izigame.me

Tokyo Xanadu is not a perfect game by any means but it managed to carve a space out in my heart in a way that few games could.
I'm writing this review after finishing it for the second time (7 years later, preparing for the release of Tokyo Xanadu II) and it is just as good an experience as I remember.

Tokyo Xanadu is your typical JRPG with social link type of game, it's made in the same engine as Trails of Cold Steel but with an action combat system. It IS a lower budget game and it feels like it sometimes, the combat is fun but can be clunky sometimes, the NPC work isn't as insanely good as ToCS but there is a lot of charming points to the game where you can see the team that made it cared about what they were doing and this + loveable characters + a setting that I love made me finish it twice.

Pros:
- Characters are pretty cool and it's pretty nice to interact with them. The NPCs can also be quite charming in the same vein as other Falcom games so you feel the world is alive and you come to care for it.
- Combat gets fun when you get the hang of it and is trying to S-rank every eclipse you enter.
- Story take some interesting routes at times and doesn't drag longer than it needs to in general.
- Besides being lower budget, game uses the same engine as Trails of Cold Steel I & II and retains a lot of the charm of both games.

Cons:
- The lower budget and shorter development cycle can be felt at times in combat and this can take out part of the fun at times
- As much as I love the main party, the character development isn't the strong suit of the game so if you dislike the characters at first, you probably won't change your opinion much
- NPCs usually stay roughly in the same place in different chapters so while they do try to make the "making the world alive by making NPCs having side-stories" thing that is so great about Trails games, it can fall flat because of that at times
- (Minor Spoiler) The new ending added in Ex+ isn't my favorite thought it's nice to have post-game content that comes with it.

In general, as long as you're able to accept the game for what it is (a lower budget Falcom game) and go in with an open mind, I'm sure you can have a great time cause a lot of care was clearly put in it and I still believe it's one of the best Falcom games. Really hope to see it continued in the next one!