PaigeFTW: Crossover Nirvana: ‘Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE’ Review
What happens when you combine a beloved Nintendo strategy franchise with one of the richest RPG universes of all time?
The answer to that is very simple: It is awesome.
Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE sounds like it should be a hot mess on paper — a turn-based Shin Megami Tensei game featuring characters and elements from Fire Emblem … in modern Tokyo … where everyone is also an aspiring pop idol.
So many of elements shouldn’t work. But, damn, it works.
This unlikely game’s success can be chalked up to its colorful art direction — which combines anime and CG with hand-drawn portraits adeptly in its various menus and cutscenes, including very kickass reinterpretations of some classic FE characters — and its stellar battle system, which brings the best of both franchises to bear.
Structured in the traditional SMT turn-based style, the game’s conceit is triggering “sessions,” namely attack chains based off correct exploitation of enemy weaknesses. It’s a simple mechanic that adds a lot of strategy given the myriad skills each character can learn. Battles are dynamic and exciting, even when you’re grinding — not something so easily said these days!
As far as the story, well, it’s definitely wonky about the overarching plot (I’m not even going to attempt to explain it) but it shines when it comes to the little interactions between characters, which is executed via side quests a la FE’s Support Conversations or SMT’s Social Links. (The Wii U gamepad also serves as a cell phone for hero Itsuki, which is a nice touch.)
It’s actually quite surprising to me how much I really like Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE. As excited as I was when it was announced (years ago), its bumpy marketing made me fear it was another Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney — something theoretically awesome that ended up being … just OK.
I’ve never been so glad to be wrong.
