Tokyo Xanadu eX+

This game as a problem: it is good but there are many better games out there. Everything in this game works: the characters are likeable, the combat system is good, the story is ok if somewhat unoriginal. Graphics are typical Nihon Falcom, which means they would have been great in the late 90s. The games formula does become somewhat repetitive after 40+ hours. Problem is, there are so many games out there that do things better. But if you have finished all the Persona and final fantasy games, are through with the witcher series and know all the Bioware classics in and out and are just itching for another JRPG, give this one a try. 7/10

Overall, Tokyo Xanadu is one of my favorite games. I thought the "real city" feel and earthquake aspects worked really well as did the school setting and the idol group. I also find the Falcom treatment of religion to be interesting and very different from any game I've played from US or European developers. As with all the story-oriented Falcom games the characters tend to be extreme tropes and some people will be turned off by that. This is one of Falcom's more sexist games unfortunately. If you were going to write a paper about the different ways sexism appears in games this would be a good game to look at since there is such a variety of ways. It is a long game, although not nearly as long as the full Trails in the Sky series. The second half is not as good as the first half but still has good parts. I can't recall any technical issues with the game. I put together a fairly low budget game system (with R9 390 GPU and Celeron G3900 CPU) to be able to play this game and it was well worth it. The music is excellent video game music. I wish they did more with SPiKA to focus on the music at times or at least give them one full song (they did get most of a song at least). I like the musical interlude of repeating the opening movie at each chapter even if it is the same music (you can skip if you don't like it). Amanita Design (Samorost, Machinarium) are the only developers I can think of where music feels somehow more fully a part of the game than other games and I really wish more games would do that. Falcom gets close but doesn't manage to do the same. Other games on my favorites list: Roller Coaster Tycoon series, Trails in the Sky, Xanadu Next, Stardew Valley, Costume Quest, Psychonauts, Sim City 3000, Infinifactory, Card City Nights, Defender's Quest, Icewind Dale series, Kerbal Space Program. I haven't played the Trails of Cold Steel games yet out of hope that the Crossbell arc (Trails to Zero/Azure) will get translated eventually.

Short answer is that it's a cruder version of what Persona's been doing for years. Long answer: The combat is where this game really shines, it's engaging and has all the hallmarks of a standout Falcom action game. This game falls apart when you look at all the other pieces that just... don't measure up to where they need to be. The daily life section of the game is just acceptable, it wants you to talk to everyone all the time, and breaks story flow to do it. But you don't have to, and the only things lost here is a couple of character logs or free items. The character logs counteract the aspect of "growing to know your characters" since it supplants that process with immediate knowledge and removes the need to remember the person. The stores are virtually all interchangable, meaning that there's no reason to prioritize shopping anywhere, since it's covered everywhere. It's really just that it removes all of the character of the non-combat sections, and it just ends up being a slog through story to get to where you get to do what you wanted to.

3 star game +1 star because Towa exists. The combat is clunky. The fact that there's not nearly as much to explore in the game combines with often cringe-inducing dialogues makes it a snorefest. The translation is sometimes wrong or contradicts itself. But you'll buy it nonetheless because Towa IS IN THE GAME.

A crude action RPG game made with bare minimal effort. (not turn based with action orders) The story and characters are really boring but as a falcolm games tends to have there is a plot twist once you get very close to the end that makes things a bit more interesting. The skills and combos are not very well made. The animation is quiet basic. The game play systems, menus, progression, quests, mini games follow the same structure as trails of cold steel. But compared to trails of cold steel this game feels more like a skeleton game in every respect. It can be taken to be a prototype and made for practice before making cold steel III in PS4. Falcom remains very profitable by making these games low budget, so dont expect top quality. Personally I would not pay more than $40 AUD for this game. Having played it on the PS4 it leaves kind of a bad taste in my mouth.