Once again, it’s time to see what I’ve been up to in Tokyo Mirage Sessions. This week, I completed the third chapter and did some more side quests. Before I get into all that though, I have to start this post the same way I start all of these posts, with some numbers. My current play time is 17 hours and 50 minutes, my main character is level 34, and as previously stated, I’ve played through chapter 3 of the story.

I started this week by continuing to work on chapter 3’s dungeon. After completing the “light the lanterns” task I mentioned last week, the NPC that told me to do that opened a door and moved further into the dungeon. I followed him and was given my next task. Apparently, the different cast members of whatever production they’re putting on require different amounts of light in their dressing rooms. He sends me to a different NPC who gives me an item to add light to the lanterns in the dressing rooms.

The puzzle is pretty easy. You enter a dressing room and talk to the NPC that’s waiting there. They’ll tell you if they want more or less light. You do what they say, and move on to the next one. You have a limited amount of items to add light, but when you take light away from a lantern, you gain another item. This means you have to do them in a specific order so that you have enough items to handle what’s asked of you. I got lucky and just kind of stumbled into the right order and didn’t have any issues.

Next, the main NPC asks you to cross a bridge to the next area. This leads to the dungeon’s mini-boss. This took me more tries than I’d like to admit. But after some careful strategy and some advice from a friend, I was able to get through it. Next, I talk to the NPC again, and this time he needs someone who can sing the theme song to Barry’s favorite Anime, “Dia Witch Iroha” because whoever was supposed to sing can’t anymore. The party gives it their best shot, but they just don’t know the song. They decide to go to Barry’s studio since he should have a copy of the song.

Sure enough, Barry has a  CD of the theme song. I have to choose to have either Kiria or Tsubasa sing it. Kiria seems a lot more confident in her ability to do it, so I give it to her. She learns the song and we’re good to go. During all of this, I unlocked a couple side quests, so instead of going straight back into the dungeon, I decided to take a break and knock those out.

Maiko contacted me because Kiria was having some kind of episode. I head to the Fortuna office and find Kiria flipping out in the corner. Apparently, Maiko had booked her to host a late night show called Absolutely Cute where she’d have to dress up in a cat costume. Since she doesn’t like cute stuff, even though her last side quest pretty clearly showed that she does, she’s very not happy about all this. Kiria explains that when she was a kid, a friend of her called her love of cute stuff “gross” and ever since she’s buried that side of her. Now, she wants to purge it from her completely by going into a dungeon and killing all the cute monsters. Alright, lady.

We head into the dungeon and kill ten of the little blobby enemies. Kiria gets frustrated because it doesn’t seem to be helping. Tharja tells her that of course it didn’t help because it’s just part of who she is. Plus, there’s an unlimited amount of blobs, so she’s not actually making any progress at all. Kiria decides to just embrace who she is and agrees to do the cute show.

Next up was a side quest for Tsubasa. She wants me to meet her at the cafe to talk about something serious. It turns out that she has a meet and greet coming out, but she’s very socially awkward and can’t deal with shaking people’s hands. Itsuki offers to practice handshaking, but that doesn’t help. Finally, Itsuki suggests handing out fliers for the meet and greet. This would help her advertise it plus it would give her practice talking to strangers.

What followed was a series of cutscenes where Tsubasa handed out fliers and got progressively better at talking to people. Then she has her meet and greet, stumbles over her words a few times, but makes out alright. Now Tsubasa is a lot more confident. Not a very exciting side quest, but at least it was easy.

Now, back to the dungeon. Kiria performs the song for the main NPC and is great. But, it turns out that the performer who couldn’t sing can now, so it was all pointless. We move on and find Barry. We try to get through to him, but nothing is working. Then, Mamori shows up. She sings the song she was going to sing on the live TV show (see last week) and frees Barry from his possession. Then, as I’m sure you could figure out, we fight and defeat the mirage who had possessed Barry.

The mirage is named Draug, and it turns out he was Barry’s mirage back when he was a mirage master. Barry’s not getting back into the game though, so instead, he gives Draug over to Mamori. Draug is completely okay with this and now I have a new party member.

Overall, I liked chapter 3 a lot more than the first couple of chapters. Dungeons have been the weak point of the game, as I’ve mentioned a few times before. But chapter 3’s dungeon was actually pretty strong. It didn’t have the confusing level layout and similar looking environments that drove me nuts in the first few dungeons. So, yeah, it’s a lot of fun.

And that’s what I’ve got for you this week. Next week, I’ll have some more for you, and hopefully I’ll actually get it up on time.