Tokyo Mirage Sessions Review Round-up

Gamespot (80/100): Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE is a smart, fun collaboration between two franchises that feel like they were always meant to be together.

http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/tokyo-mirage-sessions-fe-review/1900-6416454/

Polygon (9.5): Tokyo Mirage Sessions is a spirited, fun blend of two great RPG series

http://www.polygon.com/2016/6/22/11998068/tokyo-mirage-sessions-fe-review-nintendo-atlus-wii-u-fire-emblem-shin-megami-tensei

AV Club (Recommend): Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE is equal parts role-playing game and American Idol

http://www.avclub.com/article/tokyo-mirage-sessions-fe-equal-parts-role-playing--238487

Gameinformer (8.3): From its charming cast to the battle system that makes it into one big performance, Tokyo Mirage Sessions is zany in the best way possible

http://www.gameinformer.com/games/tokyo_mirage_sessions_fe/b/wii_u/archive/2016/06/22/tokyo-mirage-sessions-_2300_fe-game-informer-review.aspx

Destructoid (8/10): Almost like a diet Persona of sorts, Tokyo Mirage Sessions FE doesn't feel like Atlus took any half-measures, but by that same token, it doesn't do anything spectacular either or expand upon its previous work. While folks probably won't be rushing out to buy a Wii U for it anytime soon, the famed publisher has once again proved that it is at the top of the food chain when it comes to JRPGs.

https://www.destructoid.com/review-tokyo-mirage-sessions-fe-369917.phtml

RPGsite (9/10): Two beloved franchises brought together in unexpected ways - Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE is both a highly competent swan song for the Wii U.

http://www.rpgsite.net/review/4897-tokyo-mirage-sessions-fe-review

Eurogamer (Recommended): Tokyo Mirage Sessions: #FE is an imperfect yet brilliant marriage of two beloved franchises.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-06-22-tokyo-mirage-sessions-fe-review

As a fan of both the Persona and Fire Emblem series, this is good news. This might be the game to actually get me to buy a Wii U.

Man, those reviews turning out to be way more positive than I expected.

After hearing very mixed things around the Japanese release the love this game is getting here has me excited.

Having played some at PAX East, I could tell this game was a banger, enough so I actually preordered it which I rarely ever do.

I admit the lack of an english dub bums me out though.

Imo the look of the game especially in battle, bodes really well for how P5 is going to turn out.

@bisonhero said:

Same. I fully expected this to be one of those super niche releases that only a select minority would truly appreciate. I'll be curious to see how the actual sales hold up.

I've been kinda whatever about this game since it was fully revealed, but hearing that Austin is pretty into is making me reconsider.

I'm ready for my Tokyo Massage Session.

It was pretty frustrating trying to find some actual discussion about this game in the lead-up to this western release since most internet chatter was about the localization rather than the gameplay, which is what I actually care about, so it's very heartening to see these positive reviews. My copy's shipped out today so I'm looking forward to playing it Friday.

Just pre-ordered it on amazon thanks to this thread!

Pre-ordered it a while ago so I'm glad it's getting a positive reception.

"It's like a co-ed version of Sailor Moon for the Love Live! age." #sold

Just about everything I've seen around the web today on this has sold me on it. I'm hoping this can scratch a bit of the itch both series have left with me after Fire Emblem Fates was rather mediocre and Persona 5 got bumped to next year.

Also:

@cav829: Hey now, I can give or take Birthright and I think Revelation is legitimately mediocre, but Conquest has some of the best and most devious map design in the entire series. So 1/3rd of Fates is great!

As for this thing, I'll have to give it a look when I regain access to a WiiU. I've been cautiously interested for a while, and it sounds like it panned out in the end.

i'll probably go pick it up on friday,

Damn I guess I'll have to get this as well. I remember reading something about it not doing too well over in Japan and just assumed that it wouldn't be worth my time. Nice to see that I may have been misinformed.

If nothing else it gives me an excuse to turn on my Wii U.

I really hope the east coast guys can shoot a quicklook this week

Well I guess I'm getting this now. Caught smack dab in the middle of playing FE:Fates, so this is both the best and worst time to hear good things about this game.

@arbitrarywater: I would 100% agree the map design of Conquest is pretty great and I don't know why the design of Birthright's maps is so uninspired in comparison. I never got to Revelations though. The one thing that really got me about Conquest was the narrative. I felt like Austin anger toward The Witness levels of rage toward the plot of Conquest.

Anyway, yeah, Fates wasn't bad as an overall product and Conquest had some really good map design and would be the one of the three I'd recommend in spite of the awful narrative. Fates was just kind of mediocre overall. But I already wrote that long-winded review about it, so I'll shut up now. :)

@technician said:

Enjoy your mirage...from MicroForum.

Still sad so much got altered, but ill play it.

I expected people to like it, but I didn't expect them to like it this much. I had it preordered ages ago and wasn't going to cancel either way, but I'm still happy to hear it's getting so much positive reception over here.

How is such a severely jpop focused game getting way better reviews over here than Japan. I thought this game bombed pretty hard over there. Did they make huge changes that actually make it a much better game or something?

@neocalypso: It reviewed well in Japan as well. It didn't sell well because the WiiU is severely not popular in Japan.

@taesoawful: I mean the WiiU is severely not popular anywhere though ha.

Glad I preordered this. It looks to be what Persona 4: Dancing All Night should have been: Proper RPG but with hell of jpop awesomeness.

I don't get where people are seeing this game get bad reviews in Japan. They were about the same. The game didn't sell that well, but that's because nobody owns consoles in Japan and if they do it isn't a Wii U. It does sound like it did well enough to maybe get a sequel which is probably due to concerts and other stuff. I feel like the only bad things I've hear about the game are hardcore SMT/FE fans being upset it's not enough like those games and people complaining about the bad localization. Man I wish they hadn't fucked with so much that was super unnecessary. Still looking forward to it if Amazon ever ships it.

Huh. I didn't expect these kind of reviews. I just went from "Oh yeah, I've got a game showing up on Friday. Maybe I'll play a little bit over the weekend." to "Hurry the shit up, Friday. I hope I don't smell too bad by Sunday night."

I'm really excited again for this game! The Japanese buzz was a bummer, but I'm definitely going to pick this up seeing how well it's being received.

@cav829: Oh yeah, all three campaigns in Fates have pretty bad stories, but the ineptitude behind Conquest's bungled attempts at grey morality is something to behold. And don't even talk to me about the way the game sidesteps incest...

I guess I need to buy this now.

I had no idea this was a Wii U game, guess I heard the Persona/Fire Emblem pitch and immediately assumed 3DS RPG. Now I'm way more interested, might have to hop over to Amazon.

And people said the Wii U had nothing this year! ;)

A good Atlus RPG will always appeal to me on some level, but I really have absolutely no interest in J-Pop or "Japanese youth culture" or whatever, no knowledge of Fire Emblem characters, and I'm a little concerned about burning myself out on long JRPGs when I still have Xenoblade X to work on and P5 coming out relatively soon. Not sure if I should get this or not.

Wait you have no interest in Japanese youth culture but want Persona 5? The high school life simulator?

Maybe "idol and anime culture" would be more accurate? That's how I've often seen the game characterized, anyway.

Yes, I know Rise exists. ;)

I'm definently gonna get this day one, but I can't say I'm a huge fan of the changes they made in localizing this.

@socuteboss: This, the chapter 2 dungeon changes, the one boss having bad looking smoke over her chest, and no hot springs DLC are all real bummers. They made some real head scratching choices with this game. Nobody would've cared if it was just aging characters up and taking out panty shots, but all of these are pretty lame.

@jesushammer: Hot dang, those are more changes than expected. That is definitely a bummer.

And I never would've thought I'd type this on giant bomb but man does that white outfit looks way better with cleavage.

They changed a scene where Tsubasa was in a bikini and being really creeped on to her wearing a nice colorful chique outfit and proud of it.

I wouldn't care that much if they actually put effort into changing it, but they just changed the color of her skin texture. If anything it looks more adult like some weird fetish costume.

Man that outfit is some 4kids level of garbage. Really hate how they sidestepped the gravure stuff. I don't think the Japanese version handles it super well, but at least it's head on. I just don't understand these decisions once you've aged up the characters. I get that panty shots are not something NOA wants probably, but everything else just seems nonsensical.

I feel like all these changes to their games just goes to show how out of touch and/or paranoid NIntendo is.

This sounds really cool, but I don't have the right console for this game.

@taesoawful: While it's kind of a dumb change, the original scene is also kinda terrible and exactly the type of thing that turned me off of the idea for this game in the first place, so I'm conflicted.

Ultimately they shouldn't have changed it, but it just makes me wish Atlus hadn't gone there at all.

I think this is where I stand on it as well. If you're gonna do it, do it and own it. But, maybe just don't do it?

At least it was addressing a real thing that most idol related anime/manga/games ignore. It might of handled in a very anime "I'M COMFORTABLE WITH MYSELF BECAUSE MY FRIENDS", but at least it acknowledged it. This whole thing feels like it's just shoving it under the rug. I'd rather have the effort in exploring the issue be there than a weird 4kids moment.

@jesushammer: My problem is that it doesn't really feel like it's "exploring it", it's just kind of "here's a scene with a girl in a bikini getting her picture taken by a creepy guy...enjoy?" I suppose there's kind of an underlying message there about what idols have to go through, but it doesn't seem nearly as purposeful or meaningful as the gravure stuff with Shadow Rise in Persona 4.

To be fair, I have not played the game, so maybe they explore it more thoroughly outside of that scene, but that's not the impression I got from it.

@socuteboss: I'm really happy and thankful Nintendo did the censorship they did with this game. I don't want to play a videogame that can be classified as child porn and lose my job or go to jail over it.

I'd rather people stop using a powerful word like censorship that legitimately affects countries today and even in the united states like the GOP meetings.

Sick of a equating government redaction and limitation of civil freedom to common localization changes.

It seemed about just as fine as the Rise stuff which also didn't really explore it very much. It's just nice that they included it as just a fact of being an idol.

Nothing could be constituted as even close child porn here. Unless you think a teenager in a bikini is now child porn. If that's the case we should probably start arresting teens going to the beach or pool for public indecency. I won't even get into how messed up western laws are when it comes to drawn, fictional characters because I'm sure I'll just get yelled at.

Censorship doesn't have one definition. I believe it is self censorship and a main reason they are doing some of the things they are doing is fear of backlash. Saying the word can only mean one very specific thing when it doesn't is just skirting the issue. Even leaving out the censorship talk most of the localization changes are pretty bad or don't make sense once they age up the characters.

@taesoawful: Would you prefer people use "self-censorship," because this is basically what it is. It's not like changing broccoli to bell peppers in Inside Out to make it culturally relevant. It's to not offend the Tipper Gores of our country because we can't handle cleavage in video games. It doesn't bother me, but I can see how it might bother some.