LTTP: Tokyo Mirage Sessions - A few good ideas didn’t save this from being a slog

[Jawmuncher]

So after having bought this game at launch. I finally committed to beating it. Gotta say I was a bit let down. That's not to say the game was outright terrible or anything. But there was a lot of odd design choices I felt that hurt the game. Since most wont read a lengthy post. I'm gonna just list the good and bad in list form.

Bad
- Game is way too Grindy (Wanna get new weapons? You need to grind monster parts. Wanna keep your level even between all your characters? Better be switching between them a lot even if you don't need to)
- Game speed is slow (this game would've benefitted greatly from a 2x speed option or at least a fast forward option in battles like Persona 5
-Dungeon design wasn't good (I dreaded entering new dungeons or revisiting old ones. They weren't fun. They just felt like work.
- Social slink stuff was rather boring when it was cheap stuff such as "go to dungeon and find X thing or fight X boss"

Good
- The cast of characters was interesting
- The Game has a lot of style to it. Especially in presentation during battles.
- definitely a unique idea to have a JRPG based off idols

Neither Good nor Bad
- I expected more fire emblem than I got. But I under stand they were trying to go for their own thing that just had more of a fire emblem garnish to it.
- wasn't big on the fire emblem shadow designs. I know they didn't want to outright just copy and paste from their respective games. But I never got the vibe that any of my teammates were even from Fire Emblem.
-cliche anime story. I expected as much. But I had to roll my eyes by the end half that fully went cliche on basically any weak JRPG Story.

Overall the bad I listed first did a lot in impacting my enjoyment. So much so that I ended up buying the level up DLC 30 hours in because I was getting absolutely tired of the way the game was handling things. If this ever comes to the switch, I really hope they add a lot of QoL improvements. Having features like those in Bravely Default would help this tittle immensely. Despite taking me 45 hours to beat. It felt longer than the 90 hours I spent in Persona 5. Regardless I'm still interested in more titles under this umbrella so long as these criticisms are heard for any future title.
If you haven't played it yet. I don't see any reason in dusting off your wiiu to do so. But if it comes to switch with some improvements. I'd definitely keep an eye on it.

 

[Strings]

Completely agree with you, especially re: the dungeon gimmicks and battle speed.

Like, it's still a 'good' game (~7/10), but what a colossal letdown as a crossover.

 

[chusetto]

I love this game. I think the battle system is sensational, full of capabilities thanks to the multiple type of combos. And the Tiki from this game is DA BEST.

 

[casiopao]

I thought the dungeon design is actually really good. Especially compared to any other Atlus SMT series dungeon lol. Persona 3-4 and SMTIV had abysmal dungeon. At least this one had a lot of gimmick for us to solve.

 

[tiebreaker]

Mostly agree, but I like the dungeons :/

 

[flatearthpandas]

Speeding up sessions definitely would have been appreciated for sure. Disagree on the dungeons. Not excellent it anything but better than a vast majority of console rpgs recently.

Also, i saw this during direct threads going up and thought remaster had been announced. Now I'm sad

 

[Steiner]

Easily the worst major rpg from Atlus in decades.

It's like a Persona game, without anything what makes these series special among jrpgs.

The battle system is half decent, which is its strongest aspect.

Everything else ranges from terrible (characters,story), to generic (design, music).

Even the MC, who is, surprisingly for an Atlus game, voiced, still manages to have less of an interesting character than the mute Persona Protagonists.

 

[Sagely]

I enjoyed it and did most of the optional content, but sold it to a friend afterwards. Really liked the aesthetic and the premise, although I would have liked to see a bit more depth (at least as I remember, some interesting subjects were touched upon and not really examined in much detail). The overall length of the game was mercifully short but a speed-up option would definitely have been nice for sessions. Characters were...well...I don't remember much about them other than their problems. Itsuki was dull. Felt more like Persona than SMT, and I prefer SMT tonally.

I liked it well enough but didn't love it.

 

[Chief Malik]

SMTIV had abysmal dungeon.

Click to shrink...

Not true. Still IV barely had dungeons regardless. You actually explored Tokyo and I prefer that approach.

 

[Braaier]

I really liked it, but I can understand your reasons for being meh on it. I actually thought I would hate it with all the jpop crap, but some of the tunes were kinda catchy. heh heh

 

[Chief Malik]

I'm still petty and refuse to play this game. Maybe they'll port it to switch.

 

[Raysoul]

It's one of my favorite games. Finished the main game with all sidequest done.

Good
- Characters are charming. Tsubasa da best.
- Combat is better than most RPGs
- Graphics is on point and colorful
- Music is good

Meh
- Story is cliche.

Bad
- Censored version for US

 

[Deleted member 33533]

I really enjoyed it. I thought the dungeons were fun. I never really had to grind either. I just did stuff normally and switched weapons when one maxed out.

The battle system was a blast, I loved all the special attacks you could do and the sessions. The only thing I didn't like is that you had to use Itsuki in every battle. There were moments where someone would have his weakness and I had to scurry to protect him instead of just switching him out.

The game is colorful as hell, the cast is charming and it just oozes with style and fun. The music is amazing too. I think it's incredibly underrated, especially since it's not the game everyone expected.

 

[LiK]

Didn't really grind for anything. The only negative I had was backtracking in dungeons and some puzzles. Managed to gain new gear consistently from normal gameplay. I thought it was a pretty breezy experience.

 

[casiopao]

Not true. Still IV barely had dungeons regardless. You actually explored Tokyo and I prefer that approach.

Click to shrink...

I know many love to forget, how bad the final dungeon of SMT IV and SMT IV Apocalypse lol.

 

[Jawmuncher]

Didn't really grind for anything. The only negative I had was backtracking in dungeons and some puzzles. Managed to gain new gear consistently from normal gameplay. I thought it was a pretty breezy experience.

Click to shrink...

I was on the easiest difficulty and never had that experience at all. Though I think this just goes back to the speed of the game itself. The leveling ended getting very tiring especially when other teammates would gain an absolute fraction of the main team. Things really didn't get better until open audition opens up and that takes awhile for every character to get it.

 

[mrmickfran]

1000% agree on the dungeons. They were ass.

It didn't help that I to revisit them later on.

 

[ourghostsofwar]

I love the aesthetic and music but HATE the dungeons. Same problem with Persona 5.

 

[LiK]

I was on the easiest difficulty and never had that experience at all. Though I think this just goes back to the speed of the game itself. The leveling ended getting very tiring especially when other teammates would gain an absolute fraction of the main team. Things really didn't get better until open audition opens up and that takes awhile for every character to get it.

Click to shrink...

I played on Normal until final boss cuz that thing was brutal. Sorry to hear you didn't have a similar experience. One of my favorite games last year cuz I didn't play it until early 2017.

 

[logash]

I'll give you guys my LTTP once the switch version come out ;)

Spoiler

I can dream

 

[LinkStrikesBack]

The dungeons were miles better than the junk they had in P3/4, and were a clear large step towards what they did in P5, so I can't agree with disliking them.

The combat definitely needed an option to let you skip or fastforward the long sessions though.

 

[Deleted member 11413]

It's a good JRPG, but it's a bad crossover. It has hardly anything meaningful from Fire Emblem in it, which was kind of a huge bummer as a Fire Emblem fan.

 

[Cipher Peon]

The aesthetic is alright the other two positives you listed.
I hated every character and could not stand the idol stuff for a second. The only reason I picked it up, played, and beat it was because of its ties to SMT and Fire Emblem. If it didn't have either, I wouldn't have touched it at all.

Thought the game was miserable, and while the combat gets good with its encore system, its gameplay doesn't organically evolve which lead to me having to grind for hours after being stuck at the final boss.

 

[Marmoka]

The combat system was awesome. But the idols and waifu stuff was horrible.

 

[Man God]

I love this game and expected from what I heard to love P5 even more...now that title is the real Atlus disappointing slog.

 

[matrix-cat]

I quite liked the game, as someone who doesn't play JRPGs very often, but, yeah, it desperately needs an option to skip Session animations. By the end of the game when you have all your characters linked, every attack in every random battle becomes an opportunity to check your phone or something; even longer if you trigger an Ad-Lib, which then triggers another Session. It slows down the game terribly.

A Switch port with that option added (and the portability factor) would be a wonderful change.

 

[Divvy]

I also thought it was a slog but for completely opposite reasons as you OP. I actually really enjoyed the dungeon designs and found them to be better than persona's, but I found the vast of characters to be completely unrelatable and uninteresting. Still I enjoyed it overall but it could have been a lot better.

 

[mute]

Yeah I probably fall below the average line as far as how much I enjoyed the game. Battles were okay (just okay) but the dungeons and bosses I thought were great for the most part. Everything outside of that was pretty mediocre IMO.

Persona gets by with not having much of an explorable "world" outside of dungeons because of everything else going on in those games, #FE has a similar world layout, but none of the calendar/daily life/social link stuff to make up for it.

 

[Taruranto]

How does the game run on CEMU anyway? Did anyone try it?

 

[Drax]

I liked the dungeons.

But I thought inventory management was awful, and the fact that some sessions could get up to 19 times made normal gameplay tedious.

If this was to get ported to the Switch I would hope they fix those two issues (along with adding a new scenario).

 

[鬼作.]

The slow battles are its biggest sin. In every other aspect it's basically a dumbed down Persona game.

So yeah, not exactly Atlus shining at its brightest.

 

[MidiPour]

I would be more interested in this game if the characters were more recognizable, maybe I'll pick it up if I see it for a fair price at a brick and mortar store.

 

[Deleted member 13101]

So the ultimate question is...should it be brought over to the Switch?

Spoiler

Yes - and I have this for Wii U

 

[shan780]

i didnt like the combat system much
it felt like a discount SMT where you're restricted to only a few demons

i also thought the animations were too long. I'd definitely have appreciated a speed up option like in bravely default

 

[Deleted member 1088]

Yeah, the game was fun as a kind of experience, but it was too easy for me because of the combat mechanics/scaling to make the moment to moment stuff good. I liked the sidequests though, they were a fun way to explore more of the city.

 

[Sumio Mondo]

Hmmm, I found the characters really generic, OP. I also found the side quests really fun and really enjoyed the dungeons in this game. I also enjoyed the BGM, but not a big pop idol or slice of life anime fan so wasn't a big fan of those aspects. I liked how colourful the game is but people calling this an SMT must be joking, it's very much its own thing.

It's a good JRPG, but it's a bad crossover. It has hardly anything meaningful from Fire Emblem in it, which was kind of a huge bummer as a Fire Emblem fan.

Click to shrink...

Hmmm, felt the same way as an SMT fan, to be honest. The SMT aspects that were there were nice and all but weren't enough to scratch that SMT console itch that SMTV will bring. It very much felt like a new IP banking on the Fire Emblem and SMT names to me. Solid game overall since Atlus generally make good games but could have been so much more. The story really was as generic and forgettable as it gets.

 

[night814]

Only thing I don't like is the gamepad requirements. I need a switch remaster asap. I literally played this game all last year with 3 full playthroughs.

 

[Deleted member 11413]

Hmmm, I found the characters really generic, OP. I also found the side quests really fun and really enjoyed the dungeons in this game. I also enjoyed the BGM, but not a big pop idol or slice of life anime fan so wasn't a big fan of those aspects. I liked how colourful the game is but people calling this an SMT must be joking, it's very much its own thing.



Hmmm, felt the same way as an SMT fan, to be honest. The SMT aspects that were there were nice and all but weren't enough to scratch that SMT console itch that SMTV will bring. It very much felt like a new IP banking on the Fire Emblem and SMT names to me. Solid game overall since Atlus generally make good games but could have been so much more. The story really was as generic and forgettable as it gets.

Click to shrink...

Yup, the only SMT inspiration it had was from the Persona series, which is pretty far removed from SMT in the first place. Pretty weird when a crossover of two long, well-known franchises has practically 0 elements from either franchise, lol. It does have a great combat system though, colorful visuals, and good music.

 

[Sherlock]

I've just tried getting into this title and feels like a Persona game sans pretty much everything that makes them good and am dropping it after around 10 hours as its the epitome of sizzle with no steak for the multitude of reasons outlined in this thread.

Methinks people reviewed it well because it was on the Wii U and there wasn't exactly an abudance of AAA (heck AA or even A if you want to keep it all the way funky) titles to choose from and thus people latched onto it.

Waste of 20 bucks.