Tokyo Xanadu

Tokyo Xanadu[lower-alpha 1] is an action role-playing game developed by Nihon Falcom.[1] The game is a spin-off of the 1985 action role-playing game Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu, and was developed out of Nihon Falcom's desire to create a game of a different type and setting than their other role-playing game franchises, The Legend of Heroes and Ys. The game was first released in Japan for the PlayStation Vita in September 2015, and worldwide in June 2017. An enhanced version of the game, Tokyo Xanadu eX+, was released in Japan for the PlayStation 4 in September 2016, and worldwide in December 2017, in addition to a Microsoft Windows version.

Tokyo Xanadu
Developer(s)Nihon Falcom
Publisher(s)Aksys Games
  • JP: Nihon Falcom
Director(s)Takayuki Kusano
Producer(s)Toshihiro Kondo
Programmer(s)
  • Toru Endo
  • Nobuhiro Hioki
Writer(s)Hisayoshi Takeiri
Composer(s)
  • Hayato Sonoda
  • Takahiro Unisuga
  • Mitsuo Singa
Platform(s)
ReleaseTokyo Xanadu
  • JP: September 30, 2015
  • WW: June 30, 2017
Tokyo Xanadu eX+
  • JP: September 8, 2016
  • WW: December 8, 2017
Genre(s)Action role-playing
Mode(s)Single-player

Gameplay

It is an action role-playing game with party-based real-time combat that features dungeon exploration, similar to the Persona series by Atlus, as well as Falcom's own Ys and Trails franchises.[2][3][4]

Plot

In an alternate reality, Tokyo was hit by a huge earthquake in 2005 that took the city a decade to recover from. The game's protagonist, Kou Tokisaka, is a high school student who lives in Morimiya on the outskirts of Tokyo in 2015. He lives alone and has some part time jobs. One day after work, late at night, he sees his classmate Asuka Hiiragi is around some bad company. Kou follows them to a back alley. When he tries to get in between them, he is sucked into a vortex that brings him to the nightmare realm Eclipse. Afterwards Asuka explains to Kou she is a member of Nemesis, a group that tries to close the Eclipse vortexes for good.

Development
The developers took inspiration from real-world locations within Tokyo, such as the game's station plaza being modeled after the north exit of Tachikawa Station.

Nihon Falcom announced the game on December 17, 2014.[5] The company referred to the game as an "urban myth action rpg".[5] They also emphasized that they wanted to create a game with a different feel than their other role-playing game franchises, such as the Ys, The Legend of Heroes, and Trails series.[6] While being based on the Xanadu series, which includes Xanadu (1985) and Xanadu Next (2005),[7] Falcom set out to create a game with a different feel than their other fantasy-based role-playing game franchises, with the game taking place in a fictional district of modern-day Tokyo called Morimiya City, incorporating the use of elements not seen in their other series, such as smartphones.[8][3][9] Morimiya was based on actual locations near Nihon Falcom's head offices in Tachikawa. For example, the Morimiya Station Plaza, with its red arch monument, closely resembles the north exit of Tachikawa Station, which has a similar-looking blue arch monument.[10] Falcom held promotional activities at various real-world locations in Tachikawa, including a Tokyo Xanadu-themed menu at the cafe in Books Orion, an actual Japanese bookstore chain with a location in Tachikawa that appears in-game.[11]

The game released for the PlayStation Vita in Japan on September 30, 2015.[12][13] 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 localizing entries in their Ys and Trails games.[8][14] 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.[15] USGamer described the game's chances of being localized as "extremely strong".[14]

An enhanced version of the game for the PlayStation 4, Tokyo Xanadu eX+, released in Japan on September 8, 2016.[16] The PS4 version contains improved graphical fidelity and an improved frame rate, as well as additional story content in the form of extra side-stories and post-game content.[16] It was released in Japan on September 8, 2016.[16] In July 2016, Aksys Games announced that they would be localizing the Vita version of the game in English, which was later announced to be on June 30, 2017.[17] Additionally, they contracted British games publisher Ghostlight to help port eX+ to Microsoft Windows, where it was released on December 8, 2017.[17][18]

Reception

Famitsu gave the game a review score of 32/40. The game sold a total of 88,879 retail copies within its first week of release in Japan, topping the software sales charts for that particular week,[23] with over 112,000 being sold within three weeks.[24]

References
  1. 東亰ザナドゥ (Tokyo Zanadu) in Japanese
  1. "RPGamer > Tokyo Xanadu". Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  2. "Falcom vs the fans". Eurogamer.net. February 14, 2016.
  3. "Tokyo Xanadu first screenshots, introduction of Xiphones". TechnoBuffalo. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  4. Adam Vitale. "Tokyo Xanadu website opens - first screenshots". Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  5. "Falcom announces action RPG Tokyo Xanadu - Gematsu". Gematsu. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  6. "Falcom president shares more details on Tokyo Xanadu - Gematsu". Gematsu. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  7. "Falcom Announces New Game 'Tokyo Xanadu' for 2015". Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  8. "Tokyo Xanadu is a new Vita RPG from Nihon Falcom". Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  9. "Tokyo Xanadu Is A Falcom Action RPG Set In Modern Times". Siliconera. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  10. "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. September 24, 2015. Retrieved May 3, 2016.
  11. "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!. October 13, 2015. Retrieved May 3, 2016.
  12. "Media Create Sales: 9/28/15 – 10/4/15". Gematsu. October 7, 2015.
  13. "Nihon Falcom Unveils PS Vita JRPG Tokyo Xanadu". PlayStation LifeStyle. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  14. "Three Promising RPGs Prove that Post-Apocalyptic Tokyo Makes for Great Gaming". USgamer.net.
  15. "XSEED Registers a Handful of Domains for Upcoming Japanese Games". TechnoBuffalo. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  16. "Tokyo Xanadu eX+ announced for PS4". Gematsu. Retrieved June 8, 2016.
  17. https://www.destructoid.com/aksys-localizing-falcom-s-tokyo-xanadu-for-ps-vita-pc-372899.phtml
  18. "Ross Brierley". Twitter. Retrieved July 25, 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
  19. "Tokyo Xanadu for PlayStation Vita Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved April 17, 2020.
  20. "Tokyo Xanadu eX+ for PlayStation 4 Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved April 17, 2020.
  21. "Famitsu Review Scores: Issue 1399". Gematsu. September 23, 2015. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
  22. "Famitsu Review Scores: Issue 1448". Gematsu. August 30, 2016. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
  23. "Media Create Sales: 9/28/15 – 10/4/15". Gematsu. October 7, 2015. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
  24. 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.
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