Game Complete - Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore

This game had been on my radar since it released. The ridiculous premise, flashy visuals, and that it was being developed by Atlus all piqued my interest. Unfortunately, it was released on the Wii U, a system I did not own, and didn't have a strong desire to own besides the novelty as its library didn't contain much that interested me (basically this, Xenoblade Chronicles X, and possibly Paper Mario if I wasn't counting the HD remakes of the two Zelda games). So, it was to my surprise and excitement when they announced that they would be re-releasing it on the Switch with some minor improvements. 

 

Plot: The premise of the game is rather absurd, you're just an average joe who gets sucked into an alternate dimension where you defeat monsters called Mirages who are trying to suck the Performa out of people. You are able to fight with the use of your own Mirages, which are actually Fire Emblem characters (I guess I wasn't able to really appreciate this aspect as I've only played one of the Fire Emblem games, and it didn't feature any of these characters). As the game goes on, you befriend other idols in different fields (singers, actors, show hosts) as well as get trained by an American ex-rock star. It's entertaining enough, but I felt the story was a bit shallow and lacked any real depth, just another 'save the world' trope in a different flavour. The game came off as a brighter Persona for the Nintendo, which isn’t a bad thing.

 

Gameplay: The game mechanics were simple enough to pick up and easy to master, especially if you're familiar with any Persona, SMT, or Fire Emblem games. It consists of a rock, paper, scissors style of strengths and weaknesses that are dependent on element, weapon type, or unit type (This was the Fire Emblem part). If you’re able to hit a weakness, you’ll execute a chain of attacks by your party members (initially with your active party, but as you progress your sub-cast will also be able to jump in). One QOL change with the Switch version was the ability to toggle chain attack animations on or off, greatly speeding up battles (While I enjoyed watching them at first, they really slowed down the game when you unlock the rest of the party). The challenge rating is pretty low, at least on the default difficulty, I never experienced anything particularly challenging besides attempting a quest that had a recommended difficulty that was 12 levels higher than my own or the ‘black Mirages’ which are buffed up versions of future enemies.

 

Characters: One sore spot I had for this game was some of the cast, namely the main character. He is essentially a supporting character and a vehicle for all the other characters to reach their potentials. He’s also rather dull, and for some reason all of the female cast seem to be smitten by him. That said, the other cast members grow throughout the game, provided you complete their side quests.

harsh, but fair.

However, some of the cast members are rather grating. The idol trainer, Barry Goodman, is just absolutely obnoxious and even kind of creepy over his obsession over Mamori who is supposed to be particularly young. I think it’s supposed to be like a big brother type thing, but it just feels weird. 

Yashiro is also just an arrogant asshole for the majority of the game, and even towards the end he’s just unlikable.

Typical...

My sentiments exactly

In terms of gameplay, there’s a pretty big disparity over which characters to use in the party. Aside from Itsuki, who you’re forced to use at all times, the only viable candidates are Touma (strong all around), Eleanora (extremely strong with the most powerful attack all skills), and Mamori (incredibly tough and reduces group damage by 10%. I just found Kiria’s magic was never strong enough compared to physical attacks, Tsubasa had rather middling stats that didn’t allow her to excel, and Yashiro came too late, and didn’t offer much over Itsuki while sharing the same weapon class. As a result, my main party basically remained Itsuki, Eleonora, and Mamori unless a side quest forced me to use another character.

 

Best girl Eleonora, mulched nearly everything in game.

Graphics: While graphics don’t make the game, I did find that the aside from garish colours, most of the graphics were rather bland. While the cutscenes had some great anime sequences, the in game graphics were rather poor with lackluster designs and really stiff movement from most of the characters, both main and NPCs, outside of battle.

 The costumes were a mixed bag. While most of the characters had awesome Mirage form designs (except for Kiria and Mamori, seriously both of these were just awful), nearly all of the alternate costumes were pretty lame – uninspired outfits from their various ‘fashion shots’ which looked out of place in battle, if not just awful in general. There were exceptions of course – Touma’s superhero costumes were fun to use because they looked battle appropriate, along with Kiria’s ‘Dominant Queen’ and Mamori’s ‘Three Houses’ costume. I think the greatest disappointment was that the class promotions were a missed opportunity to come up with another Mirage form for the characters that were more in tune with their Mirage’s new forms. I guess this complaint is definitely subjective, but I wanted something ‘cool’.

Sadly, the only decent costume for Tsubasa.

 Audio: The music is definitely the game’s strongest point. There were a lot of great J-Pop songs that I enjoyed, and the music video animation sequences were great as well. It makes sense considering the game revolves around the entertainment industry that these would be the points that received the most attention.

 The voice acting seemed well-acted as well. I never felt that it was too over the top (other than Barry) nor did it feel stilted. Admittedly I don’t understand Japanese very well so I may not be the best judge. I never really understood people’s complaints about the lack of English voiceovers. Personally, I loathe them because they’re generally poorly acted, and I hate the predilection for British accents which I find grating.

Final Score:  Overall, I would give this game a 6.5/10. The game was easy to pick up, had a unique plot and had some great moments, but the game was suffered from being linear, monotonous side quests, and a battle system that developed little from the beginning of the game.