The 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Shin Megami Tensei x 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Fire Emblem game that we received on the Wii U in 2015 is vastly different than what the initial trailer had us hoping, but we still got a great JRPG experience with Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE.
While it would stand far better as its own independent IP, as it only brings a few small qualities from Atlus's and Intelligent Systems's most revered series to barely make it a crossover, there's enough similarities to pick out the best and worst aspects between #FE and Shin Megami Tensei, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Persona, and Fire Emblem.
10 🎃 BETTER: Combat System
Most of the Fire Emblem representation in Tokyo Mirage Sessions is limited to characters and sound or visual effects, and the gameplay is taken straight out of Shin Megami Tensei. From the get-go, it's immediately clear to see the similarities between battle mechanics as you chain together session after session while your🌃 party members shout rapid-fire Japanese until your ears bleed.
#FE's gameplay is reminiscent of like SMT: Strange Journey or Persona, where taking advantage of enemy weaknesses will grant you extremely important bonuses to your damage output. What makes #FE's combat so rewarding and fun is the session system, which does a fantastic job at adding strategic depth to battles with session skills while incorporating various main characters' effects that tie into the gꦏame's social life aspect very well.
9 ꦗ 🎀 WORSE: Characters
Our stylish cast of magical idol teenagers certainly get the job done to create an engaging enough story, but they don't hold a candle to characters from Persona or Fire Emblem. The protagonist, Itsuki, is a pretty o𒐪dd character archetype and falls somewhere betw🐟een a silent and non-silent protagonist.
He has his own dialogue and voice actor, but his lines are so bland and neutral that he might as well be silent. The supporting cast is likable e🌳nough, but a lot of them fall into a certain stereotype or have been done so many times that you don't ever feel like you really get to know them.
8 BETTER: Du♓ngeons
The Idolasphere is an alternate-reality Tokyo where monsters known as Mirages run rampant and seek to steal the Performa from humans. Tokyo Mirage Sessions released before Persona 5, so the intricately designed dungeons present here are a huge step up from the randomly generated labyrinths in Persona 3 & 4.
Persona 5 obviously outclasses it with its huge, creative, and fun Palaces, but #FE still has some stellar dungeons compared to a lot of other Shin Megami Tensei games. There aren't a ton of them, and some required backtracki꧙ng that can take some fun out of them, but they're still enjoyable and graphically impressive.
7 🌟 WORS🥀E: Localization
If you aren't a fan of subbed anime, then #FE's wordy gameplay won't do too much for you. It isn't something that lessens the quality of the game overall, but it's noticeable when looking at games with full English voice acting like Shin Megami Tensei IV or the Persona games, which all feature som🤪e of the highest quality voice acting around.
Besides the single language option, there is also a slight issue with unneeded censorship, which seems to be one thing that #FE didn't need to borrow from the Fire Emblem franchise. The new #FE Encore is base🔥d on the original western release, so the Japanese version of the base game is the only one without pesky censoring.
6 💞 BETTER: So🌠cial Life
Tokyo Mirage Sessions is as close as we may ever get to Persona on the switch, as the social life aspect of the game is extremely similar. When you're not crawling through random encounters and summoning Fire Emblem characters,🌜 you're free to expl🌜ore Tokyo and interact with your friends.
While Persona also features the ability for these interactions to affect the gameplay as well, #FE is a lot more laid-back in terms of time management, as Morgan🗹a isn't here to force you to go to bed. Depending on your preferences, you may find further enjoyment in more freely managing your social life.
5 WORSE: Difficulty 🐻
Balanced difficulty settings are important for giving a wide range of players an enjoyable experience with gameplay, hence the frequent additions of difficulty selection in games. #FE has difficulty settings that can be changed at a🙈ny time, but there are some unfortunate difficulty spikes and unbalanced progression.
The game's Hard mode does add a significantly higher challenge than Normal mode, but it still ends up feeling a bi༒t disappointing in terms of challenge. This is especially true when completing all of the side stories and additional content within the story that only makes the ga𒅌meplay easier and easier.
4 🎀 BETTER: Style 🔜
Tokyo Mirage Sessions' origin series' are all well-known for their sense of style and originality, and #FE turns it up a few notches. Instead of letting the J-Pop idol themes lie in the ꦬbackground, the game puts them front and center and runs wild with them.
Everything from the battles to the screen transitions shows off the game's sense of style, and it never🅘 ends up feeling overbearing. The story is obvio⛎usly highly interconnected with this as well, but it does a great job of incorporating it to a point where it blends into a refreshingly complete package.
3 ⛎ WORSE: Progression ꦜ
Shin Megami Tensei's infamous demon-fusing mechanic is entirely non-existent here in #FE and is instead replaced with a more traditional progression system seen in games like Digital Devil Saga. Tiki is able to fuse your party members w𝓀ith some sweet new weap꧟ons that'll bestow them with better skills.
The system works just fine but is a bit lacking in terms of the customizability seen in other Atlus RPGs that would make it infinitely better. The progression of your party ends up feeling pretty linear and predictable, and it would heavily benefit from a few customizable touch-ups. It can also be a little frustrating to deal with the random increase to your stats during level-ups taken from Fire Emblem.
2 🎃 BETTER: Graphics
Tokyo Mirage Sessions was one of Atlus's first forays into a truly HD 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:JRPG experience preceding the ever-beautiful Persona 5, and they did a gr🐭eat job in making it a gorgeous game to look at. Characters are all modeled cleanly and intricately, even down to their facial expressions.
The world is colorful and filled with detail, and the various cutscenes are animated well enough for Atlus to add them into a gallery to be replayed at any time. This is undoubtedly one of Atlus's better-looking titles, and we can only hope that the much anticipated SMT V can greatly surpass it.
1 WORSE:🌊 Bonus Content
As if this JRPG wasn't jam-packed with enough content already, the newly released #FE Encore for Nintend༺o Switch added some additional bonus content on top of including all DLC from the original version. Most of these additions consist of cosmetics, but there are a few more chapters and a new dungeon area inside the Bloom Palace.
The issue with the Bloom Palace dungeons is that they can significantly unbalance the combat system, and it even warns the player of this before entering. Costumes are always a nice touch, but unlike in Persona 5, music tracks from their respective games are lacking to spice up the s🍸lightly repetitive battle themes.