onsdag 14 december 2016

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE

The game that really pushes the J in JRPG

This game... a game I wasn't gonna get, but as the release date came and went I looked at some reviews and after watching one trailer that had some really amazing music I couldn't resist so I got it. And immediately starting playing I wondered if I've made a terrible mistake. I knew getting in that it was a JRPG set in modern Tokyo so no problem there, although I prefer the more traditional fantasy setting, and as follows the kids are 18 year old high-school students... that are getting in the Japanese idol business. I assume my sister would find this game more enticing than me. But it is colourful and the music is really amazing. And as I play I realise that this is one of the best social commentaries of our modern world I've ever seen. It's even subtle. So basically the story starts as Itsuki (the main character) is hanging out on some kind of department store and waiting for his best friend Touma. Suddenly he is caught in a stream of kids all ages that are gonna try out some singing contest and there he spots Tsubasa, a childhood friend of his. He follows, she sings and suddenly the announcer is possessed by some ghost and kidnaps Tsubasa and take her into what we later learn is an idolashpere. Some kind of shadow place of the area we are in. Being the hero Itsuki jumps in afterwards. The idolasphere is dark, even creepy, filled with cloaked shadowy creatures roaming the corridors. He is attacked by one of them and... for some reason are able to infuse some strange light into the shadow and it appears it's Chrom from Fire Emblem: Awakening. They form a pact and rescue Tsubasa by infusing yet another shadow that turns out to be Shiida from Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (the remake of the first game in the Fire Emblem-series). Touma appears to save them and it's revealed he had infused himself with Cain, the red knight from Shadow Dragon. They escape and Touma brings them to the attention of the president of Fortuna Entertainment, an agency for singers, actors and models.

... nice to meet you, miss President!

Itsuki and Tsubasa get hired and we launch Tsubasa's singing career while Itsuki does... support I guess. Really, it never fells like Itsuki is the main character of the game. It's mostly Tsubasa in the beginning with her search for her sister that disappeared 5 years ago  (that we rescue not long after) and her budding idol-carreer. Then it switch over to the last character to join the group, Yashiro. Yashiro is a male superstar that after some confrontations during missions joins their agency as he sees the best option to find out about his father that disappeared 5 years ago as well and his vengaence on the mirages who did this. The shadowy cloaked figures are mirages and are from another world. Images of the former heroes Fire Emblem, so besides those already mention there is Virion and Tharja from Awakening and Draug and Navarre from Shadow Dragon. As you can see, most characters are from Shadow Dragon and Awakening, but there are other references to the series. For example the waitress of the cafe in Shibuya is Illiyana from the Radiance-duology, the jeweller-sales woman gotta be Aime from the same game and both sales woman at the Ho He Mart is Anne that appears in several games in the series. Real satisfying when I realised that. Several of the games weapons are referenced and many villains of the series makes a return here. This is the setup, so what's the story? Gharnef, the evil sorcerer of Shadow Dragon has bonded with a human on earth and are about bringing forth the Shadow Dragon (from Shadow Dragon and Awakening) by stealing the performa (I would say something like talent and inspiration) of the humans and use it to resurrect Medeus. He failed 5 years ago due to Tiki's interference (the manakete from mentioned games) and are now doing it again. So you gotta stop him from stealing "performa". And here the subtleness of the game appears. It might be a sleazy contest holder that is corrupted, or a model photographer, or a TV/Movie director. People that some people put their trust in that can sometimes abuse that. The photographer example the easiest to remember due to that it originally was supposed to play up the "girls in bikini"-angle which they toned down in the west due to censoring over sexualization, of course taking away the message that you shouldn't always trust those that promises easy ways to stardom. Anyway, after figuring out who it is you decide that the only way to stop Gharnef is using the Opera of Light: Fire Emblem to counter the Opera of Shadow. You head in to a idolasphere of Tiki's memories and receive the powers of the ancient heroes that defeated Medeus before. Except the soul of Marth that Gharnef combines with his own in summoning the dragon. All seems lost, but Itsuki won't get down with a fight. They climb the final idolasphere and prepares to do the Opera of Light in hope that the stolen soul of Marth still would be triggered. And then...

WHOA!!! Did not see that coming!

If you can't see it's the reveal of Medeus and the first thing he does is fire a laser at Itsuki that kills him. We didn't even get to start the fight. Of courses friends mourn him and the soul of the other heroes emerges and attacks the dragon, releasing Marth's soul, turning Itsuki into Marth as they defeat the dragon and saves the world. Everyone become a giant star within their field and Itsuki takes over as president of Fortuna Enterprise since miss Maiko returns to her life as a model... well, she sure looks the part. It took me 70 hours to play through this game. And it's really mixed if I like it or not, I like the gameplay, fast and satisfying in battles, the music goes from awesome to so cheesy I can't help but like it, especially the songs they put in. And don't think I didn't notice the Splatoon reference in the game. Both songs and visuals. And as noted I liked the nods and references to the Fire Emblem-games, but the story. I liked the social commentary, and it's standard good vs evil, but the personal problem of the idols are boring as hell. It's about understanding "cute", "sexy", "how to be a hero", one has to learn about eating. Really, Yashiro don't get the concept of eating in regular intervals since that was what is assistant took care of. All I can say is that these character at least get character development from aliens and robots to somewhat functional humans. The only one that hardly get any is Itsuki. He's always the good guy or I at least I played him that way... with maybe a bit of flirtatious behaviour. Then again, he's constantly sexual harassed by Maiko so I don't know, maybe I played him with a bit of bad taste. Speaking of bad taste:

Goddamit Barry!

The most embarrassing character of the whole game. On one hand we have this death metal guitarist, former mirage master and the coach for everyone in Fortuna Entertainment. And the other hand... it's Barry Goodman. I don't mind his obsession with an animated kids show, hell, I've obsessed about nostalgic shows for me, but somehow Barry even grates on me. Then we have the love interest. It's obviously Tsubasa x Itsuki. But they don't get it, but everyone else see it. Doesn't stop every other girl for crushing on Itsuki. And the worst part? It actually feels like a better choice in some of them. Take Eleonoras side quest which is she needs help playing a young high-school girl that falls in love so she need Itsuki to go on a date with her so she can method act the role. The final side-quest is you doing those things again, but she quizzes you if you remember what you did. As to see if Itsuki actually played attention to her. And that is really sweet. I actually started to feel they belonged more together than Tsubasa and Itsuki. Sure, Eleonora was irritating at first with her "Hollywood" talk and boasting about her superior knowledge of the movie industry. But I still grew to like her and it really felt bitter-sweet that her dream become realised, she will go to Hollywood, but she will leave Itsuki behind.

Could be due to her being the most normal sized girl of them all around... the chest area

So the characters is hit or miss and their relationship between each other is mixed as well. Otherwise it's fun to play, and I really like the animated music videos (and most of the music ain't bad). Is it for everyone? No, I have a hard time myself with the modern world and the focus of the idol industry and frankly the idolaspheres mostly are dark and moody. They don't get better until the end when we finally have some forest and ruins that doesn't go in the colours black and purple. Still, would have preferred a more fantasy setting since there ain't no RPG for the Wii U in the west... can't wait for the Dragon Quest VII release.

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