Comments on: Why Genei Ibun Roku #FE (SMT X FE) Is The JRPG Crossover We Need

By: Kaihaku

Kaihaku — Fri, 08 Jan 2016 02:02:00 +0000

Personally, I had hoped for something that merged the atmosphere of SMT4 and the character development of FE. Also, I love strategy RPGs so that would have been nice. In my opinion, the heavy handed idol elements and obvious crossover elements make this incredibly niche. Who were they making this for? Fans of SMT, Fire Emblem, and J-pop? I’ll still get this, I don’t often pass on an RPG – especially not on the Wii U – but I’m anticipating that this will rank low for me.

By: Alexis Goitia

Alexis Goitia — Thu, 22 Oct 2015 07:13:00 +0000

The problem people have with this crossover is not the way elements are mixed but the overall tone, the story and its elements are too vapid and superficial to accurately represent any of the things that supposedly inspired the game, save from the few references to much more lighthearted stuff like Splatoon or Super Mario that we already know are in there.
Fire Emblem is, at its core, political drama wrapped in a very thin covering of medieval fantasy, what is important in it is not the existence of pegasus knights or manaketes, but the ideological reasons why such units join or fight each other.
Shin Megami Tensei, on the other hand, is regularly set in modern times, but always deals with heavy themes like inevitability, sacrifice, chaos and the futility of idealism, usually through apocalyptic themes.
So far, everything Ibunroku and its defenders have provided as “evidence” that the game doesn’t betray either of these concepts is the minor ways in which FE gameplay ideas are adapted into Persona-like systems, which is entirely cosmetic and doesn’t have any impact on the story; and the very short glimpse of a panoramic view of a ruined Tokyo that we got in the first trailer, which could be any number of things other than a real event within the story, and even if it is then it’s just going to feel pretentious against the inane pop idol backdrop.
If they were going with such an angle the crossover should have been with all of Nintendo, since Nintendo is pretty much the definition of gaming candy, by choosing one of the most serious things Nintendo has produced and turning it into otaku-pandering they disrespect the ideals behind both the franchise and the company.
I like the idea of the game as the director put it, to use arts to link regular shitty humans with the godly characters of the Fire Emblem series, but that would require the use of a high concept tied to the fine arts, not pre-fabricated pop singers.

By: Xeon2

Xeon2 — Fri, 17 Jul 2015 02:16:00 +0000

In reply to reggiefilsaimeisready. But it apparently turned out that they already did that and both Atlus and Yamagami felt it was just an inferior FE. The goal then changed to create a game above the moniker of crossover, hence the seemingly jarring direction the project has taken. Plus the team's pedigree in story telling and dungeon design arguably surpasses the Persona team, consisting primarily of devs from Radiant Historia, SMT: Strange Journey and SMT 3: Nocturne. The game could go in a number of directions given the odd apocalypse scene from the first real trailer. Describing the various aspects of entertainment is still a very interesting topic, and still falls under the social commentary theme of SMT especially if you examine the lyrics of "Reincarnation"(which is actually the translation of Megami, I think).

By: Yoss

Yoss — Thu, 16 Jul 2015 13:43:00 +0000

The author really has no clue haha.

By: reggiefilsaimeisready

reggiefilsaimeisready — Thu, 16 Jul 2015 10:22:00 +0000

Jxjxj

By: GaryASwaby

GaryASwaby — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 08:59:00 +0000

This game does look really impressive.