It’s an arcade-style beat ‘em up with a few RPG elements sprinkled in, and it never ceases to be addictive. The game’s combat system, simple though it may be, essentially never grows old. Arcade-Style FunĪll of this being said, however, there is a saving grace in Tokyo Xanadu eX+. There are only so many times “friendship is good” can be reiterated in a game without elaboration before it becomes mind-numbing. While this seems good in theory, what the side stories actually do is highlight the failings of the rest of the cast, and I began to feel a sense of dread as I came up on completing a new chapter only to be faced with the prospect of slogging through another side episode. Tokyo Xanadu eX+ offers a number of side stories that the original Vita version did not include, playing out in between the game’s regular “episodes” and offering more insight into the daily lives of the crew outside of Kou. The cast is as stereotypical as it gets in a JRPG in 2017, and I never felt personally invested in any of their struggles together. Unfortunately, here is where Tokyo Xanadu eX+ stumbles the most. That’s not a strike against the game so much as an indication that it needs a strong cast to draw out the story and its emotions. Still, Kou is a generically handsome and popular protagonist in a JRPG that features a predictable apocalyptic plot. Eventually, Kou gets dragged into a supernatural conflict between humans attempting to suppress these portals to the Eclipse, the demon world, and the greeds who are attempting to prey on humanity. Once transported inside, he witnesses transfer student Asuka fend off some demons called greeds before she attempts, quite unsuccessfully, to wipe his memory of the endeavor. Kou’s formative teenage years begin, as most often do, when he stumbles across a portal to another dimension opened up by the inherent negativity present in humanity’s collective consciousness. I was frequently baffled by Kou’s decision-making process, which was less logical and more about whatever would drive the plot forward more quickly. Kou is a good friend to the point that it is nearly unbelievable, sacrificing his own free time and personal goals in an effort to protect those he cares about-and Kou cares about a lot of people. Unfortunately, Tokyo Xanadu eX+ also features the same plodding, uninspired story about a high school protagonist who can do no wrong. If graphical prowess had been sacrificed for a better story and crisper gameplay in Tokyo Xanadu eX+, the simplicity of its character and environmental designs might have been easier to overlook. A “bustling” street might be populated by about five people, while the shopping district’s generic item shops are only slightly different from the city square’s generic item shops.įor a game that’s built to be explored, and features a number of ease-of-life elements like fast travel and dungeon repetition to enable that philosophy, the fact that Tokyo Xanadu eX+ doesn’t look the part is a huge strike against it on a console as powerful as the PS4-or the PS4 Pro, for that matter, which is what I played it on. While other JRPGs with social sim elements find ways to make daily life exciting through character development and a vibrant environment, Tokyo Xanadu eX+ bucks the trend, instead offering a world that feels small-and stagnant-enough to fit inside a snowglobe. It’s also telling just how mundane the day-to-day life of Kou, the game’s protagonist, seems to be. Characters look like they would be more at home on a PS2, and the various labyrinths that make up the bulk of the game’s dungeon exploration are dull to the point that, outside of the few end-game locations that are suitably epic, everything just kind of blurs together. While the transition from the small screen and technological restrictions of the PS Vita certainly hindered what the developer could do for the PS4 version, the fact of the matter is that Tokyo Xanadu eX+ simply doesn’t look good. One of the first things that struck me about Tokyo Xandu eX+ is just how dated it looks, especially for a title that released in late 2015.
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