Action and role-playing combine in Tokyo Xanadu from developers Nihon Falcom. Players take control of young warriors armed with special weapons that allow them to fight in odd labyrinths that materialize randomly. With a mixture of action and school life, players who love games like Persona or The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel will find much to love and enjoy in Tokyo Xanadu. With nearly 40+ hours of gameplay and plenty of reasons to return for a new game, Tokyo Xanadu has a lot of potential for replayability. Can you save the world and discover the secrets of the Eclipse? Enter Kou Tokisaka’s battle against the forces known as Greed alongside with his allies.

If you’re a fan of the The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel series and Persona’s school life elements then you’ll find much to enjoy in Tokyo Xanadu. Players control one of several characters as they freely battle against small and large enemies in this action JRPG. Like Persona, players will have to balance hanging with friends, occasional school events and quests all while doing battle against the forces of Greed. Thanks to the PS Vita, Tokyo Xanadu is not only portable but gorgeous looking so expect beautiful visuals as well as smooth gameplay all while on the go or at home. Tokyo Xanadu will be a title you’ll want to add to your collection if any of these concepts appeal to you.

Kou Tokisaka is a typical high schooler trying to balance part time jobs with his friends as well as school. One night, on his way home from work, Kou spots a fellow classmate being harassed by some punks and aims to assist her. However, suddenly Kou and the others are transported into some odd dimension when a weird door appears from nowhere. This event marks the beginning of Kou’s fate as he begins to learn the secrets of the Eclipse and what power he contains within himself. Is Kou really ready for what is about to come forth from his new knowledge of a world unseen by most?

Tokyo Xanadu, at first, reminded us of Falcom’s The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel as the menus, items mentioned in game and even graphics/art seem to mirror that series—plus there are loads of references such as characters and cameos, as well. However, unlike the turn based elements of Trails of Cold Steel, Tokyo Xanadu is all action and large boss battles. When you’re not fighting in the Labyrinths you’ll be taking quests and hanging out with friends and allies to gain relationships with others. This really gives the game a nice replayability feature as you may want to see how Kou’s relationship would be with someone else versus the one your first chose. Tokyo Xanadu doesn’t change the theme of action JRPGs but it does such a good job with how it does it that no one would complain about it.

Gameplay wise, we were very impressed with how Tokyo Xanadu plays. Players control one of several characters each with their own weapons and styles. Your main goal is to reach the end of each area all while using basic attacks, special moves, long ranged magic and team attacks in equal measure. The true difficulty though comes in the boss battles who sometimes really tested our mettle—however the regular foes are usually push overs and sometimes made the game feel overly easy. We’d recommend putting the game on hard mode if you’re use to a lot of action JRPGs. We also changed the controls as we felt the main attack button being the X button felt a little off but that is a personal preference and probably won’t be an issue for others.

Graphically, Tokyo Xanadu is amazing and clearly pushes the PS Vita with strong character and environmental detail. Players are put into the town of Morimiya where you can see a city that feels alive with NPCs walking about and various things players can do besides just buying new equipment or items. While there aren’t a lot of anime-like cutscenes, the in-game scenes look solid such as the special attack scenes and each time a chapter is complete—similar to an anime series an opening song will play which is gorgeous to behold even after seeing it several times. Tokyo Xanadu is truly an impressive looking game and we can honestly say one of the nicest ones on the PS Vita.

Sound wise, Tokyo Xanadu again blew us away. The music feels similar to games like Persona but clearly isn’t just a rip off boasting an original tone and vibe. The voice acting as well is solid. While there is only a Japanese Audio option, all the voice actors and actresses feel like they fit their respected characters they play. The whole game isn’t voiced, some scenes lack any voice acting—but surprisingly there is an impressive amount of voice acting which is always a much welcomed concept in any JRPG. You’ll want headphones to truly enjoy the best Tokyo Xanadu has to offer. To sum it up, Tokyo Xanadu’s sound goes above and beyond and we’re truly in awe of that.

Finally we wish to discuss the relationship building and other elements to Tokyo Xanadu. Players, when they aren’t in battles, can freely explore the various locals of the city all while using their much limited time to talk to characters and get closer to them. Obviously like Persona and Trails of Cold Steel, these events can’t all be viewed so you’ll have to pick and choose who you feel is worth your precious time. That fact however adds a great bonus to those who wish to see alternative scenes and events in a new game run. While learning more about these characters you’ll sometimes notice they are typical tropes seen in other games and anime but it’s not applicable to all characters so we don’t feel like it’s a huge issue.

Action JRPGs tend to get tedious and or repetitive after a long time. Thanks to Tokyo Xanadu’s use of multiple characters and different fighting styles of each, it never gets old to hack away at enemies. Add to that the impressive story, amazing detail in graphics, awesome BGM and cool labyrinth designs, it’s easy to say we never got bored once in this 40+ title. The characters sometimes can be overly one dimensional and the story can hit some cliché ideals here and there but those moments are far and few in total so we don’t feel it’s ever a big issue. Overall, players who dive into Tokyo Xanadu will find nothing but an amazing time and we couldn’t be happier to report that here at Honey’s Anime.

Tokyo Xanadu is easily one of the most impressive Action JRPGs we’ve played in a long time here at Honey’s Anime. The gorgeous visuals, amazing music and awesome gameplay made putting this 40+ hour adventure down a hard task indeed. If you needed a reason to keep your PS Vita charged and ready to go then Tokyo Xanadu is that very reason. Seriously folks—we can’t recommend this game anymore, if you love Falcom’s various titles like The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel and some of the elements taken from games like the Persona series, you’ll really loved what Tokyo Xanadu did to create a truly legendary video game. With that we’re done here with our review, please let us know down below in the comments what you thought of the review and or if you are picking up this truly amazing game. As always be sure to keep your eyes glued to us here at Honey’s Anime for more game reviews such as this one.