Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE thread

[Gredler]

I am considering buying this game, it's pricey for my typical gaming budget, but the reviews are glowing and media opinions seem to point at it being up my alley.


I still have a halfie for the idea of Wii U JRPGs (I don't own a Vita, but probably should get one since those are my most played genre) I've gotten somewhat burned out on Xenoblade Chronicles X - I just could not build affinity and kinda felt meh about it for a few months, so I am seriously considering picking this up at MSRP.


I certainly consider a lot of your views to be inline with my own so I would love to hear peoples opinion on the game if you played it. I've never played a Persona/Shin Megami Tensei game, but I've really loved the fire emblem games, and would like to transition into the SMT/P games at one point, so I am thinking maybe this is a good entry point for me.


I would consider myself a casual JRPG player since I rarely finish the games or exploit the systems and rock end game, I just enjoy their gameplay pace and the typically very japanese design sensibilities, so I am thinking this game might be a perfect time waster for me to fall asleep to after a long days work.


Also, I am not a huge J/K Pop fan, not knowing any bands or anything about it really, but danm this has been on loop for a bit while I research the game, and it alone kinda makes me want the game

[xcrement5x]

I looked at it and it seems like it could be decent.  It seems to have a lot of gameplay aspects lifted from Persona 3/4 which my wife and I enjoyed, but I've not picked it up because I plenty of other things to play, plus the really weird censoring for seemingly innocuous things (like bikinis) kind of put me off.

[Digi.k]

it's decent game overall the story gets a bit silly but overall it works.  Story has an interesting twist regarding the jpop idol but it is of a decent quality the anime cut scenes are very well done and seems to be up there with some of the best modern day anime stuff.

It makes decent use of the wii u pad too but I find the text on the wii u very small.  Unlike some games where you can just play on the wii u pad You have to play this game with the TV on.

[Gredler]

I decided to try it and ordered a copy today.

I looked at it and it seems like it could be decent.  It seems to have a lot of gameplay aspects lifted from Persona 3/4 which my wife and I enjoyed, but I've not picked it up because I plenty of other things to play, plus the really weird censoring for seemingly innocuous things (like bikinis) kind of put me off.

I hadn't heard about the censorship, I wonder what changed all changed - time for some googling, but is it nsfw?

it's decent game overall the story gets a bit silly but overall it works.  Story has an interesting twist regarding the jpop idol but it is of a decent quality the anime cut scenes are very well done and seems to be up there with some of the best modern day anime stuff.

It makes decent use of the wii u pad too but I find the text on the wii u very small.  Unlike some games where you can just play on the wii u pad You have to play this game with the TV on.

Danm that's a bummer, half of the playability of wii u for me is being able to share the TV with my lady, so  that sucks to hear it requires both screens - I hope they make good use of that requirement.

Sad to hear yet another wii u game with tiny font - xenoblade had this issue too. It makes me wonder if the developers are testing text legibility from various distances, seems like an oversight to me.

[Digi.k]

Danm that's a bummer, half of the playability of wii u for me is being able to share the TV with my lady, so  that sucks to hear it requires both screens - I hope they make good use of that requirement.

The screen is where the action is at and the fight turn based battle are traditional with a good amount of modern twist to them.  The pad is really like a mobile phone device where characters send text to each other and you use it like a smart phone to access maps and saved text messages and to view your progress.

Everything spoken voice and songs remain japanese with only english subtitles and menus.

[Gredler]

The screen is where the action is at and the fight turn based battle are traditional with a good amount of modern twist to them.  The pad is really like a mobile phone device where characters send text to each other and you use it like a smart phone to access maps and saved text messages and to view your progress.

Ahh well I can see that working well, I am getting more excited to check this out!

Everything spoken voice and songs remain japanese with only english subtitles and menus.

No problem with that for me, I often turn japanese voices on if the game was developed there and that is an option.

Thanks for all of the info!

[Digi.k]

I've been enjoying it a lot and you will find you will be doing a lot of RPG grinding just so items drop from monsters for you to upgrade weapons and stuff for your characters.

One thing I was surprised on was the somewhat titillation/nudity on female characters especially for a Nintendo platform but I was even more surprised on censorship by Ninty.  Still just buy it, its got references from Fire Emblem and some of the sound effects seem to have been taken from the recent Smash Bros game.

TMS - Tokyo Mirage Sessions might also be a reference to Shin Megami Tensei

[Gredler]

I've been enjoying it a lot and you will find you will be doing a lot of RPG grinding just so items drop from monsters for you to upgrade weapons and stuff for your characters.

Perfect, that is exactly what I am looking for in this game. Something visually and audibly enjoyable to grind on when I want to shut off and relax after a long days work

One thing I was surprised on was the somewhat titillation/nudity on female characters especially for a Nintendo platform but I was even more surprised on censorship by Ninty.

I am more and more nervous to look into what was censored while I am at the office, are there cliff notes? Does it really affect gameplay or is it like Xenoblade's censorship (additional clothing the very young girl, which I had no problem with at all)

[Digi.k]

censorship is more to do with clothing

[Gredler]

censorship is more to do with clothing

I just watched a video explaining the censorship, and yeah it's pretty nsfw, and stuff I can live without in my games. Nothing against the content, but I would lose sleep without it.

And I have to agree - wow this game is very surprising in terms of its original release's content - this is not something I expect from Nintendo, and gives this game a history that makes me even more curious.

[Gredler]

I got the game in the mail at my office today at work - I opted for the special edition to get the CD soundtrack and art book (I am a sucker for art books) - so I will listen to the sound track on my way home to get prepped for this game Excited for a new RPG to play.

[xcrement5x]

Nice!  Yeah the censorship seems pretty minor, mainly just outfits and stuff.  But the game was obviously designed for a bit of fanservice so the changes seem weird to me. 

I may pick it up in the future, but I'm still working through other stuff so I can hold off for a bit

[Gredler]

Nice!  Yeah the censorship seems pretty minor, mainly just outfits and stuff.  But the game was obviously designed for a bit of fanservice so the changes seem weird to me. 

I may pick it up in the future, but I'm still working through other stuff so I can hold off for a bit

Last night after a long day at work I sat down and got through the opening sequences before sleep overcame me and I had to save and stop playing.

I was really happy with what I played, however. The gameplay is smooth and the presentation is very slick. I can't think of a lot of recent games to have a more interesting and contemporary while intuitive and functional UI - it's very much a stand out feature of the game and should be recognized as an achievement in that field in my opinion.

The story subject matter (j-pop and idol culture) is something I had no interest in, and very little knowledge of, so most of the content is very strange to me - in a good way. A fresh and unique view at a culture I have a lot of other general interest in was fun and exciting.

Speaking of content, despite the censorship the girls are very sexualized still. The first female character shown is introduced with a feet to bust camera pan, which then pauses for a moment at the breasts then fades out to a camera angle used for the dialog showing the character waist up. The Fire Emblem based spirit character that fights for that character has large outlined breasts designed into her armor, and my fiance who was watching me play the opening of the game was surprised saying "omg are her boobs hanging out" and I had to explain it's the armor design not pale breasts exposed lol. Even during the first "transformation" cut scene there is quite a bit of voyeuristic poses for the girls as they change outfits in a flashy anime sequence. I don't have a problem with it, I enjoy le bewbs as much as the next guy if not more, but I can only imagine what this game was like before it was censored and I am only about an hour in. The story is surprisingly relationship focused, and the game initially felt like something I haven't play on a Nintendo system in years which was fun and refreshing. The story was not the focus, and was only about 15 minutes of the total time I spent with the game (About an hour.) The game quickly transitioned from small social area to explore, to a brief story scene, to dropping you in is plainly a dungeon. A map on the touch screen exposes itself as you explore the grid like dungeon.


The dungeon design, initially at least, so so damn gamey I love it. It's not trying to recreate a realistic environment that this event takes place in, but rather it un-apologetically presents a stereotypical dungeon and tosses the player into the maze littered with enemies to battle. The dungeon I started on here was flat separated by elevators - I love games with flat levels and elevators, yay. Clear thresholds of progress are always fun.

Initiating battle is really fun and interactive, and keeps exploration interesting as you need to be ready to attack the field enemies before instigating the battle scene which plays out as a very traditional turn based RPG.  There is a cool combo system that allows characters to interact with one another in battle to perform additional damage without using the combined character's turn, and the animations for the various attacks and skills are snappy and well crafted.

Battles played out very smoothly with tight menu controls and again, the UI design in this game is master class - a testimony to how important a well designed menu system is, and how far it can go to make a game enjoyable to play. Silky transitions between camera shots and menu screens are adorned by stars and wipes that really makes this game feel current and modern.

The transitions between gameplay and anime scenes however is starkly abrupt, unfortunately. With such a polished and well conceptualized cohesive style for the user experience as a whole, its a shame that they couldn't creatively blend the seams between the polygonal 3d art style segments and the beautifully rendered 2D hand drawn visual scenes.

I had bast playing it, and played it longer than I normally would have thanks to the ability to save anywhere with multiple save slots, it was just fun running around killing stuff being dazzled by the presentation and smoothness of gameplay.

[Emerald Rocker]

Glad you're enjoying the game.  I saw this thread late and was all set to say "BUY BUY BUY", until I saw that you already did.

Considering we didn't have an SMT or Persona game on the PS3, I'm finding it to be incredibly refreshing.  I guess the game can be completed in 60 hours, but I've already clocked over 100 because I just want to squeeze everything out of it.

[Gredler]

Glad you're enjoying the game.  I saw this thread late and was all set to say "BUY BUY BUY", until I saw that you already did.

Considering we didn't have an SMT or Persona game on the PS3, I'm finding it to be incredibly refreshing.  I guess the game can be completed in 60 hours, but I've already clocked over 100 because I just want to squeeze everything out of it.

I've been so busy I've only been able to play up until the second dungeon (just around 3 hours), and I've really enjoyed every bit of it. Like I mentioned above, the J-Pop/Idol culture is so alien to me, and the theme is so strongly presented in this game, that it's been very different and refreshing to me. I can't wait to sink my time into it more over the next week or so, but more media coverage and videos are popping up so I can satiate my craving while at work at least a bit ;)