Tokyo Xanadu Ex+ Review (PS4)

Put on your school uniform, grab your cellphone, and prepare to save the world.  Don't forget to bring your friends.  It's time to get into Tokyo Xanadu Ex+.

In Tokyo Xanadu Ex+, you take the role of Kou and his friends as they leap into portals called Eclipse and beat the crap out of any monsters they come across.  As Kou, you must not only hack and slash your way though dungeons, but build up links with your friends, like Persona or Trails Of Cold Steel.

Our protagonist, Kou Tokisaka

Speaking of Trails Of Cold Steel, there are subtle (and not so subtle) references everywhere.  From the television in the Star Camera store showing footage of Trails Of Cold Steel 3 to minigames in the arcade named after Rean and Alisa, it's hard to miss.  Well, it is made by the same company.  There are also a few Y's references.  There are probably some others I missed or don't recognize, but that's beside the point.

Just one of several references to the Trails of Cold Steel series.

Anyway, as mentioned before this game is a hack-and-slash dungeon crawler of sorts.  It's not just mindlessly running around whuppin' ass, though.  The elemental system plays apart in how effectively you can fight.  Now you can kill enemies all the same, no matter what your element is.  This game, however, give you bonuses (more on those later) for killing enemies with the proper element.  To get maximum points, you have to switch characters frequently, depending on what element the enemy you're facing is.

Try to hit enemies with a character whose element they are weak to.

About your attack party.  You can bring up to three characters at a time into a dungeon.  You can usually bring any three characters in (though characters can be forced on you by the story), but you should build your party around the enemy's make-up to maximize your fighting ability and bonuses.  You only use one character at a time, but you can switch between them freely as the situation warrants.

Timely switches will help rack up those bonuses.

Each character has a number of a number of moves with which to dole out beatings and rape with.  Everyone can melee, shoot, and use super moves, among other things.  While everyone has a move for every situation, some characters do things better than other.  One character may be a better shooter, while another may be better at attacking in the air, etc.  Naturally, some characters will feel better for your playing style, so trot out a party you can work with whenever you get a chance.

Use this screen to plan your attack party.  As you can see here, sometimes characters are "locked" into the party.

You can also customize your characters' weapons, attaching things such as status effects and character buffs.  To a far lesser extent, you can also edit your their appearance.  Want your character to wear sunglasses?  Just buy some and plop them on.  Don't like Sora's school uniform?  Put her in her gym outfit instead.  Changing appearance doesn't help or hurt your stats, so you can use the outfit you want without fear.

You can replay the dungeons as many times as you want with any characters once you beat them.  This is mostly so you can grind and level up your characters so you don't get your ass kicked in later dungeons.  You can also try to get the highest score possible by getting as many level bonuses as you can.  You get graded on five bonuses; time taken, damage taken, elemental kills (which is why party structure is important), objects destroyed, max combo.  You can achieve the highest grade without getting them all, but it something you can shoot for if you're a perfectionist.

A general description of the bonuses and how to maximize your score.

The story has a little bit of everything.  High school, drugs, street gangs, yakuza, friendships and other relationships, and other stuff are all explored here.  There's something for everyone.  Now, being story-driven game, it risks having the dreaded Too Much Talking syndrome.  It just manages to avoid it, which will keep you interested in what the characters are doing.

You'll never think of Eclipse gum the same.

We have a martial arts instructor, a teacher, a yakuza, and a student in a shrine.  What a gathering.

On another note, the kid NPC's seem to speak too much like adults.  Seriously, when was the last time you've heard kids under twelve talk like this...

How old is this kid?

And how freaking old is this kid?

What about the other stuff.  The graphics are alright.  Basically, it looks like an HD version of Trails Of Cold Steel.  In other words, it looks like an anime.  This anime feeling is boosted further by the anime intro that plays before every chapter, like each chapter is an episode of said anime.

The environments in the "real world" look pretty good.  The dungeons are a little bit of a step back, but not much.  Dungeon-crawling is simple (you won't get lost), with small deviations here and there that lead to treasure, switches, and monsters to kill.

Now THIS is how a city should look.

Some dungeons actually look good, but most are generic and simple mazes.

The music is pretty good, especially when you're in a dungeon or fighting a boss.  The boss theme in particular is simply orgasmic.  Almost every dungeon has it's own theme which does a good job of either representing the dungeon you're in or getting you into the action.

The boss theme is pretty darned good.

Outside of the main story, you can talk to minor characters to attempt finishing their backstories.  There's also another mode that allows you to admire the characters in any costume and environment you've unlocked, as well as looking at their various actions.  And as is usually the case which games these days, there's DLC if you want it.

The character viewer let's you view your favorites under various conditions.

On the bad side, there are no English voices.  Some would say that automatically makes them good and they'd be wrong.  I don't understand Japanese, but I do understand cadence.  Sometimes the actors are phoning it in.  For the most part, the voices are okay thought.  Also, there are a few mistranslations, missing words, and typos here and there, but nothing too painful.

As a whole, the game is one that's hard to stop playing.  You have good music, solid graphics, a multi-faceted story that keeps you interested, and satisfying combat.  There are a lot of elements I didn't touch on here, to keep this post a respectable length.  In short, I can definitely recommend it.  Play it.