Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore

[Sheffield Wednesday]

It's the bright and breezy Shin Megami Tensei/Fire Emblem crossover in a world of J-Pop idols which nobody played on the Wii U ported to the Switch where it has been instantly forgotten!

This is a very stylish, slick, streamlined JRPG with an unusual, daft and fun premise, i.e. You become a pop star to explore the shadowy supernatural underbelly of the idol scene to try to find your mate's lost sister, and it gets increasingly daft from there. I haven't really played much Persona, maybe ten hours of P5, but it feels very similar in terms of surface sizzle and concise combat. It's structurally very similar but the social stuff and time management is really toned down which suits me a great deal better.

It's a very cheerful game to sink a few hours into. A number of my most enjoyable recent gaming experiences have been story-driven slower stuff when I've made the effort to adapt to the more leisurely pace. Possibly a lesson in that. It's very very very anime, so caveat emptor, but I seem to have more of a tolerance (even appetite) for that kind of thing these days. For something about such a dodgy industry, it's a very bright and breezy and light-hearted romp. The music and combat are especially excellent but the whole aesthetic just makes me feel happy to play it.

You could certainly argue that they're presenting a tone-deaf sanitised version of the idol scene which belittles the suffering and abuse which goes on behind closed doors but, in fact, they do address some of the issues within these circles and still manage to create and encourage a celebration of pop music and self-expression. They even acknowledge some of the lustier elements in quite a healthy way. It's never at all explicit or particularly played for laughs, rather than an expression that talented, attractive, confident people are in fact appealing and that it's OK to be proud of yourself. There's a refreshing sincerity to that message which I feel is quite far from our own cultural norms. Ultimately, it's a game with a very light touch rather than a treatise but it does display a degree of nuance and acknowledges the potential flaws of its own premise.

Anybody been tempted by this one? Would be well worth a punt at sale prices.

[Bazooka]

Beat it on Wii U, loved it，was already a Shin Megami and Persona fan so felt right at home.  I did buy the XP and gold dlc to lessen the grind, I've earnt my jpg grinding dues.

[Consignia]

I quite enjoyed it (the Wii U version), but it was very much Persona lite. Young people have some problems, but they are only shallow and get over them relatively easily. They exhumed the creepy gravure stuff at least, but left in something completely non-sensical.

I did really like the battle system, the dynamic bants between characters was fun, even if became so easy once you got the hang of it.

[Sheffield Wednesday]

Definitely thematically pretty frivolous but that's one thing I really like about it. Compared to Persona 5 which started with some fairly substantial aspirations to social criticism and then tripped over its own lasciviousness and lack of meaningful ideas, I much prefer this playful lack of self-importance. It might end up being the first JRPG I've finished since the original FFVII...