#music supervisor seems like such a great job like how do u get in on that

[heroes-fading]

Do you know the song Losing You Memory by Ryan Star? I find it such an Joel to Ellie song when they are in that massive bitter phase. I mean with lyrics like

"Call all your friends

And tell them you're never coming back

Cause this is the end

Pretend that you want it

Don't react

The damage is done

The police are coming too slow now

I would have died

I would have loved you all my life" (that last line especially kills me given the second game :') )

And

"Wake up, it's time, little girl, wake up

All the best of what we've done is yet to come

Wake up, it's time, little girl, wake up

Just remember who I am in the morning"

I just really want to hear your thoughts on this!

remember when this was on tvd lmao

that soundtrack unironically slapped. so much of vampire media soundtrack goes so hard. the twilight soundtrack? whomever was the music supervisor for tvd? understood the assignment. iconic.

also the eternal sunshine of the spotless mind of it all.

i do love this song (more songs should have bagpipes) - and yes. i ignore tlou2 for my Mental Health but. IT'S A GOOD ANGST SONG.

if you want more angsty joel + ellie alienation/joel dead songs:

for blue skies - strays don't sleep

signs - bloc party

heart skipped a beat - the xx

someone great - lcd soundsystem

my backwards walk - frightened rabbit

wires - athlete (hospital coded thank u)

skinny love - bon iver

welcome home son - radical face

the devil's tears - angus and julia stone

agape - bear's den

anyway if you like emotional pain those should help

[prorevenge]

My teacher said I participate too much so I got her fired.

So here’s a little bit of context, I went to the same school from kindergarten to high school senior year, so I pretty much grew up looking at the same faces, from other students and staff. It was a private school and the classes were quite small so our interactions with the teachers was on a first name basis. Being an involved student, I had a great relationship with most of them. This will be important later.

Now to the story.

Second year of middle school, first day of classes; a new teacher is hired. To give you an overall description of her, just imagine Jabba the Hutt with small, pointed glasses. As we entered the classroom she continuously told us to be quiet. Mind you, the class hadn’t even started. She introduced herself as someone who doesn’t like music or children. I am not kidding or exaggerating. She actually said that. She went over the course material and the grading criteria. I honestly don’t remember, but participation did not count.

She starts teaching and my class low-key hates her. I didn’t like her either, but I liked learning. I participated quite often because A, I was actually curious about something or B, nobody answered and the wait time made me feel so uncomfortable to the point I would cringe. I don’t know why, but from the start she would mock my answers or my constant participation. Even my classmates who I didn’t even talked to called her out on this, and my friends straight up claimed she hated me.

So about three or four weeks into the semester she asks a question to the class and no one answers, as usual. I raise my hand after thirty second of awkward silence and she says something among the lines of “what a surprise”. I felt a little offended but I didn’t think much of it. She ignores me. “anyone else?” No one else was even paying attention to her so no reply. I understand that teachers want everyone to participate but the way she dismissed me felt like an insult. “ohkaykay_D, honey, we have heard to much from you already”. Now this doesn’t sound as bad, but her tone was definitely mocking me. I was constantly called a nerd and stuff like that and I was also told I talked too much by other students. (I also went pro revenge on them later, but that’s another story.) Her comments really hurt me, I decided to talk to her after class. You know, set things straight and be in good terms with her. I was in my best disposition to sort things out.

In the most polite and respectful manner, why she didn’t like me. I was so confused I mean she was the teacher. She also mentioned that I “participated too much” and that “my attitude was too arrogant and that I shouldn’t try that hard to prove myself” Class participation was not graded so I should just stop participating. Lastly, she called me for being rude and disruptive in her class. I was so confused. I was literally the only student who took her class seriously. I asked her what behavior was disruptive and she said that I was rude for the way I stared at her and that it distracted her. That was it. Being a troubled teenager, I decided to unleash my rage on her.

Pro revenge mode activated.

Part one: giving her my full attention.

I started small. The next class I sat quietly on my desk. No talking, no participating, no note taking. Just staring. I stared at her with murder eyes for the entire class. She would get so uncomfortable she would turn her back at me. I would copy the notes after the class from a friend, so my whole attention was on her. I wasn’t even bothered by the wait time. No one answered her questions and I would just stare at her thinking murder. After one week of this I knew she regretted her words to me because she would call out my name so I would answer her question. When I gave no answer she asked me if I was deaf. She would shout at me for not taking notes and overall be so pissed at me.

And. I. Just. Stared.

We had her class every day, so there was no escaping from me. Even in between classes. If I saw her anywhere in school I would just stop everything that I was doing and just stare.

She resisted one week. And I was called to the principal’s office.

Perfect.

Part 2: turning her own against her.

As I mentioned earlier, I had a very good relationship with the teachers. And I had learned that the other teacher’s didn’t really like her. I would discreetly tell them that I didn’t like her either because she discouraged me and that I didn’t like the way she spoke about her other teachers. Which was true. She would constantly belittle other classes such as PE, chemistry and math; basically, anything that wasn’t English was less important for her. I might have exaggerated some details, but most of what I said was true. This is when I found out that she would steal other teacher’s coffee mugs and sometimes even their lunches. My words were like wood thrown into a fire.

Part 3: Crocodile tears

A day or so after she told me she hated me I went into the counselor’s office and cried. I think I mentioned this before, but I was a troubled teenager and she had gained my trust. She also knew what type of student I was, so she was extremely concerned when I told her what Mrs. Magdalena had said to me and that I was so discouraged I was thinking about changing schools. I cried for like an hour straight and once I was “calmed down” I asked her for confidentiality. Which, I don’t know in other places but in my school it is sacred if the student reaches out and requests help. I knew she didn’t like it but she had to comply. I went about three or more times, describing every single thing she did to me. I exaggerated the details, but not enough for it to be unbelievable.

Part 4: the great finale

I was called into the principals office, who was like a second father to me. I walk into his office and I see him, Mrs. Magdalena with a malicious smile on her face, my counselor, and the department coordinator. I don’t remember the exact conversation, but my principal explained that Mrs. Magdalena had reported me for bad behavior and bad academic standing. She said that if I kept this way she would have no choice but to fail me. I knew she would be more than happy to fail me, but that the staring really made her uncomfortable. When I asked what I had done Mrs Magdalena said that I did not work in class. My principal asked to see my notebook and I showed it to him. Every single exercise and irrelevant detail written down.

My principal: “They seem to be complete” He raised an eyebrow in Mrs Magdalena way, who was shocked and annoyed. “was there anything else?”

She obviously didn’t had anything else. She was counting on me not having my work, and apart from that, she had nothing. She still tried to add to the situation.

Mrs Magdalena: “Yes, she does not participate in class and her behavior is disruptive.” When she said these words I saw my counselor lean towards me.

My principal: reading the grading criteria “Participation is not included in the percentages…”

Mrs Magdalena: Red with frustration. “She stares at me too much!”

All the time I kept quiet and with my eyes to the floor, as if I was genuinely scared and intimidated by her.

My counselor: “This is ridiculous. Ohkaykay_D, dear, may I share what you told me?” I nodded shyly and tried to make myself look even smaller. She told her everything that I had said and how bad it had affected me. I couldn’t have been more satisfied with what she said even if I had given her a monologue. It sounded as if I had being verbally abused and my mental health was at serious risk.

My principal: “Is this true?”

I nodded and almost in a whisper said “yes”. My principal nodded and told me that I could leave. As I left the office I saw Mrs. Magdalena’s face. She was so shocked. I made eye contact with her on my way out and I couldn’t hide a smile. Only she saw it and her face contorted with rage. You could literally see steam being puffed out of her ears and nostrils.

I later found out by both my principal and the teacher coordinator that they fired her because apparently, I was not the only one who had complained. My classmates had also been talking to other teachers about how she said she didn’t like children or teaching and that she was not good at her job. The teachers had passed the commentary back to their supervisors because they were concerned. They had also reported her behavior as a coworker and how she had a negative effect on the working environment.

And I never saw her again :)

​

(source) story by (/u/ohkaykay_De)

[oh-mother-of-darkness]

ASKS (28)

----------------

Anonymous said: Hi ily💓

I love you too! There is love in my heart and you may take some

Anonymous said: Hey hey hey Amesssss!!! what was the first fic you ever wrote?

Well. Technically the first written piece was a play I wrote at around 13? It was about all of the characters from the Percy Jackson series watching Disney’s Hercules together

My first bat fic was this one, back in I want to say 2014

Anonymous said: You are a snack . So cute ❤❤❤❤

[Lizzo voice] baby I’m the whole damn meal 

Anonymous said: You may’ve done badly but you looked fine as heck doing it. (I’m aroace—I’m not hitting on you, I promise). Besides, everybody has off days. Even lawyers.

akhfasufgdlfeas I appreciate the clarification <3

Anonymous said: For my summer job I went through a lawyer’s disaster of an office and let me tell you. 90% of it was Westlaw printouts. Those things are the effing best. They tell you what’s going on, they give you the info you need, they’re not weirdly complicated and hard to find—Westlaw. It may be prohibitively expensive and a symptom of the flaws in our legal system, but by golly it’s the best option.

When you hit that “forms” button......... the magic....... the beauty.....

andromeda270 said: My legal research class got us two free weeks of westlaw(I’m still in college) and when I didn’t finish a paper I made a free trial for the wrong site but they emailed me anyway asking if I was interested in buying and could they talk over the phone. I fessed up and they gave me another free week to work on a paper for some class

That’s how they get you!!!!

collidinglegends said: Lexis is shinier, WestLaw is better

Amen babe

Anonymous said: Please sleep

Who’s got the time

Anonymous said: hi !! quick question . I’ve followed you for a while and i think i asked you this previously but im not sure... do you write Duke ?? would you be comfortable writing him if i sent in a prompt including others in the fam ?

Sure, if I like the prompt. I write Duke every once in awhile, although I wouldn’t say I’m confident doing it. He’s a fairly new character and I stopped reading weeklys about the time I hit law school three years ago

Anonymous said: Hope you feel better soon... I'll pray for you

Ah thank you friend I appreciate you

areverieofchaosdreams said: I'm probably pretty late to this cause I'm not great at time, but your thing is making All the Feelings tm. But in a good way. You and dapanda were the first batfam blogs I ever followed, and it's been a helluva ride. Your way of writing things just pulls me in a way that few do, so thank you. :)

A single tear falls from my lashes, followed by several more because I cry a lot 

hades-in-a-handbag said: Your thing is being the embodiment of goth mom energy Don't know if it's just your literal handle or what but you're so encouraging and motherly and also dark and emotionally scaring with your writing. Very sweet, very spooky

goth mom energy 

Anonymous said: Omgggg ames, ginny is so grown up!!!!!

She is! She’s a teenager 

morallyunequivocal said: not a prompt but oh no i just made myself sad with that last ask

that’s a mood

Anonymous said: You make plushies? Wtf, how did you get to be so talented and adorable at so many things. You’re amazing and I hope law school goes well.

Oh you’re so so sweet

Anonymous said: What law school things have you learned that you could see the bat family deals by with?

Well, I’ve had to take classes about forming and maintaining businesses, finding tax loopholes, writing and litigating contracts, and real property. Those are all things that WE would deal with on the regular. I also took classes on juvenile and adult criminal law, evidence, and police misconduct, which all seem Bat-relevant. At this exact moment I’m taking family law, which would include adoptions, and I have in the past taken classes about trusts and estates.

Anonymous said: Noooooooo no nono 🙏🙏🙏 dont ignore her 💔

Bad kittens get ignored instead of cuddled

crayolapumpkins said: hope the printing isn't too boring !! + I'm loving the fics , your work is always *chef's kiss* !! thank u for ur hard work ✨✨✨

[heart eyes]

Anonymous said: Since you have a big brother and a tiny sister, with that huge gap, what do you feel when you see those Dick & Damian fics or headcanons where Dick sees Damian as both a brother and a son? I know it's kind of canon now, but fandom has even gone as far as having Dick adopt Damian in various situations. Their age gap and their positions in the family allows for that kind of dynamic and I know it's reality for a lot of people too. But what's Your opinions on this? And maybe your brother's?

Huh, that’s a good question. My littlest brother and I are ten years apart, and Dave will tell you flat out I’m his favorite sibling because when I’m home we do everything together. I think the thing those fics are collectively missing is that there doesn’t need to be a brother/father hybrid because the role of Older Sibling With Age Gap is already its own distinct thing. 

Dave and I don’t have the same dynamic as the kids I actively grew up with. We had very limited contact during his growing up years, because I was off at school. Now that he’s a teenager, we communicate like adults but with the caveat that I am In Charge. I dictate the agenda, and I make the decisions unless I choose to delegate them. 

I’ve indulged a request about an adoption before, but I don’t really like that idea very much. Like I said, I don’t feel the need to add “father” into a dynamic that already exists on its own. 

hollyhock13 said: Listen. You’re a middle kid, but not the middle middle kid. You’re towards the older end, but not the oldest. Maybe second or third, depending on how many siblings you have

Correct!

Anonymous said: That is the coolest blanket I've ever seen!!

Isn’t it just 

Anonymous said: We're having a big adoption event tomorrow in Houston and we sent all the animals in our shelter down there. Our supervisors are in Houston too so us few kennel techs left at the shelter are scrubbing the place from top to bottom. We have music playing on the loud speaker and just ordered pizza. It's a great day. :)

:D

Anonymous said: Pls continue the Tim and hallucination Damian thing im on edge

Anonymous said: Bls bls bls continue the tim hallucinating dami fic, bc its killing me in the best way. My heart. It hurts. That shit hurted.

maybe

Anonymous said: Ames, thoughts on the new joker movie?

I haven’t seen it, although I probably will when I get the time

Anonymous said: Idk if this is a secret, more like a guilty confession. I really, REALLY hope Damian turns out asexual, or at least romantically unattached. I LOVE that most of his good interactions are with his vaious Bat siblings, Jon, Maps and his pets. Everyone loves shopping him with varuova characters and it makes me hesitate to share my opinion incase I'm looked at weirdly. But having a character I look up to be asexual would be amazing.

I would really like that too anon

Anonymous said: what do you think about Drake & his new outfit?

ugly

Anonymous said: Alfred Pennyworth is the baddest bitch

You are not incorrect

bruciewayneisbatman said: Amy and Kenza are the bittersweet queens of this fandom. The both of you are absolutely evil and tooth-rotting sweet at the same time. I love you two for that, btw.

<3 thanks Esther 

[theindifferentdroid]

Bad Moon Rising: Epilogue [Modern!Kylo x Reader]

BMR Masterlist // AO3

A/N: I believe this needs no introduction. I think you all have waited long enough. Enjoy! (This is the last part of BMR. For real, this time.)

Warnings: Language

Word Count: 2,000+

The windows were rolled down in your car, allowing the warm, early summer breeze to flow in. Your music was turned up so you could hear it above the wind rustling past your ears. Though you had been working more hours than you'd prefer, you managed to get off early today. The crew was sitting around waiting for the sun to set to film some night shots, and your supervisor determined you'd be more valuable to them tomorrow, well rested. You gladly took the out. Making a last minute decision to treat yourself with some breakfast for dinner at the diner, you exited the interstate early. You knew where it would bring you, but you were over that now.

You had been this way enough now you knew where to swerve to avoid the potholes; you'd never let that happen again. And you knew right where Kylo's house came up in the route, always sure to adjust your radio or sneak a glance at your phone as you drove past. You had simply decided not to make your life less convenient because of whatever it was you had.

Today, though, you were distracted. By what, you didn't know. You may have just been giddy to leave work early. But soon enough you avoided the pothole and then...

There was someone. Someone standing on the sidewalk just up ahead, right where Kylo's house was.

"Shit," you whispered, as if you'd speak any louder you’d draw attention to yourself. "Shit. Shit. Shit."

Your foot subconsciously let off the gas pedal, and your car gently slowed down. Your eyes were transfixed on the person standing on the sidewalk, your head turning slowly to keep your eyes on them as you drove by.

Dark eyes met yours through your passenger window. Your car drifted unknowingly, far enough to barely scrape your tire on the curb, before you corrected violently, slammed your foot on the gas, and skidded away on screeching tires.

You gripped your steering wheel, your knuckles turning white. "It's okay. It's fine," you panted between breaths.

You weren't driving for another thirty seconds before you flew across the left lane to make a U-turn. As you sped back down the road, it was quiet, your internal dialogue disappearing, which was maybe for the best.

You made another U-turn a minute later, floored the accelerator and reached well above the posted speed limit until you slammed on the breaks in front of Kylo's house.

He was still standing where you'd last seen him.

You got out of your car and slammed the door behind you with a huff. Kylo stood unnervingly still on the sidewalk, even when you stomped up to him.

"Hey," he said.

"What the hell was that about?" you asked, ignoring his greeting. Your voice was high pitched and straining. Your face felt warm.

Kylo opened his mouth to retort, but you didn't give him time.

"You- you're just going to stare at me like that?! Watch me drive by-"

Your words were suddenly drowned out. A car rolled painfully slow down the street behind you, loud, incomprehensible music blasting from the windows, accompanied by some rattling of some part of the car. Once it had passed, a weirdly sweet smell wafted in the air between the two of you.

"Come inside?" he asked. His face held something hard to read, but his voice seemed sincere.

You sighed heavily, your jaw clenched tightly. This was not what you had planned for the rest of the evening. Not even close.

You answered his offer silently, walking past him and up the steps to his house, pausing at the door to wait for him.

It wasn't until he stepped past you to open the door and you stood frozen on the porch that you realized how nervous you'd suddenly become. You half expected to look in and see bullet holes littering the walls or Snoke lying on the ground where you'd left him. A nightmarish image flashed in your mind of what a body might look like after all this time, and your chest tightened with anxiety. 

Kylo stood inside the door patiently, no doubt coming to this realization himself. You made eye contact with him and the corners of his eyes wrinkled. "It's okay. Come in."

You took a cautious step inside and felt immediate relief. The furniture had been rearranged; the layout suited the space much better. The walls were patched and repainted, a shade different if you remembered correctly. The windows were open, and a comfortable breeze blew across the living room. It felt like a different house altogether.

He motioned at the sofa as he walked to the kitchen. "Make yourself comfortable. Want something to drink?"

You took a seat silently, mulling over the question.

Kylo spoke up again. "Do you want coffee? I have coffee."

Just then the smell hit you; it had been diluted by the fresh air pouring through the windows. It was comforting. "Sure. Thanks."

It suddenly felt like you were going to be here a while.

A few minutes later, you were both seated on opposite ends of the couch in fairly awkward silence, interrupted by careful sips of hot coffee. Kylo eventually put his mug down on the table in front of him, crossed his leg over his knee, and faced you, resting his arm on the back of the sofa.

"You look good," he said, his voice calm and deeper than usual. Your hands were warmly wrapped around the mug, but you felt the hairs rise on your arms.

"Thanks," you answered quietly, before looking up at him. You had missed that face. It hadn't changed a bit. His hair was a little shorter, more managed, but it still softened the sharpness of his features just the same. "So do you."

His stare was stoic and silent. You tried not to notice the emotions you read off of his face.

He sighed heavily before running his hands through his hair and breaking the eye contact. "It's, uh, been a while."

"A year and a half," you quipped, your voice a little more biting than you'd wanted.

Thankfully, Kylo was kind enough to ignore your tone, and you wondered if he maybe felt the same way about the amount of time that had elapsed.

"So," he began, trying to stir the stagnant air. "What have you been up to?"

You cursed the loaded question, wondering if he was being nosy or polite. He likely didn't want to hear about the couple of months of therapy you had done. Or how you only just recently began to sleep through the night uninterrupted. Or how you haven't had the heart to so much as look at another man in the last eighteen months.

"I got a new job," you decided to volunteer.

Kylo's body language shifted, his shoulders drooped, and he leaned forward to grab his coffee mug as a distraction. "Did you get fired?" he spoke softly into his mug before taking a sip.

"Oh. No! No, I didn't get fired." You recalled how you had basically blamed that on him that night. Actually, you'd blamed a lot of things on him, whether he deserved it or not. "I quit that place about six months ago. I got a job at a small production company around here."

"No shit! That's what you've been wanting to do, right?" He returned his gaze to you again, and you nodded in agreement. His eyes were bright now. "That's- that's great."

"Yea. I'm basically just in charge of the extras. Mostly paperwork and herding groups of people. But it's a step in the right direction."

He smiled at you. You missed that grin. "That's great," he repeated.

It got quiet again quickly, your gazes falling away from each other. The next logical route the conversation should take would be about Kylo's job. You weren't sure you wanted to go there.

"I quit my job, too."

You looked over at him, but his eyes were fixed on a distant spot across the room. You didn't know what to say.

"Well, not 'quit,' but I don't to that anymore. I'm just an advisor, I guess. I let Phasma take over after, you know...."

You furrowed your brows at him, a slurry of emotions coursing through your chest. You didn't want to speak. Not yet.

"And I don't think I'll be doing that for much longer. She's sharp. She's got it figured out. I'm actually going to see if I can go to work for my dad. He - "

"Stop," you said. You were gripping onto your mug so tightly it was shaking, so you slowly moved to set it down. You stood up quickly and began to pace the living room. "I don't want to hear how you've changed if this is all just some ploy to get me back. It's not that simple."

"Y/N. No. It- It's not that at all." He paused. He gripped his hands over his knees, and you could tell he was restraining himself. A heavy sigh escaped his lips before he gently stood up and walked up to you. "I swear to God I thought I'd never see you again."

You bit your lip to keep your emotions at bay. And also to keep from telling him the same thing.

"I changed because I didn't want to be that person anymore. I had been around those people for so long, I didn't realize how fucked up it was until I had someone to show me." He paused to swallow a lump in his throat. "I did it for me, but if that helps me get you back - if I even have a chance - I won't complain."

He reached out a hand to you, but you could only stare at him as he towered over you. A shiver ascended your spine as his fingers ghosted along the inside of your bare forearm until he got to your hand, grasping it in his.

"I never thought I’d see you again, either," you said. His dark eyes had erased any sensible response from you brain.

"Did you want to?"

You closed your eyes, focusing on nothing but the feel of his skin against yours. You squeezed his hand and squeezed your eyes shut tighter, taking a deep breath. "I missed you," you whispered, an answer and a confession.

Kylo didn't move and didn't speak, so you slowly opened your eyes to look at him. His facial expression was endearing, a sort of relieved excitement spreading across his features.  "You did?"

"I did." You raised your free hand to his face and accounted for everything you had missed. You ran your hands through his hair - shorter but still just as soft - and twirled a wave around your finger. Next, you trailed your fingers along his jaw line while your eyes scanned to make sure all of his moles were still in place. His full lips depressed just slightly under the pressure of your thumb.

"I did," you repeated.

"I’m sorry, Y/N. I really am."

Your heart jumped at his words. You had always dwelled on the fact that you’d left without an apology from him, but it meant more to you now than it would have then, you were sure of it. A knowing, somber smile pulled at the corner of your mouth.

"I'm not going to ask you to forgive me. I don't expect you to. But," he paused and cradled your chin in his hand. "Can we start over?"

You felt the flush in your cheeks as his face crept closer, his breath fanning across your face. "I'd like that," you answered.

Instead of going for your lips, he raised his face and planted a long kiss on your forehead. You nearly moaned from the deprivation of his lips against yours, but figured he was right to do so. If you were truly starting over, you might as well go back to the beginning.

You pulled away slowly, gently letting his hand slip from your grip. You stuck out your other hand in between the two of you for a handshake.

"Nice to meet you, Kylo," you said, grinning cheekily. "I'm Y/N."

A deep chuckle came from his chest. "Please," he began, taking your hand in his. He raised it and placed a chaste kiss to your knuckles. "Call me Ben."

[entergamingxp]

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore review

I love a good crossover, even if they’re often limited to fighting games and online events. It’s exciting to see developers being fans of each other and working together to interpret and merge each other’s stuff, culminating in an enthusiastic collaboration across the industry. With this in mind, Tokyo Mirage Sessions, a crossover between the Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei series, sounds like a pretty fantastic idea.

Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore review

Developer: Atlus

Publisher: Nintendo

Platform: Switch

Availability Out January 17th on Switch

It focuses on the friends Aoi Itsuki and Tsubasa Oribe. Ever since Tsubasa’s sister Ayaha disappeared during a concert five years prior, the timid girl wants to become a singer to continue her sibling’s legacy as an entertainer. During her very first audition, Tsubasa is attacked by mirages, demons who are after the natural artistic ability within humans. To fight back, Tsubasa and Itsuki gain the power of Chrom and Caeda from the Fire Emblem series, who help them change into magical “carnage forms”. Unfortunately their new friends have lost all memory of who they are and where they’re from. The only thing that’s clear is that mirages regularly attack entertainers, so what better way than to join an entertainment agency to keep an eye on these occurrences?

It’s not the smoothest integration of a theme into its setting, but the entertainment industry gives Tokyo Mirage Sessions its own identity beyond being a crossover, in ways both good and bad. Let’s start with the good: Tsubasa and friends are training to become idols, Japanese all-around entertainers, and Tokyo Mirage Sessions makes great effort to showcase different facets of the job. Each chapter is dedicated to another aspect, whether that’s being a model, an actor or a show host. Chapters also often culminate in short anime music videos of your characters performing a new song. The round-based battles take place on a stage, a mass of adoring fans following your performance from the stands. Your characters whirl around acrobatically, draw their signatures in the air for every spell and cheer for each other. Each hero is wearing elaborate costumes that spell love for magical girl and boy design. If you complete side quests for the members of your party, they gain special attacks reminiscent of their signature performances. Each win is celebrated with applause and an amount of confetti I haven’t seen since Ace Attorney.

Without this stylish veneer however, combat is a familiar affair. Similar to the Persona games, themselves a sub-series of Shin Megami Tensei, offence is the best defence, and you have the best chances of winning if your opponent doesn’t even get the drop on you. If you can exploit an enemy’s weakness, for example by attacking them with a specific weapon or spell, you start a Session. If they have the right skill equipped, during a Session your other team members get to chain an attack immediately to yours, more often than not leading to a monster’s immediate demise. Battles are vibrant to watch without dragging on, and I loved every unnecessarily bombastic transformation and attack. If they still run too long for you, the Encore version now allows you to enable quick sessions and skip special attack sequences with the press of a button.

Combat is energetic, fun to watch and generally over quickly, though randomly appearing savage enemies sharply raise difficulty.

I also liked the dungeons. While the first one is pretty drab, the subsequent ones follow the style of the different chapters and each come with a different gameplay element. In one dungeon depicting a TV show set, for example, you run errands for a demonic production supervisor.

So far so good, but while I enjoyed Tokyo Mirage Sessions at first, as a crossover it’s decidedly weak. It retains the modern Tokyo setting from Shin Megami Tensei, but there isn’t much to do. Some characters, like Tsubasa, are really likable, others fall flat because they often only talk to you instead of each other, so don’t expect too much depth in the social element. During main quests, dungeons are pretty large, as typical for an Atlus game, but each features only one unique gameplay element, so after a while you will have done the same thing for hours, whether that’s solving switch puzzles or navigating changing floor layouts. To fully heal your party and unlock new skills, you have to visit your agency, so while you gain the ability to warp there early on, you still have to traipse back every time, a far cry from just having the entrance to the Velvet Room at the beginning of each dungeon.

It takes more than half of the game for Tokyo Mirage Sessions to remember that the #FE in its title stands for Fire Emblem. Generally, the Fire Emblem influence remains incredibly easy to ignore, certainly due to the Fire Emblem developer Intelligent Systems hardly having had a hand in either design or development. That makes Tokyo Mirage Sessions approachable for people who are unfamiliar with either series, but it seems odd to market something as a big crossover of two beloved properties and then skimp on the crossover elements.

Your friends are eager for your good opinion, but they’re not as fleshed out as other SMT protagonists.

With this in mind I wanted to judge Tokyo Mirage Sessions purely on its merit as a magical idol RPG, which raises a few difficult points. The whole idol industry has been a pretty niche interest in the West, until Korean idols such as BTS turned into international sensations. The idea of magical girl idols, who sing and dance by day and transform into fighters for justice by night, was devised with young girls in mind, right until the moment someone realised that there’s a lot of money in sexualising this concept. That’s where Tokyo Mirage Sessions comes in, because it’s not a game made for a target audience of young girls, but what quickly turned out to be the new number one customer of the idol industry – guys who like their girls to be what we consider barely legal, or let’s be honest, not at all. The idol industry sells itself in the perceived innocence of its performers. While several local different local laws apply, the age of consent in Japan is 13, which is why what we consider the sexualisation of minors is in fact perfectly legal, if still questionable and a very convenient loophole to sell idols not to hormonal teenagers, but adult men, whose gaze is the predominant focus of the game (as it is for most of the video game industry).

Protagonist Itsuki was purposefully designed as an everyman, an unassuming dude in argyle sweaters who is enough of a blank page that through him, players can live the fantasy having an idol all for themselves. “What do you think of my outfit?” Tsubasa will ask him, “How about this pose?” “Uwwah, help me, I’m so embarrassed to show myself to others like this, but doing this for you feels natural!” There’s a side quest in which Itsuki teaches his friend Touma “nanpa”, picking up women on the street. Just like any sort of pick-up artistry, nanpa is rarely associated with someone bumbling “Hey, come here often” and more with rape at worst and sleaziness at best. Yet, Tokyo Mirage Sessions makes Itsuki into a napa master, the hero popular with all the ladies, and only after the fact does someone ask if picking up women is really the best way to become a successful entertainer.

Of course a lot of Japanese content uses fanservice, but Tokyo Mirage Sessions is made uncomfortable by the reality of the industry it portrays. The idol industry is real, and directly responsible for the expectations fans have of how women should look and behave. In order to seem available, idols are barred from dating, leading to incidents such as obsessive fans threatening them for being seen with male idols in TV shows or private outings. Minami Minegishi, members of Japan’s largest girl idol group AKB48, once shaved her head as penance for dating. In 2016 Tatsuya Yamaguchi, bassist of hyper-popular idol band TOKIO, admitted to having tried to kiss an underage girl he frequently invited home with him – he’d promised to make her a famous idol. Just last year, an executive at an idol agency was convicted of several cases of grooming. Several idols were convicted of drug possession, in Japan a career-ending event, and most idols admitted that without stimulants they couldn’t keep up with their extraordinary workload. There’s a large cost in upholding the fantasy of the idol, especially for young girls.

Side stories and some good old grinding in special dungeons meant to help you earn experience points help you quickly unlock skills and new special attacks.

Nintendo released a cut for Western territories. Changes include raising almost all character’s ages to the age of consent in most countries, deleting panty shots and the revision of overly revealing costumes. Additionally a quest focusing on gravure modeling, a term for idols suggestively modeling in swimwear and underwear, was completely reworked to focus on fashion modeling instead. In an interview with Game Informer prior to the game’s original Wii U release, representatives from Nintendo America stated that “It was a priority to ensure the game feels familiar and appeals to longtime Atlus fans. Any changes made to the in-game content were due to varying requirements and regulations in the many different territories Nintendo distributes its products.”

While the Encore version also adds DLC content such as costumes, a new song and the albeit limited opportunity to have support characters further help out in battle, this Switch version is otherwise based on this altered version. I find the changes easy enough to ignore and I think anyone who gets incensed about less exposed skin on their anime girls should perhaps take a healthy walk around the block, Tokyo Mirage Sessions is still plenty sexual. Elements from boob jiggling to introducing characters cleavage first to many costumes that remain as revealing as ever can still be found.

If you want to truly learn more about the idol industry, here you’ll hear mostly platitudes, and beyond that all elements from characters to combat stay rather simple. As it stands, Tokyo Mirage Sessions is a stylish game with a unique theme that’s as often questionable as it is cute, but it doesn’t reach the depth of either of its crossover franchises to leave a lasting impression.

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/01/tokyo-mirage-sessions-fe-encore-review/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=tokyo-mirage-sessions-fe-encore-review