Tokyo Xanadu

Tokyo Xanadu
Developer(s) Nihon Falcom[1]
Publisher(s)
Platform(s) Tokyo Xanadu
PlayStation Vita
Tokyo Xanadu eX+
PlayStation 4
Microsoft Windows
Release

Tokyo Xanadu

  • JP: September 30, 2015
  • NA: June 30, 2017
  • EU: Mid 2017

Tokyo Xanadu eX+

  • JP: September 8, 2016
  • NA: Late 2017
  • EU: Late 2017

[2]

Genre(s) Action role-playing
Mode(s) Single-player

Tokyo Xanadu (東亰ザナドゥ, Tokyo Zanadu) is an action role-playing video game for the PlayStation Vita. It was developed and published by Nihon Falcom, out of their desire to create a game of a different type and setting than their two other flagship video game series, The Legend of Heroes and Ys, and has roots in the Xanadu series. The game was released on September 30, 2015 in Japan and on June 30, 2017 in North America. A PlayStation 4 version of the game, Tokyo Xanadu eX+, has also been released in Japan, and is also scheduled for release in English language regions sometime after the Vita release. The PS4 version will also be ported and released on Steam.

Gameplay

It is an action role-playing game, like the Xanadu series, along with elements from the Persona series of Japanese role-playing games.[3][4] It has a party-based real-time battle system with dungeon exploration.[5]

Story

Characters

Kou Tokisaka (時坂 洸)
Voiced by: Shintaro Asanuma

The game's protagonist, Kou is a second-year at Morimiya High School. Workaholic and kind to a fault, his friendly behaviour has him unable to abandon anyone in need, causing him to be involved in all kinds of problems and eventually, Asuka and the Eclipse. As his parents are abroad, his childhood friend Shiori looks after him daily.

Asuka Hiiragi (柊 明日香)
Voiced by: Yu Shimamura

A no-nonsense, mysterious and seemingly distant young woman in the same class as Kou. Asuka returned from the US shortly before the beginning of the game. Seemingly on a "mission", early on Asuka is revealed to be a part of 'Nemesis', an underground agency tasked with containing the paranormal phenomenon known as 'Eclipse'.

Sora Ikushima (郁島 空)
Voiced by: Ai Kakuma

A young acquaintance of Kou, Sora grew up in Kyushu and is a martial arts trainee, heir to the Ikushima school of martial arts. She moves to Tokyo and enrolled at Morimiya Academy. Polite and honest, Sora gets involved with the Eclipse when a friend is mysteriously kidnapped.

Yuuki Shinomiya (四宮 祐騎)
Voiced by: Daiki Yamashita

A shy, incredibly intelligent hikikomori, Yuuki is a first-year at Morimiya Academy, but is almost never seen attending. He lives alone in an apartment, where he develops programs and amassed a fortune selling shares online. He's the one responsible for developing the popular, fortune-telling God's App, which later goes berserk due to tampering from the Eclipse.

Mitsuki Hokuto (北都 美月)
Voiced by: Haruka Yamazaki

Morimiya Academy's Student Council President, Mitsuki is an elegant, polite young woman who's also the heir to the powerful Hokuto corporation , being the chairman Seijyuurou Hokuto's granddaughter. She has mysterious ties to Asuka and her underground agency...

Shio Takahata (高幡 志緒)
Voiced by: Kosuke Toriumi

Shio is Morimiya Academy's number one delinquent, former leader of BLAZE, the city's biggest gang who disbanded a year before the game's events. After strange events surround the resurgence of BLAZE, Shio takes matters in his own hands to prevent those he cares from getting hurt.

Rion Kugayama (玖我山 璃音)
Voiced by: Manami Numakura

A rising star idol, she's a member of SPiKA, the popular idol group that calls Morimiya home. Cute but a bit of a tomboy, runs into Kou at strange times and is baffled at his utter lack of knowledge of modern pop music.

Shiori Kurashiki (倉敷 栞)
Voiced by: Ai Kayano

Shiori is Kou's childhood friend and neighbour. Kind, polite and patient, she's in the same class of Kou and tries to support him at all times.

Setting

The north exit of Tachikawa Station, which closely resembles the in-game Morimiya Station Plaza

With Tokyo Xanadu, Falcom set out to create a game with a different feel than their other flagship video game series, the Ys and The Legend of Heroes/Trails in the Sky series.[6] While the other series have a fantasy setting,[7] the events of Tokyo Xanadu occur against the background of a fictional suburb of modern-day Tokyo called Morimiya City,[8] and contain modern elements like smartphones and social media.[4] Morimiya was based on actual locations in Tachikawa City where Nihon Falcom has its head office: for example, the Morimiya Station Plaza, with its red arch monument and the "Yumine" Department Store, closely resembles the north exit of Tachikawa Station, which has a similar-looking blue arch monument and a branch of the Lumine Department Store.[9] Falcom held promotional activities at various real-world locations in Tachikawa City which resembled in-game locations, including a Tokyo Xanadu-themed menu at the cafe in Books Orion, an actual Japanese bookstore chain also based in Tachikawa City which appears in-game with permission under its own name.[10]

Development

Falcom first announced the game's title on December 17, 2014.[11] The company referred to the game as an "urban myth action rpg".[11] They also emphasized that they wanted to create a game with a different feel than their other flagship video game series, the Ys and The Legend of Heroes/Trails in the Sky series.[12] The game is the latest iteration of the Xanadu games, including the 1985 video game Xanadu and the 2005 video game Xanadu Next, though the game is modelled to be rather different than its predecessors.[13]

The game was released in Japan on September 30, 2015.[14][15] An English version of the game was not announced for almost a year after its initial Japanese release, leaving the game's fate in the West uncertain at the time. Journalists had considered it as a likely candidate for game localization by Xseed Games, due to their close relationship with Falcom from translating entries in their Trails and Ys titles.[8][16] Other journalists mistook the Xanadu related trademark leaked in January 2015 as a sign of it being translated by XSeed, though this was actually in reference to Xanadu Next.[17] USGamer described the game's chances of being localized as "extremely strong".[16] In February 2016, Falcom president Toshihiro Kondo, when asked if third party companies were interested in releasing the title in the English in the West, responded that it was "something that we definitely want to make a reality and are currently working towards. Please wait just a bit longer."[3]

In June 2016, Falcom announced an enhanced version of the game, Tokyo Xanadu eX+, for the PlayStation 4.[18] The PS4 version contains improved HD graphics and frame rate, and additional story content in the form of extra side stories and post-game content.[18] This version was released in Japan on September 8, 2016.[18] In July 2016, Aksys Games announced that they would be translating the Vita version of the game and publishing it sometime in 2017.[19] Additionally, they would be creating and releasing a PC port of the game, though they, at the time, had no plans of releasing the enhanced PS4 version.[19] In January 2017, they announced they would be translating the PS4 version as well, and that the PC port would be of eX+.

In July 2017, United Kingdom publisher Ghostlight, regarded for their work in Microsoft Windows ports of Japanese games including Way of the Samurai 4 and Agarest: Generations of War, announced that they are developing the Windows version of Tokyo Xanadu eX+ under Aksys Games' coordination.[20]

Reception

Famitsu gave the game a review score of 32/40.[21] The game sold a total of 88,879 physical retail copies within its first week of release in Japan, topping the software sales charts for that particular week,[14] and 112,041 copies had been sold as of October 2015.[22]

References

  1. ↑ "RPGamer > Tokyo Xanadu". Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  2. ↑ "Tokyo Xanadu Receives PS Vita Release Date With PS4/PC Version Coming Q4 2017". DualShockers. Retrieved March 7, 2017.
  3. 1 2 "Falcom vs the fans". Eurogamer.net. 14 February 2016.
  4. 1 2 "Tokyo Xanadu first screenshots, introduction of Xiphones". TechnoBuffalo. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  5. ↑ Adam Vitale. "Tokyo Xanadu website opens - first screenshots". Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  6. ↑ "Falcom president shares more details on Tokyo Xanadu - Gematsu". Gematsu. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  7. ↑ "Tokyo Xanadu Is A Falcom Action RPG Set In Modern Times". Siliconera. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  8. 1 2 "Tokyo Xanadu is a new Vita RPG from Nihon Falcom". Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  9. ↑ "ストーリーや戦闘アクションだけではない『東亰ザナドゥ』の魅力！ 学生らしく放課後のお楽しみを満喫しよう！" [Not just story and combat action: the charm of Tokyo Xanadu! Let's have fun like students after getting out of class!]. PlayStation Blog. 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2016-05-03.
  10. ↑ "立川にあるゲームソフトメーカー、日本ファルコムの最新作『東亰ザナドゥ』が人気爆発中！" [Tokyo Xanadu, an explosively-popular new work by Tachikawa City game software maker Nihon Falcom]. Ii Ne! Tachikawa!. 2015-10-13. Retrieved 2016-05-03.
  11. 1 2 "Falcom announces action RPG Tokyo Xanadu - Gematsu". Gematsu. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  12. ↑ "Falcom president shares more details on Tokyo Xanadu - Gematsu". Gematsu. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  13. ↑ "Falcom Announces New Game ‘Tokyo Xanadu’ for 2015". Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  14. 1 2 "Media Create Sales: 9/28/15 – 10/4/15". Gematsu. October 7, 2015.
  15. ↑ "Nihon Falcom Unveils PS Vita JRPG Tokyo Xanadu". PlayStation LifeStyle. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  16. 1 2 "Three Promising RPGs Prove that Post-Apocalyptic Tokyo Makes for Great Gaming". USgamer.net.
  17. ↑ "XSEED Registers a Handful of Domains for Upcoming Japanese Games". TechnoBuffalo. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  18. 1 2 3 "Tokyo Xanadu eX+ announced for PS4". Gematsu. Retrieved June 8, 2016.
  19. 1 2 https://www.destructoid.com/aksys-localizing-falcom-s-tokyo-xanadu-for-ps-vita-pc-372899.phtml
  20. ↑ "Ross Brierley". Twitter. Retrieved 25 July 2017. We're working with Aksys on the PC Port of Tokyo Xanadu :) Falcom are one of my favourite developers, so I'm incredibly excited about this
  21. ↑ "Famitsu Review Scores: Issue 1399". Gematsu. September 23, 2015.
  22. ↑ Whitehead, Thomas (October 21, 2015). "7th Dragon III Code: VFD Claims Japanese Number One Spot as Nintendo Maintains Momentum". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on October 21, 2015. Retrieved October 21, 2015.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.