>>5568It's a one stop situation. Replaying this game doesn't really benefit you in any way the way a lot of classical rpgs does. You can do everything in 1 run besides the dragons and NG+ isn't really a fun steamroll. And the sidequests themselves, while good, are a bit sparse compared to other jrpg. So it's not like re-doing them really yields anything interesting after the first time. And replaying is how a lot of jrpg get fans as there is always more to see and share.
There is very little actually keeping anyone in the world itself. To elaborate, take SMT/Persona. In each of those games, there's generally a 'what if' to enemy encounters and antagonists that leave a lot of room for alternate possibilities. And the cast is dynamic with so many personalities and each person has a role to play in how events turn out. Nahobino and SMTV even has canon soul mates. And SMTV barely even has a story. The world is just that vast and good for fandom.
Metaphor is rich with lore and has a gorgeous setting- but there's very little really going on with anyone outside of the MC and everyone's lives sort of depend on the plot that happens. I don't know if this makes sense or not- but there's just not a lot of impact going on the way it is in other fandoms. Strohl's story sort of ends and begins with Will. Why ship him with any of the other boys when they don't have anything to do with one another? Some people are happy and satisfied with hot boy x hot boy but that doesn't keep a fandom going. Almost all of the content I've seen still going is with Louis because he's the only character who has depth and dimension. Sure his one sides situationship with his henchmen is very Grifith and band of the hawk but this circles back to the world being sparse on side content. And anime only weebs aren't going to begin to try and read the manga.