First of all, as you can suspect, my native language isn’t English, so there is bound to be plenty of mistakes in the text, sorry!. If you don’t understand something, don’t hesitate to ask ;). The Spanish version is a two part review, since it will take me more time to translate, probably the English review will take 3 or 4 parts, I’m really sorry (again) for the inconvenient!
In 2013, Nintendo dropped a bomb in a Nintendo Direct… Fire Emblem x Shin Megami Tenseiwould appear on Wii U. In the short video we could only see multiple characters from Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei (with their classic artworks, no new material ), hinting that something evil was behind. They didn’t show anything about the game (they did not have nothing to show to begin with!), but the tone was already set, something more sinister than what we usually see in the FE games.
First 2013, and the 2014 flied by with no news, but plenty of rumors that the project had already being scrapped… and then, in April 1st, 2015… the game finally showed up in a Nintendo Direct… and we couldn’t believe what we were watching; students, girls singing, cheerful atmosphere… and there was no evident sign of any element of FE or SMT in the game, It was exactly the opposite of what we imagined!.
Finally, the game was released in the Japan the 26th of December (not exactly the best date if you ask me).
So, let’s start and take a look to the game!
What is exactly Genei Ibunroku #FE (Japanese name) / Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE (Western name)?
The cheerful visuals, idols, singers, models / actresses, cooking shows… it might lead to deception, but make no mistake etc., do not lead to deception; It has its quirks, but it is a JRPG fully featured JRPG, with many similarities to Shin Megami Tensei IV … and quite difficult at times!.
A very good question, the first thing you have to understand is that #FE is neither a Fire Emblem or Shin Megami Tensei game, it’s something new… that takes some elements from here and there. In essence, the story, characters and enemies has more to do with Fire Emblem while it takes from Shin Megami Tensei a good part of its game mechanic (somewhat similar to Shin Megami Tensei IV ) and the redesigned characters and enemies that have some ghostly or demonic features (you may like or not but the designs are very original).
What’s the game about?
In the game itself the main characters have no a clue about what’s going on until almost the end, so it wouldn’t be nice of me to spoiler it here, but more or less it goes as follow: In Tokyo some mysterious disappearances has been happening for some years now and they all seem to be related with of the entertainment world, the dark true of these disappearances is that some weird monsters from a different dimension have been abducting them.. These monsters are called “Mirage”, and they abduct people to steal an energy called “Performa” that is particularly abundant within the artists. These Mirage are actually characters and troops from Fire Emblem (with occasional oddball monster) who have lost memory and are being manipulated.
Pretty much all i see is people dancing and singing in the videos and pictures, are you sure REALLY sure this is an RPG?
Yep, i’m sure!, but it’s somewhat hidden under a thick layer of paint. In this game, the power or magic equivalent is the “Performa”, and the main characters get at their peak of their powers when they are doing what they love to do, and that’s singing, dancing, performing… for example, in Final Fantasy VII the equivalent would be the “limit break” and invocations (Efreet, Shiva, etc.)… that’s is in Final Fantasy, here the characters begin to sing; Seriously, it is not that different!.
Well… yes and no; technically everything takes place in Tokyo and we can go to some real world locations. As we progress in the game, it’s possible to go to more places, but to be honest, there are a couple of slightly larger areas but most of them do not exceed the wide of two screens, the available map of Tokyo is fairly small … but don’t panic just yet.
In Tokyo happens a good chunk of the game, but the mayor part is in the “idolspheres”, this is the dimension in which the Mirages are and that occasionally go out and attack Tokyo; for all the practical purposes the idolspheres are the dungeons of this game (whose gates are scattered around Tokyo), at the end of which awaits us to a powerful Mirage boss. Each idolsphere has its own visual motif (film sets, photo exhibition, etc.), but all have a few things in common, they are very confusing (even with the map is not uncommon to lose) and they all have some kind of gimmick to drive you crazy, like having to avoid being photographed or to put some figures in certain positions. Each one will require quite some time to explore, but it’s not so much a case of the idolspheres being huge in extension (in any case each one is much larger than all the Tokyo areas together) and more about having a labyrinthine design thanks to the gimmicks and the sometimes confusing visual design.
Once we have completed a idolsphere we can not completely forget about it, we will visit them often to fulfil secondary missions (luckily there are a few relay points at which we can teleport, making it easier reaching certain areas the second time around) and we will be able to reach new areas. Atlus has make good use of each idolsphere!
If you want to keep reading, here you have the 2nd part and the 3rd part!