In a mobile free-to-play gacha game like Fire Emblem Heroes, where medieval swordsmen and girls who transform into feline beasts alike wear outfits like kimonos to celebrate the holidays, nothing should seem strange. Yet it's undoubtedly strange to see five idol characters from the modern-day world of Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE join the ever-growing cast as a promotion for their game's enhanced port.
Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore will be released for the Nintendo Switch on January 17. It's a bizarre crossover between Atlus' Shin Megami Tensei series (most popularly known for the Persona games, with a spin-off in Persona 5 Scramble coming soon) and Intelligent System's RPG series in which teenagers from modern Tokyo team up with "Mirage" characters inspired by Fire Emblem to become pop idols and defeat monsters from another dimension.
Fire Emblem Heroes has a history of releasing banners with characters a player can summon using in-game currency called orbs that are meant to advertise upcoming releases. It has done so for Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia and Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and now Tokyo Mirage will have its run with the "A Star Is Born" banner starting on January 19, 2020 at 11:00 p.m. PT.
The four characters available to summon are Eleonora (with Virion from Fire Emblem: Awakening), Kiria (with Tharja from Fire Emblem: Awakening), Mamori (with Draug from Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light), and Tsubasa (with Caeda from Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light). Tokyo Mirage's main protagonist, Itsuki, will also be made available through a Tempest Trials event soon.
Unlike Duo Heroes with unique mechanics that have been released in Fire Emblem Heroes over the last few months, the Mirage characters accompanying these new units are purely aesthetic and referenced in weapon names (such as Eleonora's "Mirage Longbow"). In a way they're similar to the ability-granting stands from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
Since the enhanced port was announced last September, Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore has been met with excitement from fans who wanted to see the game ported off of the Wii U where it first released in 2015, as well as skepticism from those who would rather the North American version not be censored like the original.
Regardless of how people feel about the Switch port, it's generally exciting to see it get this much play in Intelligent System's mobile juggernaut. Its last spin-off crossover game with Koei Tecmo's Dynasty Warriors series, Fire Emblem Warriors, saw an event in Heroes but not the release of its unique lord characters Rowan and Lianna as summonable units.
Fans of Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE will have to wait until Sunday to test their luck at summoning these pop idol representatives. In the meantime, players can still get their tactical RPG fix with the highly-acclaimed Fire Emblem: Three Houses for a discount at Walmart.
Fire Emblem Heroes is available now on iOS and Android mobile devices.