that are not explicitly ranged) inflicting 50% of their normal value. With a specific Follower bonus, however, if the entire party is in the back row, everyone receives an additional 50% cut to damage taken. I'm going to leave this to personal interpretation since there's an effective difference between the two, and one of these does not functionally represent typical gameplay.
Negative statuses appear to be a case where a character can only have one status at a time, the new status overwriting the old. However, there are a lot here. A listing of the relevant statuses and their maximum duration:
Death: You are dead. If all of you are dead, Fantasy is Dead. (Permanent, obviously)
Poison: 5% mHP damage per action, nonlethal. A far cry from EO5 poison. (6 turns)
Malady: Cuts all core stats (STR/MAG/END/AGI/LUC) to 1/3. This cut is applied after equipment but before cap. Also negates healing. Not usable by PCs, but possibly relevant for later additions to the topic. (6 turns)
Paralysis: 80% chance per turn to lose your action. (6 turns)
Hex: Gives target a 3x weakness to Dark (does not overwrite immunity, repel, or absorb), doubles chances of ailment infliction against afflicted, and any non-lethal damage the afflicted inflicts to enemies is reflected back at 50% value to the afflicted. Shares affinity with the target's personal resistance to dark. (6 turns)
Burn: Afflicted takes +30% of any attack's final damage while this persists. Shares affinity with the target's personal resistance to fire. (3 turns)
Frostbite: Afflicted inflicts half damage. Shares affinity with the target's personal resistance to ice. (3 turns)
Charm: Afflicted will choose to act in enemies' favor, prioritizing healing enemies if possible. (3 turns)
Daze: Accuracy is halved. (3 turns)
Forget: Cannot use skills. (3 turns)
Sleep: Cannot act or evade. Every action the afflicted is unable to act, recovers an incredibly small portion of HP and MP. Any attack that can crit will. Removed on taking HP damage. (3 turns)
Rage: Afflicted will only execute basic attacks. They inflict and take 2x damage (not weakness). (3 turns)
Anxiety and Stun are basically not relevant for the purposes of the stat topic.
BUFFS AND DEBUFFS:
Buffs and debuffs largely follow something resembling a hybrid of DDS2 and modern Persona. You have your ATK, DEF, and ACC/EVA buffs that operate on a scale of -3 to +3, with 0 being neutral. There is an interaction between ATK and DEF buffs of course, and attacker/defender ACC/EVA buffs operate on a similar scale. Baseline stat buffs or debuffs last three turns, but are refreshed in duration when a new modification occurs. Debuffs naturally invert the values.
ATK: The first level of buff adds a 20% multiplier to damage, subsequent levels add an extra 10%. Multiplied with defender DEF buff value.
DEF: The first level of buff subtracts a 20% multiplier to damage, subsequent levels subtract an extra 10%. Multiplied with attacker ATK buff value.
ACC/EVA: Each level of buff adds a 10% multiplier to accuracy checks. Each level on the defender is an inverted value of multiplier to the attacker's accuracy check. Attacker/defender values are multiplied together (so someone with +3 attacking someone at +3 will be at 91% normal rate, not 100%)
Other buffs and debuffs exist outside the scope of these three. These include:
Critical Up: The character has a flat +15% to critical rate. This lasts for three turns.
Tetrakarn: The character will reflect the next Slash, Pierce, or Strike attack. Lasts until triggered once, at which point it is expended.
Makarakarn: The character will reflect the next Fire, Ice, Lightning, Wind, Light, or Dark attack. Lasts until triggered once, at which point it is expended.
Charge: The character's next physical attack inflicts 2.25x damage. Lasts until a physical attack is initiated, at which point it is expended.
Hyper: The character's next magical attack inflicts 2.25x damage. Lasts until a magical attack is initiated, at which point it is expended.
Implanted Weakness: The character now has a weakness to the next attack of a specific element, taking 1.5x damage from it. Lasts for three turns or until it is triggered once. If an attack that hits the weakness also implants the same weakness, the weakness remains for another attack or three turns.
All non-reflect buffs are subject to dispel effects.
EQUIPMENT:
Character equipment is divided up into four categories: Weapon, Armor, Sub-Armor, and Accessory. Weapons are unique to each class, and as each character has a unique endgame class, I see no reason not to thusly consider all weapons each character can use within equipment accessible by endgame. Armor and Sub-Armor, however, is not and thus remains limited strictly to these following options, which can be bought in bulk:
Armor:
Orichalcum Mail (DEF 370, END +7)
Orichalcum Vest (DEF 340, EVA +5)
Monarch's Kaftan (DEF 330, MAG +7)
Sub-Armor:
Orichalcum Helm (DEF 150)
Guerilla Bandana (DEF 110, EVA +10)
Sancturion's Mitre (DEF 122, MAG +6)
Orichalcum Mitts (DEF 134, STR +6)
Orichalcum Greaves (DEF 135, END +3, AGI +3)
Spica Pumps (DEF 122, EVA +7, AGI +6)
[Note: there are some stealable endgame armor options that are slightly better than the Orichalcum Mail and Orichalcum Vest, but it is up to your judgment whether these are valid or not]
With regard to Accessories, the Masked Dancer has legal access to every possible equippable mask. Storebought statusblockers are available as such:
Plague Mask: Blocks Poison
Polarity Magnet: Blocks Paralysis
Malice Screen: Blocks Hex
Garlic Aromatics: Blocks Daze
Forget-Me-Nots: Blocks Forget
Mint Charm: Blocks Sleep
CHARACTERS, LEVELS, ARCHETYPES AND INHERITANCE:
Characters will be taken at level 75. This is the level characters are at after clearing every main quest and sidequest boss in the game, and scaling in the final dungeon pushes roughly towards this value as well. Additionally, characters have access to unique archetypes as well as all prerequisites to those unique archetypes. I will assume mastery for all archetypes a character needs to level to 15+, which includes stat bonuses. In the case of Will, who does not have prerequisites on his unique archetype, I allow access to the Seeker Lineage, which is given at the start and has no outside prereqs for its evolutions.
A character may choose to equip up to four inherited skills, which are purchased with MAG and then unlocked for that character to use across any archetype they have equipped. The abundance of MAG in lategame convinces me that there's no reason not to allow free skill inheritance, as only a few skills have prohibitive inheritance costs, and characters do not have a surplus of those in particular they desire to have.
The archetypes and mastery bonuses by character are as follows (These mastery bonuses are included in their statlines):
Will: Seeker, Magic Seeker, Soul Hacker, Prince | +105 HP, +30 MP
Strohl: Warrior, Swordmaster, Samurai, Commander, General, Warlord, Royal Warrior | +14 STR, +9 END
Hulkenberg: Knight, Magic Knight, Paladin, Dark Knight, Mage, Wizard, Elemental Master, Royal Knight | +75 MP, +18 END
Heismay: Thief, Assassin, Ninja, Gunner, Sniper, Dragoon, Merchant, Tycoon, Knight, Royal Thief | +2 END, +23 AGI, +7 LUC
Junah: Masked Dancer, Persona Master, Faker, Trickster, Royal Masked Dancer | +12 MAG, +7 LUC
Eupha: Summoner, Devil Summoner, Seeker, Magic Seeker, Soul Hacker, Royal Summoner | +75 HP, +85 MP
Basilio: Berserker, Destroyer, Brawler, Pugilist, Martial Artist, Royal Berserker | +75 HP, +12 STR
Inheritable skills will be displayed in each character entry for sanity purposes.
