Lights, Camera, Action! Let's Debut in Tokyo Mirage Sessions

[Artix]

Last time we learned of an ailing food critic, and that’s one thing Itsuki simply will not stand for. But first, let’s check up on some of the other residents of Shibuya.

This guy looks like he’s in a good spot. I’m sure he’s having a great day.

sigh …Hey, what’re you staring at?

Don’t play dumb… You were staring at the weird gate, weren’t ya? I’ve been looking for a guy like you. Think you could do me a favor?

Itsuki accepted the request “Iori in Love”.

Hoo boy, I think I can see where this one is going.

When I first saw it, I stuck my foot in and that was that: I found myself in a strange world. Next thing I knew, all these monsters were chasing me! I ran like hell, but… They still caught up, and I thought I was gonna wind up some monster’s lunch. But a girl came outta nowhere and saved me!

I’ve never seen anyone like her… That cutie was out of this world. Ahhh… She stole my heart. It was love at first sight…

…

Uh… Cat got yer tongue?

So, I need you to go through the gate and tell that girl how I feel about her. My name’s Souji Iori. She’s somewhere near the ticket gates in that strange world. Thanks, man! I’m countin’ on ya!

What is it with people and falling in love with demons? I feel like it’s in every single SMT game and they always go the exact same way.

Before we head into Illusory Shibuya, we might as well check in with the food critic since that’s where Aya’s going to send us anyway.

Ugh! I don’t have the words to communicate how delicious it tastes… I can’t be a food show host if I can’t describe the food… Ugh, I’m such a failure… sigh

Yep, off to the idolasphere.

Of course it’s a bunny cleric. Why would it not be?

What, you have something to say to me?

(A girl by the ticket gates… She must be the mirage Iori was talking about.)

Ahh, I remember him. He was clinging to me, yelling “Get me outta here!” He was so revolting, so I told him the way out and got rid of him. Just thinking about him makes my hair stand on end!

Hey, you! Tell that Io-whatever-his-name-is this… If I ever see him again, I’ll rip that jiggly pompadour of his to shreds!

(That’s pretty harsh, but I guess I should tell Iori…)

Well that went about as well as it always does. Let’s go kill some demons.

This guy is a little harder to find, he’s hiding underneath the middle ledge at the big three-path split towards the end.

It’s also the first time we’re on even footing with these guys, probably a little underlevelled. This has some…notable consequences, shall we say.

For starters, if they proc a weakness, that character is probably dead, even before the sessions start. This situation is not helped by me leading with Ellie and Kiria as my party.

Take two: Kiria is weak to swords, so this is still a bit of a gamble, but the myrmidons are weak to ice so we need her for damage. Touma resists fire and swords, in addition to giving us lance damage, so he’s in for Ellie.

Plus, he gives us much better session combos for dealing with the Leviathan. Ellie’s Sword-Plasma would have ended it immediately after Itsuki’s initial attack, which is unfortunate to say the least.

That said, we have a much more important job for Itsuki right now. With the possibility of eating 450 damage a turn, we need a defense buff up immediately.

Now that we can handle. 200 damage a turn isn’t too bad, as long as we get a little lucky with avoiding weaknesses.

That said, this is a problem. Hamstring is admittedly a Tier 1 lance skill, but even with Touma’s huge strength and hitting a weakness, it still barely scratched his health bar, and there are two of these fuckers to deal with.

Leave it Kiria to bail us out.

Doubly so when this attack doesn’t cause an enemy session because Labyrinth confused all the enemies.

With the incoming damage knocked down a bit, we have some breathing room to get on the attack. The Levianthan is probably the least dangerous of the three enemies here, but he can drop Poison Mist on us, and one less enemy is still one less enemy.

And there’s the money shot. Like I said, bringing Kiria is a bit of a risk, but damn if it doesn’t have a sweet payoff.

Touma picks up the Tier 2 Fire skill, as well as part of the Blockbuster skill (increases the crit rate of attacks in a session), and Itsuki trades Def Boost for Yasha Soul, which increases his crit rate with sword attacks. These fights are definitely getting trickier, but that’s what makes them satisfying to clear.

The batter is crispy yet thick! The texture is absolutely amazing. Such a refined taste!

This cream! It’s so rich! The meat and vegetables burst out of the cream… And a spiciness adds to the explosion of flavor! This combination of crispy and creamy pushes the flavor to a whole new level!

Wooooo! It’s like the flavors are dancing on my tongue! Zoyo! …I think I’m back. All right, let’s do this! Zoyo!

All that work for this amateur shit? Itsuki could have done that in his sleep. :colbert:

Itsuki delivered the mirage’s message to Iori…

She didn’t have to be so heartless! What, is it the pompadour? Is that it? Maybe it’s outta fashion where she’s from.

sigh I guess it was a lost cause from the start. I mean, we literally live in different worlds. I mean, it sucks, but I guess I’ll just hafta look for a new love.

…Anyways, thanks for the help. You and me are gonna be buddies, I can tell.

Request complete! Received Magic Incense x2!

Are we? Are we really, Iori? Well, at least we got a pair of stat ups for it.

Man, where do you people even come from? What do you want?

Do you have a part-time job!? I really want one! Something classy! In the big city!

Senpai, please tell me you know a fancier job here in Shibuya…? It’s such a trendy part of the city!

Man, it’s one thing to be like “Do my homework” or “Find 5 bear asses”, it’s quite another to literally ask “Find me a job!” Do it yourself, you lazy shitlord. :colbert:

Okay, fine. Go be a waiter and stop wasting my time.

That! Is! IT! Shibuya’s Cafe Seiren is THE hottest, flashiest place in town! Thank you, thank you! I need to hurry! I’m going to go now, bye!

Good, go get to work and thanks for the Melmarks. Now, back to the office and finally turn in this food critic quest.

…

cough …Okay, I’ll work on that. Thank you for all your hard work, and I’ll let you know if I hear any more suspicious rumors.

Anyway, another request, another Clap Track. Next, it’s back to the dungeon, for real this time!

[Artix]

So last time we did a bunch of random shit, but we’re not going to get sidetracked right now, we’ve got to go save-

No! Bad Aya! Bad! I just said-

Have you heard of the comedy duo Ota-Yan Union? The funny man tells a silly joke, and then the straight man flips out. That’s basically their entire act.

But rumor has it that Aniki, the straight man, has lost his timing. And now he’s a shell of his former self on stage…

Otakura, the funny man, wrote on his blog that they’re training in Harajuku for the Manzai Grand Prix, a comedy contest. Itsuki, please go and check it out for me. A mere shell… That worries me.

Yep, that’s great Aya, we’ll get right on it. You said Illusory DTV right? On my way.

(The real answer, of course, is that we barely scraped by in Illusory Shibuya and we would get destroyed by the Illusory DTV enemies.)

And hey, speaking of Illusory DTV enemies, the Red Barbarian is newest axe enemy in town. He’s actually kind of a pain, because he resists both electricity and ice, which is the cornerstone of the Itsuki/Ellie/Kiria party.

Ellie’s stage rank being so low to start isn’t nearly as big of a deal as it seems, since she gets a lot of stuff really early. Her first sidequest is at Rank 3, and she gets an incredibly important skill at Rank 6 when everyone else gets it around Rank 8 or 9.

And while it’s always nice to pick up more session skills, Elec-Snipe is about as useless of one as you can get. It pretty much exists solely to let her combo off of Itsuki since she’s the only other party member with Electric skills, and no one else can pick up from Bow skills.

Anyway, since we lit all the lanterns, the director removes the barrier and we can head upstairs. On to 2F!

New floor, new enemies. Yomotsu Shikome can fuck your day up with wind spells if you let them, but they’re weak to electricity. Itsuki and Ellie should make short work of them, no matter how little you’ve used her.

There are a pair of beads just hanging out immediately to our right on 2F. It’s kind of absurd how easy it is to get high-end healing items in this game, and combined with the fact that you have multiple items that do the same thing (see Fresh Spicy Curry and Revival Beads), it’s really hard to actually die unless you get way in over your head.

The center of 2F has a locked chest, our teleporter, and the director with another task for us. We’ll start with the director.

The AD’s waiting close to the small room to the north, so go get your next instructions!

He rules with an iron fist…

…You say something, guy?

N-No! Nothing!

The ol’ delegation move, what a classic. Well, before we head north, let’s crack that chest open.

That…was probably not the best use of a chest key. But sure, whatever, I’ll take it.

The director asked us to come help the AD… Is that you?

Oh, much obliged! I need you to adjust the lighting in the cast members’ waiting room. I was in a rush and got them wrong…

Find out what each cast member wants to figure out how many paper lanterns they want on, and fix them accordingly. After you adjust the lightning, make sure you confirm with each cast member before you come back.

You can turn the paper lanterns on with these, so good luck!

I actually kind of like this one, since it requires a little thought. More than “Press the four buttons” did, anyway.

There’s a lantern room immediatly to the AD’s left, so let’s pop in real quick and see how it works.

So right now, one of the three lanterns are lit, which we know is wrong. If we talk to the demon…

Alright, easy enough. We have two spare light sources, so we’ll use one of them to light a second lantern and try again.

And that’s one down. Note that lighting the lantern did consume one of our light sources, but if we need more we can always go back and talk to the director again.

On our way to the west door, we meet these fuckers. Knights have a massive pile of HP and defense, and resist bows, wind and lances. However, outside of Itsuki’s Zio skills, we have no way of inflicting magical fire or electric damage, so they might as well resist that too. But like the Infernos, they have a massive Kiria-sized problem in that they’re weak to ice and have non-existent resistance.

Mind you, the HP is still a problem. It would go marginally faster if we swapped Ellie out for Tsubasa, but a 200+ damage hit doesn’t even knock them below half health. Hell, Itsuki’s Fatal Sword, despite being a Tier 2 Sword skill, barely cracks 130 damage.

Ellie picks up Tarunda as we work our way around the west deck. An attack debuff is probably the least useful thing she can be doing, but I guess it’s better than nothing.

That said, now that she’s maxed out her current weapon and unlocked her first sidequest, there’s no real need to keep her in the party either. Tsubasa and Kiria are both one rank away from their next sidequests, so we’ll be rolling with them for the time being.

The western lantern room starts with all three lit, and he wants it a little darker. Two lanterns will do the trick here.

Stage Rank 7 simply nets Itsuki Endless Act, the physical get-out-of-jail-free card.

That person likes his room bright, but I don’t need it to be THAT bright.

The southern room, while not particularly difficult on its own (he wants it dropped to one lantern), mostly exists to set up the final one. That one is not completable without taking the flame essences from this room (or backtracking all the way to the director to get an extra one).

Because the east room requires you to have three banked flame essences. If this is the last one that you do, you should have the three that you need ready to go, but if not, you’re going to be doing some backtracking.

Anyway, with all four dressing rooms taken care of, let’s head back to the director.

Along the way, Tsubasa picks up Healing Expertise, which increases the amount of HP her spells restore. Passive skills aren’t as useful as you’d think in this game, but there are definitely clear winners and losers, and a heal boost is a hell of a lot more useful than Res +2.

You probably won’t get lost…but don’t stop and smell the roses, or you’ll be late!

And with that, we are now completely done with the first half of the dungeon. Coming up next is the miniboss, so let’s go cash in our radiant skills and make some new weapons.

Itsuki has a trio of new toys, but we’re going to be paying special attention to the Matador. Not only does it come with intrinsic Auto-Sukukaja, it teaches Itsuki the skill Dual Dispatch, which rolls Horseslayer and Armorslayer into one skill for just 10 MP. As far as utility skills go, it’s about as good as you’re going to get on Itsuki.

For Tsubasa, the Stingray and Hayakaze are largely identical, it just depends on whether you want to upgrade her lance skills or wind magic first. As nice as Assault Dive is, it’s not that much of an upgrade for her, so we definitely want the Hayakaze here.

Kiria is in a similar position. Lorelei increases her magic evasion and the Vajra blocks confusion, but otherwise this is a pretty blatant “DO YOU WANT FIRE, ICE OR WIND MAGIC?” choice.

And finally, Ellie picks up this…interesting weapon. On the surface, it doesn’t look very good since it makes her weak to every flavor of physical attacks, but the skills that it has make it worth it. Flame Strike (Tier 2 fire attack), Fire Boost, and a very early Arrow Rain (Tier 2 arrow damage to all enemies) makes it worth putting up with the weaknesses, especially early on in the dungeon.

But we’re not going to be doing any of that nonsense next time. Next time, we’re going on a date. See you then!

[Artix]

So hey, things have been pretty quiet lately, and the reason is basically that I needed some time away from LP to recharge and play some stuff on my own time. So I did! I beat Trails of Cold Steel earlier today, it was real good (aside from the very very end, but that’s an hour out of like, 50), and I’m going to get the next update put together later this week. Maybe Wed? Watch this space.

[WordOnTheWind]

Woo. Looking forward to it.

[Artix]

Welcome back, everyone! It’s been a little while since we checked in with our anime children, and boy do we have a special one today.

Hey, Itsuki! There’s a favor I want to ask of you.
I’ll be waiting in front of the Shibuya station. Hurry up!

Why, whatever could poor Ellie need? Let’s head over right away.

But first, we have this poor fellow.

Hey, you! Have you seen a girl named Momoko around? She kinda spaces out a bit…

>Itsuki accepted the request Dating Difficulties.

Well, if you do, let me know…

I feel you, man. Getting stood up sucks. But you know who doesn’t have that problem?

That’s right, it’s time for Itsuki to stretch those romance muscles. The Master of Love is officially on the case.

If I can help, I’ll gladly help out.

R-Right. That’s quite prudent of you. So…um… I-It’s kind of awkward talking about it in the middle of the street…

…I know! The classroom set! There’s a classroom filming set we always use. Let’s go there!

[quote] I’m waiting at the classroom film set! You’d better hurry, Itsuki!
[/quote]

Who are we to keep a young lady waiting? Off to the set!

Read, Chat, Fall in Love, Part 1

Um… Well…I-I… I-I need you to… breath To, um…go on a d-d-d…

Itsuki’s phone rings

Ah. Sorry, I should check this.

Itsuki?
I assume that right about now, Ellie is blushing bright red and stuttering “D-D-D…” like a DJ.
Yes, she’s doing exactly that.
I’ll speak for our shy girl Ellie and explain your mission this time, okay?
You two…need to go on a date!
What?
Well, Ellie was in a bit of a pickle.
See, she’s appearing in this TV drama called “Dandelion in Love.”
But she doesn’t get how a high-school girl who’s in love with the idea of love feels.
So wouldn’t the best way to figure that out be going on an actual date? That being said…
Good luck being her partner!

Uh, Ms. Maiko?

D-D-D…

A date?

Er… Ms. Maiko just sent me a topic. What’s all this about?

There’s nothing “about” it! I-It’s exactly as she must’ve put it! This is only to dial my character in, you hear!? If you get the wrong idea from this, I’ll make you my next archery target!

Actually, will you even be able to help me train for this?

Ice cold, Ellie. I can’t believe you’re doubting Itsuki’s romantic cred.

You’re the one who called me to do this, though.

What, losing confidence, are we? I guess that’s expected. You ARE new to the industry. I’ll have to train you in the ways of Hollywood.

How does training me help you…?

H-Hey, Ellie?

You’d think you wouldn’t have to go look at magazines to get date ideas in a place as busy as Shibuya, but sure, let’s go along with this.

What’re you doing, Itsuki? Hurry up and come where I am.
Where’s that?
Didn’t I tell you some place I can read magazines?
Why’re we going there separately?
It’d be a real scandal if someone were to think we’re on a real date, you know.
Anyway, I’ll be waiting!

Anyway, off to the Hee-Ho Mart.

Read, Chat, Fall in Love, Part 2

We’re starting this date off at a convenience store…?

What’s so weird about it? Everyone in my hometown in Saitama does it.

That’s kind of hard to believe…

I’m not sure what she’s showing Itsuki, but he’s either horrified or speechless. I choose to believe the former.

Ituski, this jewelry’s so cute! This says that they have a store in Shibuya, let’s go check it out later!

…Sure.

What’s with that warped idea of dates? You’ve never dated anyone before, have you, Ellie?

Wh-What’s wrong with that!? It’s just, there are no Hollywood men around that suit me!

Huh.

You’re right. I wonder if she’s biracial? She looks like a doll, I wish I could be like her.

…Hmph.

You sure stand out.

I’m half-Scandinavian, after all. They just think I’m some novelty, I’m used to it.

Where to?

Your girlfriend’s saying she’s thirsty. As the boyfriend, you need to sense what I’m getting at. It’s all training!

So yeah, this quest is mostly just following Ellie around Shibuya. Ignoring that the only place we can actually go is Cafe Seiren, I thought Itsuki’s question was quite appropriate. There’s a lot of places we could have gone to get a drink, Ellie. :colbert:

Now that we’ve gathered intel, it’s time to get neck-deep in my training! Next is a standard go-to place on dates!
I’ll be waiting for you there! I’m so thirsty I feel like I’m going to become a dried up persimmon.
Wait, where are you?
Figuring that out is part of the training! You better not make me wait too long, okay?

Now this is a traditional place to go on a date. Come on, let’s really get this training underway!

Read, Chat, Fall in Love, Part 3

Ah yes, that traditional date drink, the rainbow-colored smoothie.

What’s that?

Don’t you know? This is a smoothie! And it’s loaded with enzymes! It’s a must-have for Hollywood celebrities!

…Is it good?

O-Of course it’s good! It’s popular in Hollywood, after all!

Because it’s special… I mean, because Hollywood’s the best!

I’m not sure I follow.

You know how I’m biracial? I feel like I stick out like a sore thumb no matter where I go. It’s like I don’t belong anywhere.

But if I become a Hollywood actress, I think things will be different. Like, once I becomes that famous, the world will make room for me - somewhere I actually belong.

So that’s why…

I-I may have said a little too much! Anyway, Hollywood is the best of the best!

Say, Itsuki! I want to go to the jewelry place I saw earlier!

So off to Carabia, then. At least this one is as unambiguous as it gets.

You know where I mean by a jewelry store, right?
It’s like I’m giving you this question for free!
Isn’t this getting a bit off topic…?
Haha, I’m starting to have fun with this.

Aw, she’s starting to get into it. Not that she’d ever admit that she had a good time with Itsuki of all people, but it’s a start.

Read, Chat, Fall in Love, Part 4

It’s nice coming somewhere like this once in a while. There’s this mature woman’s atmosphere about it.

Wow, I didn’t know they had a replica of it…

Something wrong?

This is right… We aren’t doing any training at all… sigh I’m no good at this. I honestly don’t get things like dating or romance at all.

Sorry, Itsuki… I dragged you around for nothing…

But it was fun. I got to see a new side of you that I didn’t know about.

Huh?

I was thinking that, if you really were my girlfriend, every day woudl be new and exciting.

S-Say, Itsuki… Do you think we look like we’re going out to the people around us right now?

Yeah, I think so.

…O-Oh, I see.

Hm?

If we look like boyfriend and girlfriend, then what I’m feeling right now must be…

Eleonora Yumizuru’s soul as an entertainer has achieved a new awakening! Eleonora’s inspiration has taken form as a new Performa: Secret Tenderness!

Haha… I think I figured it out.

I see…

Yup. I think I can pull off my role as a high-school girl. And I couldn’t have done it without you. Thanks for everything today.

Like most of the first sidequests, this just unlocks an Ad-Lib attack for Ellie (although it’s a damn good one, as we’ll see next update).

I don’t believe you’ve taught me anything, though.

By the heavens! Do you not recall how I’ve toiled day after day, teaching you the refined conduct of a true lady?

Have you now?

It seems I must more strictly teach you the proper etiquette befitting one’s stature henceforth. Without my peerless tutelage, the high society you strive for will be naught but a dream within a dream.

I’ve said this time and again: it’s not high society, it’s Hollywood! Geez, Virion, get it right…

Read, Chat, Fall in Love, Part 5

So… won’t you choose me, please?

A cliffhanger? Those monsters. I want to complain to the director.

What’d you think? Wasn’t my acting pretty realistic?

I can’t wait for next week’s episode.

Of course you can’t! Everyone said the same too. Spending the time to train in person definitely paid off.

Still, that isn’t all I’m capable of. There’s more of my Hollywood story… To be continued!

Eleonora Yumizuru has grown as an entertainer and has become “Lovey-dovey”! She acquired the Ad-lib perfomance One-Sided Love!

Anyway, last thing for today is to grab Ellie’s DLC outfit.

Tokyo Millennium Collection: Ellie

It’s a maid outfit. What else do you really want me to say?

Yeah. That maid outfit really left and impression out there. I think you riled up the crowd the most today.

Naturally! I did do heavy research into how Hollywood supermodels walk, after all.

So in other words… What you showed off was how Hollywood maids walk?

You forgot to say “perfectly,” Itsuki. Hehe…! Now I’ll be ready if I ever get an offer from Hollywood for the role of a maid!

I…don’t think that’s quite how that works, Ellie.

You looked cute in that outfit out there too. I can’t wait for the day you play a maid.

Hrgh…! A-Are you stupid or something, calling me cute!?

But, it was cute.

Th-That’s not important! You stupid moron! Blyeeeah!

[Artix]

Well hello! I didn’t see you there. I was just on my way to the Illusory Daitou miniboss, and look what I stumbled upon.

Ellie just picked up EP Fitness, so nothing too special there, but Kiria unlocked her next sidequest.

Anyway, we’re picking up at the east exit of 2F. Technically we’re done with the first set, but this side opens up to the last set of terraces that we couldn’t access earlier.

It leads us to a couple goodies, including the Piercing Eyelashes in a locked chest. It’s not a terrible accessory, but we have better options for pretty much everyone.

It also leads us to this little cave of goodies. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll remember that we never reached the east entrance to 1F from the outside. For our trouble of finding this secret little room, we get a Balm of Life and a cool 35k in cash.

And before we head to the miniboss, we do a tiny bit of grinding to pick up this little gem. I think Arrow Rain is the first multi-target physical skill we’ve picked up, and it’s pretty solid! Medium bow damage to everything on the field is nothing to sneeze at, especially in an area where any fight might have 2-3 peg knights in it.

And that’ll do it for Set A. Off to Set B!

It looks like we don’t really have much choice… Just have to keep moving.

Hold it! Something’s coming this way!

Careful, everyone! Here it comes!

Illusory Daitou Miniboss

This miniboss is more difficult than you’d expect, but still fairly simple overall. She comes with a pair of mages and barbarians that are significantly beefier than their random counterparts, and the barbarians in particular are going to cause Ellie and Tsubasa a lot of trouble if they aren’t dealt with immediately.

Kiria can handle both sets of mooks, but unfortunately the mages null ice. That slows us down a bit more than I would like, but right now the first priority is reducing enemy numbers.

Multi-target physicals work in the exact same way as multi-target magic. You only get a session if the enemy you target is weak to the attack, no matter what other weaknesses you might hit. While I really want to take care of that barbarian, he isn’t weak to bows and there’s no reason to waste the extra damage, so targeting the boss it is.

And then this happens anyway. So much for my careful planning.

As you can probably guess, One-Sided Love inflicts charm.

It’s not as useful as you’d expect, given charm’s pedigree as an ailment. Occasionally they’ll do something dumb like smack another enemy, but the vast majority of the time, it just makes enemies waste their turn doing nothing.

First move from the Chaos Peg Knight is to cast Sukukaja and Sukunda. This is obnoxious because…

The red mages will happily spam Mediarama until you put them out of their misery. When you’re dealing with an accuracy penalty on both ends, this fight can get out of hand very, very quickly.

Touma being a backup member means that he dodges the Sukunda penalty, plus it gives us a strong physical fire attack. That makes quick work of the red mages, if nothing else.

When she’s not busy buffing, the miniboss will throw out a pair of Skewers for moderate damage. This is much more dangerous when it leads into a combo with the barbarians, but we’ve already neutered that threat with charm.

With the trash taken care of, we can get to work on the peg herself. Tsubasa/Ellie/Itsuki is probably the best party here, thanks to hitting her electric, wind, and bow weaknesses with more or less every combo.

Around Turn 6, we get everyone’s favorite message. This time the barbarians are out, and more peg knights are in.

This is where Ellie’s choice of weaponry comes back to bite me in the ass. Normally she’s only weak to axes, but since her bow makes her weak to all physical attacks, she immediately takes three lances to the face and bites it. Thankfully the turn order makes it so that I don’t lose anything (Tsubasa goes first next turn anyway), but that could have gone south very, very quickly.

Now, Ellie gets to work her magic. Arrow Rain will hit a weakness on 3/4 enemies on the field, plus I can immediately follow it up with a session on one of the peg knights. This is why we did that tiny little bit of grinding before coming here.

okay ellie jesus i get it

Any remaining difficulty in this fight is gone once Ellie lands that second charm. The resulting session wipes out the mooks, and the boss herself goes down with minimal fuss shortly thereafter.

Not much to say about the aftermath, really. Ellie upgrades Fire Strike to Flame Strike and Itsuki and Tsubasa get slight upgrades to Fang Breaker and Mazan.

We also unlock Tsubasa’s second sidequest, so it’s a good day for sidequests in general.

Stronger Together

Oh hey, look who decided to come visit. He does house calls and he comes on location. What a reliable guy, that Yashiro.

I’m under no obligation to tell you. Besides, it’s hardly your concern.

Wait! We want to save our friend. If you know something, please tell us!

Again with this “friend” business… If you intend to continue with your little games, you will need to be stronger. As you are now, you are weak. I suggest you train further before you concern yourself with anyone else’s welfare.

I…don’t think that’s right. That can’t be the only way to strength. There has to be some way we can all become stronger, together!

…Pathetic.

…Watch your tone. I don’t have much patience for sheep who are helpless without their flock.

Having friends doesn’t make you a “sheep.” But I can’t expect you to understand the difference.

…You’re right, I don’t understand. Very well, keep playing with your so-called friend and let him drag you down. I imagine it’s only fitting.

Him? What, Itsuki? What do you have against him?

…

And with that, he walks off. We can chat with Kiria in the arena, but all she does is muse about why Yashiro was even here.

Next time, Set B!

[Fefnir]

Oh dear, Yashiro’s gone full anime rival. We’ll really be in trouble once he starts using the term “sheeple.”

[Artix]

Set B is much smaller than Set A, although a large part of that is because we’ll be making a very short visit today.

Before we go inside and meet the director again, our favorite cleric is hanging out on the left side of the building. You know the drill by now.

>Itsuki accepted the quest “Ditch the Deadbeats”

Right… I need you to track down that butter-voiced Inferno and his friend, the cocky Blackscale Rider. Oh! And I forget his name, but the last one in the trio is the worst. The worst! Get the slowest slowpoke ever!

Well, the Inferno is easy, and the “slowest slowpoke ever” is pretty obviously the knight, so that’s already taken care of. We haven’t seen any Blackscale Riders yet, though.

Once we’re inside, we’re immediately greeted by the director and another barrier. Nowhere else to go, so we might as well see what he wants.

Dia Witch Iroha

We had a singer lined up, all squared away. Set to sing a certain song. But now? Cancelled! No replacements! No understudies! Too last minute…!

But I think some of you kids might have the chops for it. I want one of you to fill in! Could you give it a shot? Now the song, right, the song is the main theme for Dia Witch Iroha!

Well, I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn’t that. I guess it makes sense though, this is Barry’s idolasphere, after all.

What!? After all that running around, you want us to sing some anime song!?

You can’t be serious… We gotta sing here?

This is too much…

Daitou TV always stick to their show schedules, even in emergencies. But really, man? Anime? HERE?

…I don’t know that song at all.

Oh, I remember Barry making a big deal about the limited-edition box set for this anime! I think…

I don’t even know why they provided the other choice, really.

Now, Touma! Sing! “Dia Witch Iroha” and “Masqueraider Raiga” both air on Sunday mornings, right? I’m sure you’ve got this!

What!? Wait, how do you even know that!? Look, Sundays or not, I’ve never watched that anime before!

Nope! Good voices. Fine voices! But none of you know the words! Come on, isn’t there something you can do?

Looks like we’ve just got to buckle down and learn the song… Let’s head back. We’ve got two professional singers with us, I’m sure we can do this.

What, you guys need a meeting first? Fine, let’s take five. But we’re on the clock here! Got it?

So, we’re stuck here until we can sing the theme song to Barry’s favorite anime. Time to head back to the studio!

Hey, Barry would probably have CDs and DVDs of “Dia Witch Iroha!”
sigh Why do I have to do all this research on a theme for an anime that I’ve never watched before?

And there’s a little poke from Ellie if it wasn’t immediately obvious what you needed to do.

To Iroha from Me

Let’s take a listen.

Everyone is intently listening to the music, but someone is clearly more into this than the rest of them. No points for guessing who.

Hmm, the professional intently listening and in love with it, or the panicking teenager?

Tsubasa, can you do it?

U-Ummm… If I had more time…

What about you, Kiria?

…

…This voice… It’s so…adorable…

Uh, Kiria?

Huh!? O-Oh, nothing! It’s fine, I’ll sing it… Please let me handle this.

Kiria Kurono’s soul as an entertainer has achieved a new awakening! Kiria’s inspiration has taken form as a new performa: To Iroha from Me!

Go go plot coupon!

All right! Next stop, the Bloom Palace! If Kiria’s shining with that kind of performa, we’ve got nothing to worry about!

Anyway, this is where I originally intended to end the last update, so I went and did a bunch of offscreen stuff between the last recording session and the next one. So here’s a bunch of out-of-place stuff that doesn’t really go anywhere!

Itsuki and Ellie get Sword and Fire Boost respectively.

Prize Winner increases the money and performa bonuses that we get for doing sessions.

And we get a host of new weapons, our total haul being the Poison Arc for Ellie, Mill Cutter for Itsuki, Yggdrasil Rod for Kiria, and Eligor for Touma. Now back to your regularly scheduled content!

So, now that we’ve learned the song, let’s blow the director away.

Dia Witch Iroha, Part 2

Well? Chop chop! Let’s hear it!

…Looks like I’m up. Leave it to me.

Dia Witch Iroha

Shining bright, I can feel a glowing light
Shining in my heart
Here comes a perfect magic spell!
(Healing!) (Feeling!) (Appealing!)
100% and reaching out to you -
Dia-Dia-Witch-Witch Sweet!

I’m Iroha, a witch in training!
Everyone ready?

1, 2, 3, 4!

Everything goes round and round…

Kiria is uh…exceptionally excited to sing this song, and you should really watch the video for this scene. That’s all I’m gonna say on that particular song.

So, what’d ya think?

Hm… This might be even better than the singer we originally had planned for the show… Awright, this’ll do just fine! You guys go wait in the next room! I’ll go on ahead!

Phew… Yeah. Not a bad song at all. Okay, let’s get going.

Immediately after the director, we run into the wrong side of a one-way door. Hang a left, and…

Well, we get ambushed first. At least there’s no savage enemies in this one!

So yeah, we hang a left from meeting with the director, and then immediately run into him again. Thankfully this is the last time.

Our guest musician’s performance got extended, and we can’t squeeze in the anime song…and the script got changed. Please deliver these new scripts to the tall guys standing outside. Book it!

“Book it”? Do you want me to make an appointment with them, or-

We gotta start shooting before the writer changes his mind, otherwise he’ll change the script again! It’s a race against time!

That countdown on the bottom of the screen isn’t a joke. I don’t know how long the timer is (based on when I got the halfway prompt, it’s around 10-15 minutes?), but if we don’t deliver all three scripts before it’s over, we’ll have to do the entire segment again.

The actual area outside is just another terrace maze. I’ll spare you the details and just hit the highlights.

Troublemaker increases the success rates of inflicting status ailments for the entire party as long as Ellie is in the active party. It’s…okay? Status ailments in general aren’t that useful, but it’s a nice support skill if you specc’d Kiria that way, I guess.

We finally run into a Blackscale Rider, and like their Fire Emblem counterparts, they’re basically just beefier peg knights. Same weaknesses, similar strengths, they just trade some Res for a healthy chunk of HP and Def. Would have been cute if they pulled from Radiant Dawn and were weak to Thunder instead of Wind, but TMS rarely acknowledges that those games exist anyway.

There’s three of these guys we need to hit, one each in the north, south, and east.

Itsuki trades Res Boost for Quick Step, which boosts his evade against physical attacks of all flavors.

Endless Act is as it always is, a filler skill that might accidentally save your ass some time.

And a handful of goodies scattered around the area. The performa is part of the combination for Itsuki’s Prize Winner skill, as detailed above.

Anyway, the whole thing is pretty easy, and as long as you don’t go out of your way to fight literally every single enemy you see, you should have plenty of time to get all the scripts out. Back to the director!

You can listen to that big guy’s live show. I don’t know what it is, but his techniques are really something. It’s not every decade you get to see a superstar! Go for it! Just don’t cause any trouble for the performer!

Phew! Okay, who’s hungry?

True to his word, we walk out the north door and we’re at the end of the dungeon. Next time, it’s Barry’s big show! See everybody then!

[BellaDante]

I didn’t care much for this dungeon when I played it, the puzzles felt like busy work. Though this upcoming boss fight is a real treat

[Artix]

One last order of business before we head into the Barry fight - new weapons.

The Killer Bow does exactly what you think it does, but the Brave Spear just provides a slight regen effect when it’s equipped. Come on Atlus, I want to see some multi-hit action here, don’t wimp out on me now.

Anyway, let’s get this train rolling. Barry awaits!

All You Need Is This Axe

Ngh, it’s strong… That’s a lot of negative energy coming from him.

If we can somehow separate them…

I know a few of you were hoping for Vaike (and Vaike would have been a great choice, not gonna lie), but Barry is all about heavy metal.

Draug is a knight from FE1, and like pretty much every character of that era, his characterization starts and ends with “Is a knight of Altea”. And like most Shadow Dragon characters, he’s the template that the rest of the series has followed, for better or worse. At least his SD art is nice, although admittedly it would be hard to be worse than whatever passes for a face in 1990.

Uncle Barry!

You shouldn’t have come! It’s too dangerous here - you need to go back to the office!

No, I will not be going back! U-Uncle Barry’s in trouble! I can’t just sit still and do nothing!

Mamori…

What’s happened to Uncle Barry!? Why is he playing the guitar with that monster!?

Barry’s being controlled.

Uncle Barry… He was…always by my side, cheering me on… And he was there for me whenever I was sad…

And he even saved me from that monster earlier… He always protects me! So…this time, I’m going to be the one to help Uncle Barry!

…

…

Uncle Barry…! Can’t you… Can’t you hear me…!?

Ma…mori…

Uncle Barry!

Do not listen…! You need only the axe in your hands…! Heed them not! Harden your heart! Yield to none! Withstand! Withstand! WITHSTAND!

Mamori… All I… wanted… was to hear… you… sing… Your… song…

Barry’s regaining consciousness…!

The man’s got guts… He’s fighting off the Mirage’s control with sheer force of willpower…! If we can give him one last push, he might be able to break out of the Mirage’s grasp!

Your song might be able to help him break free!

Me, sing…? Okay… I’ll do it!

Anyway at this point Mamori sings an abridged version of Raindrop Memories. The full version is in the next update so if you’re really curious you can watch the video, otherwise all that’s important is that she sang for him.

You have to listen… Hear my voice…!

Mamori’s song has overcome the Mirage’s influence. I had no idea she had this much power within her…

Mamori… So this is your song… your heart… I could feel the message of your soul… It made my heart pound, with a fiery eight-beat measure…!

Close your ears! Let not your feelings sway you! Deny your heart! Deny! Deny! DENY!

Even if I can’t listen, or I’m out cold, true feelings resonate right here! That’s what the metal’s about! You ain’t anywhere NEAR metal right now! You think you can control Barry goddamn Goodman… with THAT CRAP!?

And so we do the usual song and dance.

Now’s our chance, Itsuki! Break the connection, and sever the Mirage!

Gaaaaaaaaaah!?

All right, everyone! Let’s do this!

Boss Fight: Cursed Draug

Draug is, relative to when you fight him, probably the easiest boss in the game. There’s a lot of reasons for that, but the big one is that at the end of the day, he’s a glorified knight with boss levels of HP. And when we’re at the halfway point of the game, you have to do better than “a generic enemy with a couple thousand extra HP.”

As usual, our first priority is to kill off the extras, but especially the mages. Both the cleric and the red mages serve no purpose other than to cast Mediarama, and Draug has a lot of health that doesn’t need refilled three times a turn.

Of course, a turn one Labyrinth doesn’t hurt.

Draug has four tricks up his sleeve, the most basic of which is to hit for moderate axe damage. Depending on which mooks are alive, that can spiral into a nasty combo if he hits the wrong person, but you can see that even when hitting a weakness, Draug barely gets above 150 damage.

Unlike a regular knight, Draug has both the HP and the mooks to make Bodyguard annoying. This means we’re forced into using multi-target spells and abilities in order to hurt his remaining flunkies, and neither Tsubasa’s Mazan nor Kiria’s Mabufu is going to do much to the red mages. Time for another plan.

I won’t complain if the red mages want to spam spells on themselves, though. An interesting quirk of Bodyguard is that it still applies even when the attacker is one of Draug’s own, so the peg knight ends up poking Draug for minimal damage.

Okay, now you’re just showing off. That Mabufu would have killed the red mage and peg knight anyway.

Mad Dash is his final attack, and really the only one of any real threat. It’s powerful enough to instantly kill just about anyone except Itsuki, and he can drop it any time he wants, although he’ll only use it once a turn.

His final toy is a particularly nasty one, although it’s only really dangerous if he still has some mooks alive. Makarakarn reflects the next magic attack on the entire party, which is a problem when the boss has a glaring, magic-shaped weakness.

Unfortunately for him, Itsuki nulls electricity.

Reinforcements arrive on a 3-turn delay after you kill them. That’s not to say they’re a problem, just that you have less time than you might expect once they’re out.

And we have just the cure for a wayward cleric.

I legitimately forgot he even had Tetrakarn until I was writing this update. It could be dangerous if combined with Bodyguard, but he’s already in critical HP and we’re about to stuff him so full of magic that it won’t matter.

Good night, my friend. What a waste of a boss fight.

Right around here is the point when I realized that I never used Ellie and so she missed out on the experience bonus. Oh well, she got used a lot during the dungeon so I’m not really torn up over it.

And the last thing for the night is a quick round of skills. Itsuki picks up Elec Boost, Kiria gets extra experience off the bench, and Touma upgrades Skewer to Assault Dive.

Next time, the big finish to Chapter 3, and the halfway point of the game. See everyone then!

[XainZero]

Draug is Guard spelled backwards.That’s all you need to know about Draug.

Vaike OR Wallace would have been great as Barry’s Mirage.

[Fefnir]

Barry’s mirage outfit definitely looked more like Berserker Vaike than any sort of knight. Though at least making Barry a knight makes some sense given the current party doesn’t have much in the way of a tank character.

[Artix]

Draug totally has a real dialog portrait, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to record the entire intermission to get it for four lines of text. Anyway!

Indomitable Draug

Mamori… It was all thanks to you that I got back to normal. I’m…so grateful…

Thank goodness…! Did I…really help?

Of course, Mamori! Your song was wonderful!

Aw, it’s a happy ending for everyone. And Barry finally got to hear Mamori sing!

His spirit is indomitable… He’s a knight through and through.

His name’s Draug… and he used to fight by my side, as my partner. Mamori, please… Would you save him…? Will you become Draug’s Master?

Me…? Save him…?

It’s kinda hard to see over Mamori’s kimono, but there is a faint orb there. Time to welcome our newest party member.

That light… That’s Performa!

Per…forma…?

If you lend me your strength, Mamori, we’ll be able to save Draug!

This is… Mamori’s Performa… It’s such a warm light…

…Are you sure you’re okay with this?

…If Mamori’s loaded with this much Performa, she’ll be dragged into this fight whether she likes it or not. But if Draug’s the one stickin’ by her… that’ll be enough for me to rest easy.

I still don’t really understand about Mirages and Masters… but I was glad I could save you, Uncle Barry. I don’t want to just be protected… I want to be able to fight alongside everyone and protect them too!

Good… Draug’s a pretty decent guy. I’m sure you two are gonna get along just fine!

Mhm!

Are you ready, Mamori?

Yes… Please go ahead, Itsuki!

Well, there’s our man back to normal. Now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for…

Now that’s a set of armor to be proud of. Even TMS understands the importance of Fashion Souls.

And really, this is just to show that she has a comically oversized axe to go along with it. I’m not a very big fan of Mamori if we’re being honest, but for better or worse she nails the aesthetic.

Looks like you’re all good now.

Master…!

Hey, hold on there, Draug. I ain’t your Master anymore.

What…?

Draug… I need you to look after Mamori from now on. Awright?

Go on, introduce yourself.

I-I’m Mamori Minamoto. Um… There’s a lot I don’t know, a-and I’m still a child… but I’m pleased to meet you.

Child or elder, it matters not. It is my honor to make your acquaintance, Mamori Minamoto - my little Master.

I’m sure this is all confusing right now, but don’t worry. I’ll be there to help you out when you need it.

Thank you, Itsuki. I’ll be sure to do my best, alongside Mr. Draug!

My memories after my separation with Barry are mired in haze… I can scarce imagine how I was in such a state.

I lost Draug when that Mirage beat me. I’m guessin’ that’s about when the bad guys screwed around with his head. But, thanks to Mamori, Draug’s back to his old self… and soon enough, the station’s gonna be fine too! All’s well that ends well, right? HAHAHAHA!

Mamori joined the team.

This Isn’t Really Your Job

And with that, we’re back in the real world. Job well done, team.

It’s never that easy though, is it?

Mr. Hatanaka.

Ah, and everyone else! My, the whole of Fortuna Entertainment is here. What might be the occasion?

Mamori’s going to be on one of the Daitou TV shows, so we came for moral support…

Hmm. Are you sure? Somehow I get the feeling that isn’t the whole truth.

Er, I wouldn’t -

You’ll find you can’t fool me that easily, Itsuki. I think we both know what’s going on. I’m guessing you guys came out empty-handed just like me, right?

Empty-handed?

Originally, I was just here for a meeting… But as I was about to leave, I noticed some commotion in the studio. So, naturally, I thought it must be something to do with the incident before! But, as you can see, there’s clearly nothing out of the ordinary going on here…

Mr. Hatanaka… I don’t think you should get too involved in all this. Investigating these strange incidents isn’t really your job, is it?

Hahaha. True enough, true enough. But I was involved in that whole 106 fiasco, you know. You can hardly blame me for wanting to know the truth.

Still, it’d be best if you leave the investigation to the police, or even the media.

I suppose you’re right…

I’m only saying this out of concern for you.

Thank you, but I understand. I have too much work to take care of! I wouldn’t put myself in harm’s way. After all, I have a duty to spice up the entertainment industry of Japan!

Guys, I’m all for trying to keep civilians out of this mess, but something tells me “Leave this investigation to the police” isn’t gonna fly with someone who was directly involved with one of the incidents. It didn’t work with Mamori, and it sure as shit isn’t gonna work with the biggest name in entertainment.

What is it?

Apparently Daiba TV just had a huge corporate reorganization recently. They even appointed a new president. But this new fellow… Mahiro Tsurumi. He’s a bit of a strange one. And I’ve never come across his name before.

They haven’t made his background public, either… I asked my contacts if they knew anything about this Mahiro Tsurumi, but none of them had heard a thing. Even I can’t seem to pull any history on the man. Exactly who could he be?

Daiba TV… But why are you telling us about it?

Well it’s good for us in the business to know who’s running these stations, so it’s not as if it’s irrelevant. Well, until next time.

Yeah. Ms. Maiko said Mr. Horinozawa started acting strange around the time he accepted the job from DTV…

A reorganization at the network… Does this have something to do with the Mirage incidents…?

The game gives us back control, but there’s basically nothing left to do here. Time to head back to the office and bring this chapter to a close.

Don’t Be Too Hard On Him

Thank you, Mamori. And… Thanks for saving me, everyone.

I’m just so glad you’re all right, Barry…

Me too. But now that all that’s over and done with, Barry - you know how reckless that was? Geez!

He’s right! It’s downright stupid to just run in there by yourself when you’re not even a Master.

Yeah, okay, my bad… I just wasn’t thinking straight. All I could think about was saving Mamori.

W-We shouldn’t be too hard on him… Come on, Uncle Barry, just apologize!

I’m very, very sorry…

Yeah, me too.

I guess I’d just better keep working hard if I don’t want Mamori to leave me in the dust.

Bah! I can’t believe I almost forgot! All of you sit down, shuddup, and don’t even THINK about blinking!

That special, live broadcast had to be cancelled, but I’m glad they still called you back for a regular show.

Mhm! Everyone was so nice… I had a really great time singing there!

They told me, “Ms. Shimazaki, you must have seen her potential. I wouldn’t expect any less from Fortuna.” I heard nothing but good things! With this song and your cooking show, Mamori, the singing gigs will roll in!

Oh, I’m so glad! I promise to work my hardest!

Raindrop Memories ~ Mamori Minamoto (Full Song)

Raindrop memories,
A half-remembered history.
I’m trying to forget your voice,
Forget your scent, but I remember vividly.

Raindrop memories,
A melancholy elegy.
I’m sleeping in my reverie,
And I will never let them go.

And when you said goodbye, and left me all alone,
Was that all it took to let me fall?
If I had said sorry, a plain apology,
Would anything have changed at all?

Raindrop memories,
A half-remembered history.
Locked in my heart, I could never part
With this rainy memory.

[BellaDante]

Mamori being our tank is my favorite part of this game

[Artix]

This is an excerpt from the next update, but I want to get it out there now for poll purposes.

There’s also this little nugget that’s available to us. If you were paying attention to the Draug fight, you might have noticed that he dropped a Master Seal, and it does exactly what you think it does.

For the cost of one Master Seal a pop, we can promote any of our mirages to one of two advanced classes. This carries several benefits, including substantial stat boosts, access to unique weapons (and by extension, skills), and most importantly, a snazzy new dialogue portrait. We’re going to be using Chrom as our example here, but the fundamentals apply to everyone.

Great Lord is the “standard” promotion, and the one that emphasizes Itsuki’s Jack of all Trades nature. Stat-wise, it swings him from a slight physical bias to a slight magical bias, and this change is reflected in its unique skills. Several of Itsuki’s [X]-Elthunder session skills are locked behind Great Lord weapons, as well as Maziodyne (which is otherwise only available on Itsuki’s absolute final weapon), Mediarama/Diarahan and Healing Expertise. The crown jewel for Great Lord is the passive skill Aether, which makes it so that your attacks have a chance of decreasing enemy defense by 50% and healing you for 50% of your damage inflicted.

Conqueror, meanwhile goes all-in on making Itsuki a physical monster on par with Touma. It actually cuts your available EP by about 10%, but in exchange you get an extra ~15% HP and a full 10 points of strength and defense. Like Great Lord, Conqueror’s unique skills play up this specialization, with the [X]-Slash EX skills, Thunder Strike (heavy physical electric damage), and Strength Amp being the main draws. And as a side benefit you get to turn Chrom into Walhart. I guess it’s something?

Anyway, there are 14 Master Seals in the game, which is just enough to take every mirage through both paths exactly once. That said, I do not promise that we’re going to get every single Master Seal, nor that we’re going to double promote every single mirage. In fact, I’m going to say right now that we will promote everyone once before we start doing any class changing. So don’t pull any nonsense like promoting Caeda to Wyvern Knight to grab some skills before we actually put her in Falcon Knight unless you’re damn sure you can guarantee her that second Master Seal.

Seeing as we only have one Master Seal right now, it seems appropriate to start with Itsuki. I’m going to open this poll now, and do the actual promotion at the end of the intermission, so here we go: How do you want to promote Chrom?

[WordOnTheWind]

I see Great Lord gives Chrom a distinct leap of Res. Personally I’d opt for it on that fact alone but that might just be PTSD from Cormag speaking.

If Great Lord is selected, are we going to have a Breath of Fire 3 situation where the main character becomes the primary healer and is never able to emit mega-damage like they’re intended 'cause they’re always on support duty?

[CommanderKeene]

I’m pretty sure Tsubasa keeps picking up healing skills as well, and should be competitive if not ahead of Itsuki in most cases. She’s sort of the designated healer in this game.

[Artix]

And so we come to another intermission. Let’s get the compulsory stuff out of the way first.

Itsuki! You’ve been doing great lately… And that’s why I’ve prepared your third mission today!
You’ll never guess who I got to coatch you this time! Go on, guess.
Of course, it’s a secret until you get there. <3
You can start the lesson whenever it’s convenient for you, so just head to the Uzume Lesson Studio once you’re ready.

I’m Mamori Minamoto!
I hope you enjoy
“Microwavin’ with Mamorin”!

Hello! This is Mamori. I heard you had a Topic account from Tsubasa, and she gave me your contact.
I hope you don’t mind me contacting you like this. It’d make me happy if you’d message me from time to time.

Well that’s sweet. I’m sure we can find the time to-

ITSUKI!!! You got SOME guts to start messaging Mamori without my permission!
Barry goes wherever Mamori goes!! If you ever make Mamori cry, there’ll be HELL to pay! DON’T FORGET IT!!!

Why yes, he does literally message you in the middle of this conversation with Mamori. Barry’s nothing if not consistent.

If it wasn’t obvious with her mirage being Draug, Mamori is the tank of the party. She has a ton of HP (about 150 more than Itsuki right now, despite being three levels lower), a ton of defense, and…well, not a whole lot else. Her strength isn’t particularly notable (it’s about as good as Ellie or Itsuki, for reference), both of her magic stats are garbage, and she’s pretty slow. She’s also the only source of axe damage in the game, so regardless of how you feel about those things, you’re stuck with her. :shrug:

Anyway, before we move on to sidequests we have a little business in the Bloom Garden. Draug’s hanging out here, but he’s not feeling too talkative right now. Kind of understandable, really.

For starters, we need to grab Mamori’s radiant skills. Riberama is the opposite of Touma’s Estoma, in that it jacks up the encounter rate for a while. Great for grinding, largely useless otherwise.

There’s also this little nugget that’s available to us. If you were paying attention to the Draug fight, you might have noticed that he dropped a Master Seal, and it does exactly what you think it does.

For the cost of one Master Seal a pop, we can promote any of our mirages to one of two advanced classes. This carries several benefits, including substantial stat boosts, access to unique weapons (and by extension, skills), and most importantly, a snazzy new dialogue portrait. We’re going to be using Chrom as our example here, but the fundamentals apply to everyone.

Great Lord is the “standard” promotion, and the one that emphasizes Itsuki’s Jack of all Trades nature. Stat-wise, it swings him from a slight physical bias to a slight magical bias, and this change is reflected in its unique skills. Several of Itsuki’s [X]-Elthunder session skills are locked behind Great Lord weapons, as well as Maziodyne (which is otherwise only available on Itsuki’s absolute final weapon), Mediarama/Diarahan and Healing Expertise. The crown jewel for Great Lord is the passive skill Aether, which makes it so that your attacks have a chance of decreasing enemy defense by 50% and healing you for 50% of your damage inflicted.

Conqueror, meanwhile goes all-in on making Itsuki a physical monster on par with Touma. It actually cuts your available EP by about 10%, but in exchange you get an extra ~15% HP and a full 10 points of strength and defense. Like Great Lord, Conqueror’s unique skills play up this specialization, with the [X]-Slash EX skills, Thunder Strike (heavy physical electric damage), and Strength Amp being the main draws. And as a side benefit you get to turn Chrom into Walhart. I guess it’s something?

Anyway, there are 14 Master Seals in the game, which is just enough to take every mirage through both paths exactly once. That said, I do not promise that we’re going to get every single Master Seal, nor that we’re going to double promote every single mirage. In fact, I’m going to say right now that we will promote everyone once before we start doing any class changing. So don’t pull any nonsense like promoting Caeda to Wyvern Knight to grab some skills before we actually put her in Falcon Knight unless you’re damn sure you can guarantee her that second Master Seal.

Seeing as we only have one Master Seal right now, it seems appropriate to start with Itsuki. I’m going to open this poll now, and do the actual promotion at the end of the intermission. As a result of what you, the people, have decided, he’s going Great Lord - for now. We’ll see where that takes us in the future.

While we’re out and about, we also run into the guys Aya told us about. Let’s see how their rehearsal is going.

: Meow! Meow! Meeeooowww! Hiss! Oh, sorry… I was speaking in dog!

: You were?

: …Er, uh, yeah, you know the children’s story “Urashima Taro”? About that guy who carried an axe and had a dog…

: Huh? I don’t know of any story like that…

: …Of course you don’t because I made it up! C’mon Aniki! You’re supposed to yell at me! I’m the funny man, not the straight man!

Odagura and Aniki are supposed to be a Manzai comedy routine, which when it’s actually working, has the funny man and the straight man trading jokes back and forth, usually based on puns and other wordplay. Aniki is clearly out of it though, so I guess we’ll be taking another trip to Illusory Shibuya soon.

But first, we have something much more important to take care of.

Hey, Itsuki… Tsubasa’s just awful today…
Please, you gotta come help me!! Come to the lesson studio ASAP!!!

Why, Barry’s in need! To the lesson studio at once!

Alright Barry, lay it on us. What kind of awful things is Tsubasa doing to you?

This Negotiation Is Complete

If I don’t get this one, I wont have them all! I can’t concentrate on your lesson like this! You gotta lemme go! Please lemme gooooooooo!

Hrgh… Like I keep telling you, that would be a problem… Oh, Itsuki! Um, B-Barry is being unreasonable!

Oh. She wants you to do your job. That, uh…changes things.

What in the world’s going on here? And, what’s a Mamorin charm?

A Mamorin charm’s a charm of Mamorin! Do you not even get that!? But the L.E.'s already sold out… Retail stores are barren wastelands too… This Goodman’s a Sadman…

I can’t just stand around here! …Barry Goodman is off to Shibuya!

He’s been like this the whole lesson too… He says he can’t concentrate unless I let him go buy this charm…

I see…

This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance! Please let me go! Pleeeaaase!

I think we all know the correct choice here.

Please do your job.

Then… Then…! You go get it for me, Itsuki! If you do that, I’ll continue with Tsubasa’s lesson!

Itsuki…

I suppose I can…

Planned?

N-Nothing! Ahem, really!? You’ll seriously do that for me!? I thought you were a kid with no hope of getting ahead, but you’re surprisingly considerate!

Okay! This negotiation is complete!

Negotiation?

C’mon, Itsuki! Hurry up and get going! That charm is going to sell out if you keep wastin’ your time here!

I’m sorry that you have to do this because of me, Itsuki…

Don’t worry about it. This is all Barry’s fault anyway.

So yeah, Barry is holding Tsubasa’s lesson hostage until we get him a charm of Mamori. You didn’t think they were going to drop that little bit now that his big plot moment was done, did you?

GET THEE TO A HEE HO MART! THERE, YOUR PATH SHALL BE OPENED ONTO YOU!

Yeah, yeah, we heard you the first time. Thankfully the Hee-Ho Mart is right across the street.

The game will occasionally send you to specific places to buy something or get an item from a shop, and in those cases it’ll add a specific menu option just for that quest.

That’s a Bummer

So sorry… That item’s been flying off the shelves. We’re all out…

Is there any other way that I can get it?

It IS a limited-edition item… That may be a bit difficult…

That’s a bummer…

Hmm… Well, since you’re a regular, I could let you in on some insider info.

Hm?

I can tell you about the person who bought the last one, but the rest is up to you. Oh, and keep this between us.

Yes, of course.

All right. It’ll be easier to explain this over Topic. I can send the details there, so could I get your ID?

Itsuki exchanged Topic IDs with the employee…

Well then, please continue your patronage with Hee Ho Mart!

This, uh…seems highly unprofessional. But hey, not gonna argue!

Hello, hello!
Hi.
So, about the person who bought the Mamorin charm…
She was a woman with a great body in business attire and wore glasses…
But she nonchalantly came in midday to buy alcohol during a work week. I wonder what her job is…
That about sums up what I can tell you, though.
Thank you.
Good luck!

Glasses and casually bought alcohol during the middle of a work day? Well, we could go back to the office, but we’re going to briefly dive into some cut content. This particular quest chain (at some point in development) had some other ways to get a Mamorin charm, so let’s have a quick peek behind the curtain.

Welcome.

Hello…

…?

Uhm… Do you happen to have the limited edition Mamorin charm?

Uhm… I do, but…how can I help you…?

I need it. For… reasons. Is there any way I could convince you to part with it?

Hmm… Oh! Well, if that’s the case… Then would you…sample the new menu item I came up with?

New menu item?

I call it…the “Yakisoba Latte”! You eat and drink it at the same time… Perfect for the modern customer on the go…

…

Is that all right…? If you drink it, the Mamorin charm will be yours.

---

>I’ll take the challenge.

I’ll take the challenge.

I see. Then I’ll go make it now… I’ll put plenty of whipped cream on top for you…

---

>I don’t know…

I’m not sure about that…

Is that so…? I’m sorry… Then please forget what I said earlier.

I-I want to drink it… Please let me try it.

Okay. Then I’ll go make it, quick… with lots and lots of whipped cream.

---

Thank you for waiting… here’s your Yakisoba Latte, topped with plenty of caramel sauce and pickled ginger.

Itsuki downed the bizarre drink in one gulp…

How… is it?

Mmm… I think…you should set it aside. Indefinitely.

Ah… So it really is as I expected… I’m glad that I didn’t try drinking it.

You can try, if you want.

Sorry, no… I don’t want to put anything in my mouth that’s not delicious…

…

Thank you so much… for your cooperation… Here is the charm, as I promised.

Thank you very much. You’ve been great help.

Please come back again soon… I’m thinking of making a new latte with… raw liver, next time.

Itsuki, no, don’t drink the raw liver latte.

Anyway, the second one is far less interesting and I’m only really including it for the sake of completion.

…Hrm? What’s wrong?

Do you have the Mamorin charm?

Huh? I do have it, but… what happened?

Uh… A lot of things happened. I have to collect all the charms…

Oho! You just love Mamorin that much, eh…? All right then, here! Take this.

T-Thank you very much.

I’m actually on staff for “Microwavin’ with Mamorin.” So I can always just say hello to Mamorin herself, face to adorable face! For such a passionate fan, that can only see her on the other side of a screen… I’d be happy to give this up.

A fan, huh… W-Well, actually, I-

It’s fine! It’s fine! As long as there are fans with your zeal, I’ll keep making “Microwavin’ with Mamorin” with pride! So please keep watching “Microwavin’ with Mamorin”!

Good job random staffer, and thanks for your shit. Now, back to the office.

It’s Not For Me

Ms. Maiko, did you recently buy a limited-edition Mamorin charm?

Yes, I did. What about it?

I have a favor to ask. Would you please let me have it?

Ah, about that… Actually, it’s not for me. I bought it for Mamori because she asked me to.

She did?

Yep. I don’t have the charm anymore because I’ve already given it to her.

I see… Do you happen to know where she is now?

No idea… But it may be a bit difficult to convince her to part with it. She was reeeally happy about it, after all.

Well, I’ll try asking anyway.

Well, that uh…makes things a little awkward. Although, Mamori is a good girl, I’m sure she’ll understand.

HEY, ITSUKI! DID YOU BUY THE CHARM!?
COME BACK TO BASE AND REPORT IN!

Guess we should go give Barry the bad news, huh?

Well, I was going to try and hunt one down from Mamori herself but if that’s how you’re gonna be… :colbert:

Barry 4

sigh I’m so sorry that you’re doing this for my sake…

Hey, Itsuki! The goods, man! Where are the goods!?

Yeah, about that…

But… I can’t ask her if I can have it…

Uuuncle! Oh, Itsuki and Tsubasa are here too.

Ah, Mamori!

Just my luck. I was looking for you, Itsuki.

Hm?

Here you go! I wanted to give you this.

That’s…

That’s…!

Well, isn’t that poetic. The whole time we were trying to find a charm for Barry, Mamori was trying to find one for us.

Thanks, Mamori. I’ll take good care of it.

Mm-hm!

After all this nonsense, I don’t think we’ll be giving this up.

Sorry, but you can’t have this…

Of course not! There’s no way I can accept it!

Thank you for everything, Uncle! Sorry to interrupt, I’ll be going now.

Um… shall we continue my lesson…?

Mamoriiiiiiiiiiii!

Mamoriiiiiiiiiiii!

Barry seems happy, so I guess things worked out in the end.

Um… My lesson…?

Mamoriiiiiiiiiiii!

I don’t the exact increase in how much money you get, but frankly, does it really matter? The game hands out money like candy and seriously someone got paid to write the phrase “You were taught the art of finding joy in a shabby, undeserving 3D world.” I hope that person has a long and productive career.

[RadicalEddie]

Say, has that girl who woul have made you try that bad latte always been there? I never noticed her in my playthrough, but she’s definitely Ilyana from Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn.

Her defining personality trait is… uh… being perpetually hungry.

[Artix]

Yeah she’s always there, she’s the waitress in Seiren Cafe.