Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE |OT| Do You Remember MegaTen?
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HawthorneKitty
Sgt. 2nd Class in the Creep Battalion, Waifu Wars
I don't mind since I've watched a lot of animes in the past.
At least most of it is just extremely repetitive. Yes Chrom, I know you gonna protect me bro. You don't have to tell me everytime it's isuki's turn to act in battle.
I didn't enjoy the opening hours of Shin Megami Tensai IV for 3DS at all and thus gave it away to a friend. I love Fire Emblem, Persona 3-4, Final Fantasy and non-idol / cutesy anime.
Is this game for me? I'm waiting for a Giant Bomb quicklook but I'm dying to pull the trigger.
Is this game for me? I'm waiting for a Giant Bomb quicklook but I'm dying to pull the trigger.
HawthorneKitty
Sgt. 2nd Class in the Creep Battalion, Waifu Wars
Damn there could have been a keikaku doori moment, what a waste.
Damn, Anna is sly, getting Itsuki's Topic ID
Damn, Anna is sly, getting Itsuki's Topic ID
Gamer @ Heart
Member
My biggest complaint so far: what the fuck where they thinking with the boss in this side story. I get stuck in an infinite loop of revive and deaths because the enemy only target one specific character if she is up, and she is needed to allow me to me to Charm and do any damage. But any revive puts her next action in the following round, which means she is dead again. Now I have to just reload and reload until I get a starting round with all 3 characters first.
Edit, I just remembered the reflect items. Please let it save me from this madness
Edit, I just remembered the reflect items. Please let it save me from this madness
Just looking over the FE characters in the game, it's a weird mix. It's not really a "best of" for the series nor is it just the archetypes from the first game. Instead the selection comes from exactly two games which each had extremely different perspectives on what a Fire Emblem character should be.
mullet2000
Member
I noticed that in my first few hours with the game, yeah. It's mostly in battles where I assume they're just throwing random "I fight for my friends" lines out there, but still.
This game is much more Persona/SMT than it is Fire Emblem, you'll be totally comfortable jumping in.
I really don't think it's a weird mix at all. Awakening takes place in the same world as Archanaea (as does Gaiden and technically depending upon sources Jugdral), and they're by far the most successful games that were released (IF was still in development at the time)
A lot of Awakening's popularity is that its so referential to 1/3/11/12; Lucina is 100% a genderbent Marth; they have Tiki in both games, amongst many other references. And hell FE12, was the first game to introduce the playable avatar as well.
They struggled picking famous archers from both of the games (tbh IF/Fates probably has the most famous archer in the series now), and while I think Draug is probably the most famous armor knight ( I don't consider the black knight to be one). It's not really a popular class.
The problem is that it's not just the standard lines that are unsubbed, but everything else from unique, contextual battle lines (between characters in a story specific sequence, unique lines based on every status effect a character gets, duo performances, ad-libs, etc.) to ambient dialogue (something a character will say in the background, what the characters say during fusions or promotions, etc.).
It's a shame.
mullet2000
Member
Yeahhh that is a bummer. Background dialogue is tough - I get why someone would decide not to sub that due to too many subtitles filling the screen - but the battle/promotions/fusions dialogue is a shame. They could have found an unobtrusive way to do those, I feel.
HawthorneKitty
Sgt. 2nd Class in the Creep Battalion, Waifu Wars
Huh, you get play records for each class change so I guess I'll go the unwanted one first.
I think the pacing for the sub-session skills is very clever, as Tsubasa, Kiria and Touma get theirs first, essentially sign posting "Hey, you should use Eleonara and Mamori!" who, being your newest characters, will need a bit of work at that point to get them to where the other characters are at
texasairhead101
Member
Really hate how you either have to mash the a button to get past some dialogue or press x and have a text box accidentally skip forward.
Play records? As in just using them for the achievements?
Bumbletron
Member
I love that Joseph Joestar voices Chrom. SO. MUCH.
Just beat the prologue today (doing it on hard because I'm used to SMT system games by this point. I really love the session system, and the music is amazing. I think I'm really going to enjoy this.
Just beat the prologue today (doing it on hard because I'm used to SMT system games by this point. I really love the session system, and the music is amazing. I think I'm really going to enjoy this.
HawthorneKitty
Sgt. 2nd Class in the Creep Battalion, Waifu Wars
Well I want the Carnages too, I just have a mind to which one I want to see in the end.
Tyrant Rave
Banned
If you have buffs and debuffs make use of them. My team was Tsubasa and Kiria and to start it off I did Fang Breaker with Itsuki to lower the boss's attack, Sukukaja with Tsubasa, Sukunda with Kiria, and then Rakukaja with Itsuki. This made it so he rarely hit me and his attacks did significantly less in case he did.
Of course... It wasn't so easy since he still hit like a truck and luck wasn't on my side, but it still worked very well. If you can keep up the rhythm it's the way to go.
Yeah definitely. Very cool mechanic.
EndlessSky
Member
Are Ad-lib performances triggered only by certain skill, or any skill? For example when the 4th character triggered theirs with an ice skill, it showed an ice symbol next to the ad-lib name; does that mean it can only be triggered by ice skills? And if so, then is there anywhere to see how each one is triggered?
There are specific trigger requirements; you can check them for that ad-lib in a character's skill list.
EndlessSky
Member
I see. Well, ch 2's mini boss was made a whole lot easier when I got 3 ad-lib's; 2 of them being in a row lol.
Yeah so essentially I realized that my armor was still 10 on Itsuki because I had never changed his default accessories. So I ended up just buying an accessory which triple his armor to like 28 and it was much easier. I beat it on the first try after that. Still was challenging though.
Random Chapter 2 thoughts
- It's pretty cute when Itsuki falls asleep that he says Tsubasa's name
- Touma's face when he saw Maiko's photobook was pretty damn funny
- I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting that outfit Tsubasa was wearing right before the boss battle
- Ellie seems like she's gonna be an interesting character.
- Touma's face when he saw Maiko's photobook was pretty damn funny
- I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting that outfit Tsubasa was wearing right before the boss battle
- Ellie seems like she's gonna be an interesting character.
I'm pretty sure they don't. The +1 for debuff/buffs doesn't even boost the effectiveness, just reduce the EP cost.
Well it's Shin Megami Tensei
These games are always a bit harder than normal JRPGs imo.EndlessSky
Member
I do greatly dislike how we can't witch out Itsuki. He is starting to pull away from the rest of the group level-wise and it is bothering me greatly.
Yeah I somehow constantly forget that, so when i'm moving to my next turn and think "oh i can switch now" and remember i'm on itsuki i'm like "fuck!"
HawthorneKitty
Sgt. 2nd Class in the Creep Battalion, Waifu Wars
Fuck, with this + stuff, there is officially too much to do.
I'm only about half way through Chapter 4 and the session system is starting to get tiresome. There is potential for some finesse with orchestrating overkills to bypass resistances but they go on for far too long. It takes the normally speedy sleek combat of SMT games and turns each action into a bloated shitty cutscene. It's just messy. Not to mention the game actually seems to stall when queueing up attacks, but that's a larger issue of loading dragging down the experience.
I admit that I don't fully understand the mechanics, like how it prioritizes follow ups or overkill targets but it's getting the point where I seriously consider not doing sessions, forgoing all the benefits simply because I don't want to watch it. It's a shame because even small things like not showing hits on dead enemies (but still doing it behind the scenes) would go a long way to keeping the valuable depth the system offers without making it a chore.
I admit that I don't fully understand the mechanics, like how it prioritizes follow ups or overkill targets but it's getting the point where I seriously consider not doing sessions, forgoing all the benefits simply because I don't want to watch it. It's a shame because even small things like not showing hits on dead enemies (but still doing it behind the scenes) would go a long way to keeping the valuable depth the system offers without making it a chore.
Toadthemushroom
Member
The third sub-boss can kindly throw itself into the nearest bin.
So I was originally having a hard time due to my characters equipping weapons which were weak to Zan attacks. But even after doing that, Itsuki is eternally weak to spear attacks because of the Fire Emblem weapon triangle and the fixed weapons per character.
So in every single battle, where I begin the first round by using three buffs (one to raise defense, one to raise our party's hit + evade, one to decrease the enemy party's hit + evade), Itsuki still gets targeted by the Pegasus Knight, resulting in taking four attacks.
---
Otherwise I'm not too sure what to make of this game. It's good, for sure, but the gameplay loop seems mostly compelling because you're constantly levelling up items and skills, which is fine, since the dungeons are hand-crafted rather than randomly generated, but the pacing just isn't as great as, say, modern Persona.
Modern Persona gives you a calendar system to emphasise time management, and there's always something to do to chill out during a dungeon, whether it be chatting to NPCs or the odd side quest. TMS just doesn't offer this, side stories are too substantial to feel like you're chilling out, or they aren't plentiful enough, and there's little else to do outside of dungeons other than go back to craft more Unity skills.
The difficulty spikes are at odds with the game's progression, too. It's great to learn new skills and pick and choose between weapons to craft, but because the main difficulty of the game lies in the bosses you tend to stumble into a roadblock every 2-3 hours or so, and it's usually because you lack a certain skill from one of your weapons. It's a roadblock that you wouldn't have been able to foresee, or suitably tackle without some extra grinding.
So I was originally having a hard time due to my characters equipping weapons which were weak to Zan attacks. But even after doing that, Itsuki is eternally weak to spear attacks because of the Fire Emblem weapon triangle and the fixed weapons per character.
So in every single battle, where I begin the first round by using three buffs (one to raise defense, one to raise our party's hit + evade, one to decrease the enemy party's hit + evade), Itsuki still gets targeted by the Pegasus Knight, resulting in taking four attacks.
---
Otherwise I'm not too sure what to make of this game. It's good, for sure, but the gameplay loop seems mostly compelling because you're constantly levelling up items and skills, which is fine, since the dungeons are hand-crafted rather than randomly generated, but the pacing just isn't as great as, say, modern Persona.
Modern Persona gives you a calendar system to emphasise time management, and there's always something to do to chill out during a dungeon, whether it be chatting to NPCs or the odd side quest. TMS just doesn't offer this, side stories are too substantial to feel like you're chilling out, or they aren't plentiful enough, and there's little else to do outside of dungeons other than go back to craft more Unity skills.
The difficulty spikes are at odds with the game's progression, too. It's great to learn new skills and pick and choose between weapons to craft, but because the main difficulty of the game lies in the bosses you tend to stumble into a roadblock every 2-3 hours or so, and it's usually because you lack a certain skill from one of your weapons. It's a roadblock that you wouldn't have been able to foresee, or suitably tackle without some extra grinding.
Incitemaybe
Member
Eleanora sure is insufferable but also much of her first side quest is pretty funny, especially some of those texts 
Wait, so are multi-target magic attacks like mazio actually decent now?
Normally I don't like them 'cause eventually enemy teams are bound to have at least one member that can null/reflect the element.
But in this game it seems like you can actually "aim" them and still get sessions anyways?
Are they actually better now than single-target spells?
Normally I don't like them 'cause eventually enemy teams are bound to have at least one member that can null/reflect the element.
But in this game it seems like you can actually "aim" them and still get sessions anyways?
Are they actually better now than single-target spells?
Yes, you can actually choose which enemy you want to "aim" your multi-attack skill at & if you choose the right one, it'll do a session on them.
At first I thought you couldn't session of them so they weren't as useful compared to Persona 3/4 but now that I know that you CAN, they're rather useful now.
At first I thought you couldn't session of them so they weren't as useful compared to Persona 3/4 but now that I know that you CAN, they're rather useful now.
Persona 3 and FES for the PS2 didn't grant additional turns on multi skills as well if there was one target that didn't get knocked down, only the Turn Press SMTs and Persona 4/Persona 3 Portable did.
With that said though that is great to know, I was wondering why occasionally it sessioned and occasionally it did not. I figured it was actually correlated to the amount of weak targets hit, so it's great to know you just need to hit one to session.
I've been reading back on the Treehouse footage thread from last year's E3 (largely because I've just beaten the boss I recall describing as the "Most casual boss ever" from that stream)
Something else I'd forgotten I'd said:
Other little amusing tidbits from there.
Well, you were half-right!
Lot of talk about worry that the battle transitions and animations getting annoying, but in real play they tend to be for special occasions only. That's worked out okay.
Something else I'd forgotten I'd said:
From playing the real game, now, I'm still getting that impression - more than a hint of silliness, but played entirely sincerely and all the better for it.
Other little amusing tidbits from there.
Well, you were half-right!
Prescience!
Lot of talk about worry that the battle transitions and animations getting annoying, but in real play they tend to be for special occasions only. That's worked out okay.
I just skip them if I have seen them already.
By waiting on Star Ocean. Review thread looks pretty rough so I wouldn't be surprised if you got a better deal on it by the time you are done with Tokyo Mirage Sessions.
That is to say I have no idea how good or bad of a game it is, I just think it'll drop in price faster than TMS due to the unflattering reviews.
Try tapping B instead.
truestatic
Member
So the no audio through headphone jack thing is a real pain in the ass, cuz I play on a monitor. I dug out my Wii cables and am now waiting for an RCA to 3.5mm converter. At least it was cheap, but from china shit won't be here til the end of the month. Kind of a pain in the ass. Audio to headphone jack shouldn't even be a game by game feature. If something's plugged into the jack, it should be universal that all audio is directed to the gamepad. Stupidest little thoughtless oversight.
HawthorneKitty
Sgt. 2nd Class in the Creep Battalion, Waifu Wars
There are icons next to their HP thingy; they get more transparent as they run out.