Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE - Review

Tokyo Mirage Sessions had been pretty low on my radar until just before launch. I’d certainly been interested in the concept of a Shin Megami Tensei and Fire Emblem crossover project, but with both games being fairly strategy heavy and possibly overwhelming to newer players the idea seemed a little daunting to me. That and the fairly odd placement of the Japanese idol culture theme (which certainly will not resonate with western audiences as well) both quite put me off the idea. This was until I saw a chunk of gameplay from the Nintendo Treehouse event at E3 this year. Tokyo Mirage Sessions (or TMS) is a JRPG set in and around downtown Shibuya in a colourful, yet somewhat grounded anime style universe. The game released on June 24th 2016 and I paid £39.99. I did not finish the game in it’s entirety (for reasons I will discuss later) but I feel I have played a significant enough chunk of the game to form a critical opinion. As with many JRPGs, the majority of gameplay in TMS takes place inside dungeons, referred to as Idolaspheres in the game. Chapters have a fairly linear structure, starting with a small portion of exposition and then more or less plunging straight in to the dungeons. You can expect to make your way through several areas, take on a mini boss, go through another area or two and then go up against the final boss before leaving for a little more exposition. The game (at least on normal difficulty) doesn’t require a huge amount of grinding to progress through, so you’re not really in any dungeon for more than a couple of hours. Side-missions can flesh out the time however and some can be taken mid-chapter. They are a nice change of pace from dungeon exploration when they do crop up and help keep the game feeling fresh. Combat is probably one of the strongest elements in the game. Whilst slightly repetitive, it certainly feels rewarding. Mirages will roam around the dungeon map and (most) will start to chase you on sight. One touching you will initiate combat regularly, whilst sneaking up behind one and hitting it with your sword will give you a turn advantage. Itsuki (the main character) is locked to always be in your party but the other three members are interchangeable. Each character has a weapon type of either sword, spear, staff, bow or axe, with some of these being used by a couple of characters. Each character has a basic attack which deals damage of that specific weapon type, but also have special abilities that can deal extra weapon damage, elemental damage on top, or heal and mess around with status effects and buffs. Throughout the dungeon a meter will fill up over time which can be spent in battles to activate special abilities, again either dealing huge damage or healing and providing extra bonuses. They’re not really devastating as such, but can help give a much needed edge in harder fights. You’ll want to swap party members out to take on different enemy groups. Predicting exactly what you’ll encounter can be difficult as it semi-random but after spending enough time in an area you’ll quickly become familiar with Mirages and be able to make an educated guess. Each Mirage type has their own set of weaknesses and resistances. They’re a mystery on your first encounter and the best way to find out is simply by attacking them with different abilities. One Mirage may be weak to fire attacks but resistant to spears, whilst another may completely null sword attacks and repel any lightning damage. This really forces you to think before you attack and choose the correct party members to bring in to battle so that you’re best exploiting the enemy’s weaknesses. Be warned though, as each of your party members also has a set of weaknesses and such, and certain enemies can prove quickly fatal. Session attacks are the meat of combat and act as a sort of combo system. Characters have three types of abilities, their standard special abilities, passive (Radiant) abilities and their combo (Session) abilities. Sessions are strings of attacks that focus on one enemy at a time. They can only be triggered if other characters in your party have a Session skill that corresponds with the type of special attack you’re using. Session skills also have types of their own, allowing other session abilities to trigger off of them and create some really interesting combination attacks. For example, if I were to attack an enemy with a lightning strike, a Session ability with the properties lighting and bow would trigger, and then another one that shared either bow or lightning would trigger, and so on. You can get a passive skill that allows characters not in your party to join in with Sessions. Keep in mind though that Session attacks are just as susceptible to weaknesses, resistances and nulls as normal attacks and specials, so you need to be very careful when deciding what to attack with. Thankfully, you can see which Session abilities will trigger with each attack beforehand, but there’s almost a puzzle-like element trying to figure out the best way to make use of Sessions. There are also Ad-lib performances which can trigger at random when a character attacks. A small cut-scene plays and then the effect is applied. Options to guard, use items, run away and even switch party members mid-battle are also present and really add a lot of utility and an extra layer of depth to to the battle system. In other JRPGs I’ve found myself roaming around dungeons consisting of empty corridors and random battles with no enemies actually visible in the dungeon. TMS has neither of these issues. Idolaspheres are wildly coloured environments with plenty to see and do. Each Idolasphere is themed fantastically and caters directly to the themes present in each chapter. The challenge doesn’t just stop as surviving the onslaught of Mirages out to get you however, as many puzzle elements await. In one Idolasphere I was navigating different floors with mannequins and giant maid costumes, whilst another had me running around to help prepare actors for a TV show. Perhaps similar puzzle elements can be found in other JRPGs, but I seriously doubt many are quite as quirky as the ones in TMS. As we touched upon earlier, Mirages are represented by red cloaked figures that appear and vanish sporadically. There two special kinds of Mirages (that I encountered in my play-through) with special properties. Black cloaked ‘Savage’ enemies will be a much higher level and provide significant challenge to the party. Beating them will reward a higher level of experience and better item rewards. It should be noted that it is far more difficult to escape from battle with these enemies and if you don’t feel prepared your best bet is to run away on sight. There are also rare, golden cloaked mirages. Most attacks do nothing against these enemies and there’s often only one specific way to kill them, and it’s your job to figure it out. They don’t pose much threat to your party in terms of damage-dealing attacks but can apply some very nasty status effects. The worst part is that if you don’t kill the enemy quick enough, it will flee from battle, with all of your efforts going to waste. Rares will actually flee from you on sight, but don’t worry if you miss them as some rares seem to continuously re-spawn until battle is actually initiated. Killing them rewards specific materials required to make weapons not otherwise accessible. The Bloom Palace is a nice little area of the game where the player can make upgrades. Tucked away in the Fortuna Office, The Palace is one of the areas in the game that the Fire Emblem characters can physically manifest. There’s an altar at the back with an npc that allows you to make said upgrades, referred to as Unity in TMS. You can upgrade your party members with new passive abilities, acquire new forms for the Fire emblem characters, subsequently specialising them in a specific field and allowing access to unique abilities, and you can also create new weapons. There’s two different types of levelling in TMS. Each time a party member levels, they will merely gain stat boosts, but to gain new spells and abilities you must master different weapons. Once you equip a weapon, a bar will appear, and slowly fill up with battles. Progressing to different points will reward the player with new abilities. I actually really liked this style of going about it, as it forced me to switch weapons often and keep combat fresh. You can get the items needed for crafting these weapons by exploring Idolaspheres and slaying Mirages. Whilst side missions are available mid-chapter, whether it be from a character or simply a non-hostile Mirage in an Idolasphere, you’ll be doing most of your side-questing in intermissions. There’s an intermission in-between each major chapter which allows the game to slow down a little and for you to catch your breath. You’ll be able to go and meet different characters around Tokyo and start small story-lines ending in reward. The purpose of these quests is usually to let the player become more familiar with the characters in the game, and the actual missions more often than not require no actual combat. I found myself helping television extra Touma Akagi audition for a starring role by talking to girls in the street and in another instance helping Tsubasa Oribe find an infamous stray cat in order to learn how to attain a devilish charm. Some of the things you’re tasked with are really quite odd, but they are profusely enjoyable and the rewards are very much worth your efforts. You can expect exclusive passive abilities, new Ad-lib performances and new special attacks to be unlocked on completion of these quests. There are also smaller scale side-missions available, but they can often be completed whilst exploring and grinding experience. A lot of your time when not in an Idolaspehre will be spent exploring different areas of Tokyo. The map opens up gradually over the course of the game with new locations popping up on the map. To actually enter the Idolaspehres, you’ll have to travel to different locations. Some areas are as small as a box whilst others do their best to recreate famous areas of Tokyo, such as Shibuya and Harajuku, within reason and the limits of the game of course. You’ll find numerous shops and npcs littered throughout, and even a special Idolasphere that serves as a battle arena. Sometimes Mirages will invade a specific area, prompting a slight tweak in the art style with a wash out of bright colours and NPCs will become lethargic and less willing to co-operate. To say that in reality such a small change has been made, the atmosphere changes in a large way. The story is a tricky thing to discuss as there isn’t much of one. I stopped playing around 30 hours in to the game and barely any story details had been revealed. There wasn’t even really much of a set up going on. I’m sure that there’s some large scale revelation towards the end of the third act but you can’t help but lose interest when quite literally all you’re given is that there’s a bad person making all of these bad things happen and you’ve got to go and find them and stop them. That’s legitimately the extent of the story 30 hours in to the game. That’s a day and a quarter in real life. Even smaller, but still very important details such as how exactly Idolaspheres work, how the protagonists got their powers and suddenly knew how to use them and why Fire Emblem characters are running around this universe are all left completely unattended. These story elements are presented to us and we’re told to simply accept it. It’s either particularly lazy writing or a case in which all is revealed at the end, but the fact is that JRPGs simply are not suited to that style of story telling due to their lengthy nature. The player puts a lot in to the game but is barely rewarded. Characters can really make or break a JRPG. TMS has what at first seems to be a fairly unassuming cast, but fans of Japanese pop culture will quickly fall in love. The characters, at base value, are fairly archetypal examples of person in a given part of the entertainment industry. Kiria is the cool-headed pop-singer and Eleonora is the aspiring Hollywood actress. This is also how each of the characters are presented to us at first, but as more time is spent in-game, we begin to learn that this is really just a defensive shell put up to guard against the harsh eyes of the media, and I certainly found myself growing familiar and showing both sympathy and empathy to their issues. The characters are really well handled, but you need to sometimes suspend your disbelief a little and just lose yourself in the world to get the most enjoyment out them. There are a number of DLC packs available. They're mainly designed to to help boost you through the game, but they really aren’t necessary. There are three dungeon packs, one which focuses on helping to quickly boost your level, one that gives lots of items you need to get new weapons, and another filled with Savage Mirages. There are also a couple of costume packs. I didn’t buy any of the DLC packs, but as far as I can tell, one of the packs just grants you the costumes immediately whilst the over grants access to a side mission in which three of the girls take part in a fashion show, giving you the costumes at the end. I didn’t actually finish Tokyo Mirage Sessions. It’s not that I didn’t like the game or took particular issue with one of the features. It’s more that I didn’t feel it’s something I would want to rush through. I played 30 hours (far more than the entirety of many modern games) and didn’t see the end in sight. That took me to halfway through chapter 4. At that point it’s not as if there is a LOT more for the game to add in. Whilst other players have assured me that there is far more story content in the last two chapters, I don’t feel as though I should have to rush through what would probably add up close to 35 hours of content before seeing a proper narrative. The mechanics in the game are solid, and I can see how they take inspiration from both of the franchises featured in the crossover. With the quirk and charm of the characters and side missions added in, the game can certainly stand without a heavy narrative drive, which many other JRPGs can not, but that doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be one. Regardless, I still thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent with TMS. If you’re a fan of either one of the source materials, you owe it to yourself to at least give it a go. I will return to TMS at some point and finish it, and I’m sure I’ll enjoy it even more for having taken a break. I’d strongly recommend Tokyo Mirage Sessions, but just keep in mind the issues present when making a purchase. It’s certainly value for money, if nothing else. And it’s not as if there is nothing else about it.