I didn’t have a whole ton of time to play Tokyo Mirage Sessions this week. I only got about two hours of playtime in. But, even though I didn’t spend that much time with the game, I still got a decent amount of stuff done. All of it was side quests this time. Before I get into what went down, let’s go over some numbers. My current playtime is 37 and a half hours, Itsuki is level 53, and I’m currently an the intermission before chapter 6.I started this week by doing a side quest for Maiko. She tells Itsuki that Kiria has a photo shoot in Guam coming up, and it’s with the photographer from way back in chapter 2. She gives him some information to give to the photographer and sends me on my way. Before I can even leave the office though, Kiria contacts Itsuki on Topic. She asks if he can stop by the cafe and talk to her. Maiko tells me it’s okay to go to Kiria first before delivering the information.

At the cafe, Kiria tells Itsuki that it’s the fifth anniversary of Fortuna Entertainment and she’d like to do something special for Maiko. Itsuki suggests that they talk to the photographer and set up a photo shoot for Maiko’s third photo book. She loves the idea, so Itsuki heads off to both deliver the information and discuss the idea. Unfortunately, the photographer tells Itsuki that he can’t do the shoot, because the previous ones were done using a special lens that he has since lost. Thankfully, Tharja thinks the material needed to make a new one can be found in the Idolosphere and Tiki can make it.

We head to the Idoloshphere, and everything goes very smoothly. The ore needed to make the lens is just sitting on the ground, and we take it to Tiki. She makes the lens, which we give to the photographer. Everything ends up working out and Maiko gets the third book she always wanted to make.

Next up, Barry has asked us to meet him by Tiki. Apparently, Barry has decided that he wants to be a mirage master again and wants me to convince Tiki to be his mirage. This is, of course, impossible. It seems that lately, Mamori has been talking about how cool Itsuki is, and that’s made Barry jealous. Now he’s hoping to win back her affection by becoming just as cool. Everyone tells him to calm down, but he doesn’t and runs of to the Idolosphere.

We follow Barry and find that he’s attempting to fight the mirages on his own. Obviously, this doesn’t go very well. We hop in and fight a boss. It’s not too difficult, but when we finish, it turns out Barry has run away. We find him at his studio and Mamori yells at him. He apologizes and says he’ll never do it again. Mamori says he reminds her of his dog. This leads to Barry writing a song for her, and he wears a dog costume in the music video. Huh.

With… that out of the way, I start up a side quest for Yashiro. He and Ellie are going to be working together on a TV show. Just how many shows is Ellie in at one time? Anyway, the problem is, they don’t really mesh together too well. Yashiro believes it’s because he’s just a much better actor than her. After some arguing, Yashiro decides they need some special training in the Idolosphere.

This basically just boils down to fighting a boss. The gimmick this time though is that Ellie and Yashiro each have a special attack that sessions with each other. Even though it’s only a two part session, it does much more damage than regular long sessions. Defeating the boss is pretty easy and Yashiro learns the power of friendship.

Finally, I do Mamori’s last side quest. Once again, the producer on her show wants to change the focus. Now, instead of just microwaving, he wants her to do some real cooking. Problem is, she doesn’t know how. Draug is unhappy about this, because it could be dangerous, but agrees to let her do it if we can make her a special knife from a material in the Idolosphere. Just like the lens, all I have to do is go to the Idolsphere and pick the item off the ground.

We make the knife, and everything seems great, but then Mamori’s producer shows up. He’s changed his mind about the whole cooking thing, but now he wants her to dress up in a mascot costume. Mamori comepletely loses it. After yelling for a little while, she says that she wants to new direction to be singing segments in the show. The producer agrees, and Mamori performs the same song she sang on that show a couple chapters ago.

And that’s what I did this week. That was all the side quests I had currently available, so next week, I’ll be trying to move the story forward. I’m not sure how much longer this series will be going, but it seems like I’m headed towards the end of the game. Check back next week to see how much closer I get.