Daily Grind: The Best RPGs Of 2016

5) Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE

When fans first heard about the Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem crossover, I’m pretty sure exactly no one had this in mind. A game about high school-age Japanese idols who use Fire Emblem characters as Persona-like sources of power to stop evil from overrunning Tokyo? Uh, all right, if you say so. Some of my fellow game journalists’ reactions to this title’s insane, hyper-Japanese reveal at E3 2015 still make me laugh when I think about them.

And yet, in spite of all this, Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE proved to be the game a lot of us didn’t know we wanted — serving as one of two sources of magnificent Shin Megami Tensei relief in the agonizing wait for Persona 5 (more on the other source later). Adorable characters, fun dungeons and an addictively fast-paced and flashy combat system come together to form the defining JRPG experience on Wii U.

Oh yes. I went there, Xenoblade.