A Little Bit About Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE

Sometimes you find that even when you're a part of a community, you can still feel alone or part of a smaller group of people. The video gaming community is probably larger than it has ever been. I mean the accessibility of gaming now encompasses not only PC and gaming consoles, but also mobile devices as well.

But even with the ever expanding community, there are still small groups of gamers that are isolated because of what types of games they like. Even though gaming is my passion, I still have my likes and dislikes. Those likes and dislike don't really jive with the majority of gaming community. Somehow, unless it's a Nintendo title, I don't really like the most popular games out there. I don't play Candy Crush Saga, I stopped playing Pokemon Go, I never got into Call of Duty or Battlefield. Growing up, I loved Japanese RPGs and to this day, I still do.

Remember the technicolor frog? Pepperidge Farm remembers...

While JRPGs were supreme during the SNES and Playstation era with titles like Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger, the genres has been in a declines ever since the PS2 days. There are a multitude of reasons why JRPGs became less and less popular. It can be attributed to the growing popularity in western RPGs like Elder Scrolls, Mass Effect and Fallout 3. It could be because JRPG tropes were over utilized and companies became complacent rehashing the same premise in each new game. With the declining fan base, the JRPG well has only been survived by a few major companies and the indie gaming scene.

But I still love me a good JRPG. They are long adventures  to invest into, but if they are done right they can feel like real adventures.

Just a photo of one of the good Mirages who help through out the game. 

I just finished up a very niche game just this past week. It was called Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE (TMSFE). The game is about a group of teenagers who get hired  by a talent agency to investigate erratic behavior of other talented actors and artists. Turns out that there is an energy called "Performa" that is in each and every person. Some people have more performa than others and some can even find hidden performa inside themselves. Massive amounts of performa can attract monsters (the monsters can be good or bad, btw) called "Mirages" who live in another dimension called the "Idolasphere." The main character, Itsuki, helps his friend Tsubasa climb the ranks of the Japanese entertainment industry which, in turn, help them  become stronger performers. The increase in strength allows you to investigate further into what is causing so many Mirages leaking out into the real world.

You only get to explore a handful of areas in Tokyo, but there's enough content packed in to keep you busy for dozens of hours.

The game is filled with animated music videos, skits and a good amount of Japanese fan service. The game also had some controversial censorship during the Western localization, changing more revealing outfits into more modest ones. Censorship really doesn't affect me as long as it doesn't cut playable content from the original game. TMSFE just had some dialogue and costume changes, so it was no issue for me.

TMSFE seems superficial on the surface, but the game has some great and addictive combat and the relationship between the characters have a lot of depth. Each character in your party have three side missions that get unlocked as you use them more and more in battle. These side missions have  characters conquer their fears and issues that prevent them from realizing their true potential as an actor or musician. And while each person seems to be more talented than the main character, he is the core of the group. It's a nice refreshing pace of the whole game; instead of the main character being the one with doing all the work, you're just the support unit that gets the rest of characters where they need to be.

And there is not a single bad character in this game. The main character, Itsuki, is the ever-patient and easy going source of common sense in the group. Itsuki will always do whatever his friends need and gives constantly throughout the game. Tsubasa is the shy girl who realizes her potential of her talent phase by phase. Touma, Itsuki's friend, learns about what it means to be a hero and to inspire others by perfecting his acting. Kiria is initially conflicted with her inner wants and the fear of being perceived as weak but learns to conquer those fears ad create music that plays to her cutesy desires as well as maintaining the image of being cool. Eleonora is a selfish actress who only cares about getting famous in Hollywood. But she slowly realizes the power of teamwork and friendship. Mamori is basically what I would call a "youtube sensation" with her microwaving show but ends up pursuing a path of music by showing everyone that she can do so much more than just one thing. And lastly Yashiro overcomes the pressure of being as good of an actor as his father by avenging him. All the cast members have so much depth that you dig into that by the end of the game you can help but care for them.


The game also has a very deep combat system too. All moves and skills are learned by the weapons equipped. Each weapon you come across in the game gives you either active skills, passive skills, or something called "session skills." All of which can be upgraded and customized. When you are able to hit the weak point of an enemy, you trigger a session where any character who has a session skill that is associated with your type of attack can join in on a combo. These sessions end up becoming quite long and trying to chain as many as possible can become addictive. Then there are duo arts that are unlocked through side quests. These are attacks two party members perform which allow you to continue your session while bestowing various buffs onto your party.

Not many people will know of TMSFE but I wanted to give it some exposure. It's a fun game with great characters and I personally loved every minute of it. The combat is fun, the story is corny and yet very endearing while the production value remains great throughout the entirety of the game. I'd recommend it to anyone who is interested in gaming and Japanese pop culture.