Person 5 wannabe
Those who know Falcom’s long history of role-playing craftsmanship from time immemorial will not be amazed to know that the least successful aspect of production is the plot: the Japanese team has always focused on the gameplay of its creatures so much that the same Ys saga, probably the most famous of Falcom’s intellectual properties, is limited to simple interlacing, rather based on his appeal on the sense of discovery and exploration.
Tokyo Xanadu resumes many of the narrative moods of the Persona series, and in particular, similarities with the fifth chapter are glaring: to save the screenplay team in a corner, the Japanese publication of Tokyo Xanadu dates back to 2015, about a year earlier than the best-selling Atlus, so the similarities can only be random, the daughters of the Japanese game design and autarchy school that the Japanese market seems to be self-imposing for a few years, with the overwhelming most of the products placed at home.
The vicissitudes revolve around Kou Tokisaka, a Japanese teenager who works part-time and school, who is forced to pay the rent and at the same time lead to a minimum of social life: one evening, after having left the job, he sees a companion of school followed by two uncompromising types, and, as a good knight without spot, decides to intervene … just to find out that not only her friend (Asuka Hiiragi) knows her well on her own but is also part of a ‘Secret Organization, called Nemesis, which deals with cleaning up Moredia City (imaginary city but based on Falcom’s offices) by Greed.
These are incarnations of negative emotions, even unconscious, of the town’s inhabitants, causing gashes in the space-time fabric, as populated by aberrations dungeon: needless to say that our Kou soon discover to be able to deal with these monsters, as other of his friends all the time, and this will lead him to face a wide range of human emotions and related monsters.
If Tokyo Xanadu fails to prop up a fascinating plot, giving rise to situations that have already been seen and suffering from a congenital verbose character, at least it is able to characterize the group of young protagonists, accomplices of the great acts of Japanese dubbing, no accident quoted every when a new character appears on screen.
Rhythm and labyrinths
If Falcom’s screenwriters do not win any Academy Awards, the reversal of the medal is represented by gameplay, which, like virtually all of the software titles in the Japanese house software, is able to engage and entertain anyone who does not have a profound hate to RPG action.
At the level of gaming mechanics, in fact, Tokyo Xanadu resembles very much the most recent episodes of the Ys series, characterized by a fast, technical combat system, halfway between role playing and pure action game: here you fight in a series of mediocre short dungeons, fairly trivial in level design and populated by enemies visible on the minimap (though you can disable this option), until you reach a final boss, definitely the highest point of each of the explored labyrinths.
The combat system is so simple to learn how deeply you want to master it completely, if necessary, if you raise the level of difficulty, choice we feel to advise to get the most out of the fists of the fighting: a short attack button, one for the one at a distance, one for the jump and the two dorsals used to lock the enemy (the left) and the rolled / dodged (the right).
From these simple basics, chapter chapter, the combat system will grow richer by increasing the combo chains, allowing the player to embed elemental stones in the style of evergreen Materia of Final Fantasy VII, increasing the number of stores within who equip themselves and ensure a level of customization of their excellent party.
The clashes are frenzied, marked by the alternation of close attacks and distance strikes, from strike sequences completed by a skirmish at the last second, and revived by two different special moves, one to be combined with one of their teammates and the other to filling a dedicated bar.
