Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Impressions

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My latest Gamefly game was Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE.  If you haven't heard of it I'm not too surprised.  It's a Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensai (SMT) crossover game that's exclusive to Wii U and the localization is text only so all the voices are still in Japanese.  Talk about having a narrow niche for your game.

I found that I loved Persona last year, which is also a spin off of the SMT series, and I've really enjoyed the last few Fire Emblem games so I thought there might be something here for me.

And I did!  Kind of.

The core gameplay mechanics are really solid.  I was having fun with the combat, progression, dungeons, and little touches like the texting mechanic in the game.  I loved the style of the game, very bright and with colors that pop.  It has a cool style to it.  And the fact that it's definitely based in some anime influences didn't bug me too much either.  It's kind of quirky.


A minor complaint, which isn't even very fair, is that I'd have preferred it on some kind of handheld system.  I feel like it would have been a better fit on Vita or 3DS.  But that's just my preference.

My big issue with the get is just the setting.  Just like Persona 4 Dancing All Night this game is all about idol culture in Japan.  It's about becoming a pop star through an agency, fame, and performance skill.  And while they tie this into the gameplay in super clever ways... I'm just not a fan of the setting at all.  Which is ultimately why I decided to send it back to Gamefly and keep this constant demo rotation going.

Not to mention that sometimes the camera placement in oddly sexual.  Now, I have no problem with sex in games, movies, or tv when it fits with the story they're telling.  But this just doesn't fit at all.  The characters will be in the middle of a random conversation and the camera will just stop on a girl's chest.  Things like that totally break my immersion in the game and just feel icky and awkward.  Please, if you're going to include sex in your games make it actually fit.  If you shoehorn it in like this it's just gross.

Anyway, Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE does enough interesting things that I really dug into it before sending it back.  It actually has me interested to see if I'd like the SMT main series now.  I think I'm going to have to try out the latest entry soon.  In fact, I'll add it to my Gamefly queue right now.

Comments

  1. CapsulejayOctober 1, 2016 at 12:43 PM

    The increased emphasis on "fan service" in anime and Japanese games in general has been kind of troubling to me too. I'm kind of dreading the Cidney/Cindy parts of Final Fantasy XV for much the same reason, even though I was initially kind of psyched about the idea of a female Cid-like character before I saw footage and screenshots.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. VoidOctober 1, 2016 at 3:08 PM

      Yeah, often the idea sounds great and then you see the execution and just cringe.

      Delete

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