A while back I reviewed Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception. Essentially a never-ending visual novel that highlighted every mundane moment and snuck a strategy-RPG battle in every few hours for some actual gameplay, I absolutely wasn’t a fan of it. It was with that experience – my only Japanese-spoken game experience – that I went into Tokyo Xanadu eX+. The moment I heard a language that wasn’t English I was a bit worried, but I (somewhat) quickly learned that this was a very different experience.
Like Utawarerumono there wasn’t much actual gameplay for a solid hour or more, depending on how much walking around and talking to people you might do. Also similar is how the two include a great deal of unimportant information; in Tokyo Xanadu eX+’s case the main character, Kou, is a high school student so you’ll get to see a fair amount of his day at and after classes. However, once I got into my first dungeon (or Eclipse as they’re known here) I was hooked!
In Tokyo Xanadu eX+ you play as Kou, a dude in his mid-teens who one day happens upon a huge secret – there’s more to our world than we realize. All across the world there’s the potential for an Eclipse – a portal that connects our reality to a hellish, evil realm. Most people can’t see them even when they occur, but somehow not only can Kou see them, he can summon a Soul Device to fight the evil creatures within. His first experience with an Eclipse is alongside an experienced warrior, Asuka, who has been working with a secret organization to find and close Eclipses as they appear.
The story may not be the most unique ever but it certainly holds its own weight, even to someone like me who’s almost entirely new to anime titles. As I mentioned the words are all spoken in Japanese but the text is English, and the translation is done well. It’s also super easy to mute the voicing if, like me, you don’t really want to hear a foreign language while you try to read what’s going on. The game also does a great job logging all kinds of information in your NiAR, basically the game’s version of a cell phone. Speaking with people during “Free Time” often unlocks new information for characters in game, and for completionists like me it’s a fun addition.
To me, combat is the most fun and important part to any kind of action RPG, and Tokyo Xanadu eX+ is a mixed bag. At its best it’s quick paced, frantic and exciting; at its worst it’s overly complex and a lot of hanging back to shoot long-range blasts. Each time you enter an Eclipse you can take up to three characters with you, and each one uses a different element. There are five total elements in the game and each is strong against another with the exception of Shadow which is strong against all the other four elements. Each Eclipse has different enemies with different elements, and you’re shown the total of each before entering so you can choose your party wisely. Fighting utilizes standard attacks, jumping attacks, mixes of normal and skill attacks, rolling, ranged attacks and even mid-air attacks that launch you toward your enemies. In the middle of all this you’ll also be swapping out characters and using three different special attacks with their own charge meters when applicable. Few games have made me feel like such an utter badass when I pull the combos and special attacks off right and can dodge at just the right time (doing so even gives you a bonus!). Rushing through room after room of enemies, opening chests, collecting loot and ramping up that combo meter is a LOT of fun!
Unfortunately, the PlayStation controller just doesn’t have that many buttons, so you’ll be working with combinations of buttons, and the biggest flaw of all, a run button that has nowhere to live on its own. When I started getting additional characters and swapping more frequently I often hit the wrong button, launching myself at enemies or blocking or using long-range attacks instead of standing there swapping characters. All of the controls are customizable, which is great, but unfortunately there’s one too many buttons. Originally the run button is on the dodge button, which REALLY sucks because dodging is slow and will nearly guarantee getting hit by big area of effect hits. I moved it temporarily to a special attack button I hadn’t unlocked yet and it worked great until I had to put it back. Imagine, if you will, tearing through a bunch of enemies like a badass and then heading off at full speed toward the next group, except that when you go to run you instead do a slow little roll before running. The control issues are especially bad when I stop playing the game for a day or two or play something else and come back to it.
I give the controller issues so much focus because they’re really the only negative I have about the game. If I could simply push the left stick to run or if there were a couple fewer combos to remember so I could use one of those buttons it would’ve been a nearly flawless game. Free Time between story clips and Eclipses allows you to travel between the various points on the map, talk to dozens of people and fill out your NiAR, look for books to boost your stats, go to all sorts of shops for foods to heal you, ingredients to cook, even little random collectible capsule monsters. The map is excellent, showing where all of the other main characters are and where you’ll find optional side missions at any given point. Once you’re at a location you can also fast-travel to numerous locations within it, especially the school where you can choose which floor and which side of the building you want to travel to.
As for grinding, there are plenty of opportunities. If you want to buy all the awesome gear, hunt for rare items for upgrading your weapon and buy lots of cooking ingredients so you can try for rare cooked items you’ll need to grind a lot, but luckily it’s entirely optional and a load of fun. You can re-run any Eclipse anytime you want during Free Time, and running through Eclipses when you know what to do is a great. I always felt like a superhero powering through enemies and racing for the best time possible. Eclipses rate you at the end and two of the things you’re judged on are speed and the number of enemies you kill with the proper element. Beating an Eclipse fast is always tricky the first time, and especially early in the game it’s often impossible to kill enough enemies with the proper element as you don’t have characters with those elements yet. Best of all, the big end boss is taken out of Eclipses when you replay them and is replaced by a little loot machine that functions like a cool die – you hit it and it comes up with a number 1-6, the higher the number the more loot you get! There’s also a separate game mode where you can fight bosses again, and these grant experience as well, although I did far less of this since they’re not as fun as running Eclipses.
I haven’t finished Tokyo Xanadu eX+ yet, but I’m way more excited to finish it than I ever would’ve thought. This game was a surprise hit for me, and I highly recommend it to anyone who loves action RPGs, especially ones with LOTS to unlock. In fact, to see and unlock everything you’d have to play the game numerous times as there are optional friendship events where you can only view a certain number per Free Time. Just be prepared for lots of story (and even lots of random talking and stuff) between your runs in the Eclipses.
*Note: I received a free copy of this game in exchange for my honest review.*