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Does Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Deserve Better?


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3 hours ago, Jotari said:

This was a Fire Emblem game?

Uh, yeah, it had characters from the series, used the franchise templates to influence its design, and generally did some interesting things with the mythology to create something genuinely new.

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7 hours ago, TheGoodHoms said:

It was conceived as a Fire Emblem crossover with Shin Megami Tensei, but ultimately ended up becoming a spin off of both parent series so it kinda exists inside it's own bubble.

I think the game's story and premise are absolutely ridiculous and far to silly for me to take them seriously, but the actual video game behind it all is really good and defiantly an overlooked gem. If you can get past the initial hurdle of the game's bonkers outward appearance it's a polished JRPG worth playing every so often on a lazy afternoon.

6 hours ago, Aiddon said:

Uh, yeah, it had characters from the series, used the franchise templates to influence its design, and generally did some interesting things with the mythology to create something genuinely new.

 

I've played the game. I was joking, based on how little Fire Emblem content there is, and at how completely dissimilar everything that is there is.

Edited by Jotari
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20 hours ago, Jotari said:

 

I've played the game. I was joking, based on how little Fire Emblem content there is, and at how completely dissimilar everything that is there is.

Oops. Sorry about that. Sarcasm is way harder to pick up on when it's all text no tone. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

It's a fantastic game that I think more should give a shot. I would honestly say, don't just recommend this to FE or SMT fans (and definitely don't recommend it based on those points - people get really pissy about "representation" from their favorite games, and lose sight of what the actual game is, and by the time you start explaining the game itself and its good qualities, you've already lost them), but recommend this to fans of JRPGs or even just anime fans. Its aesthetic and style will appeal to a lot of people who haven't even heard of it because 1) poor marketing and 2) only really marketing to FE and SMT fans. Or the big 3) being a Wii U exclusive (poor Wii U). 

Talk up its combat system, its style, its characters. Talk up the tons of costume options, the rotating party, the customization with weapons and class changing. Talk up the wacky, endearing story and the fun, varied music.

But don't talk about FE or SMT. I'm an FE fan, and I was all-in on this game only AFTER they showed off this, not the rushed together "FE x SMT" trailer (since I'm not an SMT fan, I was not very interested). And I love this game not as an FE fan, but as a TMS fan, as someone won over by the game itself. My favorite FE characters aren't even in this game at all. None of them. But there are characters I like, and the Easter eggs and references are tons of fun, but those don't make the game. The game sells itself as its own thing, if you can just get people to give it a fair shot - not as an FExPersona game, but as a unique, weird, original, fun JRPG from Atlus (they make more than Persona and SMT, too, and they've made quite a few great JRPGs beyond the series they're best known for). 

If it gets a miracle sequel, I will be there day one. If it gets a port or remake or enhanced port or whatever, I will be there day one. I will support any other version of this game or side series forever. I know it sold poorly, so there's little to no chance of even a Switch port, but I'd instantly grab it. 

Also worth mentioning, it has one of my favorite implementations of the Wii U gamepad. It doesn't make it impossible to port, but there's a certain sense of immersion on the Wii U that will be missed on a single-screen console. 

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  • 1 month later...
On 3/5/2018 at 8:08 PM, Armagon said:

It definitely deserves better and i would definitely by a Switch port if it ever happened. I haven't played the game myself but from what i hear from people who've actually played it, it's a solid JRPG and extremely underrated. It's definitely gonna be featured in 5 years in those "Top 10 hidden Wii U gems" videos.

I think part of the reason why it didn't do so well aside from the premise turning people away, is that it came out during a time when the FE fanbase was........not very good. Also, regarding the Japanese release date, it released the day after Christmas. Like, why? Literally the worst day to sell anything.

I can answer that last bit, actually.

 

That day, the day after Christmas, is basically Japanese Black Friday. It’s some type of holiday/pseudo holiday associated with great spending.

 

i know this because the game’s detractors didn’t shut up about this fact. Just like how Disney Star Wars haters never shut up about how franchise fatigue can’t exist because of Marvel/superhero films.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 5/3/2018 at 8:42 PM, Shugarplumps said:

 

Was Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE a good game? Does it deserve better than what it gets? Why did it not become as popular as others? Could it still make a resurgence in the community? How could we make that happen? And would it be a good thing? 

At the end of the time...nope this game perfomed well as there were not RPG not name Xenoblade on WII U but at the bottom Line...this game was the worst choice possible for a crossover and the final product ailed for that, should have been an original IP when idols were introduced, since them all FE cameos are whimsical at best, just a contract condition at worst, is like atlus collapse of ideas midway and just make the worst of two worlds, seems this game ailed when they moved all the energies for persona 5, that is this is Persona 4.5 That a true crossover.

This game performed as best as Atlus send it to die and still overperfomed.

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  • 2 months later...
On 6/21/2018 at 7:49 PM, Nivek said:

At the end of the time...nope this game perfomed well as there were not RPG not name Xenoblade on WII U but at the bottom Line...this game was the worst choice possible for a crossover and the final product ailed for that, should have been an original IP when idols were introduced, since them all FE cameos are whimsical at best, just a contract condition at worst, is like atlus collapse of ideas midway and just make the worst of two worlds, seems this game ailed when they moved all the energies for persona 5, that is this is Persona 4.5 That a true crossover.

This game performed as best as Atlus send it to die and still overperfomed.

Look, guys!

 

I found another butthurt SMT purist who didn’t play the game!

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This game didn't deserve better. It's a fine example of games needing a focal point.

When you think "Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem", would you immediately think of Japanese pop idols? It tries to be too many things at once and is only mediocre at what it does at best. For example, you could rename the Personas Performas into any religious or mythical figure and remove any mention of Fire Emblem characters (Including Tiki) and it wouldn't affect the game's plot. The gameplay in battles is just a weak mutation of the original Strange Journey on DS; having characters perform follow up attacks after hitting a weakpoint. The original characters are bland, cliche, and one dimensional. The Fire Emblem characters all have amnesia, are monolithic, and hardly interact with anyone other than their partner or the bland MC.

This is completely meta and based off of speculation, but people who wanted to see aidolu waifus doing kawaii things already had Idolmaster and Love Live which were peaking in popularity at the time.

And of course, 

which is hilarious to watch in retrospect. Expecting this, but receiving Idol Persona with Fire Emblem lip service tacked on instead doesn't exactly generate good will.

It was released on an ailing system; about to be replaced by a newer system. in short yadda yadda it was lame, self indulgent, and catered to a very niche crowd.

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3 hours ago, Phasmatis said:

 in short yadda yadda it was lame, self indulgent, and catered to a very niche crowd.

While you're free to be bitter about it, tone it down.  Hating it for what it is also happens to be a niche, too.

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  • 1 month later...

Like hell it deserved better. This game was fantastic to play, and I'm still playing it. I think the mistake was selling it as "FE+SMT", and instead it really should've been sold as "A game that has plenty of references to FE+SMT, but is it's own unique thing", because that's what it is. That being said, I came into this as the diehard Fire Emblem fan that I am, and I wasn't disappointed. It actually inspired me to take a look at the SMT franchise, although I still haven't played any of the games outside of borrowing a copy from my friend for a few days. I can still remember dying of laughter when reading some of the references, I believe they were in the Cain and Able mission, that were amazing, and corny. If the game had leaned into that a little bit more, with a bit more cheese and tongue and cheek references, the final product would be improved. The style of the game is great, with a colorful style and decently slick visuals. The music can be hit or miss. I despised it at first, but it started to grow on me, and now I pretty much listen exclusively to J-Pop. The characters and story are, well it depends on what segment we're talking about. Itsuki was pretty bland, but there was a bit of personality somewhere in there. I never really like Kiria, but everyone else I either liked (Edgelord-Mcgee, Cooking-Girl) or loved (Best-Grill-Tsubasa, Japanese-Superman, and that blonde bi- I mean the Aspiring-Actor-Who-Was-Hollywood-Obsessed). The stories could work. Side-chapters were kinda boring for some characters, but others resulted in some of my best moments with the game, see Cain and Able. They could've gone way more bombastic, and included a ton of FE and SMT characters. If we could save a bunch of SMT and FE characters, as we see at the beginning of the game with saving Chrom and Caeda, it would be pretty cool. It wouldn't even take many re-writes, just change a few of the mirages in the main party, like Virion or Navarre, to SMT characters and it all works out. The gameplay is where this game truly shines. It is a blast to play, and one of the best JRPG's I've ever had the pleasure to experience. It deserves better on that benchmark alone, since many people won't get to experience how awesome it feels to pull off a stupidly long combo with everyone.

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On 10/21/2018 at 10:35 AM, DarthR0xas said:

Like hell it deserved better. This game was fantastic to play, and I'm still playing it. I think the mistake was selling it as "FE+SMT", and instead it really should've been sold as "A game that has plenty of references to FE+SMT, but is it's own unique thing", because that's what it is. That being said, I came into this as the diehard Fire Emblem fan that I am, and I wasn't disappointed. It actually inspired me to take a look at the SMT franchise, although I still haven't played any of the games outside of borrowing a copy from my friend for a few days.

It's great to hear someone else appreciating the originality of this particular game. Indeed, there is a reason for a good number of positive reviews from the industry professionals.

If you haven't played Persona before, do yourself a favor and get a PS Vita and Persona 4 Golden (I've just wrote a review about it, see signature link below.), because that also has an idol character, and is just only somewhat darker than TMSFE, and both feature slice-of-life high school student life, and the mirages/performas in TMS are like the summoned personas in the Persona games. I probably wouldn't go straight into SMT proper (which Persona was formerly a branching franchise of), because of just how much darker it is compared to TMS. The only thing I didn't like was the lack of anything other than Akaneia or Ylisse - they should have included Jugdral and Tellius characters, considering the good reputation of those regions' stories. (Of course, this is assuming that people play SMT/Persona for the stories.) Atlus should port this to the Switch/3DS and make this as an introductory entry to Persona - because this was what introduced me to Persona 4, which in turn allowed me to start playing Persona 3, and aroused my interest in other Atlus games.

Edited by henrymidfields
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2 hours ago, henrymidfields said:

It's great to hear someone else appreciating the originality of this particular game. Indeed, there is a reason for a good number of positive reviews from the industry professionals.

If you haven't played Persona before, do yourself a favor and get a PS Vita and Persona 4 Golden (I've just wrote a review about it, see signature link below.), because that also has an idol character, and is just only somewhat darker than TMSFE, and both feature slice-of-life high school student life, and the mirages/performas in TMS are like the summoned personas in the Persona games. I probably wouldn't go straight into SMT proper (which Persona was formerly a branching franchise of), because of just how much darker it is compared to TMS. The only thing I didn't like was the lack of anything other than Akaneia or Ylisse - they should have included Jugdral and Tellius characters, considering the good reputation of those regions' stories. (Of course, this is assuming that people play SMT/Persona for the stories.) Atlus should port this to the Switch/3DS and make this as an introductory entry to Persona - because this was what introduced me to Persona 4, which in turn allowed me to start playing Persona 3, and aroused my interest in other Atlus games.

Should have just gone full SMT on it and made every enemy in the game a Fire Emblem character of some sort that can be recruited. Judging by how well Heroes did, that probably would have enticed people.

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9 hours ago, Jotari said:

Should have just gone full SMT on it and made every enemy in the game a Fire Emblem character of some sort that can be recruited. Judging by how well Heroes did, that probably would have enticed people.

Honestly, that sounds pretty neat. Although it probably wouldn't have happen because of Heroes, since it's basically the same idea.

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14 hours ago, Jotari said:

Should have just gone full SMT on it and made every enemy in the game a Fire Emblem character of some sort that can be recruited. Judging by how well Heroes did, that probably would have enticed people.

That would sound great. I'd look forward to seeing who gets the most radical redesign. It'd also expand possible player unit selection. -If you mean making everyone a fuseable demon proxy. Not to mention I'm getting a little tired of how no more than ~20 demons in a given SMT are added/get new designs, and such an FE-SMT thing should have many new designs. This would hopefully involve not too many palette swaps (but we would've had to have three identical Gordins and a purplish one), but I'd expect some since it'd involve 3D models presumably as opposed to just 2D art.

The one bad thing would be having to determine who goes where in the level hierarchy within a group. Does Ryoma go atop the Swordmaster class/race, or do we give that to Lyn, or Navarre? What about the Lord class/race? Some fans with strong favorites could be rather unhappy here.

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7 hours ago, DarthR0xas said:

Honestly, that sounds pretty neat. Although it probably wouldn't have happen because of Heroes, since it's basically the same idea.

SMT X Fire Emblems was announced in like 2013 or something. Probably long before Heroes was conceived.

2 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

That would sound great. I'd look forward to seeing who gets the most radical redesign. It'd also expand possible player unit selection. -If you mean making everyone a fuseable demon proxy. Not to mention I'm getting a little tired of how no more than ~20 demons in a given SMT are added/get new designs, and such an FE-SMT thing should have many new designs. This would hopefully involve not too many palette swaps (but we would've had to have three identical Gordins and a purplish one), but I'd expect some since it'd involve 3D models presumably as opposed to just 2D art.

The one bad thing would be having to determine who goes where in the level hierarchy within a group. Does Ryoma go atop the Swordmaster class/race, or do we give that to Lyn, or Navarre? What about the Lord class/race? Some fans with strong favorites could be rather unhappy here.

It could probably be ordered exactly like who's a five star exclusive in Heroes (only without some characters debuting as five star exclusives and then denoting). Although obviously I think such a game, especially with 3D models, wouldn't be able to have quite as many units as Heroes. Still, I doubt fans would be all that disappointed if their favourites weren't end game enemies/fusions. They'd probably be happy to get their favourite units earlier in the game to have more widespread use of them (although the SMT players will know that's not really a great idea).

Edited by Jotari
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  • 4 months later...
On 3/9/2018 at 3:15 PM, Dragonage2ftw said:

Look, guys!

 

I found another butthurt SMT purist who didn’t play the game!

you should have call me a FE purist first.

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On 3/10/2019 at 4:28 PM, Nivek said:

you should have call me a FE purist first.

. . .did you really quote a six-month-old post just to say this?

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On 14/3/2019 at 1:15 AM, eclipse said:

. . .did you really quote a six-month-old post just to say this?

I was out of internet for a long time...very long one

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I don't want to derail the discussion with memes, but i think that in this case a picture ia worth a thousand words

Spoiler

39e.png

I consider TMS a masterpiece of bad advertising. 

Both FE and SMT fanbases are known for a divide between traditional fans and new fans that embraced the anime culture. The project was teased as something for the first group, but then it was revealed as something for the other group, enraging the traditionalists. Calling it a Persona collaboration imo would have helped immensely imo. 

I have not played the game and likely never will because i never got into persona(strangely, not even 1 and 2), i don't like idols and the name Fire Emblem is not enought. I just hope that next time they will advertize whatever they make properly.

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