It’s a rare thing when I write an opinion about a game I haven’t finished. And it’s rare (in fact, have not happened before) that I don’t finish a game from Falcom. But here we are.
Nihon Falcom are well known for producing really exciting fast paced action RPGs with cool mechanics and for the past couple of years have improved their stories as well. I’ve heard great things about their Trails in the Sky in that regard and Ys VIII was one of the best action RPGs in terms of adventure-focused story I’ve ever seen, in addition to just being a super fun game to play. But even their older titles usually weren’t “bad” at stories as much as they could just never grow out of curious ideas of the story setup. Even the 2005 Xanadu Next (and, FYI, despite the name this game has no connection) that I’ve checked rather recently was surprisingly good in that regard, with a distinctly Japanese take on the dark fantasy story. So, what I’m trying to say is that, Falcom games I’ve had a chance to play (that’s mostly Ys series) are usually very fun to play and even if they don’t have a memorable story, it’s usually a serviceable one. Oh and music is usually amazing.
I’ve played about 8-9 hours of Tokyo Xanadu eX+ (end of Chapter 4), which seems to be around the midpoint of the game, and decided to stop. Because somehow, despite it being (as I understand) a midpoint of the game, there’s absolutely nothing interesting happening in the game. You have a stereotypical Japanese schoolboy, who stereotypically gets involved in some demonic fighting by accident and cell phones are used to fight the demons somehow. Everything about the story, every character I’ve met, every event that happened, felt like the most generic, predictable and utterly pointless stereotype from a bad anime show.
The game seems to try and emulate the Persona series, by introducing a bunch of social elements similar (but simpler) to that franchise, the main character has some social stats that can grow if you talk to people or do some things. And you get to spend time with select few school buddies before some main story of the episode begins. And I do mean “Episode” since every game chapter plays the same opening, as if trying to emulate anime. There’s nothing inherently wrong with emulating and simplifying Persona, or being incredibly anime, if it’s not boring, though. And this game is. As mentioned, at about halfway point absolutely nothing of interest happened and all characters were boring. I’ve decided to skip ahead and check longplays of the game to see if it leads to anything and it turns out the story does pick up (about 10 hours in), but still doesn’t go anywhere interesting and instead just does predictable boring twists and throws technobabble at you.
I’d sit through that if the gameplay was good, but this might as well be the most boring Falcom game I’ve ever played. There are countless cool ideas, some of which are similar to ones found in recent Ys games, but going through “Labyrinths” is just boring. Enemies and traps and such aren’t difficult to deal with, with the main fight mechanics feeling surprisingly primitive despite the concepts. But when you get to bosses, it seems to be less of a cool fight with perfect evades/blocks, like in Ys, and more about unleashing all 5 or so types of special attacks with all of your characters and killing the boss before it has a chance to kill you.
So I got bored. I did not expect find an action RPG from Falcom boring, but Tokyo Xanadu eX+ is. And I don’t think it’s worth your time and money as well.