Join Itsuki Aoi in his wacky and lewd adventures from the creators of world-renowned harem anime such as Persona 3 and Persona 4 as his childhood friend Tsubasa Oribe realizes her dream of becoming an idol as Itsuki couldn't care less about the industry!



Tokyo Mirage Sessions is a fusion of Shin Megami Tensei gameplay in battles and dungeon exploration (the combat is closest to Strange Journey), Persona social links, and Fire Emblem characters, weapons, and the weapon triangle. The game takes place in Tokyo and everyone in this world has an ability, latent in most, called Performa that directly relates to someone's ability to be a performer. Otherworldly monsters called Mirages invade Tokyo to steal everyone's Performa. Your party members form bonds with Personas- I mean their Mirages in order to fight monsters. The Mirages are based on Fire Emblem characters (Akaneia characters; specifically Shadow Dragon and Awakening) such as Chrom, Caeda, Cain, Tharja, Virion, Draug, and Navarre. After completing the first dungeon, Itsuki and Tsubasa join their friend Touma in the performance company Fortuna Entertainment which helps its members find work in the industry and fights Mirages. The plot is serviceable; it's nice how the plot is focused on Fire Emblem, but it's not until you're fairly late into the game when that appears. Until then, it's go to a dungeon, fight Mirages, and slowly learn more about what they're trying to do. It's a very light-hearted story and that's not a bad thing at all. Even when the story gets more serious, tonally it's still a farcry from what you typically see in Shin Megami Tensei or most Fire Emblems, let alone The side-quests are much more enjoyable and personable. This is where you get character development for your party members, additional abilities, and they're a lot of fun to do; it's definitely one of the best parts of the game. The Wii U Gamepad also doubles as an in-game messenger where you get texts from party members about side-quests becoming available and their thoughts about what's happening; it's nothing major, but it's a kind of neat way to use the Gamepad.



The dungeons are what you'd expect out of SMT; long, branching paths with bonuses, and puzzles. Each dungeon has a theme that matches where it takes place. The turn-based battles combine SMT Strange Journey and Fire Emblem. If you attack an enemy with their weakness, then your party members can follow up bonus attacks called Session Attacks. On top of standard SMT elements, you and your enemies have additional strengths and weaknesses based on the weapons they use. Just like in Fire Emblem, Swords beat Axes, Axes beat Lances, and Lances beat Swords. Flying units are especially weak to bow attacks. Party members, except Itsuki unfortunately, can be swapped out for proper party setups. Using Sessions Attacks builds your SP meter which allows for Performance Attacks. Some Performance Attacks can deal high damage to all enemies, some can deal damage while inflicting ailments, some can fully heal the entire party, some can heal and buff the party, etc. Completing side-quests can unlock Ad-Lib attacks; they trigger randomly off of certain skills while typically dealing much higher damage than the standard attacks. Side-quests later in the game can also unlock Dual Attacks which deal even further damage and extend a Session Attack combo for higher damage. Sessions Attacks are your best form of dealing damage so it's very critical to take advantage of enemy weaknesses. Enemies and bosses can strike your weaknesses and perform Session Attacks on you. You will learn very quickly in boss fights to kill additional enemies as fast as possible to prevent being overwhelmed by Session Attacks. The combat is very fun and boss battles are actually challenging if you play on Hard. Despite the bright colors, singing, and dancing, this is SMT gameplay. If you allow your weaknesses to be taken advantage of, then you'll get wiped out; the Mirages aren't going to take it easy on you just because you have a harem full of cute anime girls. Focusing on enemy weaknesses, covering your own weaknesses, proper party composition, and using buffs/debuffs is the key to winning. Ad-Lib Performances and Duo Attacks are great; Ad-Libs can be a huge help in tough battles and Duo Attacks are very powerful and really fun to watch.



Outside of battles, you can visit Tiki in the Bloom Palace to craft new weapons and skills. The cute dragon girl from Shadow Dragon is now a vocaloid who creates new weapons and skills. Performa gained from defeating Mirages and from performing well in battle can be fused together to create new weapons. Each weapon has a set of four abilities that can be permanently learned through battles; similar to Mantras in Digital Devil Saga. Learned abilties can then be assigned for what you bring into battle. Unfortunately, you can't keep the abilities you choose; later on in the game, you gain the ability to reforge the weapon which adds another ability and give the option to relearn old abilities if you change your mind. Weapons can also have their own properties; some can change weaknesses and resistances.



When localizing the game, Nintendo decided to keep the game as Japanese audio with English subtitles only. Out of all the backlash I've seen over how this crossover turned out, I've not seen someone complain that their Japanese RPG about Japanese idols was Japanese audio only. If that is a problem for you, then, well, this game was probably already not what you're looking. Atlus had a lot of trouble finding VAs who could act and sing, but it paid off. The songs are one of the best parts of the game. If you're actually playing this game, then you're probably fine with, or maybe even (secretly) like, these kinds of songs. The songs all get their own pre-rendered cutscenes that are an absolute treat to watch. The VAs do a great job with the songs and they're really catchy. The rest of the songs you hear are good; they're not particularly memorable, but good nonetheless. The visuals are easy on the eyes; the style and designs mesh well with the game.



The game has a lot of references to SMT and FE. The shopkeeper at a store conveniently called Hee-Ho Mart is a familiar red-haired girl and her associate is also a red-haired girl who wears a Black Frost mask. Your favorite spells and abilities like Zio, Agidyne, Sukukaja, Rakukaja, Fog Breath, Charge, Heat Wave, etc. are all back. A number of the weapons are based on Fire Emblem including some of the legendary weapons in the Jugdral canon. It's all a lot of fun to see if you're a fan of both franchises. This isn't the sort of crossover that anyone imagined when the SMTxFE reveal trailer debuted, but it's very good nonetheless. If you enjoy SMT and the idol focus doesn't drive you away, then you're in for a good JRPG on a console otherwise starved for them.