TOKYO MIRAGE SESSIONS FE (Wii U)

Join Itsuki Aoi in his wacky and lewd adventures from the creators of world-renowned harem anime such as Persona 3 and Persona 4 as his childhood friend Tsubasa Oribe realizes her dream of becoming an idol as Itsuki couldn't care less about the industry!Tokyo Mirage Sessions is a fusion of Shin Megami Tensei gameplay in battles and dungeon exploration (the combat is closest to Strange Journey), Persona social links, and Fire Emblem characters, weapons, and the weapon triangle. The game takes place in Tokyo and everyone in this world has an ability, latent in most, called Performa that directly relates to someone's ability to be a performer. Otherworldly monsters called Mirages invade Tokyo to steal everyone's Performa. Your party members form bonds with Personas- I mean their Mirages in order to fight monsters. The Mirages are based on Fire Emblem characters (Akaneia characters; specifically Shadow Dragon and Awakening) such as Chrom, Caeda, Cain, Tharja, Virion, Draug, and Navarre. After completing the first dungeon, Itsuki and Tsubasa join their friend Touma in the performance company Fortuna Entertainment which helps its members find work in the industry and fights Mirages. The plot is serviceable; it's nice how the plot is focused on Fire Emblem, but it's not until you're fairly late into the game when that appears. Until then, it's go to a dungeon, fight Mirages, and slowly learn more about what they're trying to do. It's a very light-hearted story and that's not a bad thing at all. Even when the story gets more serious, tonally it's still a farcry from what you typically see in Shin Megami Tensei or most Fire Emblems, let alone The side-quests are much more enjoyable and personable. This is where you get character development for your party members, additional abilities, and they're a lot of fun to do; it's definitely one of the best parts of the game. The Wii U Gamepad also doubles as an in-game messenger where you get texts from party members about side-quests becoming available and their thoughts about what's happening; it's nothing major, but it's a kind of neat way to use the Gamepad.The dungeons are what you'd expect out of SMT; long, branching paths with bonuses, and puzzles. Each dungeon has a theme that matches where it takes place. The turn-based battles combine SMT Strange Journey and Fire Emblem. If you attack an enemy with their weakness, then your party members can follow up bonus attacks called Session Attacks. On top of standard SMT elements, you and your enemies have additional strengths and weaknesses based on the weapons they use. Just like in Fire Emblem, Swords beat Axes, Axes beat Lances, and Lances beat Swords. Flying units are especially weak to bow attacks. Party members, except Itsuki unfortunately, can be swapped out for proper party setups. Using Sessions Attacks builds your SP meter which allows for Performance Attacks. Some Performance Attacks can deal high damage to all enemies, some can deal damage while inflicting ailments, some can fully heal the entire party, some can heal and buff the party, etc. Completing side-quests can unlock Ad-Lib attacks; they trigger randomly off of certain skills while typically dealing much higher damage than the standard attacks. Side-quests later in the game can also unlock Dual Attacks which deal even further damage and extend a Session Attack combo for higher damage. Sessions Attacks are your best form of dealing damage so it's very critical to take advantage of enemy weaknesses. Enemies and bosses can strike your weaknesses and perform Session Attacks on you. You will learn very quickly in boss fights to kill additional enemies as fast as possible to prevent being overwhelmed by Session Attacks. The combat is very fun and boss battles are actually challenging if you play on Hard. Despite the bright colors, singing, and dancing, this is SMT gameplay. If you allow your weaknesses to be taken advantage of, then you'll get wiped out; the Mirages aren't going to take it easy on you just because you have a harem full of cute anime girls. Focusing on enemy weaknesses, covering your own weaknesses, proper party composition, and using buffs/debuffs is the key to winning. Ad-Lib Performances and Duo Attacks are great; Ad-Libs can be a huge help in tough battles and Duo Attacks are very powerful and really fun to watch.Outside of battles, you can visit Tiki in the Bloom Palace to craft new weapons and skills. The cute dragon girl from Shadow Dragon is now a vocaloid who creates new weapons and skills. Performa gained from defeating Mirages and from performing well in battle can be fused together to create new weapons. Each weapon has a set of four abilities that can be permanently learned through battles; similar to Mantras in Digital Devil Saga. Learned abilties can then be assigned for what you bring into battle. Unfortunately, you can't keep the abilities you choose; later on in the game, you gain the ability to reforge the weapon which adds another ability and give the option to relearn old abilities if you change your mind. Weapons can also have their own properties; some can change weaknesses and resistances.When localizing the game, Nintendo decided to keep the game as Japanese audio with English subtitles only. Out of all the backlash I've seen over how this crossover turned out, I've not seen someone complain that their Japanese RPG about Japanese idols was Japanese audio only. If that is a problem for you, then, well, this game was probably already not what you're looking. Atlus had a lot of trouble finding VAs who could act and sing, but it paid off. The songs are one of the best parts of the game. If you're actually playing this game, then you're probably fine with, or maybe even (secretly) like, these kinds of songs. The songs all get their own pre-rendered cutscenes that are an absolute treat to watch. The VAs do a great job with the songs and they're really catchy. The rest of the songs you hear are good; they're not particularly memorable, but good nonetheless. The visuals are easy on the eyes; the style and designs mesh well with the game.The game has a lot of references to SMT and FE. The shopkeeper at a store conveniently called Hee-Ho Mart is a familiar red-haired girl and her associate is also a red-haired girl who wears a Black Frost mask. Your favorite spells and abilities like Zio, Agidyne, Sukukaja, Rakukaja, Fog Breath, Charge, Heat Wave, etc. are all back. A number of the weapons are based on Fire Emblem including some of the legendary weapons in the Jugdral canon. It's all a lot of fun to see if you're a fan of both franchises. This isn't the sort of crossover that anyone imagined when the SMTxFE reveal trailer debuted, but it's very good nonetheless. If you enjoy SMT and the idol focus doesn't drive you away, then you're in for a good JRPG on a console otherwise starved for them.

La unión de los universos de Shin Megami Tensei y Fire Emblem, resultó diferente a lo que los fans de la saga esperaban, sin embargo el resultado es sumamente bueno, no te dejes engañar por los colores brillantes y el tema principal colorido, las mecánicas de juego y el desarrollo de personajes se siente como un juego de Persona y los sistemas de fortalezas y debilidades se ven enriquecidos por la contribución de Fire Emblem.Amantes del RPG con WiiU no deben dejarlo pasar.

I wasn't sure what to expect going into this game. It was being billed as a Shin Megami Tensei - Fire Emblem crossover, but the trailers and such I'd seen to that point didn't feel Fire Emblem OR Shin Megami Tensei.What we got is a new creation that has light Fire Emblem influences and gameplay influences from Shin Megami Tensei. The game does not have any of the dark/gloomy style or tone that is so prevalent in the SMT franchise. Tokyo Mirage Sessions is positively bubbly and energetic in it's light-hearted approach.If you have enjoyed the SMT style of combat in the past - namely, exploiting enemy weaknesses to do bonus damage and get bonus turns - then you will enjoy the basic combat gameplay of Tokyo Mirage Sessions. It has the same basic weakness system, but it has been expanded to include the classic Fire Emblem weapon circle (sword, axe, spear, and bow). The weakness system in this game is used to create what are called Sessions. During Sessions the other members of your team will hop in and do an attack of their own. Eventually it is possible to have your entire roster of characters involved in a Session, so after your initial attack you could get 4 or 5 more attacks landing.The Session system is the games greatest strength but also it's largest detriment. Sessions are fun and enjoyable to watch, but after 30 hours of play myself they have started feeling a bit long, especially once you gain additional tools that allow you to inject a special attack in the middle which can make your session even longer (I've gotten up to a 10 person combo now). At times the sessions feel a bit long and it can feel as though the game is playing itself.(very minor spoilers here)For tone, the best way I can think to describe this is as a mash-up of magical girl show + jpop + Japanese Idol culture + zany. There really is no other game on the market like this, in terms of story content and focus. A huge amount of time is spent exploring how the various characters navigate Japanese's pop culture landscape. The female lead goes from an average high school girl to an up-and-coming pop idol within the first few hours of the game. As you move forward you meet several other characters who are focused in different aspects of Japanese popular culture: from a well-established pop star to an emergent actress to an aspiring ballad singer. The story, for the first while, could be accurately described as "very anime." Many classic anime tropes are present. Over time, however, I found that all the characters were possessed of more depth than a basic archetype. The cool girl has a side to her no one would expect. The overly-energetic best-friend has some scars from the past that influence his actions today. If you can get past the initial tropiness that is present within the first few hours I think you will find that all the characters are interesting and relatable.(minor spoilers end).I haven't finished the game yet. I am 30 hours in now and there is no end in sight, so it would seem Atlus has successfully delivered another content-rich JRPG experience. Only time will tell if this game will give me 90 hours of entertainment in a single play-through as Persona 4 did, but regardless of how long it ends up taking to finish I know I have enjoyed myself thoroughly and I would highly recommend this game to anyone who enjoys the JRPG genre.

Es un juego con un arte muy bello, lamentablemente, Amazon aún tiene defectos al manipular sus productos ha llegado un poco lastimado de la caja, pero aun así excelente pieza de colección 😸

PROSPretty fun dungeon crawlergreat J-pop Idol aestheticdecent gameplay (turn based battles)great soundtrackEntertaining CharactersAn intriguing plot and side storiesIncluded a weapon triangle and other strengths and weaknesses to plan your weapon loadouts and magic setups.Feels like playing through an episode of Slice of Life/Idol/Action anime.ConsWhile World Map exploration is simple, Keeping track of where you are in revisits (often used during sidequests and mini quests) is quite difficult with no markers to indicate where potential objectives are.Weapon creation/upgrading has limited resources and requires repeated grinding"Savage" encounters will randomly appear with enemies far stronger than your current level, often requiring you to use an item to escape or do your best to tough it out.Very few early on EP or Mana recovery itemsFiguring out who to talk to in some mini missions can be troublesomeFire Emblem name is purely for characters and the weapon triangle, not much else.Limited ability slots (like VERY limited, about 7 per character and as you level up weapons it will feel very constricted.)Feels like playing through an episode of Slice of Life/Idol/Action anime.