Nintendo Treehouse E3 Genei Ibun Roku #FE Gameplay

Nintendo Treehouse is the localization/production development division within the company and also is part of Nintendo’s E3 digital event where they showcase gameplay walkthroughs and behind-the-scenes interviews with developers for various Nintendo Wii U and 3DS titles. On day 2 of the Treehouse stream, producer Shinjiro Takada (Devil Survivor) joins Nintendo for a gameplay session of Genei Ibun Roku #FE (the # is pronounced “Sharp”), also known as Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem, which gave an in-depth look at the game’s city life and battles.

The game is described as a J-Pop RPG because of the role music plays in the game. Takada further explains that over the course of the story Shibuya will undergo changes depending on your actions. For example, if a character has a debut single, posters will be up in the city and the song will play in certain buildings. You can enter shops such as “HeeHawMart” a convenience store with store uniforms dressed like Jack Frost, the Shin Megami Tensei and Atlus mascot. Yakuza fans may appreciate that you can walk around the store before buying things. The shopkeep in HeeHawMart is an homage and bears likeness to Anna from Fire Emblem, who also plays a role as a merchant character. Various familar faces in Fire Emblem show up in some way in Genei Ibun Roku; it is fun to catch all the references if you played most of that series.

The objective early in the game is about Itsuki, the main character, meeting up with his friend Tsubasa, the heroine, to catch a concert she is begging to see together. The concert we see is impressive, it’s a fun CG cutscene. Takada mentions that all the J-Pop songs and dancing are done by professional songwriters and choreographers in the industry. The voice actors also sing their own songs.

We see the early moments of why Mirages, powerful beings from another dimension, travel to this world and how the main characters become involved in events that are unfolding. Mirages are attracted to and feed off of what is called “Performa”, which is a form of creative energy. Tsubasa has awakened her Performa within her while watching the concert and inspired her to become a singer herself. Everybody in Genei Ibun Roku #FE has some amount of Performa but only a few can see and use Performa in special ways. These type of people are called Mirage Masters. We see the effects of what these invading Mirages can do as they arrive, the cheery Shibuya scene becomes dark and creepy. Pedestrians are drained of their optimism and will to live from lack of Performa. What is ordinary and isn’t becomes off balance and these main characters deal with such incursions from another world. You start seeing characters undergo their transformation into their battle gear in in preparation to protect the world that is changing around them.

The first dungeon we see is based on the famous 109 Building in Shibuya and is a fashion center. The design gimmick of the dungeon features a fashion motif. We see the “good” mirages based on Fire Emblem characters (such as Chrom and Caeda) and they join up with Itsuki and his party thanks to their awakened Performa. They provide the characters with battle forms to help fight. For example, Itsuki is aided by Chrom and he can “cosplay” as him and take on his image with a sword. Enemies are visible on the maps and you can attack them to gain an edge in battle. Be careful, as enemies can charge as soon as they spot you. The dungeon shown features a puzzle to navigate further along where giant dresses on display act as bridges to reach higher floors.

The battle system is turn based. You may notice a timeline of the turn order found on the top of the screen. If you played the Grandia games, some basic ideas can apply to Genei Ibun Roku #FE. By attacking your foes in certain ways you can do things like delay them from taking their turn. This is new twist on the Press Turn system we’ve played in various Shin Megami Tensei and Persona games. The combat does feature Fire Emblem’s weapon system as well. For those unfamiliar with Fire Emblem, weapon types have a relationship with each other. A sword generally is weak against a lance but strong against an axe. Bows generally are neutral, but are strong against flying mounts such as a Pegasus Rider. The combat in general showcases Shin Megami Tensei’s knack for exploiting weaknesses.

You can perform a session attack in battle. When this happens party members can join together to combo attack. You can also make use of more elaborate Dual Arts, where characters team up for a special attack based on their friendship bonds for one another. Finally, each character can perform a Mirage attack, where they can use their Mirage to attack like a summon.

The last gameplay mechanic shown is the gamepad’s use as a cellphone. Various information about side quests and a map can be displayed. Another important feature is reading instant messages from your peers updated regularly.

You can watch the archived stream below. It is 44 minutes long.