Topic: Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE - OT

Just beat the prologue, so far it's pretty fun. My only complaint so far is that there is no English dub. I have no problem with Japanese voice overs but it would of been awesome if we got quality English voice acting.

I can't think isn't any harder than playing a Zelda game without dub? I live in a country where things are usually subtitled, so I wouldn't really know, though.
IMO, the thing @DiscoGentleman wrote about the not-translated battle texts is much more apparent IMO. If it was a dub, they could get away with it without us noticing it. Now, it becomes very apparent in every battle that we loose a dimension from the battles.

Played through until end of Chapter 1 yesterday. IMO, things become pretty brutal without hard mode once you realize that enemies can do session attacks as well.

I mentioned way back that because they didn't at least dub the battles you lose the immersion and it's helpful like in Xenoblade when the other characters call out what move they're playing. In this game it's even more useful because of Sessions. I have this games Fortissimo Edition in the online shop basket but can't bring myself to buy it. They've put less effort into its translation and yet it costs nearly €85, at least €20 more expensive than other Wii U Collectors Editions. How does that make sense?

Nintendo UK and Amazon are creaming a massive markup on the Fortissimo Edition because I've found a number of sites selling it for €70 and a few for €65. Unfortunately postage wipes out any savings. I got quoted €36 for delivery on one site.

Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water - Limited Edition was a niche, very tough to come by Collectors Edition only available in a handful of places and yet that cost me under €60. It's artbook was hardback, came with a steel book, double-sided poster and spirit photographs.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE How many million times do you have to mention your issues regarding the EU pricing for the Fortissimo Edition here on this site? Either decide to buy it or don't buy it. Then move on.

@jariw Its pricing is relevant and I'll mention it a million times more. Putting a price barrier on a niche game won't help it to sell well. It's not for sale anywhere in Ireland and I don't just mean it's out of stock. The standard edition isn't even available. But in other countries like Germany, it's €75 in Gamestop and €70 in Toys R Us for the Fortissimo Edition.

@DiscoGentleman You're a liar and just proved it once again to "everyone".

@DiscoGentleman So they don't have story related conversations during battles? It's just quotes? That's a relief! Also, I think it's really cool you know Japanese!

@whodatninja From what I've seen, the battle dialogue has 0% relation to the overarching story, and actually not a great deal of useful information with regards to the battle itself. Not that I don't still count the lack of in-battle subtitles as an unfortunate omission.

Probably the most helpful quotes I've seen are along the lines of "this is the first time I've seen this enemy...", which might be useful if you haven't been keeping track, or see an enemy that looks familiar but in fact isn't. Obviously, you have to think differently about how to defeat each enemy, so it's worth knowing if you're up against an unfamiliar foe.

Other quotes that relate to the actual conditions of battle tend to be pretty self explanatory; things like "haven't we defeated them yet?" and, "there are still enemies [to face]!?". Chrom says some stuff like "go for the weak points!", but I'm not sure if it's actually helpful.

Aside from that, there are a lot of internal musings being openly voiced "what on earth IS this place", "just what ARE this guys?". Tsubasa does a lot of flipping between being (what I assume is meant to be) endearingly under-confident and freaked out ("AAH, ENEMIES!", "I wonder if I'm [strong] enough to defeat them...", "umm... aah... what to do in a time like this...", "I'm not scared, I'm not... scared!" etc.), and being brasher and more aggressive ("We're not gonna go easy on you!", "You can't dodge this!", etc.). And as you would expect, there are a lot of attack cries that are along the lines of ("Take this!", "Here I come!", "With this strike...!" etc.)

Beyond the individual musings, there's a bit of 'banter' between fighters and their mirages ("Stay calm, Tsubasa" - "Well that's easy enough to say that..."; "Watch your opponent's movements well" - "Got it", etc.)

Then the end of battles are usually finished with some sort of comradely statement such as, "Is everyone alright?", "Victory is ours!", "Is anyone injured?", "We can't lose!".

And the final bit of untranslated scenario I saw is upon finished a battle and reaching a new skill, which predictably has your mirage stating things "Itsuki, you're now ready to use this skill" and "Take this power, Tsubasa".

So yeah, nothing absolutely groundbreaking, but I feel it somewhat breaks the immersion if your characters are immediately rendered incomprehensible every time you enter a battle. For a story driven game, it'd be nice to feel you were on the same wavelength as the characters in both cutscenes and battle alike.

I've been watching more unboxing videos.

European Song Cards.

American Song Cards.

To me, the comparison is not even close. One set is miles nicer than the other. The American boxart is far better looking too.

have mine but haven't started playing it yet

@DiscoGentleman Aah, that's really interesting, it hadn't actually crossed my mind. Barry comes across as very big, brash and burly, whereas Marty is kinda gaunt and... I don't know, a little frail looking. Which I don't mean as an insult - in fact I think part of his appeal is that he has this kind of delicate, almost skeletal quality to him, yet behind a guitar he has this monstrous sound and presence; all hair, strings and leather.

But there's no arguing with the bit about TERADEATH and subsequent solo albums. I imagine they took a good helping of Marty and mixed it with various other overwhelmingly 'foreign' attributes to end up with Barry; blond, beardy, loud, thick-set, overbearing, and questionably obsessed with anime girls - none of which I believe are qualities attributable to Marty. Interestingly, they even seem to have deliberately spelled 'Barry' (バリィ) with a redundant 'ィ', just to look a bit more like 'Marty' (マーティ). Every other Barry in existence seems to be spelled more intuitively as 'バリー'.

He most reminded most of Frederick "Fridge" Hartfield from Detective Pikachu (link contains some spoilers), but I can't bring to mind a specific real person who his looks might be based off. My initial impression are that he's a slightly cheap character (basically an excuse for "look at the silly foreigner" gags), but I might be too quick to judge. And even if so, it doesn't really matter.

Do you have any thoughts on where the less Marty-like attributes might have come from?

@DiscoGentleman I like the words around the picture: "DOGS COFFEE DOGS COFFEE DOGS COFFEE..." and so on forever. It's interesting seeing how various shows/games jump around copyrights. I'm pretty sure Shibuya 109 especially has been turned into just about every other number in existence. I can't remember what TWEWY opted for, but I've got a feeling it wasn't 9 OR 6 (a quick search tells me it was 104).

How far have you got into it? I'm interested to know if the later stages of the game - and the addition of extra characters - help the game feel a bit less bland and predictable in terms of plot and relationships. I find the whole Tsubasa/Itsuki thing a bit grating, but there are moments when my cynical, withered heart stops caring and I kind of enjoy the vibrancy and silliness of it all.

You do realise that references like that above in the game go straight over the heads of 99.99% of the Western audience?

@SLIGEACH_EIRE Surely nearly all the references to modern day Tokyo will go straight over the heads of the majority of the Western audience (though 99.99% is a massive exaggeration) - or anyone not familiar with modern day Tokyo? Surely that's part and parcel of making a game based in modern day Tokyo? Or are you in the camp that needs to be told that rice balls/onigiri are in fact jelly-filled donuts to reassure them that there's no big scary world outside?

Would you prefer the original Japanese references were censored out and replaced with something more familiar to the Western eye, such as 'Crizpy Cremme Donutz', or 'Kenclucky Fired Chicken'?

You'll also notice in the picture you've quoted that the street advertising includes actual Japanese script, just like actual Japanese Tokyo (you can see the end of "焼肉" on the red sign at the top of the screen). Surely, that would go over the heads of even more Westerners than any 'BOSS COFFEE' references, and yet the developers and localisation staff have had the nerve to leave it in.

Some might say that all these things simply add to the atmosphere and authenticity of the game's environment, even if they don't fully understand the nuances, references, or meanings behind them. But then there will be others who are affronted by things they find unfamiliar, and demand that such content is censored out so as not to interfere with their existing bubble of knowledge.

To those people, I would simply advise that if detailed references to modern day Tokyo make them feel uncomfortable, then they should stay well away from games focused around modern day Tokyo. Unless you're in the latter group, I fail to see what your problem with the references is.

@Maxz All the details in Tokyo Mirrage Sessions #FE makes me more curious about the real Tokyo. And this game also made me realize that there are even more Tokyo references in Splatoon than I knew before!

@jariw Yeah, it certainly has a very unique aesthetic. Perhaps not so drastic when compared to other Japanese cities, but certainly when compared to most Western ones. I think one of the most unique visual motifs is the... 'verticality' of the streetscapes. I mean, lots of Western cites have got very tall buildings (New York for example), but they generally don't provide too much reason to look up and down; you just keep your eyes on what's in front of you and your focus mostly on ground-level.

Tokyo on the other hand (and pretty much anywhere else in Japan with sufficiently tall buildings) makes use of its height with lots of tall, eye-catching advertising banners, so you're eye is drawn up and down, as well along the street. The signs are obviously a very space efficient, so it's interesting that we don't make more use of them in the West. I can only assume is because most Latin-based languages look a bit silly when written vertically, whereas it's the traditional orientation of Japanese/Chinese (Top-to-Bottom, Right-to-Left), and is still preferred in many contexts to this day.

So yeah, it's interesting how a quirk of orthography has come to have such a meaningful effect on the 'feel' of the streetscape. Obviously, there are loads of other iconic elements as well (for example, I think there are more pedestrianised sections of Toyko than somewhere like New York), but that's a pretty key one for me.

I think the first time I got to run around a virtual Tokyo was in 'The World Ends With You', and it was interesting making comparisons with the game, after visiting the real thing a few years later. I wonder how many people will play this game in the West and have to chance to actually compare it... Anyway, it certainly makes a dynamic and iconic setting for any piece of entertainment.

Already this has become one of my favorite Wii U games.
That's really all the input I have.
Shame about certain people out there (not referencing anyone on this thread, more people on twitter or metacritic) acting like petulant babies over changes during localization.

My only nitpick is that the battle dialog isn't translated, but I imagine that'd be tough considering how the screen is already super full of stuff.

i like the fact they reference the line "all aboard the hype train"

and so far the Masked Salesclerk is one of my favorite Characters in this game

so far i'm enjoying this game, i might even try out Persona and the SMT games now, thanks to this games.

@MysteryAozz this was my first Atlus game and I'm really tempted to give one of the series a try sometime as well.

Actually what SMT/Persona would people recommend for someone wanting to try out the series?

@DiscoGentleman I think that the characters just get more interesting as you progress and meet new ones so I'm sure you will probably like the rest that come.
My personal favourites are Eleonora, Yashiro and Kiria.