I had never played the first Tokyo Xanadu so I picked up Tokyo Xanadu Ex+ which is an enhanced version of the game. I looked up what was different from the original and they are: New difficulty, new items, two new playable characters, new content in the main story, and a new after story chapter with a challenging boss. The game is set in an alternate reality where a huge earthquake hit Tokyo in 2005 that took ten years to recover from. So when we start the story it is 2015 and we are introduced to the main character, Kou Tokisaka who lives in Morimiya on the outskirts of Tokyo. Kou lives alone and has a lot of part time jobs. One night after work, Kou sees his classmate Asuka being harassed by a group of boys and tries to intervene. This does not go well for him because he is sucked into a vortex that brings him to a nightmare realm known as Eclipse. Kou runs into Asuka there and they have to fight a monster known as a Greed. Asuka explains that she is a member of a group called Nemesis that is trying to close the Eclipse vortexes permanently.
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| Kou and Asuka fight a Greed. |
This gives a good introduction into how the battle system works. The tutorial is fairly straightforward explaining that different Greeds have elemental weaknesses and the weapon that each party member has a set element. Characters are able to summon their weapons in the Eclipse from their mobile phone called a Xiphone. Kou's weapon is a combination of sword and whip with the fire element while Asuka's weapon is a rapier and her element is ice. Combat is a lot of fun and you can have three members in your party which means you can switch between the character according to the element you need to fight the different Greeds. The user menu is easy to navigate so you can set up abilities as well as use items for healing or enhancing attacks.
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| Explanation of elemental weaknesses. |
When not exploring Eclipse dungeons, Kou is a regular high school student and this is where a bit of a Persona element kicks in. The story is set into episodic chapters. Each chapter begins with an introduction with the main story goal that Kou and his friends are supposed to do. Then Kou has free time which allows him to wander the city, talk with people, spend time with his friends to increase his affinity with them, do some side quests, or work at one of his many part time jobs. The game makes it easy to travel just by opening the map and picking the location where you want to go. There is a lot of back and forth in some of the quests and story, but having the fast travel option makes things easier.
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| Click on the map and fast travel. |
Each dungeon is fairly linear and has a set elemental theme so it's a good idea to plan your party of three really well for this. One character is active, but you can switch between characters with the press of a button and this is a big part of the strategy in combat so that you can win each battle until the Eclipse dungeon is complete. The game is not too punishing with the battles and gives you the time to adapt and switch things up. The action in the game is a lot of fun and the game allows you to experiment a bit with different tactics for the boss battles.
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| Kou explores a dark element Eclipse dungeon. |
The music for the game is great and matches each area very well. The story itself is good and I found myself wanting to keep playing to see what happened next. There are also mini games such as a cooking mini game, an arcade mini game, and a skateboarding mini game. These were a lot of fun and rewarded you with items and accessories for your party members. Tokyo Xanadu Ex+ has a lot of charm because of the story and the characters themselves. It's very easy to dive in and enjoy the game because of the solid gameplay, story, and overall atmosphere.
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| A good game overall. |
*Tokyo Xanadu Ex+ is available to play on the following platforms: Playstation 4, PC
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