In the Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore game for Nintendo Switch, players help a group of aspiring performing artists fend off an otherworldly threat in a fashion signature to the brand of Atlus games, and with the help of Fire Emblem allies like Chrom and Caeda who’ve lost their memories and need a way back home.
Putting it this way, it may be easy to think Tokyo Mirage Sessions would be a confusing game to play, given that it’s conceptually unprecedented. That is not the case: the game in fact does a fairly good job of making sure the player has a strong grasp of its systems in order to enjoy it thoroughly to the very end.
Even with that in mind, we’ve prepared a variety of tips and tricks to help any newcomers catch on to things a bit quicker and hopefully make their time with Encore even better.
We’ll try not to cover too much about the things the game already explains to you, because it already does that well enough. Our little guide here is more for things we think you might like to figure out sooner and get you up to speed on what you should know.
Note: Some of the included screenshots in this article are from the Wii U version of the game.
Deciding on difficulty
In Tokyo Mirage Sessions, the main difference between each difficulty setting is how much damage you deal and receive in battle; there’s no special content for playing on a particular mode (besides a single Play Record, or achievement, for beating the unlockable Lunatic difficulty), so you can play on whatever you find most comfortable without concern over missing out on anything. There’s also a hidden Friendly difficulty you can unlock, if even Easy is still giving you game overs.
Be a friend to Tsubasa
Throughout the course of the main story, you, as the character Itsuki, will need to answer questions which involve another character, Tsubasa, one way or another. In short, it’s best to be a good friend to her. Share in her interests, be supportive of her, and overall respond to her showing you and her are on the same wavelength. The reason you want to do this is because you secretly accrue affinity points with the positive answers you give, and if you have enough of these points when you complete a specific side story, you will earn a special skill that can’t be obtained any other way. So be nice to Tsubasa if you want that, okay?
Stairs, the ultimate haven
As threatening dangers Mirages are, they evidently have one unfortunate weakness no one wants to talk about… They really don’t like staircases. The sirens which chase you around within the Idolasphere simply vanish if you lead them across or push them in any steps with your sword strikes, even the ones of the especially dangerous Savage variety. You can use this knowledge to your advantage if you need a breather from battles. In short, step onto some stairs for safety—Mirages will never catch you there.
Sweet luck with candy
Once you get through the prologue, Daitama Observatory normalizes into a spot where you can check out a candy wagon with a dispenser. At first, it may seem useless, because the candy dispenser hands you cheap, impractical healing items known as Kiddie Candies, but if you keep taking chances with it until it runs out, you’ll end up finding much better items, including the rare and powerful recovery item, Soma. Stop by the candy wagon every now and then, it can be worth your while.
Mind your resistances
Tokyo Mirage Sessions emphasizes knowing your enemies for success, but it’s also important to know yourself as well. Just as enemies have their resistances to types of attacks, all of your cast members have their own resistances too, and they can even change according to their currently equipped Carnage, or weapon. Stay on top of your game and always remember to review your conditions for the battles ahead; it can make a difference to swap into the right Carnage for a tough fight.
The perks of Carnage strengthening
Later in the game, you’ll unlock the ability to strengthen your Carnage, which allows you reinforce it with extra stats by crafting it over again with the same materials and giving you the option to relearn the skills that Carnage offers. But there’s more incentive to strengthening Carnage than just that: every Carnage has an additional inheritable skill which can only be learned once it’s strengthened for the first time. These extra skills allow you to further customize your characters with abilities they can’t normally obtain. Though this feature isn’t necessary to beat the game, it’s there if you’d like to experiment with your party’s potential.
Where to find the rarest loot
You’ll eventually come to learn that you can craft a few Carnage with certain rare materials (specifically, the Macca Converter and Interstellar Sefirot), but said materials are elusive to come by because the enemies are enigmatic in their origins. Don’t worry, we’ve located some of their best hiding spots, and you can thank us later when you’ll eventually want to hunt for them consistently.
We hope you enjoyed these quick tips and tricks for Encore! If you have any of your own to share, pass it on!
On a final note, we recently completed the Play Records page on our wiki of Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, and we welcome its use as a resource for completing Encore. In the near future, we aim to update that page with Encore’s additional content, as well as fix up any other of the game’s sections as needed. We appreciate your patience!
Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore is out now for Nintendo Switch!
