Post by Imperial Khador on Sept 5, 2016 5:22:23 GMT
I just finished up a playthrough of this game, and I thought I'd share some thoughts.
Tokyo Mirage Sessions FE is a collaboration between Atlus and Nintendo, combining the Shin Megami Tensei (SMT, TMS, see what they did there...) and Fire Emblem series.
The game seems to skew a bit more towards the Persona end of things, rather than main line SMT, thought it was not developed by the team working on Persona 5. The game is set in the Japanese entertainment industry, and initially the Fire Emblem content is on the fringes of gameplay. The Fire Emblem characters (some from the Shadow Dragon era, and some from the Awakening era) show up as Mirages, and serve a role similar to a Persona, though one that is a separate, allied entity, rather than part of their master's subconscious.
Anna, a mainstay of Fire Emblem games as both a merchant and tutorial guide, shows up as a clerk in the game's "Hee-Ho Mart" convenience story/item shop, which uses SMT's Jack Frost as a mascot. Tiki, a dragon present in both Fire Emblem eras from which this game draws, is a non-combat Mirage that maintains the "Bloom Palace" extra-dimensional space where characters can unlock weapons and abilities.
Combat uses the SMT model as a base, but with some FE trappings. For instance, the weapon triangle, and common series weaknesses are in full effect. If an enemy is wielding an axe, they're going to be vulnerable to sword attacks; if they're a flying foe, then they're going to be vulnerable to arrows and wind magic, etc.
The combat complexities are rolled out over the first few dungeons naturally, and after a certain point, successful combat is dependent on Session powers. Essentially, if you hit an enemy with a special attack, or something to which they're vulnerable, it can trigger a series of follow up attacks from other characters. One might have a spear attack that triggers when someone else uses a sword, then this is followed up by a spear-triggered wind attack, etc. Initially this is limited to the characters in your 3-person main party, but this is latter expanded to back-bench characters as well.
Overall combat continues to be engaging throughout the 60-hour or so main story, and the story itself is kind of a light-hearted look at the Japanese entertainment industry, along with a mystical invasion from another dimension. I don't know that it is going to convince any Fire Emblem or SMT fans to check out the other series, but I'd say it is worth checking out.
Tokyo Mirage Sessions FE is a collaboration between Atlus and Nintendo, combining the Shin Megami Tensei (SMT, TMS, see what they did there...) and Fire Emblem series.
The game seems to skew a bit more towards the Persona end of things, rather than main line SMT, thought it was not developed by the team working on Persona 5. The game is set in the Japanese entertainment industry, and initially the Fire Emblem content is on the fringes of gameplay. The Fire Emblem characters (some from the Shadow Dragon era, and some from the Awakening era) show up as Mirages, and serve a role similar to a Persona, though one that is a separate, allied entity, rather than part of their master's subconscious.
Anna, a mainstay of Fire Emblem games as both a merchant and tutorial guide, shows up as a clerk in the game's "Hee-Ho Mart" convenience story/item shop, which uses SMT's Jack Frost as a mascot. Tiki, a dragon present in both Fire Emblem eras from which this game draws, is a non-combat Mirage that maintains the "Bloom Palace" extra-dimensional space where characters can unlock weapons and abilities.
Combat uses the SMT model as a base, but with some FE trappings. For instance, the weapon triangle, and common series weaknesses are in full effect. If an enemy is wielding an axe, they're going to be vulnerable to sword attacks; if they're a flying foe, then they're going to be vulnerable to arrows and wind magic, etc.
The combat complexities are rolled out over the first few dungeons naturally, and after a certain point, successful combat is dependent on Session powers. Essentially, if you hit an enemy with a special attack, or something to which they're vulnerable, it can trigger a series of follow up attacks from other characters. One might have a spear attack that triggers when someone else uses a sword, then this is followed up by a spear-triggered wind attack, etc. Initially this is limited to the characters in your 3-person main party, but this is latter expanded to back-bench characters as well.
Overall combat continues to be engaging throughout the 60-hour or so main story, and the story itself is kind of a light-hearted look at the Japanese entertainment industry, along with a mystical invasion from another dimension. I don't know that it is going to convince any Fire Emblem or SMT fans to check out the other series, but I'd say it is worth checking out.
