what bothers me most about smtxfe is what it's not. Its a game that has so much potential but is ruined by absolutely baffling theme decisions. Even the whole sorta-persona-but-with-almost-fire-emblem-characters could be good. But the whole idol thing? Why? and why are all the included fire emblem characters from akaenia/ylisse? but really. smtxfe should either be a fire emblem game in an smt setting, or an smt game in a fire emblem setting.
honestly, smt iv was much closer to fire emblem than GI#FE has been
i think the biggest issue was how they initially announced the project, tho
like, if that teaser way back in 2013 had said something along the lines of “atlus x intelligent systems” or even “atlus x fire emblem,” the final product would be much less jarring
but instead, they made a teaser trailer showing smt and fe characters and music, said nothing for over two years, then announced it as something that had little to do with either franchise (and even outright saying, “THAT’S RIGHT FOLKS, THIS IS THE LONG-AWAITED CROSSOVER BETWEEN FIRE EMBLEM AND THE SHIN MEGAMI TENSEI SERIES” after the new trailer to dispel any doubts)
if they didn’t know what sort of tone they were going to go for in the final project when they made the announcement teaser, they shouldn’t have used material from established franchises to set premature expectations
