I'm one of those people who saw the "SMT x Fire Emblem" teaser back in the day and filled their heads with thoughts of how amazing a crossover between the two series could be, with the dark atmosphere of SMT mixed with the compelling heroes of FE.
...I only ended up playing it 4 years after release and what I imagined wasn't exactly what I got, but TMS #FE Encore is an example of how sometimes being proven wrong is okay.
I immediately assumed the idol premise wouldn't be for me when the game first released and avoided it, but since giving it a chance I was really pleasantly surprised. The battle system feels really satisfying, especially pulling off long combo attacks by striking weaknesses (kind of like 1 more in Persona and press turn in SMT, but more powerful when used smartly and when you have the right skills and teammates).
It's also cool to see "Mirage" forms of both recent and classic FE characters alike- And the promotion system from FE lets you choose the final form of your party members' Mirages. There's also a wide range of weapons, levelling them up gives you new skills etc.
The story is... All right. The idol stuff isn't really my cup of tea, but I kind of found myself enjoying it anyway. While some of the leading cast are kind of bland, they're generally pretty likeable (Except Ellie. All my homies hate Ellie). The side quests are really fun little stories and some of them are pretty humourous.
All in all a really fun JRPG. I'm glad I played it, but part of me does kind of wish the project dubbed SMT x Fire Emblem had been something more... Well, representative of how both franchises actually are.
...I only ended up playing it 4 years after release and what I imagined wasn't exactly what I got, but TMS #FE Encore is an example of how sometimes being proven wrong is okay.
I immediately assumed the idol premise wouldn't be for me when the game first released and avoided it, but since giving it a chance I was really pleasantly surprised. The battle system feels really satisfying, especially pulling off long combo attacks by striking weaknesses (kind of like 1 more in Persona and press turn in SMT, but more powerful when used smartly and when you have the right skills and teammates).
It's also cool to see "Mirage" forms of both recent and classic FE characters alike- And the promotion system from FE lets you choose the final form of your party members' Mirages. There's also a wide range of weapons, levelling them up gives you new skills etc.
The story is... All right. The idol stuff isn't really my cup of tea, but I kind of found myself enjoying it anyway. While some of the leading cast are kind of bland, they're generally pretty likeable (Except Ellie. All my homies hate Ellie). The side quests are really fun little stories and some of them are pretty humourous.
All in all a really fun JRPG. I'm glad I played it, but part of me does kind of wish the project dubbed SMT x Fire Emblem had been something more... Well, representative of how both franchises actually are.