Did you play/like TMS?

[DarkDestr0yer61]

I'm kind of curious. I was wondering who on SF actually played the game and if they liked it or not.

[Slumber]

The sheer disappointment I had when I saw that the "Fire Emblem JRPG made by the studio behind SMT and Persona" was effectively an idol RPG with Persona-lite aesthetics has kept me from playing it. I probably won't ever play it, unless Nintendo ports it to the Switch. And even then I'd wait 5 years for the price to go down.

[Nobody]

Played it and loved it. As someone who is a fan of both Fire Emblem and SMT, I was really disappointed with how it looked when it was first announced, but after getting into Persona with 5 (another series that I had many prejudices about), I thought "well, why not?", played it with an open mind and ended up enjoying it a lot.

[Armagon]

TMS, along with many other great Wii U games, were sadly out of my reach due to a lack of Wii U. I do understand it's a heavily underrated game though and it's one of my two most wanted games to get a Switch port, the other being Xenoblade X.

[Von Ithipathachai]

I played it, but dropped it around Chapter 3 as a result of getting sidetracked by other things and have no plans in the near future to pick it back up.

[eclipse]

Saw the trailer, and decided that this game was going to be epic (whether or not "failure" was appended remained to be seen).  Modern entertainment and FE didn't seem like it would work, so the final product would either be a trainwreck or amazing.

Luckily, it was the latter.  Story was alright, gameplay was fantastic.

[carefreejules]

The game was really enjoyable for me because I'm a huge fan of J-pop in general and the gameplay was really fun. But if you're someone who isn't that big on J-pop or idols and are just looking to play it because it has SMT and Fire Emblem influences, this probably isn't going to be your cup of tea.

Edited January 11, 2018 by carefreejules

[Jave]

The only reason this game is not my favorite Wii U game is because Splatoon exists. Played it to completion and absolutely loved it. The colorful aesthetics, the amazing cast, the captivating gameplay, and lots of little details that added a lot to the experience, make this game a must if you're an RPG fan.

Really wish a Switch port happens. I would totally double dip and maybe the game could have a better shot if it's on a more accesible system. This series definitely doesn't deserve to die so soon.

[Jotari]

Just resumed a playthrough today (after taking a very long break to play Breath of the Wild). Really, really, really not invested in the story, but the gameplay is decent enough to keep me around for awhile at least. The difficulty is good, as is to be expected from Shin Megami Tensei.

[Baron the Shining Blade]

I played it, and I really enjoyed it. Almost enough to cite it as my favorite FE, except Warriors was on its way in half a year. ':)

Having gone into it as an FE fan with little knowledge of SMT or Persona, I was rather immersed in both the gameplay and story. Yes, the J-Pop and performing arts motif used throughout were an acquired taste, but if you can get over that you will have a good time. I loved the concept of the main characters having FE companions and transforming into FE-styled "Carnage Forms" (try and tell me that Itsuki's Carnage Form doesn't resemble Marth. I bet you it was intentional). The RPG gameplay was easy to grasp, having only lost one or two fights before realizing what to do when it came to (de)buffs. As a willing grinder, I did all but Kiria's side quests, and the reward of extra moves such as Ad Lib Performances made it very worthwhile. Let me just say that Mamori Minamoto is best armor. Forget Amelia, this little girl surprised me more at how well she performed (pardon the pun XD ) as an armor unit. Once you get her, use her! Do her side quests. She gets no Ad Libs, but instead she gets extremely useful Special Performances that revive and fully heal your party or protect you from status ailments. She's so good, she's nearly broken imho (made the final boss much easier to deal with, that's for sure). The bunny-themed Carnage Form wasn't my cup of tea, but aside from that, Mamori again is best armor.

Again, great game. If I ever get my sister to play it, I think she'd really enjoy it since she took drama class in high school. Made me appreciate the performing arts even more.

Edited January 11, 2018 by Baron the Shining Blade

[Interdimensional Observer]

Story- mash A through it. And skip all the musical scenes. It isn't anything unique, nor anything terribly bad, just very cliched and simple.

Characters- don't take them too seriously or pay too much attention to their sidequest stories and they're okay. (But the Tiki=Waifu sidequest was awful.) Taken lightly, it ain't so bad, Barry is a little creepy, but the rest are perfectly bearable. Why I even skim into liking some of the silliness of the stuff in this game.

Music- good standard battle theme, felt the boss theme was a little too understated. The rest was fine to pleasant. 

Gameplay- the entire reason to play. If Sessions could be sped up and Itsuki swapped out, it'd be better, but as is it is solid enough to be very enjoyable. Pretty much typical SMT faire with FE touches such as making the "Physical elements" Sword, Lance, Axe, Bow instead of just Phys and Gun. I like SMT so I liked the gameplay, and the dungeons had a good bit of complexity, length, and light puzzle elements. There are nitpicks, but every game has them.

Aesthetics- I have Touma in my sig, what more need be said? While some outfits are a little eh (Kiria and Tsubasa's Carnage forms), I like the flash and style overall. Mamori might take a little time to grow on you, but its a good outfit. The selection of alternative costumes is pretty good, and Touma is no. 1 followed by Yashiro. The various weapons have good designs, and the Mirages mostly look awesome (Dark Knight Cain being one of the few weak ones). Conquerer Chrom is my absolute favorite here, I wish the real Chrom could be remotely as cool. Battle animations are great, and Duo Arts, Special Performances and Ad Libs are satisfactorily filled with flair.

I'd consider doing a Lunatic run with a fight against the superboss, but from what I've heard, I'd almost need to buy DLC for easy stat incense farming to handle that.

[EricaofRenais]

The music and gameplay are great.  I decided to buy TMS because I watched the trailers and the gameplay looked good, I was right.  TMS is my top Wii U game and in my top 10 all time favorites.  

[Lau]

When it was first announced that we were getting a SMT x FE crossover, I was hyped. I knew nothing about SMT, but if it was mixed with FE, I'd buy it. When the first trailer came out, I was...stumped. The art was great, but it wasn't what I was expecting. But, I gave it the benefit of a doubt. I remember thinking to myself, I love J-pop and anime, and of course, FE, so, let's give it a shot.

But the more I kept hearing about it, the more my interest began to wane. Eventually, I had no intentions to play it. Then, I heard about the reviews. They were mostly good, so I decided to go out on a limb, and purchase it.

...It was beautiful. Truly, one of the best games I've ever played.

It was such an interesting concept, and seeing best girl Caeda like that was great. The graphics were so vibrant, and the amount of attention they paid to Shibuya was just astounding. The story was barebones, but the characters made up for it with Touma and Ellie being the standouts. The music was fantastic, and the fact that Itsuki was voiced by Ryohei Kimura, who voices Kise Ryouta from KnB, made it even better. The gameplay was my first taste of dungeon-crawling outside of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, and I loved it. The puzzles were challenging, and the dungeons were gorgeous.

Overall, a 10/10 from me. If it gets ported to the Switch, I won't hesitate to buy it again.

[Michelaar]

I think the main reason a lot of people dislike it is because it's mostly a crossover in name only. A JRPG with SMT skill names and Fire emblem characters. But if you look at it as just it's own thing, it's actually a great JRPG. I loved it a lot. The music is absolutely wonderful too!

[Quintessence]

I played it and I loved it. At first, I was reluctant with how they showcased it with all lords and other SMT characters (which I know zero about) and later on they present us 'another game'. However, the gameplay looked promising and I gave it a try. The music, aesthetics and gameplay were amazing. My favorite tracks are Under the Moon, The Labyrinth, Give Me!, among others. Would hope for a Switch port all day everyday.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Info on Persona 5 was sparse, and I went media blackout on the game regardless, so this was a good way to pass the time. I certainly don't love the game, and only recommend it as a curiosity when it comes to people not into JRPGs. I think the Fire Emblem aspects, the few that exist, are really quite terrible. But I also think whoever decided Tiki ought to be a vocaloid deserves a raise, that's comedic gold. It's easier to think of the game as SMT, and I'm happy to have finished it given my poor track record of completing such long games.

[Xero560]

I dropped it shortly after it came out, but finally went back a few months ago and completed it over the course of like 2 months. I think the game starts to drag quite a bit early on since all the narrative is pretty much disconnected from the gameplay. I still really wanted to finish it though since I'm a huge fan of these devs and find the game pretty damn stylin'. I played on hard and decided to try not using items as they seemed really strong with things like phys/mag reflect available from the beginning, and I knew the arena banned them from the little I played after release. What stood out to me the most was how interesting each boss fight was throughout the game, and the classes (and abilities) of party members you get, as well as some of the random encounters (although these get old p fast due to the grindy nature of SMT games). I find the battle system pretty interesting on it's own, but also since it seems similar to Persona 5's tag out, like they were trying to find a way to keep the whole party active, and this was an earlier design they came up with. You can probably get even more out if it through the arena, but I'm done for now. The SP system does a good job of encouraging offense, but only late in the game when you can build it much more quickly. I think it's really interesting how many chance-like events can happen, so it encourages you to just keep popping certain abilities to trigger them, which can completely reverse the momentum of a battle, but you also have powerful reliable abilities ready with SP. I'm really glad I finished it, and I found the final stretch of the game much more interesting and rewarding as an FE fan. I think it's a hard recommendation however. If you want to play this game, you know you want to play it. But yeah, I played it and really liked it.

[Logjam]

On 1/10/2018 at 7:40 PM, Von Ithipathachai said:

I played it, but dropped it around Chapter 3 as a result of getting sidetracked by other things and have no plans in the near future to pick it back up.

This for sure. It's definitely enjoyable and I'd like to finish it. I love the SMT series and obviously Fire Emblem as well, but it's very time consuming and requires me to sit down on a weekend and commit at least an hour or three to make any real sort of progress.

 

On 1/11/2018 at 12:15 PM, Michelaar said:

I think the main reason a lot of people dislike it is because it's mostly a crossover in name only. A JRPG with SMT skill names and Fire emblem characters. But if you look at it as just it's own thing, it's actually a great JRPG. I loved it a lot. The music is absolutely wonderful too!

This too. Calling it a crossover is a little weird, it just felt like a SMT game but instead of demons/personas you have Fire Emblem characters. Definitely solid gameplay and soundtrack, I think the pacing could have been a little faster. The difficulty also felt strange with bosses; random encounters weren't too bad, but some bosses required a full team buff to survive a multi-target OHKO (don't quote me on that, it's been a while).

[Michelaar]

7 hours ago, Logjam said:

This for sure. It's definitely enjoyable and I'd like to finish it. I love the SMT series and obviously Fire Emblem as well, but it's very time consuming and requires me to sit down on a weekend and commit at least an hour or three to make any real sort of progress.

 

This too. Calling it a crossover is a little weird, it just felt like a SMT game but instead of demons/personas you have Fire Emblem characters. Definitely solid gameplay and soundtrack, I think the pacing could have been a little faster. The difficulty also felt strange with bosses; random encounters weren't too bad, but some bosses required a full team buff to survive a multi-target OHKO (don't quote me on that, it's been a while).

I don't think I have ever had issues with that.

[Jotari]

I'm finding the bossess to be a massive jump up from the regular enemies. I feell ike I've overlevelled too much against the ordinary enemies by the end of the dungeon, taking most of them out in one round. But then the bosses come in and mop the floor with me. But I like that in an rpg. The bosses aren't something you're gauranteed to beat and something you actually have to think about how to engage safely.

[Thane]

I don't have a Wii U, so no. However, even if I did, I wouldn't have purchased it. While I'm sure the combat is stellar, everything else was simply not for me. I watched a walkthrough and didn't care about any of the characters, the story, and the very premise, setting and aesthetics didn't appeal to me in the slightest.

[Interdimensional Observer]

8 hours ago, Michelaar said:

I don't think I have ever had issues with that.

I ran into some nasty situations with the Chapter 2 boss, who you just don't have enough flexibility for at the time. The Chapter 4 boss is also very strong once it gets down to 1/2 to 1/3 of its remaining HP and enters the all out Ma-dyne mode. If you can survive its initial assault when it switches over (and luck out against the other baddie) and get some Magic Mirrors up, you'll win, but surviving the transition isn't assured. The Chapter 5 boss was a giant headache for me, although I didn't realize killing the clones would reduce the main one's HP and curtail their number of actions.

[Jotari]

I find it weird that they gave you two lance users from the start, but waited until like chapter four to give you an axe user.

[Interdimensional Observer]

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

I find it weird that they gave you two lance users from the start, but waited until like chapter four to give you an axe user.

And even when Mamori showed up, I probably used her the least, or less than everyone but Tsubasa (earlygame you use her, but three weaknesses, poor Str, and Kiria also getting Zan and Touma on Lance, hinders her later on). She is slow and has small issues Sessioning with her Axe skills because only Itsuki gets a Axe-El/Ex Session Skill. Axe coverage is useful on Cavs, but Wyverns and Pegs are inherently always weak to Force and Bow elements, her Ice coverage is her primary use. I rarely used her SP skills for healing because although they're very useful, I generally conserved my SP too much. Taunt and that covering allies skill were also a bit to luck based for me to rely on.

On the boss front, Mamori is gimped by Itsuki always being in the main party and thus bosses rarely using Lances. Instead for Chapter 4, we have a boss who sometimes uses Fire, accompanied by a powerful foe who always uses Sword. Then the next boss heavy uses Sword and has three allies to Session off of so Mamori is dead if she isn't always defending. The final boss then uses Fire and sometimes a Sword attack, and it even has the ability to Session off itself.

I found myself much more reliant on Yashiro's Counter for defensive purposes, and isn't he mandatory for his 3rd Sidequest and Chapter 5 boss battles?

For standard battles, I tried most often to lead with Yashiro and Eleanora, since they're both fast and I can always swap them out if I need someone else. If I can strike heavily before the foes do, I'll take much less damage and don't need Mamori's heals or tanking. Savages when i decided to fight them relied on me waiting for a non-Itsuki character to get the mercy first turn, and then swapping in Kiria for a Pastel Power to cripple them.

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

And even when Mamori showed up, I probably used her the least, or less than everyone but Tsubasa (earlygame you use her, but three weaknesses, poor Str, and Kiria also getting Zan and Touma on Lance, hinders her later on). She is slow and has small issues Sessioning with her Axe skills because only Itsuki gets a Axe-El/Ex Session Skill. Axe coverage is useful on Cavs, but Wyverns and Pegs are inherently always weak to Force and Bow elements, her Ice coverage is her primary use. I rarely used her SP skills for healing because although they're very useful, I generally conserved my SP too much. Taunt and that covering allies skill were also a bit to luck based for me to rely on.

On the boss front, Mamori is gimped by Itsuki always being in the main party and thus bosses rarely using Lances. Instead for Chapter 4, we have a boss who sometimes uses Fire, accompanied by a powerful foe who always uses Sword. Then the next boss heavy uses Sword and has three allies to Session off of so Mamori is dead if she isn't always defending. The final boss then uses Fire and sometimes a Sword attack, and it even has the ability to Session off itself.

I found myself much more reliant on Yashiro's Counter for defensive purposes, and isn't he mandatory for his 3rd Sidequest and Chapter 5 boss battles?

For standard battles, I tried most often to lead with Yashiro and Eleanora, since they're both fast and I can always swap them out if I need someone else. If I can strike heavily before the foes do, I'll take much less damage and don't need Mamori's heals or tanking. Savages when i decided to fight them relied on me waiting for a non-Itsuki character to get the mercy first turn, and then swapping in Kiria for a Pastel Power to cripple them.

I find it really limiting that Itsuki always needs to be in your active party. He's the best fighter, but there's still times where I'd rather fight with three different characters. There's not much plot reason for it either, plenty of games let the protagonist be in the sub cast when you can change party members mid battle.