YMMV / Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE

• Accidental Aesop: People who are kind will be rewarded for their kindness. That is all it takes for Itsuki to make it through life, hard work or experience be damned. After getting a job that he has no interest or experience in, all Itsuki needs to do to succeed is simply be a Nice Guy helping his co-workers with their own jobs and within a few months he becomes the president of an idol company, all while still in high school.
• Adorkable: The way Tiki freaks out over simple things like donuts is precious.
• Annoying Video Game Helper: Mamori's Taking the Bullet ability is usually useful, since she can take hits meant for other party members, and has the defense to take it. Unfortunately, it's a random activation against all single target attacks. This means that she can jump in when the helped character is in no danger, but she is, or when the enemy is using a magic attack. She still manages to be a useful party member despite this, however.
• Audience-Alienating Premise: When the game was initially announced, all people had to go on was the idea of the crossover between Shin Megami Tensei and Fire Emblem. Suffice it to say, when the game was eventually revealed - after a long period of silence about anything beyond the crossover aspect, leading to higher expectations on what it might've been - as a very light-hearted JRPG with a focus on the entertainment industry, with not much in terms of being a more straightforward or actual crossover, many fans were vehemently turned off, leading to abysmal sales, something that persists even to this day.
• Awesome Music: All the vocal songs can count as this. Highlights include:
  • Reincarnation by Kiria, the first song to be performed as a concert cutscene, and plays over the opening credits.
  • Beastie Game by Tiki.
  • Black Rain, Yashiro's song. Double points for being voiced by Yoshimasa Hosoya.
  • Give Me, Tsubasa and Kiria's duet.
  • Fire Emblem: The Opera of Light; the vocal version of the Fire Emblem theme the cast sing before the final battle is this. You can watch it here.
  • The final boss themes, Medeus, the Shadow Dragon and the second phase are absolutely stunning but also very much terrifying, fitting for the borderline eldritch look given to Medeus.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Eleonora. Some find her biracialness and interest in Hollywood intriguing, while others are annoyed whenever she brings those topics up. Then there's the question of whether her Tsundere tendencies are overdone or not.
  • Itsuki Aoi. A boring, undefined character? Or a perfectly likeable Supporting Protagonist with plenty of funny moments to go around? Some fans are also happy that he talks, while others wish he'd remain silent as per SMT tradition, but the former group points out in a game themed around entertainment and singing, him being silent would be overtly awkward.
• Broken Base: Would the traditional crossover everyone thought the game was going to be actually have been a good idea? Or was the final product a better attempt at hybridizing two series that are drastically different in design philosophy, style, tone, and even basic gameplay? A third camp argues that the game absolutely deserves to be made, but should have been its own IP divorced from either franchise, or made another spin-off of Shin Megami Tensei like Persona instead of marketed as a crossover like the teaser trailer heavily implied.
• Captain Obvious Reveal: Hatanaka - the only non-Fortuna NPC to reappear multiple times within the main story, on top of going on about the Idolasphere every time you run into him and just generally having a somewhat creepy face - turning out to be a twist villain was pretty much only surprising to players who thought it was so obvious that it had to be a red herring.
• Complete Monster: Gharnef and music producer Yatsufusa Hatanaka are the duo responsible for the turmoil in the story. After Gharnef is banished following his attempt to destroy the world with the Shadow Dragon Medeus, he meets the equally vile Hatanaka, and the two sacrifice an entire opera house full of people to Medeus. Seemingly beaten back, the two attack present-day Tokyo with their monstrous Mirages, attempting to revive Medeus again, Hatanaka laughing as they sap people of energy for their plot. When encountered for the final time, both eventually give their souls to power Medeus, intent on destroying the world at all costs.
• Contested Sequel: Not a direct sequel to any game, but an entry in two popular franchises. There's the very-loud number of fans who won't even touch it, those who have complaints about the game's bland main character, cliched plot, occasionally-lengthy battle animations, and the lack of representation for parts of the series outside the Archanea/Awakening games, and those who think it's an excellently polished game that deserved better than to tank because of external drama and fans angry that it wasn't something it never intended to be.
• Cult Classic: The game didn't sell well on release, and it spawned a Broken Base, but the game has fans who love it to death and hold it up as a hidden gem of the Wii U library. Some of those fans wanted it to get a Nintendo Switch port so the game can have a second chance at finding an audience, and the game was later announced to have a Switch port in 2019. The game's cult status evidently aided the Switch release, which had a better opening run with sales compared to the original Wii U version.
• Demonic Spiders: Carriettas, an especially dangerous Underground Monkey of the Ghost Girl enemy that start showing up once you gain access to "sealed" areas. They're weak to Sword, Lance and Axe, so they should be easy, right? The problem is they also Null all magical elements, meaning if a Session doesn't consist entirely of physical attacks it'll be halted mid-way. They only have two moves... but they happen to be Concentrate (more than doubles the next magic attack) and Megido, meaning if you don't kill them very quickly, you're in for a Total Party Kill. And Megido being Almighty, Makaraguard can't save you. They also like to show up in groups of 2-3. Three Megido spells can completely wipe a party at the point when they start to appear without Concentrate beefing them up.
• Dueling Games:
  • As its reveal trailer gives off a very Persona-esque vibe, some of the more enthusiastic fans have taken to calling it the Wii U's answer to the PlayStation-exclusive Persona 5 (though, it's a more friendly rivalry, since both are by the same company).
  • Although slight, another game it was seen as dueling with was The Caligula Effect, a game with plenty of musical and J-Pop themes that was headed by Persona creator Tadashi Satomi.
  • Interestingly enough, when the Switch version was released about a month the new Sakura Wars was released. As many fans know, Sakura Wars has a similar premise to Tokyo Mirage Sessions where entertainers fight monsters, though Sakura Wars focuses exclusively on stage play while Tokyo Mirage Sessions branches out into other forms of entertainment.
• Escapist Character: Itsuki, even by standards of an SMT protagonist or a Stock Light-Novel Hero, is a very lucky man. Have superpowers? Check. Fighting Eldritch Abomination from another world? Check. Attracts ladies with little to no effort despite being plain looking? Check. ^note  To show how successful he is, in a scene that references Operation Babe Hunt from the Persona series, Itsuki is able to successfully trade Topic ID with every women he talks to without any effort and regardless of the player's choices, something none of the Persona protagonists are able to pull despite their own Chick Magnet status. Gets a job as an idol despite having no knowledge or even a interest to be one? Check. Has everybody showering him with praise nearly everyday? Check. Becoming the president of said idol company in less than a year of working while still in high school? Check.
• Fandom-Enraging Misconception: Saying the SMT side of this game's battle system only draws from Persona is a sure-fire way to annoy its fans. While the game's story and aesthetics definitely lean more towards the Persona side, its gameplay draws more from Digital Devil Saga (the three-member party structure), Strange Journey (weakness hits triggering assist attacks) and Shin Megami Tensei IV (skills powering up from being learned multiple times), as players will be quick to remind you.
• Fan Nickname: Variants of "Persona: Fire Emblem Edition" or "Persona Not-5" have been floating around since the trailer. Whether said nicknames are meant to be derogatory or not is dependent on the speaker.
• Game-Breaker:
  • Eleonora's Mass Destruction Special Performance has a chance of causing instant death based on her Skill stat. Being the game's archer, her Skill stat is high to start with, and can be boosted even higher with passive skills, incense, and certain accessories. Any enemy that does survive still gets hit for a large amount of damage. The end result is an attack that can make quick work out of any non-boss battle.
  • Despite being the designated Stone Wall, Mamori surprisingly gets two of the best heals in the game after completing her first two Side Stories. Microwavin' Heart is basically Mediarahan, and Microwavin' Soul revives all unconscious allies on the field. Best part? After using these Special Performances, she gets another action. Because of how the battle system works, if things go south for your team (as long as it's not just Itsuki who's left standing), you can switch Mamori in, use the appropriate skill, then switch back out to your desired party member, without sacrificing their action. As a bonus, both of the aforementioned SP skills cost 1 SP apiece (the lowest amount possible for their kind). So if you so wish, you can use Mamori's extra turn to have her use a Clap Track to regain that 1 SP.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In this game, our heroes are able to summon spirits of Fire Emblem characters to fight on their side. Three years later, Fire Emblem characters would be able to summon them as Spirits.
  • In light of the Dueling Games case mentioned above, both this and the Persona 5 spin-off Phantom Strikers were revealed in 2019 to be coming for the Switch.
  • Since the game's main setting is modern Tokyo, Shibuya Crossing appears as a location. Now, does this remind you of a certain Japanese Fire Emblem ad?
  • Some of Tharja's rods are named Aymur, Caduceus, Thyrsus, and Asclepius. Caduceus would be a Sacred Weapon, Thyrsus would be a Hero's Relic, and Asclepius would be Cornelia's personal rod in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, though Aymr is an axe.
• Les Yay:
  • Given how heavily Tsubasa fangirls over Kiria, especially after joining Fortuna and working alongside her, it's not the least bit difficult to interpret her (at times bordering on obsessive) behavior as her having a massive crush on her.
  • Kiria and Tharja have some moments of this. Their poses◊ in Kiria's status screen are pretty sexual, for one. Tharja often gushes in her trademark creepy way over how cute Kiria is (including wanting to keep her at her side forever!), while Kiria calls her "baka" at least once in a typical Tsundere fashion.
  • After beating the Daitou Idolasphere, Itsuki goes talk to Maiko, who teases him as usual, and then Kiria arrives which leads to Maiko getting giddy over being competed over.
• LGBT Fanbase: Despite being a fairly controversial character, Barry Goodman is very well-loved by the gay male fanbase for his Big Beautiful Man design and endearing voice, with said fans often lamenting how Barry was written and portrayed in the game proper.
• Like You Would Really Do It: Like the writers would really kill Tiki at the end of her last side story, depriving you of the only way to make Carnages and Radiant Skills when there's still half a chapter, and another dungeon left at the point the side story becomes available.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "There appears to have been a fusion accident".^note A gameplay mechanic from the Megami Tensei series where a rare event can cause a fusion of two demons to create an unintentional result. While it can create some incredible results sometimes, most of the time it is quite unwanted whenever it happens. Naturally, this game was not what fans had in mind when both franchises "fused." It took on a darker pall over time, given the ongoing backlash and eventual commercial failure of the game.
  • Chrom's Darker and Edgier redesign has led to a lot of jokes about Chrom being pissed about being rejected from Smash Bros and getting his revenge in this game. Becomes a bit more amusing when he was added in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate a few years later while Tsubasa was added as a spirit.
  • "FAI-A-A EEEM-BU-REM" ^note  The cast sing a Jpop rendition of the Fire Emblem theme before the final boss as a way to awaken Naga to aid them. The Engrish was a point of contention for those who heard it pre-release. At this point, it's basically ubiquitous with the game itself.
  • "KOWASHITAI!" ^note The first line from the song "Reincarnation", which featured heavily in the game's marketing. It's sometimes used to annoy fans of both SMT and FE.
  • Vagina Bones. ^note Someone mentioned that the "vagina bones" (the lines on the waist caused by the pelvic bone) of a character were removed after some of the edited images appeared. Since then, all references to pelvic bone lines are called this, regardless of the gender of the person.
  • She is... Censored ^note After a preview for "She Is...", a new song added to the game in Encore, was uploaded onto YouTube, players irked at the fact that Encore would use the American localized version of the game rather than the original use this play on the song to mock the Updated Re-release.
• Narm Charm: "Fire Emblem ~Drama's Light~" is viewed as an incredibly corny song by many fans, especially due to Itsuki posing as a Marth that apparently went Super Saiyan due to the light blue, spiky hair that he sports. Even so, everyone seems to globally agree that it's said mood and setting that makes the song as memorable as it is.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • The first introduction to hostile Mirages is pretty disturbing. During what seems to be a normal audition, the interviewer suddenly breaks out into a subtle Voice of the Legion and starts asking Tsubasa disturbingly personal questions about her missing-presumed-dead older sister, before breaking out into a full Nightmare Face right in front of the camera and summoning a ton of red-cloaked Mirages to drain the entire audience of their Performa.
  • The first scene shows the "Great Disappearance," with everyone in the opera house disappearing one by one with everyone panicking when they began to notice with only the poor 13 year-old Tsubasa as the Sole Survivor.
• Older Than They Think: This isn't the first time a Bowdlerised international version of a game became the basis for the Updated Re-release, including the Japanese version, in Nintendo. Mother 1 + 2's version of Earthbound Beginnings was based on the localized version, something that wouldn't be released outside Japan officially until 2015, which modified sprites to make them more appropriate under Nintendo's censors at the time, along with several other improvements. Of course, aside from Mother 1 + 2 being a pretty obscure rerelease that never released overseas, the Mother series is generally seen as a family-friendly series, even if it doesn't seem like it, so people didn't mind those changes, whereas both Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei fanbases tend to be more critical of such things.
• Pandering to the Base: All Fire Emblem story elements come from either the original series or the popular revival thereof. The former in particular is extremely popular in its native Japan, but nowhere else, and the latter, though more universally-successful, is a distant sequel of the Archanea titles.
• Play the Game, Skip the Story: Among those who have played the game, the story has been described on the spectrum of 'nothing special, but passable' to 'horribly cliched and predictable'. The gameplay on the other hand has been meet with praise with a high level of polish as well as having Atlus distinct brand of challenge. The only real strike against the gameplay have been the lengthy load times and overly long battle animations^note some of the longer animations, like Special Attacks, Ad-Libs and Duo Arts can be skipped, however, which the Switch port helps with. It's also often noted by those invested in the battle system that while the game's story has little relation to either parent franchise, its gameplay actually draws on a wide variety of references to both SMT and FE in a way that still makes for a fun and engaging system.
• Polished Port: The Encore port for the Switch is basically the same as the original, but portable, and with extra content. It also speeds up session attacks, making battles progress faster on the go.
• Signature Scene: The characters singing a J-Pop version of the Fire Emblem theme at the start of the Final Boss battle, which is also a source of the game's Memetic Mutation.
• Small Reference Pools: Upon seeing the name "Performa" (a special power used to acquire new skills and weapons) many people have claimed it to be a reference to "Persona", mostly because they sound so similar. While there are Performa that can be developed within an individual under certain conditions, they don't at all function as a Persona does. They do however, function near identically to Forma, which were valuable materials found within demons and the different sectors of the Schwarzwelt, which are used to develop equipment and activate new abilities in the character's Demonica (much like you can unlock new weapons, as well as battle/field skills through Performa). That it sounds like Persona is likely little more than a coincidence, and it's more likely to be a pun on "Perform" (as in, what entertainers do) + "Forma".
• Spiritual Antithesis: To Persona 4: Dancing All Night, a rhythm game spinoff of one franchise that acts as a scathing critique of Japan's Idol industry, arguing that much of it is exploitative and even having one idol commit suicide under the pressure. This game has a much Lighter and Softer take on the subject and is ironically not a rhythm game but uses proper SMT mechanics whilst not featuring any SMT protagonists while Dancing All Night is a rhythm game starring the game's previous protagonists.
• Spiritual Successor: The combat mechanics make it one for Shin Megami Tensei's Digital Devil Saga series, although there is a certain amount of Persona influence to be found.
• Subbing Versus Dubbing: Got hit with this big time after it was revealed the localization would keep the original Japanese audio. One camp finds this a pleasant surprise, especially after Xenoblade Chronicles X and Fire Emblem Fates were dub-only, and argue that the company is unlikely to spend more money than it has to localizing a game that's been something of a flop; the other is disappointed they can't hear voices in their native language and see it as just the latest in a long line of poor decisions on the part of the creators. Another take from the supporters of the Japanese-only decision was the fact that dubbing this game would take even more time than a standard dub for a video game given that they would have to rewrite and record the songs in English, while detractors of that statement proclaim the dialogue itself being dubbed alone would be sufficient.
• Surprise Difficulty: Don't be fooled by the game's saccharine premise; This is an Atlus JRPG, and the game isn't afraid to remind you of that. Pretty much every encounter in this game are in groups, and pretty much every Mirage has a Session skill that synergizes with the attacks of the other Mirages. This means that if you leave out a party member whom is weak to a skill that the enemy has, its easy for them to take a ton of damage in a single attack. This is even worse during boss fights, pretty much all of whom are in groups as well, and love to summon Mooks to tank hits, heal damage, chain sessions off of, or just generally be annoying.
• Sweetness Aversion: One of the main reasons why the game is considered to have an Audience-Alienating Premise is because it is far more Lighter and Softer than both Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei with its bright and cheery idol aesthetic.
• That One Attack: Lorenz's Megaton Tackle hits hard and always triggers Sessions regardless of resistances. His ability to move twice per turn makes it worse, he either uses it twice (resulting in one character potentially getting hit 6 times in one turn if they're unlucky) or uses Charge to more than double its damage. He likes to keep your defence debuffed too, so it hits even harder. It really says something that this is his only damaging attack and he still manages to be one of the tougher bosses at that point entirely because of it.
• That One Boss: It's an Atlus RPG, it's to be expected.
  • The Chapter 4 boss, Excellus and Yashiro/Navarre, is definitely shaping up to be one of these. Yashiro buffs the evasion of pair of them with Sukukaja, and casts Counter on himself to deter Shoot the Medic First tactics, while Excellus uses elemental spells to hit your party's weaknesses and trigger Session Attacks with Tsurugi. He's a Barrier Change Boss, so no-one is safe from having their weakness targeted, and his barrier change comes with a strong party-hitting Almighty spell. And when he gets below half HP, Excellus starts spamming Ma-dyne spells! He also attacks twice per turn and has a crapload of HP. Well...the last part can be easily corrected with a Magic Mirror but good luck reaching it first.
  • The Chapter 5 boss, Dark Tsurugi is even more annoying as not only does he have Yashiro's Counter skill, but he attacks four times in a row. If you can get him to consistently target Yashiro (with his counter ready), that'll alleviate your headache, but otherwise, prepare for this Evil Knockoff to potentially take down your entire party in one go.
  • Gangrel falls under this as well. His sessions with the three barbarians that assist and are summoned by him can be a Total Party Kill, since all three barbarians have the exact same speed.
    • A notable part of this fight in particular is that it's nearly impossible to avoid enemy sessions. This is because you only have four party members available at this point in the game and only one of them (Itsuki) isn't weak to any of the opponents' weapons. The barbarians can activate sessions against Tsubasa and Touma, while Gangrel himself can start them against Kiria. It's not unlikely to get overwhelmed and defeated right from the beginning of the fight because the enemies keep starting combos.
• That One Level: Chapter 3 presents a drastic jump in enemy strength, to the point where even on Easy it's not unusual to experience a full party wipe even if you'd experienced no great challenge in previous chapters. The boss is no exception. A huge Beef Gate accompanied by no less than three healers that spam Diarama and Mediarama, and who will intercept any attack not directed at himself.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Tsubasa's sister, Ayaha. Despite her kidnapping by mirages kickstarting Tsubasa's interest in becoming an idol, and thus indirectly leading to Tsubasa and Itsuki becoming mirage masters, once she's rescued she's kicked to the sidelines and no longer has any impact on the story.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • At the start of the game the player learns that Tsubasa was left traumatized by witnessing the effects of mirage activities, seeing people disappear right in front of her eyes. This plot point is done away with however by stating that she overcame it off-screen in the time between the opening and the start of the game.
  • Despite the amounts of potential storyline that the writers could write about Tsubasa's sister Ayaha after she's saved from being Aversa's underling for 5 years, she ends up basically forgotten for the most part, to the point that Tsubasa's side quest never involves her once.
  • Itsuki's virtually dragged into Fortuna Entertainment without any option of his own, which could have been used to give him some character depths with warming up to the others. Instead, his Reluctant Hero aspect is reduced to an Informed Attribute.
• Unexpected Character:
  • Safe to assume no one was expecting the generic bandit boss from the prologue of Awakening would appear in a big crossover/spin off title.
  • With Itsuki being a visual Expy of Marth and Chrom filling the Lord role, few expected the original Fire Emblem Lord to make an appearance.
• Values Dissonance:
  • One of the reasons why this game received so many changes in Western countries is because the idol industry can seem creepy towards western audiences. This is most notable in the Gravure modeling chapter, which was changed from modeling in bikinis to more regular outfits because many Westerners would almost certainly think that a half-naked high school girl posing for photos is much too Squicky.
  • Barry Goodman comes across as deeply disturbing to Western players. It's not culturally acceptable for a grown man to be that obsessed with the innocence of pubescent girls like Mamori in the USA, so he comes across as creepy rather than endearing. The fact that he's an American foreigner and is not restrained by the taboo makes it even worse to the western player base.
• Vanilla Protagonist: Like him or hate him, Itsuki is sure a much more down-to-earth, composed character compared to his quirky teammates. A few dialogue options can give him more character at times.
• Vindicated by History: With the drastically different theme, being on a niche console, the Wii U, as well as poor sales, the game was most certainly doomed to fade into obscurity. However, with its release on the Switch nearly four years later, as well as being featured in Fire Emblem Heroes as the mobile game's first Crossover event, a lot more people have given the game a try, giving it a noticeably better reputation. In any case, the game has also been a major case of Play the Game, Skip the Story as even detractors of the crossover being alienated by the surprise idol theme admit that it's very solid gameplay wise and even has echoes of Shin Megai Tensei's intense difficulty.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Say what you will about the game itself, but it definitely doesn't skimp on the visual department. Watch a compilation of all the characters' attacks, or a compilation of all the live performances in the game. to see for yourself. Even the dungeons and overworld itself is full of polish and a bright and lively aesthetic.
• Win Back the Crowd: A lot of detractors became more hopeful about the game when it was revealed the director of Radiant Historia would be directing it, and he posted a blog showing he was clearly very passionate about the Fire Emblem series. On-release, the game was found to be just as Nintendo Hard as both franchises it takes inspiration from, especially the bosses.

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