Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore: Everything you need to know

Nintendo keeps porting Wii U games to the Nintendo Switch, but that should surprise no one at this point. The Wii U's relatively small audience is overshadowed completely by the success of the Switch, but it means that many amazing titles went unnoticed on the older system. One of those titles, Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, was widely praised but not widely played.

That means it's getting an Encore, quite literally. The mash-up of Shin Megami Tensei and Fire Emblem is finally making its way to the Nintendo Switch to get a second lease on life on the far more popular system, along with a bit of extra content and the entirety of the Wii U's DLC content to bolster its revival.

Don't worry if you know nothing about Shin Megami Tensei, Fire Emblem, Tokyo Mirage Sessions, or any of it. If you have a Switch and are interested in magic, music, or RPGs, jump on in: we'll tell you everything you need to know.

What is Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE?

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE was a 2015 Wii U title that combined gameplay, story, and character ideas from two popular franchises: Shin Megami Tensei and Fire Embem. It follows a group of musically-inclined teenagers who encounter strange beings called "Mirages."Friendly Mirages, appearing as Fire Emblem characters, merge with the teenagers to combat the evil Mirages who are causing havoc.

Now, Nintendo is bringing an "Encore" version of the game to Nintendo Switch.

What is the story?

During a talent audition, a young man named Itsuki and a young woman named Tsubasa are forced into battle in a place called the Idolasphere when a strange, hostile creature, called a Mirage, attacks. In the Idolasphere, Itsuki and Tsubasa partner with Mirages called Chrom and Caeda to cleanse the Mirages and fight back against the incursion. As a result of the successful battle, they join up with Fortuna Entertainment to become better entertainers and more powerful fighters with their Mirages.

Throughout the game, the pair encounter other idols and their Mirage partners as Mirage attacks escalate. As Itsuki, it's your job to fight back against the Mirages and ally with more idols able to partner with friendly Mirages, all while helping out the other members of Fortuna Entertainment.

What do I need to know about Shin Megami Tensei or Fire Emblem?

Nothing! Though Shin Megami Tensei games inspired the gameplay and systems of Tokyo Mirage Sessions, there are no dramatic connections with that universe, and understanding it will not give you an advantage in this game. If you know Shin Megami Tensei, you will catch lots of references and in-jokes, but if you don't, you won't be perturbed by not understanding them.

For Fire Emblem, the connections are a bit more overt. The Mirages that the main casts partners with are all characters from different Fire Emblem games. However, a point of the game is that their memories have been wiped from their time in their respective Fire Emblem universes, so you don't need to know anything about who they are or where they're from except that they're cool magical swordspeople.

Essentially, you're good to walk into Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE with no prior knowledge of anything except what a Nintendo Switch is and how to operate it.

How do you play?

If you've played games with exploration and turn-based combat before, you'll feel immediately at home with Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE. The game is built around sections where you can wander around the real world in Tokyo, talk to characters, progress the story, purchase new items and equipment, and otherwise explore. The story will often bid you enter the Idolaspheres, which function as the game's dungeons. As you move through dungeons you'll need to activate switches and solve puzzles to progress, and you'll also see enemies in the world you can battle with when you make contact with them.

Battles feature turn-based combat where you can choose your party's actions including attacks, spells, and items. Special attacks called Session Attacks can be used by finding and exploiting an enemy's weakness, and result in chains of characters attacking the same enemy for free. Finally, a fillable meter gets you a Performance attack alongside a Mirage partner.

Though the battle system can be a bit complex, the intricate details are laid out for you in the beginning, and if you've played an RPG before, you'll likely pick up on what's happening pretty quickly. There's nothing wildly out of the ordinary here -- rather, what makes Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE unique is all in the musical presentation.

What's new in the Encore edition?

Several new pieces of content are in the Encore edition that were not available in the original Wii U release of the game. For one, all Wii U DLC content is available from the start, including extra dungeons and costumes. There are also a few quality of life adjustments, such as the ability to speed up Session attacks in battles (which take, uh, quite a while) and the addition of some secondary characters to Session attacks for a bit of extra flavor.

The biggest change is that several new bits of story content have been added in the form of "EX Stories," which add to the depth of some of the main party members. They're short, and they all take place in a dungeon called the Area of Aspiration, but it's worth getting this extra, new insight into the characters' worlds.

When can I get it?

Tokyo Mirage Sesions #FE Encore launched on the Nintendo Switch on January 17, 2019 and costs $60.