I recently finished chapter 2 of Tokyo Mirage Sessions FE: Encore for the Nintendo Switch. I previously published my thoughts on the prologue, chapter 1, and the first intermission. Continuing with the theme, I now cover chapter 2.

• The writing continues to be unimpressive when measured up against Fire Emblem: Three Houses, much less one of the modern Persona games. Here Tsubasa has a photo shoot. The shoot is cancelled when she fails to impress the photographer, who it turns out is at the center of the mirage-events in the chapter. The photographer has a past professional relationship with the terribly dressed Ms. Maiko. We resolve things by again helping Tsubasa become more confident. Tsubasa, I should mention, is now an honest-to-goodness idol after her mirage battling at the end of chapter 1 was (admittedly humorously) turned into material for a music video. I get the idea that each chapter will explore a different aspect of being an idol or entertainer (perhaps chapter one was finding a reason and chapter two the confidence to express yourself), but it is not quite delivering.
• I will admit some of the characters are growing on me a little. Kiria’s side story popped up in a tense moment in the main story. There, I learned that side stories can be pursued during the heat of the main story as if no main story as happening (feels a bit disconnected). Kiria is charming. If only she didn’t dress so weird.
• Speaking of fashion, I confirmed my suspicion in the climax of the chapter that this was one of the “censored” segments from the Japanese Mirage Sessions (Tsubasa models a weird outfit instead of a swimsuit). The script could have probably been adjusted to better explain Tsubasa’s discomfort modeling while fully clothed, but I wouldn’t have thought of it had I not read about the “censorship” years ago and I don’t think it moves the needle one way or another, so that will be about all I have to say on the subject going forward.
• The chapter two dungeon was a little bit better than the chapter one dungeon in three respects. Firstly, it felt less claustrophobic. Secondly, it did away with the awful “changing floors and bridging divides by traveling through maid dresses” mechanic. Thirdly, its design felt like it had something to do with the chapter. Unfortunately, it retained many of the flaws of the chapter one dungeon. As I complained in my chapter one review, it is hard to tell different floors in the dungeon, much less different sections of the dungeon, apart. This is fine for dungeons like the one in the prologue (which I described as “Temu Tartarus” (Persona 3 fans will understand)), where each floor has a clear beginning and end. It is not fine when each floor has multiple exits and one must progress and backtrack to unlock new paths. I lost a decent amount of time toward the end trying to find the exit.
• Kiria joins the player’s party at the end of chapter one. Having a fourth party member makes combat much more enjoyable. One issue in these dungeons (especially once you become lost) is seeing the same enemies over and over. Being able to swap active party members (only two plus Itsuki can be active at once) makes things flow better and opens up different ways to clear enemies. Moreover, it felt like everyone had a role to play in this dungeon (recall I complained that the enemies in dungeon one often left Touma with little to do).
• I continue to like the mechanic of inheriting skills from weapon mastery (one of the few elements of the game that feels more Fire Emblem than SMT/Persona).
• The boss battle was a good challenge. Despite playing on Hard, regular enemies never put me in a place of difficulty. But I did have to restart once in the boss battle after getting backed too far into a corner on my first attempt.
• But my toughest fight was Aya’s side quest. To clear her quest, I had to descend into the Prologue dungeon and fight an enemy. I took the quest when my party was around level 20. I faced off against 4-5 enemies clustered around level 25. I got close enough on my second attempt to try to power through, but I ended up needing seven tries at that low level to have things go my way. Unfortunately, the prize was not worth the effort and I would have been just as well served waiting until I picked up a few extra levels.
• The “savage” encounters are actually hard, hard enough that I haven’t cleared one since early in chapter one.
• I encountered my first rare shadows. Similarly to the rare “hand” enemies in Persona, they have very little HP, take very little damage, and are prone to running away. I did managed to defeat two of them.
• SP management continues to be a non-issue. The multiple check-points in the dungeon make it easy to leave and return to the same place. I often had reason to leave (beyond healing) in order to obtain new weapons for the party. I have not at any point thus far felt like I had to conserve SP.
• The difficulty contunues to feel balanced save for occasional spikes on “Savage” encounters or the Aya sidequest I noted. I have not felt under-leveled at any point while playing on Hard, and the ease with which the game hands out money and makes it possible to leave the dungeon to heal while generally maintaining your place contributes to the game being not difficult. I have felt no temptation to grind levels. When compared to its inspirations, I would say that it is slightly easier on the whole than the three modern Persona games on Hard. One point I will be watching is the difficulty curve. Persona 4 and 5 became easier in the late game because the growth of the party out-paced the growth in enemy difficulty (this was in my opinion a notable problem for Persona 4 Golden, the original Persona 3 FES had a better difficulty curve than Persona 4/Golden and Persona 5). I am inclined to think Mirage Sessions will be more steady, but we will see.
• I was introduced to a new character named Eleonora at the end of the chapter, so I suppose my party will be growing to five in chapter 3.

Despite its flaws, I am warming up to Mirage Sessions. The combat is fun and showy and while the writing is not great, I the cast is generally likable (although Tsubasa can be a little grating, which is unfortunate since she is the most important character other than the player). I look forward to seeing what happens in chapter 3 and finding myself lost in another dungeon.