Metria - Alpha Test 2 has LOTS OF IMPROVEMENTS! But Still More Work Has To Be Done!

Metria is having their 2nd Alpha test from June 13 to June 20th and it has definitely improved from the last time I played. Gameplay wise the game has implemented a story line now, and a main story quest to follow, where in the first alpha there was none.

So now there is a clear path on where you should be going when in game. There's plenty of cinematics to watch while on the main story quests as well. I did have a laugh over the intro cinematic though, the grass was going through the face of the main protagonist. Hope they fix that, it looks really silly. Though I did think that there was too many loading screens.

The game isn't a seamless open world either so there's loading screens when going from one region to the next, and then there's loading screens for every cinematic too. So you can experience plenty of loading screens in a very short period of time sometimes. The loading screens on my phone were fast though, but it still felt like an inconvenience. The combat is full manual thankfully. There is no auto combat in this game and that's the way it should be. The combat is engaging and fast, and you have 2 special skills as well as a 3rd skill which is your ultimate.

The ultimate has a quick animation before getting back into combat, so it shouldn't get in the way of your combat. The cool downs for each skill still feels way too long however and I'm not a fan of that. There is a party member swap button as well, so you can swap between party members while in combat and your team is made up of 3 members. The sound effects were all over the place when I played.

The regions had beautiful music and the sound effects were present when in the regions, but some areas were silent. With the music maybe coming in late or as I was leaving a region. Also there is no voice acting yet. All these things can of course be forgiven since it's only the second alpha test, not even a beta. So it's still in the very early stages of the game. Visually the game looks great, the colors are bright and vibrant, and the character models are fairly detailed, though I did think the facial expressions were very janky.

But other than that, I thought the graphics overall were pretty good. I loved all the different character designs and monster designs too. Everything is pretty detailed and high quality. I wouldn't say it's Genshin Impact level of quality, but it's decent enough. Overall I'd say that my retun to Metria through this 2nd Alpha test was pretty good. I did find the many loading screens annoying, even if they were quick to load, it just broke the immersion a lot. Also there was a fair amount of stuttering and frame drops while in combat, and even during animations like leveling up, I would drop frames.

The game definitely needs to be optimized better I think. My phone has a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SOC and it shouldn’t be acting like that with a game that isn’t even a seamless open world. And I hope if they do add voice acting for the cinematics, that they are good. Oh, one thing I did find annoying was when the main character was picking herbs. He kept saying things in Japanese every time he picked up a herb, it seemed very repetitive and I can see that getting very annoying real quick. I don't think he needs to be that excited about picking herbs. I'm very curious to see how this game progresses and if it is as good in the end as everyone hopes. I am glad though that the game has stayed away from auto combat. I hope it stays that way. This game doesn't need it.