Moral Warnings: Japanese Pop Idol Fashion mild cursing blasphemy innuendos LGBT relations (Used for laughs)
Weak Points: Long prologue No English audio and subtitles are not present during ambient dialogue Stuck with Itsuki in your party all the time Strong Points: Dynamic Turn-based combat system Beautiful Audio Track Innovative use of the Wii U Gamepad Mirage Partners are where the player may hear, and see, some familiar faces from the Fire Emblem universe. These Mirage Partners combine with Itsuki and other characters to create "Carnage Forms"- the combination of the Mirage Partners and Mirage Masters that allow Itsuki and crew to fight in the Idolaspheres- which is how Itsuki and his friends navigate and survive through the Idolaspheres. This is where he meets his Mirage Partner, Chrom (yes, that one) and with his help they manage to save Tsubasa. I won't get into spoilers, but inevitably the tragedy comes back to haunt his childhood friend and he embarks on the quest to save her. Itsuki is an average high school student who just happens to be friends with Tsubasa, a girl who was the only survivor to the local tragedy where everyone just magically disappeared. In this game, the player explores the world through the player-character Itsuki Aoi. The game flips between anime cutscenes and 3D models to tell its story, with most of the game usually handled through the 3D models. The other minor nitpick is when a member of the party falls in combat Itsuki will shout their name and frown- only to go back to having a smile on his face after the phrase is spoken- just really weird. My two minor nitpicks are that during combat there is ambient dialogue that only the inhumane amount of hours I spent watching anime have helped me understand a small portion of what they were saying. The combat system merges the rock/paper/scissors mechanics of Fire Emblem with the elemental weaknesses of Shin Megami. It feels like a reward for knowing where it comes from. The leveling and stat system is from Fire Emblem, and the level up jingle is the same. The art style takes more from Persona, with background characters being merely silhouettes with different basic colors.
Players who have played Shin Megami Tensei, Persona, and Fire Emblem will be able to pick out what was borrowed from which game rather easily, almost like an Easter egg hunt. The long answer is the reason I'm writing this review. The short answer to that question is yes. Not without some localization controversy of course! When the game was being localized from Japan to the Western audiences, Atlus- the company responsible for the localization- had upset a group of people having changed a bit of the cutscenes by adding to the video or images overtop females in several areas that was deemed a little too immodest for Western audiences.īut, the real question on everyone's mind, however, is if this amalgam of game IPs creates a solid and enjoyable product. Six months later we have the game Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE for the Wii U in North America. Fast forward a few years, and this game was released in Japan with high anticipation for a western release. The product, Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, had begun development. After a year or so, Atlus had contacted Nintendo asking if they were still interested in the project, highly enthusiastic about the chance to work together. Atlus expressed their apologies and had said that they were simply too busy at the time to take on such another big project. This game was developed by Atlus and published by Nintendo after a Nintendo producer had expressed their desire to Atlus in 2010 to collaborate on a game. Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE (TMS) is a crossover of two, arguably three, major JRPGs including the likes of Shin Megami Tensei, Fire Emblem and (debatably) Persona. ESRB Rating: T (fantasy violence, language, suggestive themes, and use of alcohol)