Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Standard Edition - Nintendo Wii U

Tokyo Mirage Sessions takes its characters' craft to heart. Every fight is a stage, every attack a performance, and the entire thing is paced so well that the act never truly wears thin. It trades on dungeons and combat in the style of the Shin Megami Tensei series (complete with shadowy demonic enemies bent on consuming our world) while borrowing a heap of fantasy lore from classic Fire Emblem games, then draws both into the gleaming world of pop stardom in present-day Tokyo. This mashup might seem absurd, but the end result is absurdly good. In spite of some of its source material, Tokyo Mirage Sessions feels as much like a magical girl anime (think upbeat teens with jeweled transformation lockets and overly sincere catchphrases) as anything else — particularly in the beginning. Just to set the stage, the main character is recruited by a talent agency alongside a group of wannabe singers, models and actors. They struggle to improve themselves and land increasingly better gigs, broadening their skills and their public visibility.

Similar to the Zelda and Dynasty Warrior love child with the collaboration of Nintendo and Tecmo Koei comes this game, Tokyo Mirage #Sessions FE. Unlike the Zelda/Dynasty Warriors product titled Hyrule Warriors, this game takes a different approach and takes two very different (Japanese) role playing games (JRPG), one a character driven JRPG, Persona/Shin Megami Tensai and the other a strategic role playing game with turn based attacks, Fire Emblem. The outcome is truly unique. The battle system is more closer to Persona and that is probably the highlight of this game. The battles are super fun. The story might not appeal to those who prefer very dark and more realistic tones like the Watch Dogs or the Last of Us, but it will definitely peak interest in those who like anime, pop culture, social media, and wacky pseudo surreal plots and landscapes. I found there to be a good balance of goofy anime tropes and the artistry of the game world. Not too much can be said for the story, which also falls into the sorta pseudo surreal realm, similar to Persona. This game echoes parallels with Akiba’s Trip: Undead and Undressed and The World Ends With You. It's a very funky and hip game. This game captures the millennial generation to the bone in a colorful anime world. The story might be the only thing that will turn off some people, but I imagine the obvious anime cover art would to that for that audience. The story isn't really too bad, it felt accessible and not a lot of games connect Pop Singers with fighting dream demons. Everything feels very polished and I hope before the Wii U becomes a piece of memorable of the mid twenty-tens, more games like this are produced. This game really adds something the Wii U was lack, which I guess, sadly is a lot of things :( To tidy this review up, I'd even recommend this to people who are not too into hyper anime themed games, as long as they enjoy turned based battles because that's where this game really shines. Normally grinding is a choir, but I didn't really feel that way in this game.

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE is one of the best reasons to own a Wii U. Its colorful art style, modern Japanese setting and catchy soundtrack set it apart from other offerings on the console, while its beginner-friendly battle system slowly evolves to become a complex experience the player always feels comfortable in. The game can feel a bit linear at times, the localization isn't exactly perfect and it isn't exactly a completely new take on the JRPG formula, but the game's unique themes and fun, stylish dungeons kept me interested and helped me overlook some otherwise immersion-hurting flaws. There's a lot of "Persona" in this game; if you like that series, you'll love this. There's also a lot here to offer for those unfamiliar with the HS sim/dungeon crawler, too. In summary, if you're a fan of JRPGs, you'll be a fan of Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE.

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE is a collaborative title, bringing Nintendo's Fire Emblem and Atlus' Shin Megami Tensei series together in one candy-colored package. The game itself is a turn-based JRPG in the style of SMT and Persona, but it incorporates characters and enemies from the Fire Emblem universe in interesting ways and to generally great effect. The combat is bright and fun, the characters are likeable, but the game sometimes feels a bit lightweight when compared with any of its parent titles. Still, it's infectiously upbeat and incredibly "anime." Perfect for Wii U owners who love J-POP, idol culture, and unabashedly "Japanese" entertainment.

This is a good game if you enjoy the Persona series. It has all the standards you would expect from that type of game. Hard battles, twisted story, odd characters. The adding in of Fire Emblem characters didn't bother me at all (then again I never touched that series so I had to ask someone if some of the characters I was seeing where from there). All in all a well done mix. This isn't to say this game isn't flawed....first, there is no English voice, only Japanese. Normally I wouldn't mind this, but the subtitles in several spots are either missing or get in the way of things, making the game a bit hard to play, or annoying as you miss what enemies are saying to you. Second, some parts of the plot don't seem to make a whole lot of sense till you go and look up what they were before coming here. The censorship of the game has caused a hiccup in a few spots, that is annoying. So all in all a good Japanese Persona style RPG game, but for those who don't already play these games, I wouldn't give this a try as your first. For those that do play in this series a lot, go on and give it a try.

Pros + Combat is balanced (not too easy or too difficult) + Being able to see the turn order for the current turn as well as the next turn during battle. + Able to switch party members during battle. + Battles give plenty of exp, yen, and materials so you don't really need to grind often. + Clever use of bottom screen for enemy info during battle and messaging allies outside of battle. + Likeable characters and a decent plot. + Lots of costumes Cons - The main character MUST be in the party at all times and you can only have 3 party members. Fortunately the main character is pretty good, but there times when it would have been better to not use him.

First off, this is a great game. If you're a fan of Persona or the mainline Shin Megami Tensei series, you will like this as it is 100% Atlus goodness. The translation was also done by Atlus, but with a bad catch... Nintendo of Europe which was responsible for enforcing it's arbitrary 1st party publisher policy on Atlus has resulted in a series of arbitrary and bizarre censoring/edits on the original Japanese version of the game for N.America and Europe. Had the game been published by Atlus, the game would have been brought to fans uncensored, just see SMTIV and Apocalypse and Persona Dancing All Night as proof. Because of that flaw, I deducted 1 star. Still, on its own merits the game is fun and the setting of modern, JPOP-py Shibuya is fun and lighthearted, but still as challenging as any other SMT game. A definite buy for RPG fans!

Graphics and art direction are vivid, colorful and overall very pleasing. Even if anime isn't typically your thing, there's an unquestionable beauty to this game. I'm not big into jPop music - but I found the music to be solid and not annoying as I had feared the music in this game could be. Combat and battle are where this game really shines. Though this is a turn-based RPG, you get some very active battle that demand a lot of immediate interaction. There's some pretty dazzling attacks and combos that come together. It never gets stale - which says a lot for a JRPG type game.