Topic: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE - OT

@whodatninja: I think that scene looked cute, but people are blowing up about it on GameFAQs.

@yokokazuo: Duly noted.

@Ralizah thanks!

Well I'm nearing the end of the game now, once I beat it I'll post my full thoughts here. I will say that I have really enjoyed it a lot so far and have few complaints with it. It also has a fairly decent length, not quite Xenoblade, but I am now at just over 60 hours and I know there should still be several more left in the game. I've said this already, but I've never played an Atlus game before so I'm not really familiar with any references, but there are things like Jack Frost and Black Frost and some of the attack names are the same as from Shin Megami Tensei or Persona games. (Such as healing skills called Dia and a thunder skill called Dio (or Jio? In katakana it is spelled ジオ) There are quite a few references to Fire Emblem though and you will hear a rendition of the main Fire Emblem theme quite a bit. I don't believe it was all bosses, but there are quite a few who are mirages from Shadow Dragon/Awakening.

Just got to the final boss and I have to say, this part is really epic! I plan on defeating them tomorrow and posting my overall thoughts too.

I have seen it spelled Zio in SMT IV and the persona series. Though it might be changed up for this game.

@Smash_kirby ah, that may be it. I just googled SMT Jio and it showed up, but I think it may be Zio in English.
Zio and Jio would be written the same in Japanese. I think I got Zio mixed up with Dia so I used a D at first. But the Japanese spelling for Dio would usually be different I think.

Just beat the game! It was really fun to play through and the story was very interesting! I plan on posting my whole thoughts soon, either later today or perhaps tomorrow.

Okay, try to give an overview of the game without going into spoilers.

I have found the game to feel pretty unique overall. There is a good amount of humour in the game, but at the same time there is also a serious side to it. The characters are all very different from another and quite dynamic at the same time. As I had mentioned earlier, one of my favourite parts are the side stories, they are really fun and really go more into the background of the characters. Aside from side stories there are also requests which various characters in the game ask of you. These vary on the objective, from finding a certain object to fighting very strong mirages. They can be kind of interesting at times and reward you with various items, but they are rather small parts of the game and didn't feel that interesting to me overall.
The combat has been a lot of fun, each character/enemy belongs to a class like Fire Emblem with its own weapon and abilities tailored to their own class. Generals for example have an ability that occurs randomly where they will move in front of an attack to protect their teammate. There are also some magic skills, some of which remind me of the magic from Fire Emblem, but I believe these attacks are based off of the SMT series and even share the names like Thunder based skills usually with Zio in part of the name. A very strong thunder attack that hits multiple enemies called Maha Zio Dain (don't know for sure if this is the correct English name for it). There is also the Fire Emblem weapon triangle with swords being good against axes, axes good against lances and lances good against swords. Each class has a set amount of weaknesses and resistances, but for the main characters they can have different weapons or "Carnages" as they're called. Carnages all have different strengths and weaknesses and some have special abilities like killing weapons which like ones from Fire Emblem, increase your critical hit percentage. Also with each carnage comes a variety of skills that can be unlocked. Skills are placed into various categories. Unlockable through Carnages are Command Skills, Session Skills and Passive Skills. Through a thing called Radiant Unity, Radiant Skills are unlocked and through some other ways like side stories, Special Skills are unlocked.
Command Skills are your attacks with varying strengths and effects, using up EP.
Session Skills allow other teammates (or the enemy too when they're attacking) to join in on an attack that is effective against your opponent.
Passive Skills are small skills that have different effects in battles.
Radiant Skills have a variety effects, in battles or outside too.
Special Skills occur in different ways depending on the type.
Special Performances use up an SP meter or two which fills up with each action that occurs during a battle, these can be powerful attacks or ones that have an effect on teammates or enemies such as increasing/decreasing attack, healing or reviving fallen teammates.
Ad Lib Performances randomly occur when an attack of its element is used and are powerful attacks that attack all enemies on the field even if the attack you originally chose would normally only hit one enemy. Duo Arts randomly occur during a session, you can choose between two when they occur if you have 2 or more unlocked by pressing L or R. These are powerful attacks that also have different effects like filling up your SP meter, healing your team or inflicting an ailment on the enemy.
Also special performances/ad lib performances won't be affected by enemies resistances to attacks and automatically initiate a session.
Speaking of resistances, regarding attacks, the enemy/character being attacked will either take less damage if they are resistant to it, normal damage, more damage if they are weak to it or the attack can have no effect, counter and hit the one attacking or heal the one being attacked.
Also I believe that each boss in the game is a mirage from Fire Emblem. And there are quite a few references to the series, I've seen a few references to Gaius for example.
The songs are also well done and sound great and the animations for all the cutscenes are done really well.
Cant think of a whole lot else to add right now so this is all I'll put here for now at least.

I don't think this game will make it to the West. There's no guarantee that it'll do well, it completely bombed in Japan which will scare Nintendo. We haven't seen a single English video or even so much as a screenshot. Oh yeah, another reason, the amount of localisation involved in this game is huge. It may be cost prohibitive.

I feel like NOA might just translate the text, add subtitles to the cutscenes, put it on the eShop and that's it.
They have no reason to believe that they would make money off of this as there isn't really a game to compare it to on the system.
At best NOE will do a Xenoblade Chronicles and just try and do a cheap localisation and a physical release, possibly add the soundtrack if we're lucky.

Is it unlikely to hope that ATLUS USA would localise this game? They are probably going to be busy with Persona 5 and other games. Don't even think they've worked on a Wii U game before actually..
I really do hope they bring the game to the West though as it looks promising and will add something to Wii U's 2016 lineup.

@Sligeach: This is Atlus we are talking about and they localize everything. Now there is the outside chance Sega will say it's too risky but I highly doubt it. We some times get many games that bomb in Japan and do decent enough over here. Atlus won't usually show any English till a release date is mentioned. Plus I'm going to say they will leave all songs in Japanese. No way they will do English voices for those.

@Spoony_Tech: Even if they did localize it for North America that would still leave Europe without it. Would NIS or SEGA publish it or would Nintendo do it themselves?

@Whitewatermoose I absolutely love it and there isn't a whole lot that I dislike about it. One thing I forgot to mention though (also kind of spoilers, but I won't go into too much detail) is that A whole part of the main story focuses a lot on gravure idols. I think it's possible this may be censored in some way with the western release.

I would definitely recommend it to Fire Emblem fans at least, especially if you have played Shadow Dragon and Awakening before (some of the story is linked to them)
Also overall the game on normal mode (you have a choice initially between easy, normal and hard and can switch at any time) had a decent amount of challenge to it. I usually wouldn't have too much of a problem going through the dungeons (which by the way all tend to be focused around a gimmick/puzzle. In one area for example, you had to enter certain rooms in a select order in order to go to another area), but enemies called "wild enemies" can randomly appear which are very powerful and are several levels higher than you. I would usually fight quite a few enemies through each dungeon, but the bosses were almost always fairly difficult to deal with. On the last part I found it easy against some of the tougher enemies, but then the final boss was really difficult to deal with. However it did get easier once I noticed some patterns in their attacks and when I should use some attacks.

Also for the length of the game, I'm not fluent in Japanese and I read a lot slower than English so that kind of took some time up and the gameplay time includes when it is paused and using other things like Miiverse so my play time recorded on the Wii U is two hours shorter than the playtime shown in the game. Which is about 100 hours, but I've seen people beat it around 70.

@Kimyonaakuma: Nintendo would more then likely do it for Europe and PAL region (since they do own Fire Emblem)

Also here is a link to some impressions/reviews of the games by others.
http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=59689

This isn't Fire Emblem x Shin Megami Tensei anymore......

It's Persona x Idolmaster now.

@Sligeach: They've talked about it in Nintendo Directs and at E3, leaving no hesitation that it will be released outside of Japan. The sales in Japan have nothing to do with it, you don't just drop a game based on one regions' sales if the localisation has already been confirmed. It doesn't work like that.

Still a day one buy for me unless Atlus pulls more of its wacky pricing shenanigans... although that only seems to be an issue with their handheld releases.

@Ralizah: This will be day one unless......it's more then 60$. I'm also tired of this little campaign they're doing. Still I did but Stella Glow but at a discount so it made it 40$.

@Spoony_Tech Wait what? The retail prices of all Atlus games where I live is standard fare, $39.99 for new releases on the 3DS. Is the Atlus tax occurring in the northern states now on top of the nightmare in Canada?

@Neko_Ichigofan: Several of their handheld games have been retailing as $49.99 in the States.

@Spoony_Tech: I'd probably be willing to part with $70 for Persona 5, but I'm unreasonably excited about that. I'm pretty sure they'll price SMT IV Final and EO V at $50, so I'm unsure what I'll do about those.