Developer: Atlus
Publisher: Nintendo
During a Nintendo Direct four years ago, Atlus released a teaser trailer showcasing a collaboration between its Shin Megami Tensei series and Nintendo's Fire Emblem series. As a fan of both of these franchises, I was psyched to see what would come out of this team-up. After the trailer was released, the project fell into radio silence for two years. Suddenly, a new trailer for the game popped up. It was quite the shift in tone, anime teenagers ran amok while J-Pop played in the background. While I would have loved to see something closer to the original teaser's vision, I was also excited for what I saw in this new trailer. Fortunately, wherever you fall on the spectrum, a great game was the end result, so it doesn't matter.
Our little tale takes place in a bright and bubbly interpretation of modern day Shibuya. Itsuki Aoi was an ordinary high school student, until the day he witnessed his friend Tsubasa get spirited away by mysterious creatures who steal people's creative energy known as Mirages during her idol tryouts. While rescuing her, they both awaken to a strange power and become Mirage Masters. Afterwards, they are approached by a representative of the Fortuna Entertainment Company, and are taken on as their newest clients. Itsuki must now learn the in and outs of the Japanese entertainment industry to develop his powers, and protect Japan's most influential creators from the Mirages. Make no mistake, this game is incredibly goofy and silly. However, that turns out to be its ultimate advantage. It commits so hard to being the best possible version of itself that it is near impossible to not fall in love with it.
Functionally, this game plays as a Persona game designed for the Wii U. You'll spend your time split between hanging out with your party members, and fighting monsters inside themed dungeons. While it pulls heavily from the Persona series, there are also some unique mechanics in here. Hitting an enemy's weakness in battle will trigger your party members to chain attack the enemy in sessions. For example: Hitting a sword weakness can result in a thunder attack, which chains to a wind attack, and so on until everyone lands an attack or an attack is nullified. Advancing your party member's careers during side quests will also unlock special attacks that trigger randomly when a certain element type is used and duo arts can also be learned this way.
The MegaTen influences can be seen all around in the design, but the Fire Emblem stuff is kinda put off to the side. Each character has a Fire Emblem character that basically acts as their "persona", but for the most part the FE influence is relegated to the weapons, and the bosses. As a fan of most of the North American released Fire Emblems, it seems sad for the games to not get more recognition. I'd have loved to walk into an optional boss room to find Lyn, Eliwood, and Hector waiting for me.
Was it the game anyone expected when we heard that Shin Megami Tensei and Fire Emblem were crossing over? No, but that didn't stop it from being an excellent game. The developers committed wholeheartedly to the tone and ensured that they delivered the best possible version of their vision.
9/10
Excellent
Thanks for reading!