Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE - The first hour

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I can only imagine that Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE (TMS) is quite a long game, and whilst I fully intend to give it a proper review, I thought it apt to share my initial experience with the game whilst it's still fresh in my mind. The following will be a brief summary of the first hour of TMS and my first impressions of the game. Spoilers lurk ahead so please beware if you intend to play the game completely blind.

After a delightfully bright opening cinematic, the game proper starts with our protagonist Itsuki Aoi stepping out of a lift and in to some sort of reception area for an event focused on pop stars and idols. It seems to be some sort of talent contest, specifically. The Wii U gamepad comes to life as Itsuki receives a Topic (a version of a text or Facebook message) from his friend Touma apologising for being late to meet him. Itsuki does however notice his long-time friend Tsubasa Oribe standing around in a huddle of people and decides to go and chat to her. At this point we are given control of Itsuki and we can now inspect our immediate surroundings.

The world of TMS is filled with bright colours, and most NPCs are brightly (block) coloured figures. NPCs that Itsuki can talk to are fully rendered, and each give a small piece of audio to go along with their on screen dialogue. All major characters seem to be fully voiced, but all voice acting is in Japanese. I walk Itsuki around speaking to various people and learning about where I am and what's going on bit by bit. A small girl mentions that she wants to be a star but her brother isn't convinced with it all. Two men discuss a virtual idol (the TMS version of a Vocaloid), and a cameraman stands by trying to get a good shot. we work our way around to Tsubasa for a quick chat with dialogue options before an announcement is made and she runs off stating that she has something important to do.

We decide to see what all of the fuss is about and head in to the next room, passing a large mirror on the way. As we pass it however, a ghostly figure in a red cloak appears to follow us for a second before vanishing. We now see a large crowd of the previously mentioned colourful NPCs and a stage before us, with four girls on and a plump man in a golden suit. He welcomes us to the One Of A Million talent search, in which one lucky girl will rise to stardom and have the chance to perform alongside one of the country's top idols. The man introduces each of the girls until he reaches the final contestant; none other than Tsubasa Oribe. The questions he ask start off fairly normal but quickly seem to become quite aggressive. He eventually reveals that he has some sort of otherworldly power, summons a number of the red cloaked ghosts and drains the life force (later revealed to be called Performa) from the crowd and three of the girls on stage. As the crowd fall and faint the colour dissipates from them and they are left motionless on the floor as nothing more than grey objects. The man takes Tsubasa through a portal behind him leaving Itsuki on his own. Before entering the portal I go back in to the lobby to find everyone has disappeared bar one of the chaps talking about the virtual idol; now laying on the floor moaning.

Through the other side of the portal lies a large, sprawling dystopian world filled with highways (possibly to hell) and particularly passive-aggressive Ferris Wheel. A maze of chequered pathways lays in front of us and a mysterious girl who looks suspiciously like the virtual idol tells us to follow her. We also get a Topic message from Touma who seems to know where we are and tells us to get out, quickly. We explore the dungeon (Idolaspehres in TMS) and after traversing winding pathways and lifts find ourselves being chased by one of the cloaked ghosts. We jump off a ledge and attempt to take refuge inside a building. Inside we find Tsubasa being held captive by another ghost, and the ghost chasing us has caught up too. Suddenly Itsuki's stomach begins to radiate light and a ball of energy appears (which he somehow knows how to use) and he quickly thrusts it in to the ghost. The balls changes the ghost and reveals it to be Chrom from the Fire Emblem series, who was under control of the man from before.

More ghosts appear and Chrom tells us to go and help Tsubasa. Tsubasa produces a ball too, after which Itsuki grabs it and thrusts it in to her captor. This ghost is revealed to be Caeda from Fire Emblem. The enemies surround the gang but Chrom and Caeda are prepared to fight. Itsuki and Tsubasa somehow also seem to know exactly what to do, as they yell out "Carnage form" and subsequently fuse with Chrom and Caeda respectively receiving magical abilities and weapons in the process. They also instantly know how to use all of their weapons and abilities. You could argue that they've inherited the skills from Chrom and Caeda, and they likely have as the word "Inheritance" is used in regards to levelling up. But as for knowing how to use the balls and Carnage Form instantly without any explanation seems like lazy writing. Hopefully this will be touched upon later in the game.

Battles are very similar to those you would find in Shin Megami Tensei games (Persona particularly) but with unit combo attacks found in the Fire Emblem franchise. You'll find the standard battle options such as attack, ability, guard, item etc in the menu. There are two major types of skills that you'll use to best your opponents in TMS; Command skills and Session skills. Command skills are standard skills you can use to perform various actions such as physical and magical attacks, healing and buffs. All offensive command skills will have a type; a weapon type for physical attacks and an elemental type for magical attacks. Enemies have resistances and weaknesses to different types and it's your job to figure out what by playing around with abilities and attacking. Session attacks are combo attacks performed by other party members that will trigger when you perform an attack of a certain type, which you can chain together to best take advantage of your enemy's weaknesses and inflict huge damage.

After dispatching the enemies Itsuki ventures out of the building to the next part of the Idolasphere and continues on in search of the man. Items are scattered around in capsules that when opened up resemble a star. Enemies will appear and you're able hit them with your sword and down them to either enter battle with an advantage or run past them. On our way, we also pass some mysterious gates which we are told we can not pass with the power we currently possess. We eventually approach another (far more sinister looking) building. Outside is a large green glowing orb that restores the health and mana of our party completely. Inside the building is the man, shocked to see Chrom and Caeda working with us, and he doesn't seem very happy about it and says he'll show us what he does to turncoats. He transforms into a ginormous armoured warrior, with his head and hands comically poking through the top of the helmet. Before he can make a move, Touma shows up seemingly out of nowhere on a flashy motorcycle and transforms ready to fight.

I really enjoyed my first hour with TMS. The character and enemy designs are great and the music is pretty good so far. The coloured NPCs can be a little distracting but I can understand the artistic choice and appreciate it somewhat. Most important however is that the game is actually really fun. I usually can't get to grips with JRPGs as they feel dull and simply don't interest me, as much as I want to like them, but TMS had me craving more as soon as I turned the game off, and I can't wait to get back to it and play through it in its entirety.

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