Gonna be honest. Far better than I expected. After the mixed feeling out of Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth's similar localization and arguable structure and this being the form that SMT x FE became, it actually ended up as a damn good game.
Combat is probably the best I've felt out of the SMT system. Legitimately challenging on a FAIR number of occasions; including the sporadic but always terrifying spawns of Savage Encounters. A bit... too rng based in Duo Arts for being something that is so huge fr your power. God DAMN I love Session Skills as a mechanic and hope it returns. Hell, the entire way that skills were handled in this game is how I PRAY we see in future SMT and Persona stuff... well, SMT5 and P6, given what we've seen out of Final and P5.
Few Fire Emblem mirage designs are ok. Most are honestly GREAT. One of your seven party members has a bad default costume and one has an attrocious one.
I really like the Side Story function, as... basic as it is, and how tied it is into the growth in and out of combat for your party members.
Requests NEEDED A WAY TO TRACK THEM IN-GAME. CHRIST THAT'S A HUGE BLUNDER.
The story honestly never strays too far from the Atlus style for an SMT Spinoff seen in things like Persona or Digital Devil Saga. But it's solid for the most part. Tsubasa's singing in chapter one and the T-R-A-I-N-W-R-E-C-K of Chapter 2 are the two sour spots there, and I'll get into the latter in a moment. But, as bad as it may have been played up near launch, "super saiyan marth" Itsuki and the Opera of Light were HELLA HYPE MOMENTS!
The Fire Emblem side, even with only using FE1/3/11/12 and 13. Did a DAMN good job with references, staying true, and having fun twists with characters. Had me dig out my copy of Shadow Dragon to double check some people they drug back to be bosses.
Honestly, with this, actually thought-provoking puzzles for dungeon navigation at times, and field skills to serve just about every adjustment you'd like... it works out so well.
And, what's been a BIT of an elephant in the room with this game has been over-blown complaints about Censorship. It's stupid. Mostly, it's edits to outfits to make them less revealing and in almost every case it feels like an improvement. There's ONE matter where this is a problem. Chapter 2. Originally, it involves Tsubasa's career pushing her to do a photo shoot, including some of it using a swimsuit which was in itself fairly revealing and her having justifiable axiety around it. In resolution, she puts that kind of fear behind her and accepts the inherent sexuality of feminine charm and damn well tries to own it. This line of photo shoots actually ends up being key to Maiko's backstory with not doing the last of its line before retiring being her one big regret. This all gets ruined when it stops being about, not swimsuits, but something.... provocative, something that can be put as empowering, something that is meant to become a symbol of womanhood. The damn hipster outfit looks stupid on Tsubasa, makes NO sense why she'd be uncomfortable wearing it for a photoshoot to that level, looks even MORE stupid on a woman in her 30s, and is absolutely brainless as to why said woman would long to wear something of that nature again for a photoshoot. GODS.
Also, the game opening and closin with a number of one-on-one focused scenes with characters.... honestly shows the great weakness of emotion showing with the models.
Overall, a damn solid rpg with the localization barely getting in the way. 7/10.
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