Just started Tokyo Xanadu Ex+. I'm surprised this game isn't more popular on Era

[Normal]

No English dub. Japanese High School setting. Persona like social events/free time. It's like a mixture of Persona and Cold Steel, in fact I feel like they straight up just reused some of Cold Steel character designs for this game.

I only completed the first dungeon so far. Combat feels weird... both characters that you get to control feel slow and chunky, there feels like a delay in their normal attacks which is throwing me off. There also isn't any difference between the two characters so far besides the element attribute, they feel like they play exactly the same. And so far they only have two attacks close range and a projectile, and have an ability to dodge... but to be fair I'm only one dungeon in so I'm sure or well I hope they give more options later on. Can't speak much for the story, but I already hate the main protag's friend.

For a forum with a pretty big Persona/Trails fanbase, I expected more people to talking about it lol.

 

[Billfisto]

I beat the Vita incarnation and liked it quite a bit.

I think the main issue with it is that it doesn't really do anything to differentiate itself or establish it's own identity. It's serviceable, fun, and competently put together, but easily forgettable.

I did like the White Shroud character/design and the teacher, but that's about all I remember.

 

[passing breeze]

I enjoyed it a lot but it's got a very high story to dungeon ratio for an action game which probably is what turned people who aren't Falcom fans off of it.

 

[Theswweet]

My biggest problem with it was how derivative it felt, not to mention how the True Ending was straight up worse than the "normal" ending, even if the Afterstory makes a lot of it better.

Seriously, as a huge Falcom fan it felt like there wasn't anything actually unique to it. Just re-using plot points, art assets, and even the basis of the battle system from field attacks in Trails. I enjoyed it, but as a mega-fan it felt almost insulting how little of the game could actually be called its own.

 

[Kromeo]

Not sure why no English dub would be a selling point

 

[Velezcora]

I actually imported the game on the Vita originally.
Didn't finish it because the game was so bland. I've got the PS4 remaster in English now and I do intend to play through it again but it's hard to get psyched up over it.
It's not a bad game it's just incredibly bland. I hope the sequel is a lot better.

 

[fiendcode]

The setting leaves me cold. I'd rather have a Xanadu Next remake tbh.

 

[Mediking]

Its a good game but it didn't get advertised enough. And no English dub hurt it.

 

[Boclfon479]

My friend convinced me to pick it up, and I enjoyed it.

Combat was a bit simple, but still fun.

 

[Fou-Lu]

I enjoyed it quite a bit, but I feel it suffered in trying to exist in some kind of place between Ys and CS. It has weak action gameplay compared to Ys and a weak story compared to Trails.

 

[passing breeze]

My biggest problem with it was how derivative it felt, not to mention how the True Ending was straight up worse than the "normal" ending, even if the Afterstory makes a lot of it better.

Seriously, as a huge Falcom fan it felt like there wasn't anything actually unique to it. Just re-using plot points, art assets, and even the basis of the battle system from field attacks in Trails. I enjoyed it, but as a mega-fan it felt almost insulting how little of the game could actually be called its own.

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Yeah I agree with all these points, it's extremely transparent about being a smaller side project spun off of the Cold Steel engine and assets.

Would like to see them take another crack at it with a style that's more differentiated from their other games.

 

[Dashful]

I enjoyed it quite a bit, but I feel it suffered in trying to exist in some kind of place between Ys and CS. It has weak action gameplay compared to Ys and a weak story compared to Trails.

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Felt exactly the same.

 

[Capndrake]

I generally loved it, but the bad localization seriously hurts the game, it just gets worse and worse the further you get. By the time they reached the After Story they just gave up completely.

If you like this game I strongly recommend trying Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection on Steam, people always claim TX is a mix of Trails and Ys but it's actually much, much closer to Zwei than Ys.

 

[Deleted member 26768]

Yeah I agree with all these points, it's extremely transparent about being a smaller side project spun off of the Cold Steel engine and assets.

Would like to see them take another crack at it with a style that's more differentiated from their other games.

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they most definitely will, TX was more a side project about working with PS4 architecture and giving younger staff members more responsibilities. It also sold triple the treshold for contemplating a sequel.

 

[Dougieflesh]

Everything was alright besides the lackluster combat. Also, the dungeon design was mediocre too.

 

[Chacranajxy]

I liked it a lot, though it did become a bit repetitive after a while.

 

[NZerker12]

I'm actually playing this right now (PC version) and really enjoying it. Is it as good as Cold Steel? No, but its still a fun JRPG in it own right.

 

[Maxina]

No English dub. Japanese High School setting. Persona like social events/free time. It's like a mixture of Persona and Cold Steel, in fact I feel like they straight up just reused some of Cold Steel character designs for this game.

I only completed the first dungeon so far. Combat feels weird... both characters that you get to control feel slow and chunky, there feels like a delay in their normal attacks which is throwing me off. There also isn't any difference between the two characters so far besides the element attribute, they feel like they play exactly the same. And so far they only have two attacks close range and a projectile, and have an ability to dodge... but to be fair I'm only one dungeon in so I'm sure or well I hope they give more options later on. Can't speak much for the story, but I already hate the main protag's friend.

For a forum with a pretty big Persona/Trails fanbase, I expected more people to talking about it lol.

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After how Fire Emblem Three Houses was received on this forum, you'd think the opposite actually.

 

[Tohsaka]

I liked it a lot, bought it on both Vita and PS4.

 

[Deleted member 16876]

I love it. I have the Vita version and the PS4. Will have to set some time aside to play the PS4 version though.

I feel the biggest problem with it is the bland localization. It is not bad but not great either. Gameplay wise it was really good and I liked the characters. I am hoping Falcom would give us a sequel.

 

[sheepysheep]

It's pretty good/fun if you go into it with the proper expectations. I've been on and off working through it on Steam w/ controller and enjoying it enough. It gets pretty fun after the first ~5 hours or so which are a tad slog-ish. It's obviously not a tier 1 or even tier 2 JRPG but if you dig any of the specific elements (social links, or school setting, anime-aesthetic, Falcom combat, etc.) it's pretty decent. The plot is utterly predictable but sometimes you just want anime tripe. I regret paying $60 for it but it's a good snag for $20-$30 if you know it's what you want. It's not gonna convince any on-the-fence people though.

 

[looprider]

Have it on ps4. It starts out good but halfway through it became incredibly boring for me. Felt like a 2nd rate Persona and any semblance of plot momentum dissipated. Combat and dungeons are fun but sitting through endless exposition and boring character development between dungeon runs really killed the fun. Might pick it back up again but I think it may work better as a handheld game than a console game.

 

[StarStorm]

Not memorable from what I played with it.

 

[Orion]

I really liked it. A fun, meaty game with decent characters even if it doesn't exactly break the mold. I was just thinking about it earlier and wondering if there were any plans for a sequel. I know Falcom had talked about possibly turning it into a series but I kinda thought we might've heard something more by now.

 

[Normal]

Not sure why no English dub would be a selling point

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Yeah to the general public it's not. But for a niche game like this, man you'd see so many people whining about an English dub on here. or no dual audio or something. For a game like this I think the majority of the people interested in it would have preferred to play it in Japanese anyway. I would have preferred an English dub tho.

After how Fire Emblem Three Houses was received on this forum, you'd think the opposite actually.

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I think it was well received in the community threads, and Persona is one of the highest rated franchise on this forum. That thread was probably just a vocal minority lol

 

[Dary]

The combat is fun and the music, well, it's Falcom, but the rest...eeeeeh...generic is an understatement.

I also admit that I was expecting something more along the lines of an urban fantasy Dragon Slayer/Faxanadu.

 

[Viale]

I enjoyed it quite a bit, but I feel it suffered in trying to exist in some kind of place between Ys and CS. It has weak action gameplay compared to Ys and a weak story compared to Trails.

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Yup, same. Liked it a lot, and while I don't think the action or characters/story were that bad, they were definitely notably weaker than Ys and Trails.

 

[eXistor]

The game is derivative as all hell, but I had more fun with it than with P5. The dungeons are where it's at for me and they kept getting bigger and better as the game went on. Good shit, but I have to admit my interest was waning towards the end and I fast-forwarded a lot of the story in the last 15 hours or so. Still better paced than P5 though.

 

[Normal]

Everything was alright besides the lackluster combat. Also, the dungeon design was mediocre too.

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Hm. Does the combat not improve? I'm hoping they at least give you more skills or abilities later on. Right now it's pretty basic.

 

[FallenGrace]

I enjoyed it quite a bit, but I feel it suffered in trying to exist in some kind of place between Ys and CS. It has weak action gameplay compared to Ys and a weak story compared to Trails.

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Yeah this is a good description.

Despite that though I still liked it. Enjoyed the cast quite a lot, liked the voice acting etc. I played through it twice for the platinum trophy.

 

[Bomblord]

Everything was alright besides the lackluster combat. Also, the dungeon design was mediocre too.

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Dungeon design is mediocre but the combat is the highlight of the game and the best part (note I played on the second hardest available difficulty)

 

[Dougieflesh]

Hm. Does the combat not improve? I'm hoping they at least give you more skills or abilities later on. Right now it's pretty basic.

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You get a little more skills/abilities, but to me, the combat was the least favorite part of that game to me.

 

[Dougieflesh]

Dungeon design is mediocre but the combat is the highlight of the game and the best part (note I played on the second hardest available difficulty)

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I respectfully disagree. I hope in the sequel, if they make one, that combat is drastically improved. There are some good things about the game that I would be excited to see expanded in a sequel.

 

[NZerker12]

Hm. Does the combat not improve? I'm hoping they at least give you more skills or abilities later on. Right now it's pretty basic.

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You get a Power attack (hold circle), ex attack (R2) and X -Strike (L1 + R1)

 

[sibarraz]

The game is neither a good persona/trails or a good ys game

 

[Snowfruit]

I eat up anything Falcom releases but found this one to be pretty generic. Ys has better combat and Trails has better writing so this one just kinda felt lackluster.

 

[Bomblord]

I respectfully disagree. I hope in the sequel, if they make one, that combat is drastically improved. There are some good things about the game that I would be excited to see expanded in a sequel.

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What about the combat didn't you like? Are you just not a fan of YS style combat? Every character felt good to play, hits felt weighty, and there was a satisfying difficulty with good feedback that allowed me to improve over time. The only time I felt like a death wasn't my fault is when my Steamlink inevitably froze up for a few seconds which made my controller stop sending inputs.

 

[Post Call Gaming]

I've started the game before and was genuinely not impressed. I was skipping cutscenes because I wanted to get at that smooth and silky action game play that Falcom excels at... and it was simple. Not to mention the amount of skipping I had to do in order to reach the battle parts seemed excessive.

 

[tommyv2]

Would've been incredible if it had turn-based combat. The dungeons felt agonizing, as character action for 40 hours is exhausting.

 

[Dougieflesh]

What about the combat didn't you like? Are you just not a fan of YS style combat? Every character felt good to play, hits felt weighty, and there was a satisfying difficulty with good feedback that allowed me to improve over time. The only time I felt like a death wasn't my fault is when my Steamlink inevitably froze up for a few seconds which made my controller stop sending inputs.

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Forgive me if I don't explain myself well, but the combat was just boring and real shallow to me. I would have to go into a dungeon, and the entire time I was just anticipating getting out of the dungeon so that I could do the more fun stuff in the game. The thing that confuses me the most though is that I actually enjoy the Y's combat, but this games combat just didn't grab me in the way that I was hoping.

 

[Normal]

I completed the side chapter, and I couldn't help but laugh at the white shroud design lol

 

[Kerozinn]

"Japanese High School setting "

i have enough of that in shitty anime every season

 

[SavoyPrime]

I would have liked it more if it had a traditional party system. Didn't really like switching characters to handle certain monsters.

 

[YuriLowell]

How is the PS4 version? I see the limited edition is 50 bucks on amazon.

 

[citrusred]

I'm maybe halfway through and not sure if I'll stick with it. A lot of the characters and the MC in particular feel like a big pile of nothing and a lot of characterization is hidden behind bonding events. They're a big step down compared to the Trails in the sky games which were the Falcom games I played previously.

I'm finding it enjoyable but its not particularly compelling.

 

[Normal]

How is the PS4 version? I see the limited edition is 50 bucks on amazon.

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Playing on the PS4, so far it's running smooth. It is a vita game tho and I'm only two dungeons in. I also only payed $20 for it during the PSN sale.

 

[Line]

It's the store brand equivalent of a Falcom RPG.
The combat is just average, never a ton of fun but amusing enough to push to new bosses and without excessive padding. But you'd rather play Ys.
The story and characters are very common and tropey, but they're not too grating and you get some nice interactions between them. But you'd rather play Trails.
It has a few minigames... okay I don't really see why they try, because I don't think Falcom's too good with those.

It's video game food that serviceable enough, you'd buy more for cheap, but you'd like the originals better if they were available. It fills a hole when there's not much to play, nothing makes you facepalm (though the post story content gets weird) but nothing awes you either.

Maybe they can do something decent with more budget and less technical constraints, it's not like the game has massive unresolved issues, it's just bland.

 

[Oreiller]

I liked it quite a bit but it doesn't have much of an identity. I'm playing though Zero no Kiseki right now and it seems TX borrowed a lot of elements from this one.

I also cringed hard at some of these story scenes towards the end, but I have a lot of trouble taking monologues about the power of youth and friendship seriously so ymmv.

But yeah, it's pretty good overall, I'd be down for a sequel. I hope they manage to give it more of an identity though.

 

[Dinoegg_96]

I enjoyed it quite a bit, but I feel it suffered in trying to exist in some kind of place between Ys and CS. It has weak action gameplay compared to Ys and a weak story compared to Trails.

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Sums up my feelings pretty well. It's not a bad game, but it definitely is weaker than Ys and TLOH.

That + the characters were just a bunch of clichés with no personality at all.

 

[Normal]

I beat the game and you guys are right about the characters being one note tropes, but hey I played Tales, Persona, and Cold Steel so it didn't bother me much. I don't mind the cliches haha. I know it's made by the same devs as Cold Steel and Ys, and I enjoyed it more than Cold Steel. Thought the battle system was fun too, didn't mind the linear dungeons and yeah the combat system isn't complex but something about it is addicting kinda like MGR. It's basic, but it does the job and I had fun with it. Didn't like the true ending at all tho, found the normal ending to be a lot better. It's a decent game.