When your video game leads into the final boss with a musical number where the characters sing "Fire Emblem," you've instantly got me.
Holy shit. What a game. I originally started this back in 2021 but fell off due to time and other stuff, but decided to come back to it to clear up my backlog a bit, and goddamn am I glad I did. It's a fun, lighthearted, funny game about the power of music and friendship and how that can push you forward despite how tough things might be, pull you from your darkest moments, and light the beacon forward for a brighter, better tomorrow.
It's also a game about meowing with cats, punching out the president because That's Hollywood(tm), catching an axe while wearing a dog costume, microwaving, and so much more.
Compared to other Atlus fare in a similar vein, it is a LOT more lighthearted, and I think it works best for that. The dramatic plot beats are very dramatic, but they primarily focus when you're in the Idolasphere (think this game's version of the Metaverse) and in the real world, the dramatic plot beats have to do with the struggles of moving forward in the entertainment industry, growing as a person in your chosen craft, and finding yourself. It's a great contrast that ultimately works very well both because of how they tend to be separate but also meld together. The Mirages (read: Personas) have some fun say and back and forths with their respective Mirage Masters that you don't ever get in something like Persona, that gives these long-time, well-known Fire Emblem characters some fun extra personality. Though I do feel a bit iffy on some of the choices (who was asking for VIRION of all characters???), I do like picks like Chrom as opposed to justr going with Marth, or Tharja for Kiria.
I think in this, though, is one of TMS's few failings for me: I understand they were going just with FE1 and Awakening, but I think it would've benefitted so much more from having a wider variety. A small complaint, but it is just one of the things that I would've liked to see changed. Louise from FE7 in place of Virion could've still provided that "noble looking to train a more brash young girl" idea for Ellie while being a character that, I dunno, people remember more? Like more? Again, that's just me.
I really like the dungeon designs, as they don't feel too overwhelming or too short, kind of a "juuuuuuuust right" situation. They usually have a fun gimmick with them and, aside from a few puzzles in the last dungeon that I had to look up a guide for in order to progress, I genuinely enjoyed them. For a game that's so much smaller (I think I hit close to 50 hours, and this was with grinding in order to get max stage rank and all the radiant skills for my characters), it really feels like they brought their A game in all aspects. Music, character design, environments, and especially the battle system, oh the battle system.
I think this battle system is my favorite battle system from Atlus. I think Sessions are a fun idea that take ideas from stuff like One Mores and Baton Passes in order to utilize your entire party, but without making it so simplistic of knocking down your enemy and then hitting an All Out Attack and walking away. The idea of planning out which enemy to attack in order to hit a long Session, see if it can continue into ANOTHER enemy to continue to do more damage, and sometimes get Duo Arts to chain that into ANOTHER Session is just, so satisfying, even if some of it may be random. It makes you think about party composition a lot more and how to best cover your range of skills in terms of buffs/debuffs and attacking skills so you have all your bases covered. Stuff like the ad-libs and the Special Performances have some great animations and also add great variety, and I think the Carnage system is fantastic. Affinities being determined by your weapon primarily and not by which Persona you have and their skills makes things a lot better, in my opinion, and you aren't stacking a bunch of null/evade skills onto your MC by the end of the game to make sure they're getting hit as little as possible. A limited skill set for both usable skills and passive skills makes you really think about how you want to evolve your characters over the course of the game, and the ramp up of skills and the ability to upgrade them to +1, +2, and so on makes it satisfying in terms of growth.
I will say though, upgrading healing/buff/debuff skills is so... wholly unsatisfying. With the exception of something like Makajamaon, which increases the chance it succeeds, upgrading a healing spell simply causes it to drop 1 EP in cost. So with a +3 Diarahan you're looking at around 28 EP or something as opposed to 30 something, and with the amount of skill experience required to do that feels kinda... bland. Even if it was just 3 or 4 EP per upgrade with a cap I think it would've felt a lot more satisfying, especially with how high of a cost your party-wide healing spells cost at the endgame compared to your total EP bars.
That's a small complaint though for a battle system and weapon system that kept me wholly entertained and occupied the whole time through, though!
I love all the characters, Tsubasa, Maiko, and Ellie in particular, as they felt really fun and had some fantastic throughlines for their side stories. I also came to adore Yashiro a lot more than I thought I would as the obligatory "edgy" sword boy. His growth was fantastic.
Itsuki on the other hand... while I like how he plays with some characters (Yashiro and Ellie in particular), he's so bland. How did Atlus make an MC that speaks but is so boring? I understand that's his point: he's there to be the "supporting cast" to his party members/friends who ARE members of the entertainment industry and are pretty damn spectacular, but I can't help but feel like the game would've been so much better served by starring Tsubasa. She's the main character, she's a fantastic, fun, and relatable character, and it really feels like a shame that we play as Itsuki when she's such a full, wonderful, charming character and is RIGHT THERE.
I will say though, the final chapter and the true ending in particular did a lot of heavy lifting for an otherwise very underwhelming, boring character.
Overall, I love this game, and I'm genuinely contemplating putting it on my list of top games. It's got a breezy length compared to other Atlus RPGs, but still feels substantial enough, and considering what they originally pitched SMT x FE as, I'm SO glad we got this silly, heartfelt idol game.
Atlus... TMS 2 when... I will give anything and everything for it...
Holy shit. What a game. I originally started this back in 2021 but fell off due to time and other stuff, but decided to come back to it to clear up my backlog a bit, and goddamn am I glad I did. It's a fun, lighthearted, funny game about the power of music and friendship and how that can push you forward despite how tough things might be, pull you from your darkest moments, and light the beacon forward for a brighter, better tomorrow.
It's also a game about meowing with cats, punching out the president because That's Hollywood(tm), catching an axe while wearing a dog costume, microwaving, and so much more.
Compared to other Atlus fare in a similar vein, it is a LOT more lighthearted, and I think it works best for that. The dramatic plot beats are very dramatic, but they primarily focus when you're in the Idolasphere (think this game's version of the Metaverse) and in the real world, the dramatic plot beats have to do with the struggles of moving forward in the entertainment industry, growing as a person in your chosen craft, and finding yourself. It's a great contrast that ultimately works very well both because of how they tend to be separate but also meld together. The Mirages (read: Personas) have some fun say and back and forths with their respective Mirage Masters that you don't ever get in something like Persona, that gives these long-time, well-known Fire Emblem characters some fun extra personality. Though I do feel a bit iffy on some of the choices (who was asking for VIRION of all characters???), I do like picks like Chrom as opposed to justr going with Marth, or Tharja for Kiria.
I think in this, though, is one of TMS's few failings for me: I understand they were going just with FE1 and Awakening, but I think it would've benefitted so much more from having a wider variety. A small complaint, but it is just one of the things that I would've liked to see changed. Louise from FE7 in place of Virion could've still provided that "noble looking to train a more brash young girl" idea for Ellie while being a character that, I dunno, people remember more? Like more? Again, that's just me.
I really like the dungeon designs, as they don't feel too overwhelming or too short, kind of a "juuuuuuuust right" situation. They usually have a fun gimmick with them and, aside from a few puzzles in the last dungeon that I had to look up a guide for in order to progress, I genuinely enjoyed them. For a game that's so much smaller (I think I hit close to 50 hours, and this was with grinding in order to get max stage rank and all the radiant skills for my characters), it really feels like they brought their A game in all aspects. Music, character design, environments, and especially the battle system, oh the battle system.
I think this battle system is my favorite battle system from Atlus. I think Sessions are a fun idea that take ideas from stuff like One Mores and Baton Passes in order to utilize your entire party, but without making it so simplistic of knocking down your enemy and then hitting an All Out Attack and walking away. The idea of planning out which enemy to attack in order to hit a long Session, see if it can continue into ANOTHER enemy to continue to do more damage, and sometimes get Duo Arts to chain that into ANOTHER Session is just, so satisfying, even if some of it may be random. It makes you think about party composition a lot more and how to best cover your range of skills in terms of buffs/debuffs and attacking skills so you have all your bases covered. Stuff like the ad-libs and the Special Performances have some great animations and also add great variety, and I think the Carnage system is fantastic. Affinities being determined by your weapon primarily and not by which Persona you have and their skills makes things a lot better, in my opinion, and you aren't stacking a bunch of null/evade skills onto your MC by the end of the game to make sure they're getting hit as little as possible. A limited skill set for both usable skills and passive skills makes you really think about how you want to evolve your characters over the course of the game, and the ramp up of skills and the ability to upgrade them to +1, +2, and so on makes it satisfying in terms of growth.
I will say though, upgrading healing/buff/debuff skills is so... wholly unsatisfying. With the exception of something like Makajamaon, which increases the chance it succeeds, upgrading a healing spell simply causes it to drop 1 EP in cost. So with a +3 Diarahan you're looking at around 28 EP or something as opposed to 30 something, and with the amount of skill experience required to do that feels kinda... bland. Even if it was just 3 or 4 EP per upgrade with a cap I think it would've felt a lot more satisfying, especially with how high of a cost your party-wide healing spells cost at the endgame compared to your total EP bars.
That's a small complaint though for a battle system and weapon system that kept me wholly entertained and occupied the whole time through, though!
I love all the characters, Tsubasa, Maiko, and Ellie in particular, as they felt really fun and had some fantastic throughlines for their side stories. I also came to adore Yashiro a lot more than I thought I would as the obligatory "edgy" sword boy. His growth was fantastic.
Itsuki on the other hand... while I like how he plays with some characters (Yashiro and Ellie in particular), he's so bland. How did Atlus make an MC that speaks but is so boring? I understand that's his point: he's there to be the "supporting cast" to his party members/friends who ARE members of the entertainment industry and are pretty damn spectacular, but I can't help but feel like the game would've been so much better served by starring Tsubasa. She's the main character, she's a fantastic, fun, and relatable character, and it really feels like a shame that we play as Itsuki when she's such a full, wonderful, charming character and is RIGHT THERE.
I will say though, the final chapter and the true ending in particular did a lot of heavy lifting for an otherwise very underwhelming, boring character.
Overall, I love this game, and I'm genuinely contemplating putting it on my list of top games. It's got a breezy length compared to other Atlus RPGs, but still feels substantial enough, and considering what they originally pitched SMT x FE as, I'm SO glad we got this silly, heartfelt idol game.
Atlus... TMS 2 when... I will give anything and everything for it...