There are quite a few gems tucked into the Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE OST, but this is the song that stuck out the most. That means it gets today’s spotlight while every other song is forced to languish in the shadows. Sorry, other tracks.

Quest Battle plays pretty selectively as you go through the game — it essentially pops up whenever you’re doing something important in a sidequest, and has a pretty distinct opening that tells you it’s serious time whenever it starts. The synth lead is pretty cool, and then things get quiet again at the halfway point. I always love music that shows off the juxtaposition between louder moments and quiet, especially when both are so effective.

I wrote about the game quite a bit in an earlier piece, but there was one part I didn’t touch on: how both the Shin Megami Tensai and Fire Emblem properties ended up feeling underutilized. I think this was one of the main complaints people had with TMS as a whole, and I agree to some extent. The game might have been better served not advertising the Fire Emblem side so heavily, because outside of their use as effectively the Personas of this game and a few small snippets of story, that series’ content just isn’t that prevalent. Personally, I didn’t mind the balance all that much, but I can see where people are coming from. Then again, the box cover art seen at the top of this post only has Tiki and a bit of Chrom (the Awakening logo tattoo on Itsuki’s cheek), so…

I haven’t quite finished Tokyo Mirage Sessions yet, because in one of my recent sitdowns with the game, it froze while looking through character bios. From my time with it a couple years ago, I seem to remember this not being an isolated incident — whether that’s because of the game itself or just our particular disc, I’m not sure. In any case, those setbacks always piss me off a little bit, because I hate having to do things over; the best approach for me is usually to walk away for a bit and come back later. So I’ll be putting the finishing touches on ♯FE pretty soon, and hopefully get to hear this track one or two more times along the way.

Quest Battle (Tokyo Mirage Sessions)

Music to My Ears covers soundtracks or individual songs from video games. You can view all posts in the series by clicking here.