I'm about to finish the game after 45 hours playing it. I didn't think I was gonna like it this much before buying it. So glad I supported it.
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Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore |OT| Becoming a Mirage Master is the First Step Towards Stardom
- Thread starter kuroneko0509
- Start date
I hope it at least hits 1 million, or whatever threshold there is for a sequel to be made.
Yea what if it was in a Fire Emblem fantasy setting but you get modern-day performas?
I've just finished Chapter 2 and thought I understood the Combat system but I got my ass handed to me from the previous Chapter boss and had to put it down to Easy then I got my ass handed to me again on fucking Easy at the Chapter 2 boss and had to put it down to 'Friendly' which seemingly only unlocks once you suck really bad.
Anything I'm missing here? Loving the game but the difficulty is kicking my ass!
Anything I'm missing here? Loving the game but the difficulty is kicking my ass!
If you haven't done so already, go and buy accessories from the Carabia store in Shibuya. This will increase your armor.
From what I can remember Kiria is pretty useful for the Chapter 2 boss as she can put enemies to sleep.
Also, are you getting sessions with every character on every turn?
Ah ok, yeah I've bought nothing from Carabia yet as I just assumed I'd get armour upgrades from the dungeons but haven't noticed any so far so that may well be what's severely lacking.
I was using Tsubasa, Kiria and Itsuki as my team (although switched Tsubasa for Touma when I was getting my ass kicked) and have used Kiria's sleep move previously but never really thought about using it in this fight as I was trying to go on the offence and use the multi-hit ice attack she has so I will definitely bare that in mind.
I'm getting sessions with more or less every character every turn when I'm in a dungeon but when encountering a boss or strong enemy or something then it's probably 2 characters out of the 3 that'll get a Session rather than all 3.
When a boss has little enemies with it it's usually a good idea to ignore them/status effect them with Kiria or an item and focus on the boss. Also I think Kiria's multi-hit ice attack is pretty bad and you shouldn't waste precious SP on it.
OP
OP
You can get Master Seals from the lottery? I've been spending all my Melmarks on posters and outfits for Tiki in Anzu.
OP
OP
Duo arts and Ad Libs really mixes things up so it doesn't feel so repetitive, I love it. Persona should incorporate something similar. I love that it's always a reference to some concert/movie a character performed in
There should def be a TMS 2.0, with much of the same themes (entertainment industry). Maybe add some variety and have like a socialite, or a star athlete filming a movie or something lol. I actually think the character interactions, gameplay, and presentation are strong enough to carry the game even with a lacklustre plot.
Also I just got the ability to break down walls, but most of the chests I encountered are unlockable. I only need 2 more master seals smh
There should def be a TMS 2.0, with much of the same themes (entertainment industry). Maybe add some variety and have like a socialite, or a star athlete filming a movie or something lol. I actually think the character interactions, gameplay, and presentation are strong enough to carry the game even with a lacklustre plot.
Also I just got the ability to break down walls, but most of the chests I encountered are unlockable. I only need 2 more master seals smh
Also only in chapter 5+. Don't waste your time before then.
love that it waits till the last boss to introduce a new status effect that you cant do shit but drop amrita sodas on
OP
OP
I finished it last night, my opinions (with minor spoilers):
I unexpectedly had lots of fun with this game. I usually can't stand JRPGs - the last one I finished was... Mother 5 years ago, I think, and it was painful. In the meantime, I tried Persona 3, various Mario RPGs and the Dragon Quest XIS demo and they all bored me to death for one reason or another (nothing against the games, really, simply the genre is not my cup of tea).
I enjoyed the way TMS streamlined lots of the genre's tropes and gameplay mechanics. The game drops you on a dungeon very soon, without long (and for me usually boring) introduction sequences. The micromanagement is reduced to weapons and armors. There's only one item shop and only one armor shop. The game is fast and wants you to spend most of the time with actual gameplay - I really liked this! (I should say I played the game on easy mode, which probably also helped to reduce the micromanaging)
The game really shines in dungeons and during battles. I dropped Persona 3 because the dungeons were always the same random-generated shit, but here they have an actual level design, and each of them has its own gimmick. In a way, it reminded me of Astral Chain, which also had a more sophisticated level design than your average action game, almost "Zelda-lite" (interesting both games were co-directed by Kaori Ando from Nintendo, who I suspect was involved with the level design). Sure, sometimes the gimmicks make exploring the dungeons a bit tedious (the TV screen dungeon is the main culprit here), but at least they have a lot of personality and I don't think any of them overstayed their welcome.
The battles were very addicting. Bashing an enemy with long sessions is incredibly satisfying, and so was figuring out the weakness of new enemies. The duo performance also adds a bit of real-time flavor to the BS - you have to decide how to attack the enemy, and you have to be fast! The pacing of the game also helped keeping the battles always interesting - at the beginning, it gives you new characters each new chapter, and once you've unlocked the last character you get access to the duo arts.
Gameplay-wise it's a shame they basically dropped the Persona social links, because they various game locations feel... very dull. In Persona the local café is an actual café and the local gym is an actual gym - you meet people there and you actually socialize. In TMS they are either window dressing for generic JRPG shops (the market, the jewelry, the costume shop), things you used only during the story sequences or side-stories but with no real input from you the player (the gym) or totally useless locations which had to be there because hey we are aping Persona (the café and the various small shops you can interact with). This might have been a consequence of the game effort to streamline everything, but in this case, unfortunately, it was done to its own detriment - Shibuya didn't feel very alive, which is probably against the point.
But my biggest complaint is with the story and the characters. Itsuki is probably the most bland main character ever appeared in a Nintendo game - he has no dreams, no flaws, no personality. He's a cardboard every girl in the cast falls for, and most of the other characters are walking stereotypes. The way the game idolizes (eh) the Japanese idol industry is incredibly wrong - the medieval fantasy setting of mainline Fire Emblem feels more anchored to reality than this. The game even acknowledges some serious issues, mostly in chapter 2 with the whole gravure idol affaire (ignoring the censorship here) or during Tsubasa and Kiria's sidestories, but at the end, it blames everything on the characters. The industry has no faults in asking a young person to appear almost naked on-camera or acting against their own self, it is the young person who has to grown-up. All of this is terribly wrong, really, and it's a shame Kiria and Tsubasa (and to a lesser extent Eleonora, with the bi-racial discrimination she has to suffer when not acting), the only interesting characters with something to say, had to appear in this story, instead of a more thought one. The relationship between Berry and Mamori is also really creepy. It's not that you can't make a JRPG rooted in the idol industry, rather, if you want to do it (which I think it's a good idea, btw - near the end the game moves from Tsubasa's personal issues to a more generic end-of-the-world plot, and it's far less interesting) you have to acknowledge how rotten the industry is.
All said, a very good 7.5/10 experience for me. For the sequel keep the BS, continue to give the dungeons their own gimmick, hire a good writer and give more personality to the game world and you'll have a modern-day classic.
Some other tidbits:
- Tiki=Waifu is a really nice character. A shame the game doesn't have interesting NPCs like her. She's probably in the autistic spectrum, and the way she's happily portraited at the end of Tiki's last side-story (when she meets Tiki) is really nice and it says more than the various "we are idols, we connect to people, we bring happiness" dialogues the game is full of.
- The game is at first framed as Tsubasa's story, then it becomes the generic end of the world thing. It's strange how Tsubasa's story is relegated to her side-quest and the EX story, de-facto providing two different climaxes. A bit of a mess structurally.
- Why does Kiria - and only Kiria - get an alternated costume for story sequences at the end? Not complaining, because she's obviously the best girl and if you think otherwise you're obviously very wrong, but it's strange.
- I didn't like the more traditional story at the end of the game, but the setting of the last dungeon was really nice visually. It's a shame other dungeons weren't this hybrid of modern-day and classic FE locations.
- The game story would have probably worked better without Awakening characters. Or maybe each Mirage should have been an Awakening character, leaving the FE1/3 characters for the ending.
I unexpectedly had lots of fun with this game. I usually can't stand JRPGs - the last one I finished was... Mother 5 years ago, I think, and it was painful. In the meantime, I tried Persona 3, various Mario RPGs and the Dragon Quest XIS demo and they all bored me to death for one reason or another (nothing against the games, really, simply the genre is not my cup of tea).
I enjoyed the way TMS streamlined lots of the genre's tropes and gameplay mechanics. The game drops you on a dungeon very soon, without long (and for me usually boring) introduction sequences. The micromanagement is reduced to weapons and armors. There's only one item shop and only one armor shop. The game is fast and wants you to spend most of the time with actual gameplay - I really liked this! (I should say I played the game on easy mode, which probably also helped to reduce the micromanaging)
The game really shines in dungeons and during battles. I dropped Persona 3 because the dungeons were always the same random-generated shit, but here they have an actual level design, and each of them has its own gimmick. In a way, it reminded me of Astral Chain, which also had a more sophisticated level design than your average action game, almost "Zelda-lite" (interesting both games were co-directed by Kaori Ando from Nintendo, who I suspect was involved with the level design). Sure, sometimes the gimmicks make exploring the dungeons a bit tedious (the TV screen dungeon is the main culprit here), but at least they have a lot of personality and I don't think any of them overstayed their welcome.
The battles were very addicting. Bashing an enemy with long sessions is incredibly satisfying, and so was figuring out the weakness of new enemies. The duo performance also adds a bit of real-time flavor to the BS - you have to decide how to attack the enemy, and you have to be fast! The pacing of the game also helped keeping the battles always interesting - at the beginning, it gives you new characters each new chapter, and once you've unlocked the last character you get access to the duo arts.
Gameplay-wise it's a shame they basically dropped the Persona social links, because they various game locations feel... very dull. In Persona the local café is an actual café and the local gym is an actual gym - you meet people there and you actually socialize. In TMS they are either window dressing for generic JRPG shops (the market, the jewelry, the costume shop), things you used only during the story sequences or side-stories but with no real input from you the player (the gym) or totally useless locations which had to be there because hey we are aping Persona (the café and the various small shops you can interact with). This might have been a consequence of the game effort to streamline everything, but in this case, unfortunately, it was done to its own detriment - Shibuya didn't feel very alive, which is probably against the point.
But my biggest complaint is with the story and the characters. Itsuki is probably the most bland main character ever appeared in a Nintendo game - he has no dreams, no flaws, no personality. He's a cardboard every girl in the cast falls for, and most of the other characters are walking stereotypes. The way the game idolizes (eh) the Japanese idol industry is incredibly wrong - the medieval fantasy setting of mainline Fire Emblem feels more anchored to reality than this. The game even acknowledges some serious issues, mostly in chapter 2 with the whole gravure idol affaire (ignoring the censorship here) or during Tsubasa and Kiria's sidestories, but at the end, it blames everything on the characters. The industry has no faults in asking a young person to appear almost naked on-camera or acting against their own self, it is the young person who has to grown-up. All of this is terribly wrong, really, and it's a shame Kiria and Tsubasa (and to a lesser extent Eleonora, with the bi-racial discrimination she has to suffer when not acting), the only interesting characters with something to say, had to appear in this story, instead of a more thought one. The relationship between Berry and Mamori is also really creepy. It's not that you can't make a JRPG rooted in the idol industry, rather, if you want to do it (which I think it's a good idea, btw - near the end the game moves from Tsubasa's personal issues to a more generic end-of-the-world plot, and it's far less interesting) you have to acknowledge how rotten the industry is.
All said, a very good 7.5/10 experience for me. For the sequel keep the BS, continue to give the dungeons their own gimmick, hire a good writer and give more personality to the game world and you'll have a modern-day classic.
Some other tidbits:
- Tiki=Waifu is a really nice character. A shame the game doesn't have interesting NPCs like her. She's probably in the autistic spectrum, and the way she's happily portraited at the end of Tiki's last side-story (when she meets Tiki) is really nice and it says more than the various "we are idols, we connect to people, we bring happiness" dialogues the game is full of.
- The game is at first framed as Tsubasa's story, then it becomes the generic end of the world thing. It's strange how Tsubasa's story is relegated to her side-quest and the EX story, de-facto providing two different climaxes. A bit of a mess structurally.
- Why does Kiria - and only Kiria - get an alternated costume for story sequences at the end? Not complaining, because she's obviously the best girl and if you think otherwise you're obviously very wrong, but it's strange.
- I didn't like the more traditional story at the end of the game, but the setting of the last dungeon was really nice visually. It's a shame other dungeons weren't this hybrid of modern-day and classic FE locations.
- The game story would have probably worked better without Awakening characters. Or maybe each Mirage should have been an Awakening character, leaving the FE1/3 characters for the ending.
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Finished my first run this weekend, the song before the final boss was cheesy lyric-wise, but as a FE fan it had me grinning for obvious reasons.
The final side quest for Tiki was really touching, teared up a bit near the end of it. That song was really nicely done for it also.
Really hoping they do a sequel, it was one of the few JRPGs released recently that I really enjoyed.
The final side quest for Tiki was really touching, teared up a bit near the end of it. That song was really nicely done for it also.
Really hoping they do a sequel, it was one of the few JRPGs released recently that I really enjoyed.
I agree and I had no trouble using FFWD so far and didn't miss a thing. Some things (side stories) I read a bit more slower, but in the end they are mostly useless fluff too. I still love Eleonora and Tsubara though.
One thing that I found about her normal clothes design is Kiria showing what seems to be her panties/thong since
1) This is a Nintendo game that got some changes from the japanese version (like the infamous "Vagina Bones")
2) I always thought that Japanese pop idols dressed up more like innocent young girls compared to western stars who definitely use sex appeal more
Yeah, that's fair. I'm not really worried about the perfoma. I'm more worried about the stars since those drop less. The better weapons need more stars.
You should really be cycling all your characters in and out depending on what enemies you're fighting, and their elements and weapon types. Mamori isn't going to be very helpful when you're up against a group of sword enemies, for example.
Yeah, you're right. I was just going to drop Tsubasa forever and rotate Eleanor in and out.
Just beat the third chapter on hard and the combat in this game is kicking my ass. I love it.
Too bad I couldn't care less about the characters or the story. But goddamn, the battle system is good enough to keep me going. It's like a combination of press turn and demon co-op from Strange Journey. They could transplant this system into a mainline game and it'd fit right in... dancing sequences and soda commercials aside.
Too bad I couldn't care less about the characters or the story. But goddamn, the battle system is good enough to keep me going. It's like a combination of press turn and demon co-op from Strange Journey. They could transplant this system into a mainline game and it'd fit right in... dancing sequences and soda commercials aside.
Are there any adequate write-ups/video breakdowns on the localization differences? I'm about to reach the infamous clothing swap scene in the gravure dungeon -- which, if I'm not mistaken, was the only scenario involving major alterations -- and I'd rather not resort to watching CensoredGaming bullshit.
(Not that I really care either way, mind -- been enjoying the game leisurely over the past month and was just curious.)
(Not that I really care either way, mind -- been enjoying the game leisurely over the past month and was just curious.)
I'm aware of what they generally are; I meant moreso, say, thorough comparisons between the US/JPN versions of the gravure scenario. (Again, preferably from sources not pandering to horny right-wing outrage.) Just curious, is all!
Basically, whenever you see anyone in their modelling clothes, imagine they're in a bikini instead.
Whenever someone says "Model" or "Modelling," mentally add the word "Bikini" in front of that.
It's the same scenario except instead of Tsubasa being nervous about modeling in general she's nervous about modeling in a bikini.
Yeah, I found the Kotaku article last night, ahaha. How embarrassing.
Guess I'll see for myself!
Whew. I focused on it all morning, but I finally beat the game today. My trophy wall in Fortuna has a surprising lack of awards for someone that finished the game, but oh well.
I really enjoyed the game all around and I would love to see a direct sequel, but I'm sure that unfortunately this is the last we'll see of them. :(
I really enjoyed the game all around and I would love to see a direct sequel, but I'm sure that unfortunately this is the last we'll see of them. :(
Persona 2: Eternal Punishment and Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse would be ones.