Once again, it’s time to see how much progress I’ve made in Tokyo Mirage Sessions. This week, I made a little bit of story progress, but most of my time was spent with side quests. While the story has been very consistant in quality, it’s the side quests that I’ve enjoyed the most, so I have a tendency to work on them as soon as they unlock. Plus, they grant new abilities that make the dungeons easier. Anyway, before I get into the bulk of what I did this week, let’s go over some numbers. My total play time is just under 23 hours. Itsuki, the main character, is level 40. I’m part way through chapter 4.Chapter 4 starts with Maiko making an important announcement. Tsubasa has been cast as the lead in a new TV show, Sneeze Detective Maho. This is surprising as Tsubasa is not an actress. Apparently, the director has taken a liking to Tsubasa and asked for her specifically. Ellie, who is an actress, has a bit part, and Itsuki has been cast as an extra.

After a day of acting, it’s become pretty clear that Tsubasa sucks. The gimmick of this Sneeze Detective show, is that Maho has two different personalities and she changes between the two when she sneezes. Unfortunately, Tsubasa just seems kinda bland regardless of whether she’s supposed to be Maho’s flaky personality or her more badass personality. After what seems like a million takes, the director gets really frustrated and ends the work day. However, before she can leave, he asks Tsubasa to come with him for some private lessons. Gee, I wonder who’s going to get possessed this chapter?

Itsuki and Ellie go to Barry’s studio to practice Ellie’s lines. After a little while, Tsubasa contacts Itsuki on Topic. There’s an emergency at the studio, the director has been possessed by a mirage! What a surprise! Itsuki let’s Tsubasa know that he and Ellie are on the way. Tsubasa seems a little surprised and maybe jealous of the fact that Itsuki is spending time alone with Ellie. But, whatever, the group meets up at the studio and enter the next dungeon.

This dungeon seems pretty straight forward, which is nice compared to the first couple. Right at the beginning, you get to a room with a large series of screens towards the top. One of the screens is lit up to say “treasure stash” and another is labeled as the first episode of Sneeze Detective Maho. The next room is a large series of doors, each coordinating with one of the screens in the previous room. You need to get to the first episode, although the treasure stash would be helpful. It’s pretty easy to get lost, but if you remember that the Gamepad can display a map and not just Topic (something I forget pretty regularly) it’s not too bad.

After arriving in the episode room, we find the director hanging out with three mirages. He says that this is an action scene. Um, okay. Itsuki and Tsubasa have to fight the mirages, but we have a choice of either Kiria or Touma to join us. Since Touma is a Power Ranger, he’s the clear choice. I start the fight and get my butt kicked. Oh, well. This seems like a good time to go do some side quests instead.

Tiki has a side quest for me. Apparently, Tsubasa told her about some amazing donuts available at the Hee Ho Mart. Itsuki heads to the store, but unfortunately they’re all sold out. The cashier decides to help us out though. She gives us her Topic information and sends us a message saying that the person who bought all the donuts was a girl with headphones. Sounds a lot like Tiki=Waifu from the previous Tiki quest.

I head to the cafe, as that’s where I found Tiki=Waifu last time. Sure enough, she’s there, and has a bag full of donuts. After an awkward conversation, she agrees to give us a donut because we helped her out before. Itsuki returns to Tiki and presents her with the donut. Unfortunately, Tiki is a mirage and can’t actually eat anything. So instead, Itsuki eats it and describes it to her. I guess that’s good enough, and Tiki is happy now.

Barry also has a side quest available. He wants to get a limited edition Mamorin Charm, but Tsubasa won’t let him get out of teaching her to go get one. Itsuki agrees to get one, and once again heads to the Hee Ho mart. The charms are all sold out, but the cashier tells us that a woman with glasses and a great body bought the last one. Looks like we’re off to talk to Maiko.

Unfortunately, Maiko has already given the charm away to Mamori. Tough break, I guess. Itsuki returns to Barry to give him the bad news. Barry is obviously upset, but it’s not like he can just ask Mamori to give it up. Just then, Mamori walks in and gives Itsuki the charm as thanks for helping her out. Itsuki asks Barry if he’d want the charm, but it doesn’t matter because Mamori has another one for Barry. Job well done, I guess?

Tsubasa’s next side quest has her trying to gain a “devilish” personality to be the next “Amrita Girl”. Basically, she’s going to be in a soda commercial, but she’s too nice. However, there’s a stray cat wandering around named Little Devil, so surely he can teach her how to be “devilish”. After talking to random NPCs, we’re eventually led to an alley where Little Devil hangs out. Tsubasa stares at the cat and meows for a long time, and someone that helps her out. On, to the next side quest!

Maiko has another important announcement for us. She’s booked Tsubasa and Kiria to perform a duet together. Tsubasa is super freaked out by this, even though she’s been working with Kiria for a while now and should probably be over being star struck. Kiria says that before she can perform, she needs Tsubasa to teach her how to be cute. Kiria’s mirage, Tharja, has something set up to help us out in one of the dungeons, so we head out to see what that’s about.

Tharja has created two mirage golems for us to practice on. Unfortunately, they seem to have gone crazy and now they’re trying to kill us. However, one of them is super attracted to Tsubasa, and the other is way into Kiria. Tsubasa learns the “Seductive Pose” skill, which causes one of the golems to be charmed. After seeing Tsubasa do it, Kiria can do it on the other one. This fight took a lot of tries for me, but eventually, I was able to beat it. This unlocks a duet attack, which sometimes triggers during a long session. Kiria has learned how to be cute and now she can perform with Tsubasa.

Finally, I return to the dungeon and level up for awhile before doing that fight with the director’s three mirages. A combination of being stronger and having more abilities made the fight pretty easy this time around. And that’s where I ended this week.

This new dungeon is pretty cool, although I’m not as into it as the last one. But it’s still good to see that the dungeon design has improved from the first couple of ones. Next week, I’m hoping to be through this dungeon. So, check back then to see what I’ve gotten done.