Game Review | Tokyo Xanadu eX+

Ryu’s Opinion

Tokyo Xanadu eX+; a massive action RPG from the masters of the genre, Nihon Falcom! When high school student Kou Tokisaka encounters the nightmare realm known as the Eclipse, his world is forever changed.

In this definitive version of Tokyo Xanadu, experience the game in 60 FPS along with new scenarios, new playable characters, new modes and more!

This game took me by surprise. While I knew it was coming out I hadn’t considered what type of game it was, as a result it wasn’t on my watch list. When it finally landed I was reluctant to pick it up, but seeing it was a ending of some of my favourite games; I took a gamble. Now lets explore it paid off!

Tokyo Xanadu eX+ is an enhanced version of Tokyo Xanadu which was released initially on the PS Vita back in 2015. This early version of the game was also released in NA in June 2017, so it was actually only out for mere 3 months before it was superseded by the new enhanced version. Though this version is not available on the PS Vita, and is only on the PS4 and PC.

What this means is that the Vita purchases were essentially taken advantage of (IMO) and given a lesser game than what was later released.

This game takes elements from my two favourite games, Persona (P3P and Golden) and Trails of Cold Steel. Which makes for an excellent game, mechanically. What elements does it take? The social and school life of Persona, building social links, working part time, making friends and romance. And the dungeon crawling mechanics of ToCS. Even the loot gathering of the game is ToCS, gems, chests etc etc.

Let me be clear about this, this is not a bad thing, quite the opposite its a great thing! Since these are some of the best elements of their respective games, and Falcom have done an amazing job of transferring these to a new IP.

Before we go on lets quickly go over the new stuff for the eX+ version of the game. Supposedly they reworked the entire engine making it more stable and increasing performance. And on that aspect I can totally agree with it! I’ve been playing the game on PC and frankly it’s never once gone below 60FPS, even when I’ve been in intense fights with specials and effects flying all over the place. So I can’t praise Falcom enough for that!

Sadly the supposed upgrade to the graphics is almost unnoticeable, and frankly at time it jumps out that this is a upscaled Vita Port, with block cars without moving wheels driving down the road. I for one was greatly disappointed by this, not because the graphics are bad, but rather because at other time the graphics are pretty solid. In truth the only graphics that seem to have been updated are the character models, and they do look good, but it’s contrasted by how bad (at times) the rest of the game looks.

Another aspect that was changed, and the debate is raging over whether it was a good change or not, was the difficulty. When the PS Vita version was released it was really hard, it was equated with being dark souls level of difficulty. Only with the feed back as to why you died so often. So in this enhanced version the base game difficulty (normal) was tweaked to be more easy, and the easy mode was made a cake walk for those only interested in the story.

Falcom also added a skip mode, so as you can skip the story mode, ideal for those that completed the vita version. However be careful as it does skip over some key points, namely the chances to upgrade your stats in the story mode (think the questions in P4G at school). But it’s still good that it’s there!

We also get entire new side stories at the end of each chapter. These basically flesh out the side characters and give extra story, which is never a bad thing! But it does nicely address the issues of the previous game where the side characters were rather lack lustre and had no substance to them. You also get an after story, which takes place….after the story 😀

While none of these change the core of the story they lend it more substance and make the wold you’re playing in more complete and alive.

Now lets talk story, sadly it’s nothing earth shattering. It is however a good and solid story. It follows Tokisaka Kou, a high school kid who lives on his own, and breaks school rules by having multiple jobs. Things take a turn for the worse and he ends up dragged into the world of Eclipse where he ends up running through dungeons. Initially to save his friends, and ultimately…well cause he’s the hero and it’s expected.

Of course he’s not along, he’s got multiple friends to help him out, along with a harem and the usual tropes you get in these games. While the story isn’t bad it’s not great either. That said I did find the story interesting enough to support my playing the game. Truth be told the only thing I found frustrating was that literally everyone you meet knows of the Eclipse bar you. For something that was supposed to be secret way to many people know about it.

Unlike the Persona games, which let you off the leash after the prologue, letting you do what you like and just reminding you that time is passing by and running out, bringing a sense of urgency and drama to your playthroughs. Tokyo Xanadu doesn’t do that, rather it leaves the leash firmly attached to you and drags you through the story.

While the time element is there, it’s nothing more than simply a clock. The game tells you directly when you’re on free time, when your on dungeon time and when it’s work time. You can’t change what your going to do and you have no control over the pacing of the story, unlike Persona games.

On the one hand coming from Persona, this can feel restricting and stifling for a while. However as I played the game I found the pacing to be such that it wasn’t an issue. The restricting feeling never really left me, even after completeng the game, but ultimately it wasn’t game breaking. And I think it actually works well enough. Not every game should be open like Persona, as that style of game is harder to write for, and getting the pacing right is hard, something even Persona struggled with.

Now lets talk combat, I can’t sing it’s praises enough. The combat is both simple, but difficult. It very easy to fight initially, as it really is just button mashing. However as the game progresses it starts to become harder as it punishes button mashing. When you add in the specials it becomes a very satisfying event. One that does ultimately reward you becoming good at the game, which is something we don’t really see a lot of these days.

As you go up in the difficulties the spikes in difficulty make it impossible to button mash your way through, and you genuinely have to learn combos and timing. I can’t praise this enough! Falcom made a good game, into a great game with this combat system.

In truth, the only thing I don’t like about the combat is that it’s single persona only. You go in as party, but only one member is active at a time. Though, admittedly while I don’t like this personally, I have to admit that the way they incorporate it into the game, with your party members having different elemental affinity makes the combat more interesting. As the mobs you fight will have elemental weaknesses, and if you attack with those elements you get more loot and higher rating.

So after all that you’re probably sat there thinking I’m gonna tell you to go out nd buy the game now right? Wrong! As much as I love this game, and as much as it’s going to be my new Persona game, I honestly can’t recommend it. And thats due to Aksys Games (the publisher) going for price gouging on the game.

Currently the steam version, here in the UK, is £46.49, and also has a further £33.07 in DLC for a staggering £79.56 for the complete pack! The PS4 version is even worse with a base price of £54.99 and £52.97 in DLC…the exact same DLC as the PC version I might add. so buying everything on the PS4 will cost you £107.96.

if that’s not price gouging I don’t know what is! And yes I’ve heard all the arguments about how it’s just ‘fluff’ content, and my answer is SO WHAT. The fact that it’s content, regardless of what it is, doesn’t change. Paying more than £100 for a PS Vita game is frankly disgusting. PS4 is always over priced so I expected it there. But on PC I found this disgusting. The base game should have been around the £30-35 mark, with maybe a max of £15-20 for the DLC.

Bear in mind this is not new game, it’s a game from 2015. Just imaging if they had released Persona 4 Golden or Trails of the Cold Steel for £45, no one would have bought them!

So no, sadly, as much as I want to; I can not recommend this for an instant buy. Thankfully the steam Christmas sale starts in a day or so, if it hit 25% off then I’d say sure pick it up. But even then, I wouldn’t touch the DLC with a 10foot barge poll

Qudduws Campbell Opinion

Tokyo Xanadu was released for the PS Vita earlier this year, and pretty much at the same time Aksys Games Announced that they’d be releasing the game as an enhanced version later in the year for the PlayStation 4 and the PC.

Now we intended to cover both the PC and PS4 versions together in this review, however we only received the PS4 version prior to release, so we’ll only be covering that version of the game. If we’re able to play the PC version after this review is published we’ll likely stream it over on our Facebook page to highlight any possible differences in that version.

And with that let’s just jump into this review.

When I began playing eX+ it was immediately apparent that this was a much more visually polished version of the game than the PS Vita version. Textures are sharper, and the colors pop even more than they did on Sony’s little vonderkind. The simplest way to put it is that the version on the PS4 is a perfect port that takes almost everything that we liked about the Vita version and improves upon them. The only aspect that wasn’t brought over is the portability. Personally I hoped that the developers would release an update for the Vita adding the Improvements when eX+ was released, but that’s unfortunately not the case. If you bought the Vita versions and wish to experience the additional content then you’re gonna have to get it on the PC or PS4.

Gamplay wise the game is the same. So check our previous Review of the PS Vita version for a breakdown on that. The voice acting and plot are also explored in that Review so we’ll link in here for those who wish to know more about those.

So at its core Tokyo Xanadu eX+ is everything that Tokyo Xanadu was and more, and it’s not just the visuals. This version also comes with more modes, and playable characters. With the addition of “side missions” we get more gameplay, bosses and let’s face it, more fun. The side missions are however not optional. They’re fitted in between the main chapters, so let’s just call them additional missions instead, because that’s what they really are. They offer more characterization for the already likable cast of characters in a way that feels organic, as if they were always supposed to be there. Playing as Sora who’s following Asuka only to develop more kinship between the two just feels right. In the same way as playing as white shroud shows us more of a wider perspective of the earlier sections of the game.

Frankly my I love it and enjoyed my return to this world even more than the first time I played it. My only gripes are the lack of an update for the PS Version, and the limitations placed on outfits to sell them as dlc, a practice I shall not be partaking in.

Final verdict

Tokyo Xanadu eX+ is a great port of an already great game. When we listed Tokyo Xanadu as one of our Game of The Year choices for 2017 it was because of it’s amazing gameplay, characters, and plot. This game is simply a great time and we’re happy and more players will be able to experience what PS Vita owners did earlier this year along with some extra bells and whistles.

The copy of Tokyo Xanadu eX+ used for this review was provided to us by its publisher, Aksys Games.