Tokyo Xanadu eX+ Review Summary

While its mediocre story, slow pacing, and repetitive dungeons disappoint, the superb character development, outstanding soundtrack, and fluid combat make it worthwhile.

Excellent character development: Well-developed, charismatic, and memorable characters with meaningful relationships are praised. Characters are distinctive and have good dialogue.

Outstanding soundtrack quality: Players consistently praise the music and soundtrack as perfect, banger, top-tier, and memorable, with specific mention of Falcom Sound Team JDK.

Falcom style nostalgia: Numerous players appreciate the classic Falcom essence, signature cliches, and familiar elements. It feels like a typical Falcom game that fans enjoy.

Fluid and satisfying combat: The combat system is described as fluid, fast-paced, simple yet satisfying, with unique character movesets and engaging real-time mechanics.

Memorable NPC interactions: Non-player characters have unique, evolving storylines and dialogue that make the world feel alive and contribute to immersion.

Mediocre story quality: The story is described as average, cliche, and generic with anime tropes. It is not excellent and lacks uniqueness.

Inferior combat system: Combat feels rough, mediocre, and lacks depth compared to Ys 8 or 9. The combat system is not satisfying and does not stand out.

Excessive dialogue and slow story pacing: The story drags on with too much dialogue and padding. It feels slow and predictable, making the game overly long.

Mediocre and repetitive combat: Combat is described as mediocre and not deep, sometimes compared to a low-budget Dark Souls. It becomes monotonous quickly.

Repetitive dungeon design: Dungeons feel repetitive and similar, with reused visual themes and predictable layouts. This makes exploration tedious and stale.

Action RPG with dungeons: The game is an action RPG combining real-time combat with dungeon crawling, social sim elements, and exploration. It includes dungeon racing mechanics, treasure chests, and core upgrades.

Combat similar to Ys: The action combat is compared to the Ys series, described as real-time, hack and slash, and emphasizing player skill, but sometimes considered more simplistic or slower.

Mix of Trails, Ys, Persona: The game blends elements from Trails of Cold Steel, modern Ys, and Persona, combining action combat from Ys with JRPG mechanics and social systems from Trails and Persona.

Character switching with elements: Combat involves real-time action with a party of three, where players switch characters to exploit enemy elemental weaknesses using special skills like Ex-Skills and XDrive.

New Game+ with modifiers: The game features a New Game+ mode with difficulty modifiers, extra dungeons, and an Infinity mode, along with multiple endings.

Smooth performance on various hardware: Multiple users report the game runs well across a range of systems, from low-end laptops to high-end desktops, with stable framerates and no major issues. This highlights strong optimization for diverse configurations.

Crash on alt-tab or scene transitions: The game is sensitive to alt-tabbing, with multiple users reporting crashes or freezes. Additionally, black screens between cutscenes can also trigger crashes.

Controller support with remapping: The game supports keyboard remapping and controller use, including remappable keys. However, default keyboard controls are considered awkward by some, making a gamepad recommended.

Crash when changing display modes: Switching from borderless to fullscreen, or changing resolutions, can cause the game to crash or freeze, sometimes requiring a forced shutdown. Workarounds include staying in windowed mode.

Crashes at specific scenes or chapters: Some users report crashes during certain story scenes or in the final chapter, though a third-party tool like SenPatcher can resolve some issues.

Best for Falcom fans: The strongest recommendation is for existing fans of Falcom, especially the Trails series. Many reviews state this game is most enjoyable for those who already appreciate the developer's style.

Also appeals to Persona fans: A significant number of reviewers compare the game to the Persona series, recommending it to fans of that franchise. This suggests shared mechanics or a similar school-life atmosphere.

Wait for a sale: Several reviews advise against paying full price, recommending waiting for a discount. This indicates the game may not be seen as worth its full retail value.

Suitable for JRPG enthusiasts: General JRPG fans are also a target audience, though the recommendation is less specific. Reviews suggest it is a solid choice for anyone who enjoys the genre.

Not for everyone: A few reviews explicitly state the game is not recommended for a general audience or that it lacks purpose. This points to niche appeal.

Community fair range: $8.00 - $15.00.

Game completion: 80.0h.

Story completion: 45.0h.

Tokyo Xanadu has a slow, tutorial-heavy start that many find boring, but becomes enjoyable after the initial dungeons and story setup, resulting in a 'clicks after' time-to-fun profile.

Friction: slow start; boring first two chapters; extended tutorial phase; poor pacing of tutorials and dialogue; repetitive early dungeon design.

Unlock drivers: passing the tutorial dungeons; the game clicking; mid-game story progression; ramp-up time.

Falcom Series Enthusiast: Explores the world for lore, appreciates cross-game references, and compares mechanics to other Falcom RPGs. Motivation: To enjoy Falcom's signature narrative, character interactions, and shared universe references. Stance: sale.

Persona-Inspired Newcomer: Prioritizes social links, side quests, and character episodes; treats combat as secondary. Motivation: To experience a Persona-like social life simulation combined with action RPG exploration. Stance: sale.

High-Difficulty Challenger: Switches party members for elemental advantage, uses abilities instead of basic attacks, and replays on Calamity/Infinity modes. Motivation: To master the combat system and achieve the highest ranks on the toughest difficulty settings. Stance: buy.

Steam Deck: The game receives mixed feedback: some users report a seamless experience with full controller support, but significant issues exist including fullscreen crashes, guaranteed crashes at specific scenes that block progress, controller input freezes, and PC save sync failure. The most severe stability problems push the experience into the 'Broken' range for affected users.

Monetization: User feedback shows no evidence of predatory monetization. The game follows a traditional one-time purchase model with standard DLC. Price complaints are limited to the base game's cost, not in-game purchases.