Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE
Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE is a Japanese role-playing game developed for the Wii U by Atlus and published by Nintendo. The game released in Europe and American in June of 2016. It's primary selling point was the fact that it was a crossover between the two successful titles Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei.
In modern-day Tokyo, Idols are under threat by evil entities known as Mirages. These entities wish to absorb the performa (really original there Atlus) that humans generate through their creative outlets - and as such have been causing idols to disappear. Focusing on a group of make-shift and professional idols who have also managed to link themselves with friendly Mirages, the storyline primarily focuses on finding out why exactly the Mirages are after human performa, and who is behind the attacks on idols.
Honestly, crossover is a very loose term. While the game does feature characters directly from the Fire Emblem series as the friendly (and some enemy) Mirages, Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE features very little of both games. Other than the physical attributes in battle, and the few Fire Emblem characters, Fire Emblem is barely to be seen in the game. And as for Shin Megami Tensei, the most we really get to see is the odd Jack Frost symbol, and skill names take directly from the Shin series. Still, despite it barely classifying as a crossover, it does play surprisingly well.
The storyline, however, is quite lacking. Considering the history of dark topics and downbeat atmosphere that both games tend to contain - Tokyo Mirage Sessions struggles to really put any emotion into its storyline. Even when they do try to have the deep and heartfelt moments that work so well in the Shin Megami Tensei: Persona series, due to the idol setting the dialogue and problems the characters are facing are just pretty laughable - after all who could possibly relate to an 11-year-old girl who doesn't know if she can play the role of a younger sister on a microwave-based cooking show? Or to a guy who is so utterly obsessed with childish superhero's and becoming one on TV? Which is quite strange for Atlus. In previous titles of theirs such as Catherine and Persona, the one thing they do incredibly well is making something incredibly unnatural, come across as scarily realistic due to their dialogue. It's a shame to see a storyline with such potential wasted like it is in Tokyo Mirage Sessions. In the same sense, the lack of an English dub and the reason behind it helps to disassociate the player from the story. While I personally am a fan of games in Japanese and don't really mind either way if it's dubbed or subbed, the reasoning behind the lack of dub is ridiculous. Stating that this was done to fit the setting of modern Tokyo just didn't work, considering that most of Atlus' games take place in Japan and most have English dubs. I don't mind that they chose to stick to sub, and completely understand if they were worried about its debut into the English markets, but I'd rather it be told straight.
In regards to characters and their development, there are both pros and cons. Each character gets three side stories that somehow allow the protagonist Itsuki Aoi to solve their problems and anxiety and allow them to become the idols that they want to be deep down. With each side quest, the character realizes a new thing about themselves and in a very over-used cutscene, you see them give birth to new performa. This is done so often that the emotional effect it would've had on a player instead leaves them with a sense of nihilism. The game also leaves a lot of unanswered questions, for example, it is through the protagonists' power that he and his friend from school Tsubasa both get their Mirages, which is fair enough. However, you then meet with quite a few other previous Mirage Masters and current ones who've been in the business of Mirage hunting for a while. However, the new characters from then on still require Itsuki to give them their Mirage ability - leaving to question how these previous ones managed to get their Mirages? In the same sense, key elements regarding Tsubasa's sister get quickly resolved and tossed aside towards the beginning of the game, throwing away yet another opportunity to give some emotion unto Tokyo Mirage Sessions. However, each character does have their own unique personality, that provide some very comedic scenes, with no two characters being alike in any way, which slightly makes up for the severe lack of clear development (and no, accepting that you like cute things does not count as proper character development.
Dungeon exploration with Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE is both good and bad. All of the dungeons are unique and the puzzles can be quite fun if not that challenging. However, they never really feel right. Unlike dungeons in previous Atlus games, the ones in Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE sort of drain the player, making them question when they're going to reach the end. That's not to say their very long, in fact, most are pretty short. It's the way they're executed. Each dungeon relies solely on the puzzles to lengthen them, which just makes the player feel pretty frustrated. With the triggering of battles, while it's nice to get a break from random encounters, the `get the first hit in` on the Mirage icons just doesn't work in this game. With games like the later installments of the Tales of series, and similar titles, the first strike feels like it's done something, and really lets you know when you've screwed up. With the Mirages, however, it just sort of knocks them back a bit, without even the slightest bit of vibration. Leaving the player with the option to just `nope` it and run past (at their own risk of low levels) or to get first strike status in battle. What with the icons not moving very fast and giving you plenty of notice when they show up, there's a good chance that you'll never actually get a surprise attack.
The battle system, however, is carried out almost to perfection. The introduction of sessions, the ability for another character to chime in with a follow-up attack upon a weakness hit, allows for some pretty neat animations and deadly combos. The eventual addition of duo arts adds some nice cinematic's that definitely could have done with a skip option. The battles aren't dumbed down and can be quite challenging even on normal difficulty. The use of Ad-lib skills not only fits in nicely with the theme of the game but provides a bit of flair to the battles. Triggered at random from the use of certain skill types once learned by a character, these Ad-lib skills literally do what the label says. The character changes the skill to their own story based attacks, usually inflicting more damage and always starting a session chain regardless of attack affinity. It's these little additions to a classic system that works well for Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE. Giving a breath of life to the tired old turn-based battle system. The only issue I really have with the battle is the way in which skills are learned. Similar to the Shin series you fuse new weapons (like you fuse new demons or Persona's) in the `Bloom Palace` which is conveniently behind a door the color of the velvet room (my favorite reference to the Shin series). In the Bloom Palace, you're given the chance to fuse different performa to give your Mirages the ability to turn into different weapons with different skills attached. Skill learning through a weapon isn't so bad, however, some characters easily get a new weapon (known as carnage) after the other, while some are still stuck with their starting one for ages unable to learn anything new. This depends on what kind of farmer you are, however, making it kind of unfair to the game to simply say is a bad quality.
The visuals in the game are stunning, and some scenes looking beautiful and kind of make you jealous that those type of concerts don't really happen in your town. The detail placed in each animation shows and creates a glorious masterpiece. Unfortunately the dialogue/singing in these scenes tends to be a bit too quiet, completely dragging the player away from the experience. Nonetheless they're still worth of high amounts of praise for the amount of effort that went into them and the overall outcome.
Overall, despite the hilarity of some aspects of the game's story and dialogue, it still provides a pretty decent story line that'll keep you intrigued and makes up for what it lacks in story with a brilliant battle system. It's definitely worth the purchase especially for fans of the Fire Emblem series.
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