THE PLOT:
When Tokyo high school student Itsuki Aoi attends an audition for the next Japanese idol , he is shocked to find his childhood friend, Tusabasa Oribe, participating in!
Tsubasa's older sister had been a successful idol... until five years ago, when she vanished while performing in an opera - along with all the other performers and the entire audience! Tsubasa hopes that following in her sister's footsteps will help her to discover the truth about what happened.
This actually works, though not in the way she expected. Midway through her audition, a mysterious portal appears. Strange beings emerge, kidnapping Tsubasa. Most of the audience is paralyzed, drained of all energy, but Itsuki remains unaffected. He chases his friend's captors through the portal, into a mysterious labyrinth populated by monsters. There, he discovers a new power - one that first helps him to free Tsubasa, then sees him enlisted by Fortuna Entertainment into a quest to not only to save the world, but - even more terrifying - to become a part of Tokyo's entertainment industry!
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| The heroes unite against a threat to the entire world. |
CHARACTERS:
This isn't technically a Persona game, but it hews pretty close to that formula. The main characters are a mix of teens, each driven by things that are revealed during optional "side stories." Reckless Touma participates in live "hero shows," and recalls to Itsuki how such cheesy entertainment helped to give him hope during a difficult childhood. Half-Caucasian actress Ellie seems brash and annoyingly obsessed with all things Hollywood, but we gradually realize just how much of her behavior stems from insecurity, with her light skin and European features making her an outsider in an insular society. Child star Mamori is so eager to please those around her that she has difficulty standing up for what she wants. Even the characters who initially seem one-note or irritating are revealed to have a degree of depth, and by the end even the most standoffish of them has emerged as entirely likable.
There are two unfortunate exceptions, however. Tsubasa could pretty much be described as "anime girl," with none of her side stories building any particular personality beyond that. This is a major problem, because the first third of the game revolves almost entirely around her. Even when she becomes less prominent later on, it's clear that she's the female lead - and I'm sorry, but as a character she is incredibly boring.
Then there is the gaping hole at the game's center: Itsuki himself. His character art is drawn to be blandly pleasant, and that description applies pretty well to him as a whole. I can almost see what the developers were going for in a few scenes, ones that actually turn his lack of direction into text... but since he never progresses from that point, it can't really qualify as an arc. The other, more driven (and interesting) characters push him into every situation. His circumstances change a lot, but he remains very much the same person at the end that he was at the beginning.
In short, the two most prominent characters are a bust, leaving it to the supporting cast to carry the story.
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| A combat session: a series of chained attacks. These can get really long by the end of the game. |
GAMEPLAY:
If you've played any Persona game that postdates the PS1 era, then the gameplay is going to be entirely familiar. Roughly half of the game is spent exploring dungeons, each of which is designed around a theme. You will fight enemies - known here as "mirages" instead of demons - and level up your weapons and abilities. Hitting enemy weaknesses will allow your characters to engage in "Sessions," chained attacks that can do devastating damage.
The other half of the game is spent exploring various real world locations, interacting with characters and completing requests that range from minor fetch quests (find a random person's watch or briefcase) to more elaborate stories that will take you back into the dungeons trying to rescue people or recover specific items. This is also where you will complete the side stories that are this game's equivalent to Persona's Social Links, helping out your teammates and revealing their personalities (and usually unlocking new and more powerful attacks in the process).
THE SORT-OF CROSSOVER...:
Tokyo Mirage Sessions: #FE is officially a crossover between the Shin Megami Tensei and Fire Emblem franchises. It would be more accurate to describe it as Persona Lite: The Musical, with a Fire Emblem skin. The gameplay is a direct lift from the Persona series. The tone is lighter than any of the mainline Persona games (never mind Shin Megami Tensei), but it's unmistakably part of that range in all but name.
The Fire Emblem elements are considerably more minor. The "personas" gained from the Velvet Room in the Persona series are replaced by mirages who reside in the "Bloom Palace." Each mirage is a Fire Emblem character selected to match the personality of the individual they're teamed with. Bosses are also drawn from Fire Emblem games, and the story - when it's fully revealed - effectively acts as a sequel to Shadow Dragon... which likely explains why all the mirages are drawn from either Shadow Dragon or Awakening.
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| Musical number as combat move: Tsubasa and Ellie perform a mid-battle duet. |
NOT FOR ALL TASTES:
Tokyo Mirage Sessions is probably the definition of "not for all tastes."
It has a heavily stylized look. In the "real world," the people you can't interact with are represented by colored outlines, making the faceless crowds appear as ghosts. Only your characters and the NPCs with whom you can actually speak are fully detailed. Characters are extremely tropey, to the point where some of them are initially irritating, though most gain added dimensions as the story goes on.
It's also a musical. The characters are performers, and many of their side stories culminate in concert performances. This carries over to the in-game combat. Once you've unlocked a character's real world performance, it becomes a special attack that can be triggered in mid-battle... meaning that in the midst of combat, two of your characters will start singing and dancing before unleashing a devastating combo. It's fun (and thankfully, even in the Wii-U version, is skippable so that you don't have to watch the same scene repeated endlessly)... but there's no denying that it's weird.
Oh, and the dialogue is in Japanese with English subtitles. This was certainly a commercial decision, with Nintendo deciding not to throw extra money at a tough-to-advertise title on the already-failed Wii U... but I think it actually works in the game's favor. The only way this could be more Japanese is if Godzilla started stomping around leveling buildings - and you could probably drop such a bit in here without it feeling even a little bit out of place! In my opinion, English language dialogue might actually be a distraction from the overall vibe of the piece.
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| Itsuki is targeted by a demon... er, shadow... er, mirage! |
OTHER MUSINGS:
Tokyo Mirage Sessions was the first Shin Megami Tensei-related game I ever played. As a Fire Emblem fan, I was wary of this title, but my inner completionist refused to let me ignore it. I purchased a used Wii U from ebay (this was years before the Switch re-release), fired up the game... and quickly found myself engaged. It was this game that led me to the Persona series; and revisiting it years later, I still find myself enjoying it.
There are some downsides. The chained sessions, where hitting an enemy weakness allows each of your characters to attack in turn, are very entertaining... for a while. However, a full session chain, with each attack individually animated, can run up to two minutes; if you earn an additional special attack, which will in turn usually earn a new session, you can easily double or even triple that time. That makes for a lot of play time spent just watching your characters attack, over and over again. The Switch re-release fixes this, allowing a "Quick Session" function that fast-forwards the attacks... but if you're playing the Wii-U version, these attack chains are entirely unskippable.
The game allows you to save almost anywhere outside of combat, which is good. However, there is no auto save, which is downright bizarre in a modern game and can easily trip up gamers who have become accustomed to regular checkpoints. Simply put: Save regularly. Save when you enter a dungeon; save before boss battles; save after big cutscenes. Don't be lulled by the generally easy difficulty, because you are never more than one "Savage Enemy Encounter" away from potentially losing an hour or more of progress.
Outside of these annoyances, the game is generally a lot of fun. Sure, the "save the world" plot often gets lost in the shuffle of side quests. "It's the end of the world and we have to stop it!... right after we help Tsubasa with her singing, assist Ellie in landing a big part, and save Mamori's cooking show from a meddling new producer." But it's churlish to complain about that, for two reasons: (1) Many of those side quests are more engaging than the main plot; and (2) There's not a single post-PS1 era Persona game that couldn't be subject to the exact same criticism.
OVERALL:
Tokyo Mirage Sessions is an odd game, even by Shin Megami Tensei standards. That said, I found it highly enjoyable. The characters are likable, the stylized visuals are appealing, the combat is mostly a lot of fun, and - critically for a musical - most of the music is good. I'll admit that it's not for all tastes, and I'd definitely rank it a step or two below Persona 4 or Persona 5. Still, for fans of the franchise, I'd say this is worth checking out.
Overall Rating: 7/10.
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