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Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore (16th Jan)

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10 hours ago, Jonnas said:

The Switch version not having any English voice acting is a decision made on Atlus' end (either for artistic purposes, or logistic/financial ones). But FEH needed to stay consistent with what it has been doing so far, so Intelligent Systems chose English option regardless.

I imagine it's because every cutscene is actually choreographed to the timing of when people say stuff. Put on the auto dialogue mode and you'll notice characters react and change their posing midway through a dialogue box.

Trying to make that look natural for an English dub is a logistical nightmare for a game that kinda flopped in Japan. And that's before we get to the fact that all the main cast sing at some point in the story. I think about a game with that kind of budget trying to get seven singers (and that's not even counting Tiki's voice actress, who I'm pretty sure gets a song as well) and I can't see it ending well.

Of course, I'd love a great English dub for TMS, but it'd take some serious talent to pull it off well and I don't think Atlus can afford that.

BTW, I'm on Chapter 4 now. I'm writing the review for the site, so I won't give my thoughts.

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You know I watched the trailer and it didn't even twig. I think they were just going for consistency since everyone else has English voices.

During the Treehouse segment, they said they were looking for English voice actors that could sing. I assumed it either fell throw, they couldn't work it or they figured it wasn't worth the cost.

 Anyway, those strong enemies in the first proper Idolsphere suck.

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  Tokyo  Mirage   Sessions  #FE  Encore  

content-2-36118-tokyomiragesessionsfeencoresidebox.jpg

N-Europe Review by me.

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Got this for my birthday the other day so I'm looking forward to getting stuck into it again. Can't remember how far I got into the Wii U version but I always did want to go back.

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Ok, is there some story about the option to give Tsubasa glasses at the beginning or not??? It's just so weird, like they suddenly realised they forgot to cater to the glasses fetishists.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.....Yes I gave her the glasses, what of it?

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1 hour ago, Happenstance said:

Ok, is there some story about the option to give Tsubasa glasses at the beginning or not??? It's just so weird, like they suddenly realised they forgot to cater to the glasses fetishists.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.....Yes I gave her the glasses, what of it?

Nope. Maybe because there's an option in Three Houses?

I did too. :heh:

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I cracked up so much when that was the option that showed up after the difficulty. That was apparently so important it has to be the second option that showed up.

It wasn't in the original, so I picked yes.

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Last month I broke the seal on TMS #FE Encore and gave it a playthrough. With it originating on the Wii U, I figured it might be a bit of a "babies first" RPG (spoilers: I wasn't far off the mark), so as I'm hoping to get stuck into SMT V sometime fairly soon, I opted to slot this in now rather than circle back to it later when a dumbed-down SMT might be less palatable. I finished it last week and now that the dust has settled a bit, here are some of my lingering thoughts on how it went and what kind of game this is.

One of the things that kept occurring to me as I played was "so this is Chrom who gets hate for being in Smash Bros.? He seems all right!" ::shrug: Going in, I thought TMS #FE Encore pulled from the Fire Emblem series in its entirety, but that didn't seem to be the case, so I was thankful I'd played a few maps of Fire Emblem 1 on Switch (if you told me five weeks ago I'd be saying that...!) or else I wouldn't have known any of the FE characters, or Mirages I should say. Even by the end, I wasn't sure what was going on with the Mirages. By around the halfway point when I got the archer (my MVP) I was leaning towards them being robots and when the credits rolled I was still unsure how to interpret them. 

You know what? It worked for me that you just select where to go on the map instead of having to traverse an overworld. Normally, no overworld is counted as a negative but here I was okay with not having to traipse everywhere then later unlock the ability to fast travel. Some more areas/ streets to visit and explore would have been nice but the compact quality of the game made for a welcome change. 

I know I said it was a "babies first" sort of game, but that doesn't mean I didn't game over a few times. The battle system is lifted from SMT with the FE weapon triangle thrown in and session combos layered on top. The nature of this means you need to target and exploit enemy weaknesses for maximum damage + to trigger a session combo, and I won't lie, pressing sessions out of enemies was satisfying as it not only increases your damage output through the ensuing combo, but it increases the drops you're getting too. It's a two-way street however because for all the strengths your party members have, they have weaknesses too. One character cannot cover everything. And if you come across an encounter that can press sessions out of one of your weaknesses... you are going to be left scrambling in the space of a turn. It happened to me on a couple of bosses--which I expected and took on the chin--and it happened with a few groups of normal enemies too. I was glad mobs in the Idolosphere (that's what the dungeon areas are called) were keeping me honest and engaged rather than being left to level up and run through on autopilot.

By far the worst part of TMS #FE Encore is how pervy it is. The female characters are bouncy, underdressed, and despite there being no romance options in the game, they all make it crystal clear to the main character that they go weak at the knees for him, and if only he'd make a move... It was uncomfortable to sit through. Yep, I'm aware changes were made after the original Japanese Wii U release but I think Nintendo could have done another pass-through for the Switch rerelease. And let's not even get onto Barry. 

Anyway. Wanna know what set my pulse racing?

Spoiler

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Seeing Chapter Six: Fire Emblem made me go oh yeah, it's getting serious now!!

To the starved Wii U owner, I can see why TMS #FE would have been a must-own in its original incarnation, but on Switch, the landscape is completely different. TMS #FE Encore is polished and it's streamlined--what with there being no overworld, no expiring quests, no different outcomes from dialogue choices and nothing you can lock yourself out of (as far as I know anyway), and that's all good and a breath of fresh air in its own way. Heck, sights and sounds around Tokyo update as you progress to reflect the success of your group in their showbiz endeavours which is a nice touch... yet, I just don't think I could recommend this one wholeheartedly. The battle system is the best thing here and you can get that elsewhere on Switch from SMT III or (presumably) SMT V plus a more fleshed out game in general. Never mind there being a slew of other RPGs to pick from. And if you want Fire Emblem, treat yourself to Fire Emblem: Three Houses because what's here isn't worth the price of entry if you're coming for FE.

Points for enabling d-pad movement (even though it was a rare occasion I didn't utilise it) and the pause screen was nice. :cool: 

Edited by darksnowman
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I also started playing this recently but Pokemon made me put it to one side. It was actually seeing you play it @darksnowman that inspired me to get around to playing my copy. I only got 10 hours in before Pokemon arrived.

The game is a bit of a weird one in that it doesn't really know what kind of game it wants to be. It kinda feels like a very cheap version of Persona. 

I LOVE the fact that I can go off to a special area and grind levels or abilities. It makes it so much easier to go through the dungeons knowing that I can peg it and make up the experience back in said area.

I'll get back to the game once I'm done with Pokemon. Hopefully it will be another RPG I can cross off the list for the year.

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Haha, yes @Hero-of-Time they definitely churned out a Persona lite here rather than SMT X FE! 

I made good use of that levelling area at one point as I dropped Tsubasa from my cast as soon as the fourth character came along, meaning by the time I got around to doing her sidequests she was well behind. :laughing: I'm sure that area saved me hours of grinding!

BTW there are some nice costumes you can get from Persona, SMT and... the almighty ETRIAN ODYSSEYYYYYYY!!! :bowdown:

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2 hours ago, darksnowman said:

One of the things that kept occurring to me as I played was "so this is Chrom who gets hate for being in Smash Bros.? He seems all right!" ::shrug:

OK, I'm going to make this very plain.

99% of people complaining about Fire Emblem characters in Smash are people who don't like Fire Emblem as a series. They couldn't give a toss about whether the character is cool or not. They would get rid of everyone, including Marth, if they could.

I like Chrom, he's cool.

Edited by Glen-i

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