Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE feat. DJ MasterSeal (#1): the battle system

Today, Nintendo of America launched a video series for Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, with DJ MasterSeal explaining the various features of the game. In the first episode, DJ MasterSeal talks about the battle system, which is pretty unique compared to most modern RPGs.

First, he talks a bit about the Mirages themselves, and explain that they are “spirits attracted to human creative potential” (called Performa by “cool people”). The evil variant literally suck it out of humans, which is most definitely not a good thing. Fortuna Entertainment is a talent agency fighting against those evil Mirages.

Maiko Shimazaki is the president of that company, and she’s taken quite the interest into a group of 3 young people:

• Tsubasa Oribe
• Aoi Itsuki
• Touma Akagi

She will have them join a group of Mirage Masters, who harness the power of “good’ Mirages (by fusing with them) in order to fight the evil ones.  Those good Mirages are based on famous Fire Emblem characters, such as Chrom from Fire Emblem Awakening (who is Aoi Itsuk’s Mirage).

The Idolasphere is “a dark dimension with dungeons tied to media hotspots in Tokyo”. That’s where you will go to fight the evil Mirages and get rid of them. Of course, knowing everything there is to know about the battle system is required to make sure you’re not the one getting wiped by the evil Mirages.

The battle system (which is turn-based) takes elements from two series:

• Atlus RPGs (and more precisely the Shin Megami Tensei series), with the weakness system. Taking advantage of weaknesses does not only allow you to deal more damage, you can also get various bonuses;
• Fire Emblem: with the weapon triangle system (Sword > Axe > Lance > Sword > etc.)

What’s more, the Mirage Masters have their own strengths and weaknesses depending on the weapon equipped.

During battles, you can find the Action bar at the top of the screen. It displays the upcoming actions of both enemies and allies, which is something you need to check often in order to plan your attacks. You also need to pay special attention to enemy stats, in order to use specific attacks or skills at the right time. Talking of Skills, they’re Abilities learned from both weapons and Mirages.

As mentioned above, taking advantage of enemy weaknesses is one of the central elements of the battle system in Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE. In doing so, you will deal more damage, but you can also initiate a Session Attack (with other characters performing follow-up attacks).

Naturally, enemies can also do the same, and if you’re not careful, your entire party might get wiped out before you’ve even had the time to pick up your favorite swear words to throw at them. DJ MasterSeal recommends you use Skills that can hit several enemies at once, to get rid of them faster.

Finally, we have two types of Performances:

• Adlib Performances: those activate randomly, and are triggered by specific Skill conditions. They allow you to deal extra damage, and are pretty entertaining in themselves!
• Special Performances: special Skills which use SP. How to get SP? By taking actions and doing Session Attacks.

Here’s the first episode of “Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE feat. DJ MasterSeal”:

The next one will be about the Mirages themselves. In the mean time, you can check out the official gamepage/wesbite for the game by clicking here!

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE (Wii U) comes out on June 24th in Europe and North America.

Source: Nintendo